A case study in linkage between information technology and business planning
Creators: name: Horspool, David
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2009

description: There is widespread agreement that planning at all levels of a business can be beneficial. Information Technology (IT) Planning is a critical activity that defines the priorities and actions of the IT department. In order for IT planning to be effective in helping business managers to achieve their business objectives, there must be linkage between IT plans and objectives and organizational plans and objectives. In several studies linkage of IT plans and objectives to organizational plans and objectives has been consistently identified as among the top few problems for IT managers. The objective of my thesis is to increase our understanding the factors that influence linkage. In this study I review current research on factors that influence linkage, document the circumstances surrounding linkage in a single case, analyze the findings of the case based on a proposed model to guide research into linkage, and suggest additional factors that may influence linkage between IT and business objectives. The case study was conducted at an international resource company with interests in nearly twenty mines located on four different continents. The company is organized into five divisions, one for each continent plus a fifth division which is responsible for exploration and special projects world-wide. The company has a history of decentralized management. This has had an enormous impact on the development of the IT environment. Each division has its own IT function and each has been managed independently of each other. The company executives have become aware of corporate wide IT limitations. This has resulted in a corporate wide reevaluation of both the IT strategy, and the telecommunications strategies and capabilities of the company. The data gathered for this study was gathered as part of the telecommunications review. The model used for this case analysis is a comprehensive model to guide research into the factors that influence linkage developed by Reich (1992). When applied to the company, this model to guide research into linkage appears to be consistent and predictive except for two aspects: the ability of the model to differentiate some important characteristics of the factors influencing linkage, and the impact of time on linkage. Reich's (1992) model to guide research into linkage combines many of the factors that were treated as separate constructs in other research. The analysis of the company uncovered two cases where combined factors limited the ability of the model to differentiate important characteristics of the individual factors influencing linkage. The model is also very sensitive to the time period that it is applied to an organization. The model is like a single snapshot - it describes the levels of observed linkage at a single point in time, but it does not describe what has happened in the past, nor is it prescriptive about the future. The events at the company point towards two additional causal factors that explain the change in the level of linkage between IT and business objectives; the attitudes towards IT held by the CEO and the increase in the "Information Intensity" of the company's value chain. I suggest that these two factors exist in other organizations and should be included in the model as additional factors that influence linkage.