Common ground

Getting business and IT into alignment sounds like a no-brainer. So why is it one of the most challenging processes companies face?

by Keith Ferrell

IT and business lessons—both positive and negative—have made many contributions to today's business consciousness. But most organizations are seeking and achieving something new, something transformational. That transformation is called alignment and, as the name implies, the process does away with divergences, dichotomies and dualities.

Today's most successful companies are moving beyond the limitations of a mere partnership between business and IT, as well as eliminating any lingering vestiges of an IT/business cultural divide. In the most effective companies, this partnership has instead become an organic relationship of interdependency, mutual understanding and support. Both groups are not only on the same team, they are the same team—and the name of the team is their company, their organization, their business itself.

Their combined work—all of it, whether in technology, sales, marketing, finance or distribution—is aimed at making their company better, faster, more flexible, more profitable. Every factor is in constant evolution as circumstances and technologies themselves change and evolve.

The success of companies that have pursued this evolution is itself an undeniable metric that testifies to the importance of becoming seamlessly aligned. Why, then, are so many companies—and, critically, departments within those companies—still wrestling with an outmoded and even dangerous divide between business and IT? And how can companies escape this trap?

To find out, Teradata Magazine approached seven of the world's leaders in the field of business alignment concerning the establishment of strategies and processes that eliminate false divisions between business and IT and replace them with shared values.

In alphabetical order—as their answers and insights will also be presented—our participants are:

Michael S. Chiappetta, vice president, Fair Isaac
Jane Griffin, principal, Deloitte
Kevin N. Quiring, partner, Accenture
Cathryn Rheiner, vice president, CRM solutions, SAP Americas
Brian Robertson, managing director, BearingPoint
Paul Rodwick, vice president, Siebel Business Analytics
Bjorn-Erik Willoch, vice president, global consulting solutions leader, Capgemini

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