Business and IT Alignment: The Factors Affecting Alignment in Small to Medium Sized Businesses

Information technologies are omnipresent in almost every aspect of all businesses. This presence brings the need to align business and information technology strategies in the organization with aims such as increasing performance and gaining competitiveness in the marketplace. Enterprises are defined by their size and economic volume and there is a need to align IT and business strategies in small and medium sized enterprises. The main aim of this study is to investigate the elements that influence the business and IT alignment in SMEs using the factors defined in the Strategic Alignment Maturity Model (SAMM). Those factors are combined under the following criteria: communication, competency/value measurement, governance, partnership, scope and architecture, and skills. In this study, IT managers and one business professional have been interviewed in order to observe the two sides of the story. This study contributes by registering itself to the strategic alignment in the SMEs scope. Another value of this study is that it regards the gained knowledge as another factor that could be considered during the IT and business alignment and how this factor rhymes alongside the previously defined ones. (Less)