• Significant new research provides demonstrable evidence correlating organizations overall performance with higher IT-business alignment maturity.

Alignment considers both how IT is aligned with the business and how the business should or could be aligned with IT. It is not a question of whether an organization is aligned or not aligned. It is a question of how to enhance the IT-business relationship to help improve opportunities for leveraging IT. In today's digital world the objective is for IT goals and business goals to be indistinguishable from one another.  The Strategic Alignment Maturity Assessment is a proven vehicle for attaining this objective.

Alignment considers both how IT is aligned with the business and how the business should or could be aligned with IT. It is not a question of whether an organization is aligned or not aligned. It is a question of how to enhance the IT-business relationship to help improve opportunities for leveraging IT. 

In today's digital world the objective is for IT goals and business goals to be indistinguishable from one another.  The Strategic Alignment Maturity Assessment is a proven vehicle for attaining this objective.

Terms such as integrate, harmony, link, fuse, affiliate, IT is the business, coalition, fit, match, meld, converge, interwoven, holism, empathy, synchronization, and partner are frequently used synonymous with the term alignment. Whatever term you prefer, it is a persistent/pervasive problem that demands an ongoing process to ensure that IT and business strategies adapt effectively and efficiently together. Perhaps most important is recognizing that there is significant research available that demonstrates the relationship of alignment to firm performance.

Enlightening line management on technology’s possibilities and limitations is hard; so is setting IT priorities, developing resources and skills, and integrating systems/services. It is even tougher to keep business and IT aligned as business strategies and technology evolve.

Terms such as integrate, harmony, link, fuse, affiliate, IT is the business, coalition, fit, match, meld, converge, interwoven, holism, empathy, synchronization, and partner are frequently used synonymous with the term alignment. Whatever term you prefer, it is a persistent/pervasive problem that demands an ongoing process to ensure that IT and business strategies adapt effectively and efficiently together. Perhaps most important is recognizing that there is significant research available that demonstrates the relationship of alignment to firm performance.

Enlightening line management on technology’s possibilities and limitations is hard; so is setting IT priorities, developing resources and skills, and integrating systems/services. It is even tougher to keep business and IT aligned as business strategies and technology evolve.

An alignment maturity assessment tool is also available to enhance the relationship between service provider and clients:

There is no silver-bullet solution, but achieving/improving alignment is possible. Over 15 years of research has found that mature alignment requires effective governance, partnership, communications, value analytics, technical services, and people, as illustrated in the alignment maturity criteria below.

The methodology developed by Doctor Jerry Luftman for assessing how ready your company or business unit is to create, improve, and sustain alignment has been successfully applied by over one-third of the Global 1,000 companies, as well as 100’s of organizations of every size. In addition to identifying opportunities for improving the business-IT relationship, the benchmarking insights are vital.



While over 80% of the assessments were done via interviews of C-Level executives and other IT stakeholders, the set of questions used as an interviewer's guide can be found by clicking the picture to the left. 

If you are interested in discussions on the future of IT (and not already part of it), search for the LinkedIn group Future Role of IT or click the picture on the right.