Business & IT Alignment

In today’s technological era, data lies at the heart of an organization’s decision making. Technology plays a fundamental role in almost every aspect of business, providing insights that help you tackle key business challenges. CIOs and other IT leaders need to embrace technology into their business operations to stay relevant in the ever-changing corporate environment.

The alignment of business with IT is crucial for the success of an enterprise, as the alignment permits the integration of IT to the strategy, mission, and goals of the organization. On the employee side, if they have access to data and information, it enables them to make better, faster decisions and become more productive. Non-traditional users were deprived of access to data and information by certain companies until recently. As a primary step to Business-IT alignment, non-traditional users should be bestowed with the right to access data.

It is high time that companies moved away from systems of record and adopted systems of engagements. Systems of record are ERP-type systems that companies depend upon to manage their business. Whereas systems of engagements  refers to the technology adopted by an enterprise to help facilitate the customer journey via more customized and seamless collaboration. Content management processes and strategies will have to be changed to enable the transition from systems of record to systems of engagement.

Under systems of engagement, disconnected systems such as supply chains, vendor ecosystems and business operations must be connected. This is made possible with the help of cloud-based platform technologies.

Systems of engagements ensure that applications are not detached from each other or isolated from the rest of the organisation and that IT teams remain in sync with the business units that rely on IT solutions. With the help of social media elements like timelines and feeds, one can identify the problems within the enterprise and communicate live status updates to users and team members.

If you want your company to climb the ladder of success, make sure to champion the principles of access, engagement and contextual integration.