business and it alignment in context

202 Pages·2013·3.55 MB·English

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ISBN: 978-90-393-5923-5
© 2013, A.J.G. Silvius, Alle rechten voorbehouden.
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Business en IT alignment in context
(met een samenvatting in het Nederlands)

Proefschrift

ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht
op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof.dr. G.J. van der Zwaan,
ingevolge het besluit van het college voor promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op
dinsdag 28 mei 2013 des middags te 2.30 uur
door

Adrianus Jan Gijsbert SILVIUS

geboren op 16 januari 1963
te Vlaardingen
Promotor: Prof. dr. S. Brinkkemper
Co-promotor: Dr. R.S. Batenburg

Dit proefschrift is mede mogelijk gemaakt door Hogeschool Utrecht en Van Aetsveld,
verandermanagement,projectmanagement.
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During my studies at the Dutch Military Academy, a guest lecture by an experienced business
consultant sparked my interest in consultancy. The prospect of working on ‘strategic’ issues in
different companies appealed to me and by the time I graduated from the academy, I had the firm
ambition to continue my development in the direction of management consultancy, advising
companies on the most efficient way to organize their businesses. My first job brought me to one of
the logistics units of the army, as an internal auditor. It was 1986, and this particular unit was the first
of its kind in the army, to be equipped with a state-of-the-art integrated information system to run its
operations.
In my work I was confronted with the aftermath of this system implementation, and although I had
little interest in information technology, I soon learned that the traditional work of a consultant,
advising on effective and efficient organizations, had changed because of the development of
information technology. Optimizing businesses without considering the potential applications of
information technology and information systems, did not make any sense anymore. And when, a
couple of years later, I landed a position as consultant, it was a consultant on ‘organization and
information’. For more than 15 years, I had the opportunity to work with organizations on business
strategy, information technology strategy, business process optimization, information systems
planning and project management. In those years I got both fascinated by the potential that
information technology offers to optimize and innovate businesses, and worried by the struggle that
most organizations experience when realizing this potential. And when I changed my profession to
that of an educator and a researcher, the fascination never faded, nor did the worries.
With this dissertation I hope to share some of the insights I found when studying the alignment of
business and information technology. Being an academic was never my big ambition, but finding
answers was. And the two go hand in hand.
At the completion of this milestone, I would like to thank the co-authors of the publications that form
this dissertation. I would also like to thank the team of the research group Business, IT and Innovation
and the colleagues and students of our Master of Information and Master of Project Management
programs. Doing research can sometimes be a lonely calling, so the cooperation with colleagues is an
important stimulation.
I would especially like to thank my supervisors, Sjaak Brinkkemper and Ronald Batenburg, for
offering me the opportunity to bring my ideas to a higher level. They were sometimes critical, but
always constructive. Without their support this dissertation definitely would not have been possible.
I would also like to thank my examiners: Professors Rik Maes, Wim van Grembergen, Egon
Berghout, Hans van der Heijden and Piet Ribbers, for their effort and time in examining my
dissertation.
Last, but not least I would like to thank my parents, children, family and friends for their support of
my job and work.

Gilbert Silvius, Utrecht, May 2013.

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PREFACE ................................................................................................................................ 1
CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................. 3
1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Motivation for this study ............................................................................ 1
1.2 Research domain: Business and IT alignment ........................................... 1
1.3 Research approach and questions ............................................................ 15
1.4 Dissertation Structure ............................................................................... 21
2 DOES ROI MATTER? INSIGHTS INTO THE TRUE BUSINESS VALUE OF IT . 25
2.1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 25
2.2 The quest for business value .................................................................... 26
2.3 IT Efficiency ............................................................................................ 29
2.4 IT Effectiveness ....................................................................................... 30
2.5 Business and IT alignment ....................................................................... 32
2.6 Valuing investments ................................................................................. 34
2.7 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 38
3 A CONCEPTUAL MODEL FOR ALIGNING IT VALUATION METHODS.......... 41
3.1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 41
3.2 The IT Productivity Paradox .................................................................... 42
3.3 Business and IT alignment and IT value .................................................. 44
3.4 Alignment in the IT Use Process ............................................................. 46
3.5 IT Valuation ............................................................................................. 49
3.6 Alignment in IT valuation ........................................................................ 53
3.7 A Comprehensive Selection Model ......................................................... 54
3.8 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 57
4 MATURING BUSINESS AND IT ALIGNMENT CAPABILITY; THE
PRACTITIONER’S VIEW .......................................................................................... 59
4.1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 59
4.2 Defining business and IT alignment ........................................................ 60
4.3 Alignment maturity assessment ............................................................... 60
4.4 Assessing the relative weights of the SAM variables .............................. 61
4.5 Respondents of the questionnaire ............................................................ 62
4.6 Perceived weight of the SAM variables ................................................... 64
4.7 Developing contribution coefficients ....................................................... 67
4.8 Conclusions and limitations ..................................................................... 70
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Appendix A. Questionnaire design.................................................................... 71
5 MATURING BUSINESS AND IT ALIGNMENT; ANALYZING DIFFERENCES
IN SCORING PATTERNS .......................................................................................... 75
5.1 Introduction: the persistent challenge of aligning IT and business .......... 75
5.2 Concepts of business and IT alignment and maturity .............................. 77
5.3 Building a hypothesis on scoring patterns ............................................... 83
5.4 Research design........................................................................................ 86
5.5 Findings: maturity scores and scoring patterns ........................................ 87
5.6 Analysis of scoring patterns ..................................................................... 89
5.7 Conclusion; scoring patterns matter ......................................................... 90
5.8 Limitations and discussion ....................................................................... 90
6 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN IT OUTSOURCING AND BUSINESS AND IT
ALIGNMENT: AN EXPLORATIVE STUDY............................................................ 93
6.1 Introduction: relating business and IT alignment and IT outsourcing ..... 93
6.2 Literature and concepts ............................................................................ 94
6.3 Research design........................................................................................ 99
6.4 Findings of the case studies ................................................................... 101
6.5 Analysis of the relationship between BIA and ITO ............................... 108
6.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 112
7 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BUSINESS STRATEGY, IT STRATEGY
AND ALIGNMENT CAPABILITY .......................................................................... 113
7.1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 113
7.2 Aligning Business and IT Strategies ...................................................... 115
7.3 Alignment capability .............................................................................. 117
7.4 Case 1 NIBC Merchant Bank................................................................. 119
7.5 Case 2 ALEX Investment Bank ............................................................. 121
7.6 Comparison of the two cases ................................................................. 123
7.7 Conclusions ............................................................................................ 124
7.8 Discussion and limitations ..................................................................... 124
8 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND THE
ALIGNMENT OF BUSINESS AND IT .................................................................... 125
8.1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 125
8.2 Literature review BIA and organizational culture ................................. 126
8.3 Research method .................................................................................... 132
8.4 Results: relating organizational culture and alignment .......................... 133
8.5 Conclusion and limitations..................................................................... 136
9 EXPLORATIVE STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF NATIONAL CULTURES
ON BUSINESS AND IT ALIGNMENT MATURITY ............................................. 137
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9.1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 137
9.2 Background ............................................................................................ 138
9.3 Business and IT alignment ..................................................................... 139
9.4 Business and IT alignment maturity ...................................................... 140
9.5 National cultures .................................................................................... 142
9.6 Culture and IT ........................................................................................ 143
9.7 The impact of culture on business and IT alignment ............................. 144
9.8 Empirical exploration ............................................................................. 148
9.9 The study ................................................................................................ 152
9.10 Conclusions and limitations ................................................................... 156
10 CONCLUSION AND CONTRIBUTION .................................................................. 157
10.1 Answering the research questions .......................................................... 157
10.2 Reflection ............................................................................................... 161
10.3 Implications of this study ....................................................................... 164
REFERENCES .................................................................................................................... 167
OTHER PUBLICATIONS BY GILBERT SILVIUS ......................................................... 179
SUMMARY ......................................................................................................................... 183
SAMENVATTING .............................................................................................................. 187
CURRICULUM VITAE ...................................................................................................... 189

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