Essential alignment

Binedell likened this change to walking up the down escalator. "You have three options. You can walk slower than the escalator and fall off the bottom; you can walk at the same speed as the escalator and stay on par; or you can walk faster than the escalator and reach the top."

Change is an inevitable truth that business needs to address, and Binedell says that by aligning itself with IT and embracing the third choice, organisations will only stand to gain. But to take full advantage of any situation, business and IT need to be on the same page.

"Business and IT need to come to a similar platform and speak a similar language in order to create alignment and thereby give organisations the edge," said Alan Cowley, CEO of Sybase SA and a panel speaker at the event. "It really starts with all parties taking joint ownership of the issue."

CREATING A `MODEL` BUSINESS

Governance and compliance are playing a much larger role in an organisation`s day-to-day functioning. Cowley believes this will be a key area that will need to be addressed by the boardroom of tomorrow.

"But all this can be solved by designing and following a simple framework. Creating a building before you have drawn up the architectural plans seems like lunacy, but IT and business are now having to move the window after the house has been built," according to Rudi Leibrandt, practice manager at Sybase SA.

In order to overcome this, enterprise architecture needs to include a technical architecture, a business architecture and the processes that run over both.

"Data is what should be driving your business, and this requires a certain level of control and understanding. Modelling the architectural concepts will provide the basis for alignment and give organisations the competitive advantage they are looking for," says Leibrandt.

However, neither party is willing to take ownership of the issue. Terry White, business and technology advisor at MarketWorks, said this lack of responsibility shows in the research. "At the moment business thinks it only needs to be 20% involved in the delivery of IT and IT feels it is only responsible for a small percentage of business."

And according to Leon Pretorius, business intelligence support at WesBank, this schism needs to be bridged. "It is no longer enough to only consider one`s customer base as partners to business. Business must approach IT from the perspective that it is a partner." But partnering and using models is not enough for organisations to streak ahead.

IS AFRICA AN ISLAND?

The biggest challenge for Africa is to become an inventor. Binedell says that at the moment South Africa, and Africa as a whole, imports most ideas, skills and technologies. "We can`t develop everything from scratch, but we must understand what we need, buy what we can`t develop and develop those things that would suit our own emerging environment."

He compared this concept to the various island states around the world and the various models they used to become successful. Japan and Dubai were examples of two very different and innovative models, presented by Binedell, that created a booming innovation environment. But islands are very insular and Africa needs to become more open minded, more competitive.

GOING UP

"More competition should be the drumbeat in every boardroom. We need to learn from everyone and copy no one," he said.

Leibrandt believes the answer is to understand exactly what business information is doing at any given time. "By having a thorough understanding of your metadata, you can build a business and IT model that will give your business the energy it needs to grow," he said.

However, all the speakers agreed that the real trick is to get the boardroom to see that business and IT alignment will benefit the organisation as a whole. The general sentiment by the end of the conference was voiced by Leibrandt: "By doing this we can make sure that information will drive IT and business, and not just drive them crazy."