IT Alignment Can Actually Be Trap for the Companies

Question: Why IT Alignment Can Actually Be Trap for the Companies ? Answer: Introducation: The companies mostly believe that the goals of the company regarding the IT should be aligned with the business goals for the company create values. Although, many companies do not understand that, instead of providing improvement for the IT alignment can actually be trap for the companies. According to Issa et al (2015), the Charles Schwab and Co company had gained a very high position in the field of the financial services because of the efficiency in the IT department of the company. It is first in ranking among the online trading businesses. In the earlier times the IT department had become very inefficient. It was basically run by the custom systems, and they had very snarling operations. The product that were IT based were produced with a delay, and they also disappointed the customers of the company who were valuable to them. In addition to this the Schwab Company was spending about 18% of the revenue on the IT department of the business, whereas many other companies who were competing with the company were spending less money in respect to the company. This was great disadvantage to the company in respect to the annual revenue of the companies. According to Doyle-Lindrud (2015), the tech-savvy companies also themselves in similar kind of predicament as of the Schwab Company. In addition to this the companies have realized that, the diagnosis of the IT inefficiencies have very often misguided the companies. It has been found that even after very efficient implementation of the IT alignment of the company the Business performances of the company that depend on the IT alignment have either decreased of have gone sideways, but did no have any improvement on the business qualities of the company. Ullah and Lai (2013), stated that for improving the IT alignment of the company the organizations have deployed various kind of resource planning system or have been designing, spate solutions for solving the separate kind of issues of the company. The overall complexities of the company have also increased due to the alignment into the businesses of the company. As a result the companies had to postpone the structural improvements of the company. The companies have been devoid of getting benefits that they thoroughly deserve. In addition to this the companies have incurred cost rises, delay in their processes, and have fragmentations in the business co-ordinations. Alignment of a wrong IT department would not help the organization to gain the objectives that they are looking for. Ye and Wang (2013), in addition to this more than 500 business executives of several companies were subjected to survey, and it resulted in the business executives rating their Companies IT capabilities very lowly. They were queried about the alignment as well as the effectiveness of the alignment and it was found that the result of the people could be divided into four quarters. Three fourth of the quarter of the people that were surveyed thought that the alignment was neither effective not efficient for the company. The company used the IT basically for the maintenance purpose. The systems that could be maintained for a very minimal value did not add much of a value to companies overall output. These type of companies had recorded very minimal amount of growth for the company. These companies had a growth rate of below 2 percent than the average growth among the companies. According to Coltman et al (2015), in addition to this it was found that 11% of the companies were very highly aligned in the IT department, however they were not very highly effective. In addition to this, the spending ogf the companies were13 percent more than the companies who had average spending. In contrast the companies had a growth rate of 14 percent less than the other companies. According to Ball (2016), only 8 percent of the people believed that the IT is very efficient for their company but the alignment of the IT for the company was not very efficiently done. The IT produced the project that were very cost efficient and had high functional value. This companies can be set apart from the companies that were under the alignment trap. These organizations were notably called the well-oiled organizations. The efficiency of these organizations were notably higher than the rest. The costs of the companies were 15 percent less than that of the other companies and the output of the companies were 11 percent more than that of the other companies. According to Sull et al (2015), among the rarest of the executives of the survey were the ones who thought that the effectiveness and the alignment of the IT were very both very efficient for the companies. But this was only 7 percent of all the people that took part in the survey. These companies recorded a growth rate that was about 35 more than the rest of the companies, while the companies had spent 6 per cent less of the all the resources that the other companies had spent. According to Heikkanen et al (2013), the survey and the findings makes it very clear that the getting the alignment of the IT for the companies in a correct procedure is very important for the companies. The most important task is to increase the effectiveness of the business of the companies. For the companies to achieve the growth level that is IT enabled it is very important that hey follow certain strict policies. Firstly the companies need to use simplifying techniques. The Company needs to simplify the IT department and its operations. They require to use new infrastructures and also use some standardized methods for their IT sectors. In addition to this the companies need to use, Right sources for the development of the IT department of the company. The IT alignment needs to be efficient and have a certain amount of capabilities for the department and create some innovations in their business applications. The in-house developments requires strategic and competitive differenti ation. In addition to all these the main focus of the companies to provide products that are of great are of great valuations. In addition to this for meeting the challenges the IT should be equipped with the right kind of the resources in the right king of amount. The objectives of the company should also be rightfully defined. References Ball, R., 2016.Operational effectiveness of the information technology function in business process change: A case study in a financial services firm(Doctoral dissertation, University of Cape Town). Coltman, T., Tallon, P., Sharma, R. and Queiroz, M., 2015. Strategic IT alignment: twenty-five years on.Journal of Information Technology,30(2), pp.91-100. Doyle-Lindrud, S., 2015. Watson will see you now: a supercomputer to help clinicians make informed treatment decisions.Clinical journal of oncology nursing,19(1). Hiekkanen, K., Helenius, M., Korhonen, J.J. and Patricio, E., 2013. Aligning alignment with strategic context: A literature review. InDigital Enterprise Design and Management 2013(pp. 81-98). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Issa, S.F., Schwab, C.V. and Field, W.E., 2015, July. 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