Business Intelligence Applied: Implementing an Effective Information and Communications Technology Infrastructure

Chapter 3

Why Build an ICT Infrastructure to Support Business Processes?

The ICT staff needs to become part of the business rather than be treated like people in the backroom who are needed only to keep the systems running. The staff needs to do more than just keep the e-mail flowing, keep the hardware running, or build systems that managers request. The ICT staff must be an integral part of the organization and be involved with the business and its mission. In order to do that, the staff members must understand business processes and the impact of ICT on them. They do not need to know the subtleties of each and every process, but they must understand the organization at an appropriate level and, most important, understand how business processes fit together and how ICT adds value to the products or services of the organization.

The alignment of the business strategy with the ICT infrastructure requires a highly integrated strategic management process. This includes a value-based portfolio management approach to ICT project selection. The strategic alignment of an ICT infrastructure requires both the integration and the interplay of business strategy, organizational structure, and organizational processes.¹ This integration enables the organization to align its strategies, structure, and organizational processes, using both the internal conditions or processes of the organization and the external conditions or processes of the industry or marketplace, while also recognizing that ...