Eduardo Henrique Rigoni

IT Governance: An Alignment Maturity Perspective

Aligning Information Technology (IT) and business has been a persistent and pervasive problem for over three decades. Studies show that one of the essential components for organizations seeking to improve their alignment maturity is IT Governance. This paper demonstrates the relationship between IT Governance and business performance. The Strategic Alignment Maturity Assessment (SAM) framework is applied as the foundation for relating IT Governance to company performance and to overall alignment maturity. Based on this research model, IT strategic planning, IT budgeting, and IT reaction capacity demonstrate strong contribution to the overall IT Governance maturity score. Furthermore, IT Governance has a significant impact on company performance. Although these results underscore the importance of IT Governance in alignment maturity, there is no silver bullet and the other five SAM components (Communications, Value, Partnership, Technology Scope, and Skills) must also be addressed.

Strategic Alignment Maturity between Business and Information Technology in Southern Brazil

Abstract Brazilian Industry has sought to adjust to the laws and acts of corporate governance and strategic management practices arising from the new national and international economic reality. One of the emerging elements is Strategic Alignment (SA). The present study has sought to identify the level of maturity and the order of importance of the criteria that promote SA between Business and Information Technology (IT), as perceived by business and IT executives. Based on the model of SA maturity from Luftman (2000), a survey was carried out among 259 executives from 72 enterprises located in industrial centers in the south of Brazil. The findings indicate that elements such as “Communication”, “Skills”, “Scope and Architecture” are of greatest importance and most promoted within firms. Though equally important, the management element “Competency/Value Measurements” was found to be less promoted, as a significant difference was observed among the respondents. It is worth noting that both the instrument and the findings of this study can contribute towards the periodical analysis of the intensity of the SA promoted by organizations, with the aim of continually enhancing the SA practiced by organizations.

Práticas de alinhamento estratégico: um estudo exploratório em organizações industriais e de serviços

The concern of business executives in identifying and implementing practices of Strategic Alignment and, consequently, to improve management and business processes has been a priority subject in the last years. Thus, Brazilian organizations develop alignment practices that are being accomplished in partial or intuitive way. Moreover, these practices can be present in different intensities depending on the sector. Thereby, this research looked for identifying and comparing the main practices of SA and its levels of maturity in industrial and service organizations in Rio Grande do Sul. For this propose, was executed a survey adopting an instrument research based on the Business Alignment Maturity Model by Luftman (2000) and on the Strategic Alignment Operational Model by Brodbeck and Hoppen (2003), this applying to 52 business executives from organizations of Rio Grande do Sul. The main results had demonstrated that there are no huge differences between practices developed by industrial and services organizations. Thus, both types of organizations present a maturity level where IT is perceived and used as business process enabler.

A DIMENSÃO SOCIAL NO ALINHAMENTO ESTRATÉGICO ENTRE NEGÓCIO E TI

Many studies on strategic alignment seek to test models and measure their effectiveness and their impact on organizations. They however fail to understand how the alignment is established and how the social dimension – a set formed by the organizational structure and actors, their relationships and their praxis – is a part of this process. This study adopted scoping literature review as a methodology to analyze, from the perspective of strategy as practice, the social dimension in the strategic alignment process. The purpose was to obtain a research agenda composed by research propositions. The authors hope that these propositions, once subjected to empirical research, contribute to strengthen the understanding of the social dimension in the strategic alignment process from a theoretical and a practical perspective.