Business management today requires not only the embrace of powerful and disruptivebusiness technologies like Cloud, mobility, social, and data analytics. It also demands a rethinking of business management fundamentals – including how Finance and IT leaders and organizations work together to enable and advance the Digital Business transformation that is reshaping financial models, customer engagement, product development / delivery, and risk management.
Central to this rethinking of fundamentals is the synchronization – not just “alignment” – of Finance and IT organizations and leaders as their roles and responsibilities transform into new ways of developing value for the business.
Research by business IT research consultancy Saugatuck Technology indicates that “alignment” tends to focus on thinking, strategy, and planning, and typically begins at the top levels (“C” levels) of the enterprise. Alignment helps to promote cooperation across groups like IT and Finance at lower levels – i.e., where plans get executed. Alignment is required for success in any cross-group initiative and effort; misalignment of direction, goals, or organization at the top will only become more pronounced the farther down the org chart we proceed.
But Saugatuck’s research also shows that alignment is only a foundational step. Vision, communication, investment, pace of activity, and more need to be synchronized across groups as well. Basically, everybody not only has to agree on the strategic aspects, but has to be able to work closely together throughout all phases in order to achieve success. Saugatuck’s research among CIOs, CTOs, and CFOs indicates that a lack of synchronization leads to failure more often than a lack of alignment.
Since 2010, Saugatuck’s work with Finance and IT leaders and organizations has consistently indicated that Finance and IT leaders are not far apart when it comes to IT and business vision, expectations, strategy, and plans. Where they do show significant differences – and what causes the most failures in effective business IT usage - is in not what they see, but how they see it, and when they see it happening. In other words, the two camps tend to be relatively well aligned – but not well synchronized.
Obviously, there is much more to this story – and much of that will be discussed by executives leading Finance, IT, Marketing, and Operations groups during the 2015 Cloud Business Summit, the annual, intimate CFO-CIO-CMO Digital Business strategy symposium hosted by Saugatuck Technology at New York City’s Yale Club on November 4.
Between 100 and 120 of the New York region’s most forward-thinking IT and Business leaders gather each year at the Summit, to review and discuss Cloud and Digital Business plans, initiatives, successes, failures, and the reasons behind these – and to share insights and best practices to enable more initiatives and success. Through Saugatuck’s long-standing relationship with the FEI, FEI membersare invited to participate. Click here for more details and registration information, including a special discount (CBS299FEI2015) available only to FEI members.