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Abstract
Digitalization requires innovations in information and communication technologies for organizations to stay competitive. To this day, IT functions are mainly responsible for providing and ensuring information flows and thus play a key role in the realization of innovations. To manage and use IT in accordance to organizational needs, business/IT alignment offers several entry-points to connect IT functions to business goals. However, the alignment idea still considers IT and business as separate and self-sufficient entities, pursuing their own strategies and (hidden) agendas. Pursuing both strategies cannot sufficiently meet the requirements of digitalization. Therefore, we challenge the boundaries of alignment by presenting our approach of business/IT integration considering IT functions as fully integrated into value creation processes. The result is a merger of both entities resolving its functional separation. By conducting an online survey examining current limitations of interaction between business and IT, we suggest rethinking former separation to overcome existing boundaries.
Recommended Citation
Grawe, Christian; Kruse, Björn; and Bretschneider, Ulrich, "Business/IT Integration: Challenging the Boundaries of Alignment" (2020). AMCIS 2020 Proceedings. 20.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2020/strategic_uses_it/strategic_uses_it/20
Business/IT Integration: Challenging the Boundaries of Alignment
Digitalization requires innovations in information and communication technologies for organizations to stay competitive. To this day, IT functions are mainly responsible for providing and ensuring information flows and thus play a key role in the realization of innovations. To manage and use IT in accordance to organizational needs, business/IT alignment offers several entry-points to connect IT functions to business goals. However, the alignment idea still considers IT and business as separate and self-sufficient entities, pursuing their own strategies and (hidden) agendas. Pursuing both strategies cannot sufficiently meet the requirements of digitalization. Therefore, we challenge the boundaries of alignment by presenting our approach of business/IT integration considering IT functions as fully integrated into value creation processes. The result is a merger of both entities resolving its functional separation. By conducting an online survey examining current limitations of interaction between business and IT, we suggest rethinking former separation to overcome existing boundaries.
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