Importance of Aligning Strategy, Business Processes, and ICT in an Organisation - Essay Example

Name: Institution: Instructor: Subject: Date: Importance of aligning Strategy, Business Processes and ICT in an organisation Introduction Importance of aligning strategy, business processes and ICT in an organisation is inevitable if an organisation want to be successful in its operations. The major drivers for ICT with regard to organisational strategies have previously been considered as standardization and efficiency the business process of an organisation such as invoicing, stock management and production. Generally, little attention is always paid to process involving customers. Certain groups of processes that are placed in organisations lead to specific architectures and infrastructures of ICT in organisations. Presently, various organisations are in pursuant of strategies that place more emphasis on ICT and business process as well as and custom-made solutions that target customers. Such organisational strategies require a high level of flexibility and this can be realised through an appropriate alignment of the useful elements (Griffiths 105). The implementation of organisational strategies considered several factors, which include the organisational environment and the activities taking place within its environment. What it means for an organisation to align its strategy with its business process architecture The business process architecture of an organisation involves structured planning on the organisational enterprise that offers a common understanding regarding an organisation. It plays a major role in the alignment of organisational strategic objectives with tactical demand and others aspects in the business process. Business process architecture acts as a link between the model of business enterprise and business functionality on one-side and enterprise strategies on the other side. Alignment of organisational strategy with the architecture of its business process considers the understanding of the nature of operations and activities within an organisation through a correlation of business architecture and strategies. The use of strategic alignment in relation to business process architecture enables an organisation to consider its longevity with regard to achieving its aims and objectives in its business operations. Within the realm of operation for business process architecture, validation and verification are important considerations in strategy alignment. The determination of correlations between the business process architecture and organisational strategy is important in a business process alignment for any organisation. Foundations concerning the validation of model are used in describing business process architecture and its alignment with organisational strategies (Gendron 92). The key characteristic of the business architecture is that it represents real world aspects of a business, along with how they interact. It is developed through an interdisciplinary area of practice that focuses on the definition and analysis concerns of the things that take place in a business. This aspect is useful in designing competitive process and structures, enhancing the strengths, and identifying potential opportunities for investment. The outcomes of aligning organisational strategy with business process architecture and subsequently with the organisational strategy are useful in the development of plans, decision-making process in an organisation as well as implementation or actualisation of those plans and decisions. In practice, the efforts in relation to business process architecture are made or they form part of an enterprise in an organisation. While an organisational enterprise practice initially placed primary focus on the ICT aspects of change, it is presently going through a quick evolution and now involves using the approach of rigorous business process architecture. These changes are important to an organisation since they are largely used in addressing motivational and organisational aspects. The alignment between business process architecture and organisational strategy is a natural alignment that involves two disciplines that are related. Business process architecture in an organisation is a representation of operations in the absence of any ICT architecture whereas enterprise architecture in an organisation offers an overarching strategy for ICT architecture and business (Khosrow 113). The alignment technique used allows organisations to identify their capabilities in relation to the appropriate process required for them to enforce the strategies. This forms a strong basis that assists an organisation the architecture of sustainable business process. Organisational framework in strategy alignment follows once the definition of specific strategies has been done since the focus at this particular point is on the optimization of the business architecture that facilitates the enforcement of such strategies. During the process of designing business systems in the designers strive to have sustainable business processes. However, the problems associated with such activities and operation within an organisation. In identifying the meaning of alignment of strategies in an organisation with the architecture of business process, it is important to describe and explanations as to why the sustainability of process models is a necessity in certain organisational settings. Process sustainability in this case, involves the long-term efficiency and effectiveness in the utilization of measurable achievements key organisational strategies. The management of business process architecture is largely determined through business performance as well as the intelligence behind the business ideas in an organisation (Van and Steven 87). What it means for an organisation to align its organisational strategy with ICT Presently, ICT is more important to organisations that ever before and while several of these organisations have been able to identify the potential value associated with ICT. The most important dependency with regard to information technology requires the integration of a special focus on the management of ICT at organisational level. The alignment of the organisational strategy with the ICT strategy for an organisation plays a major role in ensuring that organisational investments made are able to generate effectively the needed business value whose risk is associated with the mitigated ICT. The management of ICT, being an important aspect in corporate governance, it falls within the roles of executive management in an organisation. For this reason, it is much easier to have successful implementation of the elements of ICT governance in various departments of an organisation (Gendron 154). Consequently, this ensures that there is an appropriate alignment between organisational strategies and ICT strategies through a concept referred to as organisational strategic alignment. A properly perceived view with regard to organisational strategic alignment is the extent to which the ICT plans, mission and objectives are able to support and be supported by the plans, mission and objectives of an organisation (Griffiths 121). Strategic alignment in organisations with regard to ICT strategies could be perceived as the fit that exists between the activities and priorities attached to the ICT function as well as those of the departmental units in an organisation. For an organisation to align its organisational strategy with ICT strategy there is a two-way responsibility that commences within the organisation by providing a clear definition of a set of organisational objectives. Such organizational objectives are described as those that translate to the mission of an organisation from an intention statement into targets and results of performance. Setting the strategic organisational objectives is a significant component in the process of strategic planning where there is a direct association with the definition of the mission of an organisation. The alignment of an organisation’s strategy with that of ICT in planning is expected to follow a process that indicates the ICT objectives as well as the ICT mission. In this manner, there is a similar definition of ICT goals as statements regarding the expected accomplishments in measurable results. In addition, the organisational strategic alignment in relation to ICT goals cannot be highlighted other than the organisation’s strategic goals. As such, they should be connected to each other in such a manner that ICT strategic goals are able to support the attainment of the organisational goals (Khosrow 87). Executive management in an organisation must ensure that its business objectives and the associated business strategies are clearly and adequately understood and adopted by the whole organization. More specifically, the alignment of organisational strategies with ICT strategies is considered as one of the critical factors of success in the operations of an organisation. This success considered the goals and objectives that are clearly understood by the management. Therefore, it is easy to deduct ICT strategies that are capable of supporting the strategies inn an organisation. The alignment ICT and organisational goals is not always the case in practice. Organisational strategies and objectives are not always made formal and thus it is not always a guarantee that people within an organisation would come to know about it (Van and Steven 65). Preferably, the alignment of ICT strategies with those of an organisation is undertaken early in the process of defining organisational goals and objectives. Importance of aligning these elements with organisational environment Organisational strategies, business process architecture as well as ICT strategies are important elements in the wellbeing and development of an organisation. It is thus important for an organisation to ensure the alignment of these elements to its environment. Alignment between business process architecture and ICT in organisations remains to be a priority when it comes to issues concerning the management of the organisation. Most often, ensuring that investments in ICT are in harmony with the organisation’s strategies had previously proved to be more problematic than expected, especially considering a dynamic environment and a fast-changing environment. Some studies have suggested that the success of alignment process within an organisation largely depend on the attention given to it. The importance of aligning these elements with an organisational environment is associated with strategic planning in the sense that the alignment acts as a tool that transforms and revitalizes an organisation. Another importance associated with this nature of alignment involving ICT and business process architecture is the enhancement of strategic management within an organisation (Gendron 32). The enhancement of strategic management within an organisation does not imply that an organisation changes to acquire a different approach in handling its affairs. However, this alignment is further subjected to complications because of different techniques of application. Strategic management in an organisation involves internal elements, which include process architecture, ICT, style, and structure. It is also concerned with the consideration, control and implementation of certain ‘soft’ elements in an organisational environment. This alignment is also useful in the total management of organisation, to realise future achievements. The factors that make the difference with regard to strategic management involve the focus placed on strategic vision as well as the realisation that the soft challenges in management could be very significant in the achievement of organisational aims as well as the analytical processes. Several other benefits associated with the alignment of these elements within an organisation (Van and Steven 75). This is because the organisational alignment of ICT and business process architecture with the strategies of an organisation forms a very significant component of the management agent for achieving success. Ensuring that ICT investments are in harmony with the objectives of an organisation translates into an effective organisational performance. Difficulties that an organisation might experience if it does not align these elements with its environment Failure in ensuring the alignment of organisational strategies with business process architecture and ICT brings a bout several difficulties to organisations. These include management crises in especially in business operations. It also becomes difficult for such organisations to deal with unforeseen circumstances that have the potential to result in irreplaceable and serious damages to an organisation. An organisation that does not focus on the alignment of these elements experiences frustration in its major operations that causes irritation to its staff as well as customers (Khosrow 94). This is because strategic alignment is usually meant to allow the existing ICT infrastructure and business architecture deal with dealing with the difficulties, challenges and new requirements in an appropriate manner. The kind of processes required in this particular strategy should have an impact on ICT infrastructure and other organisational aspects. Conclusion In conclusion, there is so much importance associated with aligning strategy, business process and ICT in an organisation. In achieving this alignment, organisations should have a clear understanding of what it means for an organisation to align its organisational strategy with its business process architecture and subsequently with ICT. Finally, an organisation needs to be conscious of the difficulties that an organisation might experience if it does not align these elements of its environment. This will go a long way in ensuring that there is an appropriate and effective alignment of these elements with organisational strategies. Works Cited Gendron, Michael S. Business Intelligence Applied: Implementing an Effective Information and Communications Technology Infrastructure. , 2013. Griffiths, Paul. Strategy-technology Alignment: Deriving Business Value from Ict Projects. Place of publication not identified: Academic Pub, 2011. Khosrow-Pour, Mehdi. Emerging Trends and Challenges in Information Technology Management. Hershey, Penn: Idea Group, 2006. Van, Grembergen W, and Steven DeHaes. Business Strategy and Applications in Enterprise It Governance. Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference, 2012. Read More