There are myriad articles and other sources of information that discuss the benefits of “aligning” a company’s IT strategy to its business strategy.  It sounds like a no brainer for an IT leader.  Align the IT strategy to the business strategy and all is good (not easy, but good).  According to a recent article in CIO magazine, “if the IT organization is discussing the need to align the IT strategy to the business strategy, they are too late.”  I suppose that making this kind of statement implies that the company’s IT organization is not aligned to the business and that’s not good for the IT organization and the business, right?

Well, according to a study by Bain & Company covered in MIT Sloan Management Review titled “Avoiding the Alignment Trap in Information Technology”, alignment may not be the largest problem in an underperforming IT organization and it may not be the first place to look for answers or make adjustments. The study suggests that the first place to investigate is the effectiveness of the IT organization. Are projects being accomplished on time and on budget? Are the systems used today running smoothly? Is there unnecessary complication in applications and infrastructure? Richard F. Connell, CIO of Selective Insurance Group, said in the article, “Aligning a poorly performing IT organization to the right business objectives still won’t get the objective accomplished.”

Additionally, the study presented some very interesting numbers and drew some interesting conclusions about the correlations between the overall performance of a business and the effectiveness and alignment of its IT organization.  As you may have guessed, the companies where the IT organizations were both effective and aligned were the most prosperous.

How would you rate your company’s IT effectiveness and its alignment to the business?

You can also view the full article in the MIT Sloan Management Review (subscription required for access to full article).