Assessing business

Abstract

Nowadays, Information Technology (IT) is considered as an integral part of business and it has been utilized among organizations around the world in order to operate their business processes and become more competitive in business environment. Accordingly, the requirement of enhancing the alignment between business and IT is increasingly demanded among Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Chief Information Officers (CIOs). Although many studies dealt with Business/IT alignment and utilized different models that can assess and enhance the alignment maturity in many organizations, Yemeni organizations have received little attention in terms of assessing and enhancing Business/IT alignment. This study attempts to assess the Business/IT alignment in one of the biggest private organizations in Yemen by utilizing Luftman's Strategic Alignment Maturity Model (SAMM) which is one of the most effective models in this field. The data were collected using four questionnaires that have been distributed among four groups of respondents from the top management, IT management, business staff, and IT staff. Then the data were analyzed based on Luftman’s model. The findings showed that the “Communications” component is the strength of the organization’s alignment maturity while the “Competency/Value Measurements” component is its weakness. In general, it has been revealed that the overall Business/IT alignment maturity level of the organization is within the lower levels of Luftman’s model which was caused by the alignment gaps that have been identified. Besides, some remedial suggestions have been proposed in this study that can reduce these alignment gaps and enhance the Business/IT alignment maturity in the organization.