Debunking Alignment Nirvana

Most CIOs place IT-business alignment at the top of their wish list. They recognize the growing interdependency between business success and technology use. And they worry about the mismatch between what IT does and what business wants. But achieving a state of 100% alignment will no longer be possible — if it ever was — as firms evolve over the next five years toward business technology (BT), the pervasive technology use that drives business results. IT-business alignment will be replaced with BT Synchronization — a continuous balancing of an enterprise level of focus, a networked balance of supply, and a change agent role in the business strategy and processes of the enterprise. Today's CIOs should calibrate their current status and work with their CEOs to achieve BT Synchronization.