Business strategy-IT alignment in a multi-actor setting: a mobile e-service case

ABSTRACT

In this paper we present a framework and methodology for aligning the business strategy and IT/IS for an organization offering an e-service in a multi-organizational setting. We explore three perspectives on the e-service to be offered: 1) The business strategy perspective, in terms of the organization's strategic position; 2) The value creation perspective, in terms of a networked value constellation enabling value creation; 3) The IT/IS perspective, in terms of an IT architecture enabling the provision of the e-service. We explore these three perspectives and modify them, until we find a situation in which 1) the designed IT architecture enables the provision of the e-service and can be implemented in a profitable way by the networked value constellation, and 2) the enterprise under study is positioned in the networked value constellation such that the enterprise can execute its business strategy. We have tested our approach on a starting enterprise offering a mobile e-service.

REFERENCES

• 1: J. Asundi, R. Kazman, and M. Klein. Using economic considerations to choose amongst architecture design alternatives. Technical report, Software Engineering Institute, 2001.
• 2: W. Baets. Aligning information systems with business strategy. Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 1(4), 1992.
• 3: Len Bass , Paul Clements , Rick Kazman, Software architecture in practice, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1998
• 4: Pim Borst , Hans Akkermans , Jan Top, Engineering ontologies, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, v.46 n.2-3, p.365-406, Feb./March 1997 [doi>10.1006/ijhc.1996.0096]
• 5: Z. Derzsi and J. Gordijn. A framework for business/it alignment in networked value constellations. In T. Latour and M. Petit, editors, Proceedings of the workshops of the 18th CAiSE conference, pages 219--226, Namur, B, 2006. Namur University Press.
• 6: Jaap Gordijn , Hans Akkermans, Designing and Evaluating E-Business Models, IEEE Intelligent Systems, v.16 n.4, p.11-17, July 2001 [doi>10.1109/5254.941353]
• 7: J. Gordijn and H. Akkermans. Value based requirements engineering: Exploring innovative e-commerce idea. Requirements Engineering Journal, 8(2):114--134, 2003.
• 8: J. Gordijn and H. Akkermans. Business models for distributed energy resources in a liberalized market environment. The Electric Power Systems Research Journal, 77(9):1178--1188, 2007.
• 9: C. Grönroos. Service Management and Marketing: A Customer Relationship Management Approach, 2nd edition. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK, 2000.
• 10: J. Henderson and N. Venkantraman. Strategic alignment, leveraging information technology for transforming organizations. IBM systems journal, (1), 1993.
• 11: G. Johnson and K. Scholes. Exploring Corporate Strategy. Pearson Education Limited, Edinburgh, UK, 2002.
• 12: R. Kaplan and D. Norton. The balanced scorecard-measures that drive performance. The Journal of Systems and Software, pages 71--80, Jan-Feb 1992.
• 13: J. Luftman, R. Papp, and T. Brier. The strategic alignment model: Assessment and validation. In Proceedings of the Information Technology Management Group of the Association of Management (AoM) 13th annual International Conference, pages 57--66, Vancouver, 1995.
• 14: Bashar Nuseibeh , Jeff Kramer , Anthony Finkelstein, A Framework for Expressing the Relationships Between Multiple Views in Requirements Specification, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, v.20 n.10, p.760-773, October 1994 [doi>10.1109/32.328995]
• 15: V. Pijpers and J. Gordijn. e3forces: Understanding strategies of networked e3value constellation by analyzing environmental forces. In Proceedings of the 19th Conference on Advanced Information System Engineering 2007. Springer, 2007.
• 16: M. E. Porter. Competitive advantage. Creating and sustaining superior performance. The Free Press, New York, NY, 1980.
• 17: M. E. Porter. Competetive Strategy. Techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. The Free Press, New York, NY, 1985.
• 18: Jim Spohrer , Doug Riecken, Introduction, Communications of the ACM, v.49 n.7, July 2006 [doi>10.1145/1139922.1139944]
• 19: Don Tapscott , Alex Lowy , David Ticoll, Digital Capital: Harnessing the Power of Business Webs, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA, 2000
• 20: L. Thevenet and C. Salinesi. Aligning is to organization's strategy: The instal method. In Proceedings of the 19th Conference on Advanced Information System Engineering 2007. Springer, 2007.
• 21: TOGAF. Togaf 8.1. www.togaf.org, website.
• 22: UML. Uml 2.0. www.uml.org, website.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.m MISCELLANEOUS

Keywords:
IT, alignment, business strategy, business-IT alignment, constellation, e-service