Week 2: The business-IT alignment model

Week 2: The business-IT alignment model

• Now people take it for granted that IT has to align with the business.
• There is a very well-known business IT alignment model.
• The left-hand corner is about the business strategy.
• The business strategy, we’re determining the vision of the company and the direction that the business will go.
• Do we want to become a local champion in this business sector? Or do we want to become an internationally known brand? So this is kind of a vision, mission, and strategy.
• We can talk a lot about the business strategy in greater detail.
• If you want to become known locally, then you have a different IT strategy, different IT infrastructure, different IT resources to support the business strategy.
• If you want to become an internationally known brand, then you have a different strategy, as you can imagine, so that people will have access even from different time zones, from a different language.
• So you can have a lot of services that you want to provide to your customers from a business point of view.
• These IT services, as can you imagine, will have to match with the business services.
• Then on the whole, the whole business will work at a strategic level, as well as at the operational level.