Discussion Questions in APA format

1 response for each post in APA format with references:

Post 1:

Competence:

Competence plays a significant role in IT-Business relationship. It is the ability of an organization to deliver its value efficiently to the consumer. To simply put, it refers to what a firm does better than its industry competitors. It is a unique ability that allows the firm to compete in a given industry or in a given market. It is very important for IT people to consume knowledge in the business they are working for. If IT staff doesn’t have the knowledge about the business and how the business is being run, then it would be difficult for the firm to gain the success in long term. IT staff should be able to demonstrate the business goals, concern, languages and process and working in a team to achieve those tasks (Nguyen, Newby, & Macaulay 2015). It is reported by many managers that IT staff has a poor understanding of the business, so the IT ideas are being neglected.

Expertise, Financial awareness and Execution are some of the key competencies that IT must be aware of to obtain the desirable results.

· Expertise is having good knowledge in both technical and business domains which helps in delivering the best advice. This aids in bringing innovation and success in the firm.

· Financial awareness is the ability to deliver value and ability to act when required. It is also important to know some of the buzz words of finance like Return on Investment, the total cost of ownership and the way they affect the business strategy.

· Execution is the important phase for business because understanding the business and having a vision for it alone will not bring success. Execution of them must be performed by IT. The relation between IT and business is dynamic. Therefore, every action of IT speaks about its competence. If IT could not perform best at its basic services, it cannot be given opportunities at higher level.

There are several ways to improve these competences and they are as follows:

· The firm must find a way to inculcate business knowledge in IT staff as it is the important aspect. To achieve this, company can assign some business-related task to IT people or make them work under businesspeople for some time to develop business knowledge (Luftman & Brier1991). Workshops or seminars on business topics can also be conducted.

· The success of organization is related not only to business but also to IT. Hence, it is important to link the IT success criteria to business metrics.

 

 

References

Bassellier, G., Reich, B. H., & Benbasat, I. (2001). Information Technology Competence of Business Managers: A Definition and Research Model. Journal of Management Information Systems, 17(4), 159–182. Retrieved from  https://doi.org/10.1080/07421222.2001.11045660

Nguyen, T. H., Newby, M., & Macaulay, M. J. (2015). Information Technology Adoption in Small Business: Confirmation of a Proposed Framework. Journal of Small Business Management, 53(1), 207–227. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsbm.12058

Luftman, J., & Brier, T. (1999). Achieving and Sustaining Business-IT Alignment. California Management Review, 42(1), 109–122. Retrieved from  https://doi.org/10.2307/41166021

Post 2:

Foundation of a strong Business-IT relationship:

            Competency is one of the building blocks required for a strong business-IT relationship. With the increase in technical advancements and competition, there are many competencies demanded from IT professionals including basic business knowledge, expertise, financial awareness and execution. IT professionals must possess basic knowledge of business like the basic terminologies, and the business nature of project where there technological services and products are used.  Moreover, they must also be familiar with the business goals, capabilities, strategic success, environment and limitations of operations they perform. They also should know how they can apply their basic business knowledge with combining IT expertise in the best of business. (Wailgum, 2008).

            Having business knowledge to IT people don’t make them business people, it just ensures that they can understand business terms, goals and processes of operations, which convinces senior business executives to trust IT managers. This is how; ideas of IT managers will also be given enough weightage by business executives. Moreover, IT managers should also be expert in their field related skill. Suggestions of those IT executives are considered valid and valuable who deeply understands both the technical and business side of their idea. The IT people should also be able to generate new ideas and possess enough communication skills so that they can convince external parties on their own. They also have information about the Return on investment, effect on balance sheet and business strategy of the operations they perform.  (Pawlowski, Robey, 2004). 

            Trust is an important factor in every relationship either it is business-IT or any real-life relationship. Trust is developed when both business and IT managers understand the basic concepts of each other’s department. In order to build trust, IT executives should be able to communicate in basic business terms and competent in basic IT services.  (Gerrard, 2006).

References

Gerrard, M. (2006). Three Critical Success Factors in the Business/IT Relationship‖. Gartner       Research# G00143352.

Pawlowski, S. D., & Robey, D. (2004). Bridging user organizations: Knowledge brokering and    the work of information technology professionals. MIS quarterly, 645-672.

Wailgum, T. (2008). Eight Reasons Why CIOs Think Their Application Developers Are Clueless‖. CIO Magazine.