The IT department may, for instance, be impressed with the management elegance of a thin-client architecture but end users won't stand for losing ownership of their desktop applications. Business execs may like the functionality of this HR suite, that general ledger app and the other sales force automation system--and may want to customize them all to fit their processes--but this mixed technology bag proves impractical for IT to integrate and manage.

Last issue's column blamed part of this disconnect on sales, marketing, finance and other corporate decision-makers who refuse to get up to speed on technology. How can traditional business types hope to maximize their IT investments when they don't understand what technology can do for them? Here's the flip side: How can IT pros hope to make the right product and technology purchasing decisions when they're not fully engaged in their companies' processes and goals?

The disconnect is partly organizational and partly cultural. For decades, IT organizations have been set up as arm's-length departments, sometimes as internal service providers. As cost centers, their productivity was defined mostly by how much money they spent (or didn't spend). Technology pros weren't business-change agents but support staffers.

Mess vs. Mesh

While many companies have brought in CIOs from the traditional business ranks and have set up fancy matrix organizations (where tech managers report up through business departments as well as the IT group), the integration of technology with other business competencies can be more gloss than substance.

At a recent conference, a panel of chief technology officers was asked how their companies' "business" and "IT" were being aligned. "We need to understand the business to really function properly," responded one CTO. Said another: "Our relationship with the business is of paramount importance." What was striking about these answers was their superficiality. Why does the statement that technologists "need to understand the business" even pass as wisdom in this day and age? If a panel of chief marketing officers were to respond the same way about their profession, audible grumbles of "no kidding" would no doubt follow.

Technology leaders must once and for all move beyond theoretical discussions of IT-business alignment and get serious with their approaches. IT organizations still need to handle company-wide architecture and infrastructure matters. But for IT pros to truly become part of the business, they must fan out to other business departments--become the business, not some broken appendage that needs to be realigned with it.

How are technology decisions made at your company? Where do you "live" relative to other business decision-makers? We need to hear about organizational best practices. Drop us an e-mail at the address below.