Getting to Business Innovation

by Robert J. Benson, Tom Bugnitz, Bill Walton

Historically, IT has been primarily a support organization. Its goals and criteria for success have been related to its ability to respond to the needs of the business through reliable infrastructure capabilities, business applications, and related support services. Since IT's early days, the word "automation" has commonly been used to describe IT's role as a support organization; IT takes an existing business transaction or process and replaces the human processing elements with those of a computer. IT's performance has been judged by its ability to align its resources with the needs of the business and to reduce costs -- both its own unit costs and those of the business transactions being automated. Consequently, there is a recognized alignment path that flows from corporate strategy through existing business functions to IT plans and priorities. Many companies have developed IT governance bodies such as IT steering committees and management processes such as project prioritization that are intended to improve the effectiveness of the alignment path.

Password Protected Cutter Consortium clients, please log in:


This document is available to Cutter Consortium Resource Center clients only. Retrieve password.
If you would like further information about how to become a client, please contact us at +1 781 648 8700 or sales@cutter.com.
Getting to Business Innovation November 2004