The alignment of business and information technology strategy in the financial services sector in South Africa

Abstract

Many studies have been done to determine the benefits that the alignment of business and IT strategies can achieve. This has become more prominent as IT has evolved. Previous studies have highlighted that this has been difficult to achieve. From these studies many factors have been identified that promote alignment. This study focuses on the people, process and organisational factors and has been done to determine which of these factors are the most important in promoting alignment between business and IT strategies and to determine the success that has been achieved through these factors. A survey of the financial services sector, both public and private sector was performed. The study highlighted that all of the factors are perceived as important and further highlighted the factors that should receive attention by those organisations to achieve alignment.