Strategic business-IT alignment, and factors of influence : a case study in a public tertiary education institution.

Alignment between business and information technology (IT) strategies has been a key concern for both IT and business managers for several decades. It is recognised that achieving alignment contributes immensely to ensuring that investments in IT result in improvements in organisational performance. Alignment is a concern, not only for commercial organisations, but also for tertiary-level educational institutions, many who have invested heavily in IT for teaching and educational purposes, as well as to improve efficiency and effectiveness of administrative processes. It is therefore necessary for research on alignment to be conducted in such institutions, as much of the literature assumes a commercial organisational context. In this paper, a case study is reported in which it was found that integration between business and information systems (IS) planning, rational-adaptation in IS planning, IT managerial resources, and IT implementation success are all factors likely to influence alignment. Their relative importance, however, is very much dependent on the organisational context, the timing of the study, and on whose perspective is being sought.