Are We Aligned? Participate in the Jinfo Survey on IS/IT Relationships
Jinfo Blog

By Robin Neidorf

Abstract

Reminder - participate in our survey on the relationship between information services and the IT department. Receive a copy of the results as a thank you.

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There's still time to participate in Jinfo's Survey: Relationship Between IS and IT - now extended until 11th March. 

This project is part of our current Research Focus: Strategic Alignment Between IS and IT. To gain an understanding of what "alignment" may (or may not) look like in organisations today, our survey asks how respondents' organisations are structured, how they relate to their counterparts in IT, and which areas of the business have significant influence over different types of projects.

To whet your appetite, here are a few observations from the responses to date:

For one item in the survey, we ask respondents to indicate how much control they and their staff have over these types of projects:

• Intranet design
• Intranet management
• Intranet strategy
• Mobile delivery of content
• Data mining projects: planning
• Data mining projects: execution
• Federated search or discovery systems
• Enterprise information strategy
• Knowledge management system design
• Knowledge management system management
• Knowledge management system strategy
• User authentication.

Later in the survey, we asked them to indicate how much control IT staff have over the same types of projects. 

For each item, respondents could select from 1 = no control to 4 = extensive control.

The figure compares average ratings for five of the types named.

Whilst "alignment" doesn't mean "same amount of control", it is interesting to see the wide spread in averages for some of the projects Jinfo customers often tell us they find most frustrating:

• "Intranet strategy", for example, shows a spread of more than 1.3 points between the control which professionals in information services say they have and the control they perceive their colleagues in IT to have. This result supports dialogue we regularly have with customers about how frequently their expertise in information organisation and management is underutilised in setting strategy for the intranet.
  
  Our customers often express the opinion that IT expertise around the technology of the intranet is over-valued compared with their expertise around content and user behaviour.

• Similarly, "user authentication" is a topic that has been a thorn in the side of many an information services manager.
  
  The IS manager is often the point of contact for the vendor relationship, and is also the expert best placed to understand what users really want out of their workflow for accessing content. Yet they report their control in these projects nearly 1 point below the perceived control of IT.

In any area of information strategy, alignment between the content experts (IS) and the technology experts (IT) is an essential component of managing risks and making the most of emerging opportunities. Add your perspective on alignment by participating in our survey before the end of the day on Friday, 11th March.

A free copy of the resulting report will be sent to any participant who provides a valid email address. Take 10 minutes and complete the survey now »

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