A 2007 MIT Sloan report – Avoiding the Alignment Trap (see a review here http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=615 ) points out that IT Operations must first make themselves efficient. They must understand, improve, define and consistently execute their own processes. Once those processes are efficient, they can then move to aligning.
Aligning inefficient processes with the business is the recipe for disaster. The study finds that organizations that align IT with the business before making IT efficient have 13% higher IT spending and 14% lower 3-year sales compound annual growth rates. Companies that focus on efficiency first and then align have 6% lower IT spending and 35% higher sales growth.
At Opalis, we see customers get the benefits of automating their processes. By becoming efficient, they reduce costs and can redeploy their people to tasks that build alignment with the business. The business starts to see them as valued partners. This partnership is not possible when IT Ops spends most of its time fighting fires (See “Firefighters by Day; Arsonists by Night” on this blog).
Only by driving efficiency through automation can companies find the time to build alignment that drives value for the business.
For the latest news in how we’re helping Microsoft customers gain these advantages, see http://budurl.com/OpalisMSFT or join our webinar at http://budurl.com/webinarMSFT
Tags: ITSM
September 25, 2009 at 3:38 pm |
[...] process methodologies. There’s also the problem described in the Sloan Management report on the IT Alignment Trap. What can we [...]