GEC NEWS WIREAligning IT with business has been recognized as an ongoing concern within organizations for decades. Aligning business with IT is a process that needs constant effort by organizations to attain business transformation. Today, most CEO’s know that their businesses should be aligned with IT. For the CEO, the transformation of his organization through IT is one of the positive accomplishments in keeping the manufacturing operations from subsiding. And the CIO steps up to the challenges of maintaining a strong relationship with the management. Attempts to bridge the gap in this partnership is essential to increase revenue, reduced costs and innovation of the business.
In today’s competitive world, organizations face constant pressure from their competitors. To stay successful in the industry, an organization requires willingness to embrace change and innovation. CEO’s need support particularly from CIO’s to deliver innovative technology solutions and make their organization more efficient. CIO’s can help CEO’s by introducing collaborative tools and self-service portals to reduce human capital costs. They can educate the Boards, CEO’s and Senior Executives about the disruptive trends and opportunities. The CIO’s can engage senior managers to co-create innovative solutions in partnership with vendors. They can help the CEO’s in understanding the new technologies and create innovation hubs to benefit the organization.
Iyad Al Chammat, Country General Manager, GBM Oman says “The CIO of today needs to understand the business growth plans, goals, and needs of all relevant stakeholders within his organization. Once armed with this, he can then proceed to map these needs out and identify where technology can be implemented to help boost the bottom line. The IT department should not be led as a supporting technology resource. Instead, CIO’s should work to make internal leadership figures understand that looking at it as just another business vehicle could enable the organization to achieve its business goals. The difference lies in the fact that the decisions and changes taken within the IT department have the ability to reverberate throughout the entire organization for both the good and the bad: they can either streamline company operations or gut employee efficiency”
In order to progress, it is required that an organization establish an interactive relationship between business and IT processes. Collaborative partnership between business and IT does not have to be initiated only by the CIO. A CEO may also have the right IT leadership. It is not required that the CIO should have access to IT and business strategies; IT managers can also make strategic decisions in delivering the business value of IT usage. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter who initiates the effort. If there is alignment between IT and business, the organization will be successful.
