A survey by McKinsey Quarterly, suggests that most CIOs believe that they are successfully aligning IT strategy with the needs of the businesses they serve. This means CIOs are collaborating with the business in ways that add significant value, rather than just reacting to the demands of the business.
The important item from this article is the McKinsey framework for IT Strategy (see below)
Organisations that have mastered the art of business collaboration may be poised to move to a more advanced form of strategic planning, a level at which they can truly show the business how, where, and when to use IT as a competitive weapon according to the survey.
The survey also finds that IT strategy in most companies has not yet reached its full potential which involves exploiting innovation to drive constant improvement in the operations of a business and to give it a real advantage over competitors with new products and capabilities.
This shift to the next level of IT strategy will require changes in management and budget priorities, as well as multiyear planning, which less than two-thirds of our survey respondents acknowledge doing. To use IT as a strategic tool, a company must look beyond the annual planning cycle and take an integrated, midrange view of technology, competitive developments, and the strategic actions required to address them.
Based upon numerous conversations I have had within 2009 with organisations of many sizes, many IT departments have not yet made a significant push into this area of forward planning.