* Survey finds encouraging numbers of IT groups aligned with the business
Today, we will use the results of the recent Webtorials survey we discussed in the last newsletter to identify the degree to which the IT organization is aligned with the company’s business units, as well as the degree to which IT organizations plan and fund IT holistically across all components of the IT function.
Over the last few years, one of the recurring mantras in the IT industry has been the need to align the IT function with the company’s business units. With that in mind, we asked the survey respondents to indicate their agreement with the statement that: “Our company has aligned its IT organization with its business units.” Twenty-one percent of the 149 IT professionals surveyed strongly agreed with that statement.
That result was very encouraging. However, we also asked the survey respondents to indicate their agreement with the statement that: “Our company has aligned its IT infrastructure organization (networks, servers, security) with the applications organization.” In this case, only 14% of the respondents strongly agreed with that statement. We also asked the survey respondents to indicate their agreement with the statement that: “IT initiatives at our company are planned and funded holistically across all of the IT disciplines.” Only 8% of the respondents strongly agreed with that statement.
It is disappointing to see the lack of alignment between a company’s infrastructure and applications organizations. It is even more disappointing to see how few companies plan and fund IT holistically. The next WAN newsletter will look at whether or not companies troubleshoot IT holistically.
