IT-business partnership as enabler for IT-Business Alignment in organizations, a case of Compassion International

Abstract

This study sought to assess IT-Business partnership as enabler for the IT-Business Alignment (ITBA) in the organization, a case of Compassion organization and understand the drivers and factors influencing forging of IT-Business partnership enabler. The objectives of the study were: to assess IT-Business partnerships in Compassion International Organization, to investigate partnership drivers for partnership between IT and Business in Compassion International, to investigate partnership facilitators for IT-Business partnership in Compassion International organization, to investigate the influence of IT-Business partnership on IT-Business Alignment (ITBA) in Compassion International Organization, to propose a model IT-Business partnerships to influence ITBA in compassion organization. The study employed the descriptive research design using Compassion organization in Africa as the case. The study was conducted during the months of January and April 2018 using all employees of Compassion organization in Africa. A population of 339 Compassion employees in Africa representing 67.3% of the population was included in the sample size using a random sampling technique. The study data was collected using an online questionnaire (i.e. Lime survey) for cost and convenience to all the respondents. The questionnaire was pretested for errors and relevance before fully deployed to the sample population. The data collected was analyzed using SPSS version 23. The analyzed data was presented using figures and tables for ease of interpretation and elaboration. The study found that, organization growth goals and serving our customers well were the top reason for internal partnership between IT & Business in the organization; and communication, harmony between IT & business and existence of skilled & competent staffs were the major factors influencing the internal partnership. Secondly, this study found that IT-Business partnership is indeed as an enabler for alignment of IT and Business strategies. This study recommended that the organization to have programs or systems for ensuring to periodic updates about strategic growth and customer improvement to help IT and business staffs understand mutual mandate required by the organization hence sparking more and more collaboration and relationships between the IT and Business departments which eventually strengthens internal IT-business partnership as enabler to for the alignment. Secondly, the organization to invest more in improving these aspects; communication, harmony between IT & business and existence of skilled & competent staffs so that strong internal IT-Business partnership is experienced in the organization catalyzing the alignment subject which will lead to organizational performance overall.