The 5 steps to aligning

strategic investments
to meet business needs

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Introduction
If you’ve been in IT for a while, you’ve had a front row seat to the evolution
of an industry. An evolution that is transforming the very essence of IT.

Today, IT organizations everywhere are reinventing themselves, turning

from cost center into true business partner. This means being responsible
for not only for supporting IT departments, but for managing technology
investments in a way that meets today’s business needs and supports
long-term strategic business goals. This requires the IT organization to:

• Establish IT as not just a partner to business functions,

but an integral part of those functions

• Manage a dynamic, prioritized IT portfolio as a strategic

asset of the business

• Establish IT as a digital transformation catalyst, innovating

every element of how the organization operates

Of course, no two orgs are alike, and while some are further along in their
IT fitness journey, others are just getting started. This guide provides an
overview of the five levels of fitness, helping you understand where your
organization falls and how to begin your own journey.

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1 The bottom line
Characteristics
Level 1 fitness characteristics demonstrate:
• A lack of communication between IT
and the business
• Independent investment in technology
by business areas through contracts
with vendors that bypass IT entirely
•P
 roject delays on critical initiatives
because of IT bottlenecks
• A tactical focus for technology that
prioritizes stability and maintenance
over innovation and business growth
Fitness level 1: IT centric
Organizations at level 1 operate IT in a near independent silo.
Work is prioritized based on technology needs and tactical
metrics determine where to focus efforts. Much of the project
effort is motivated by a desire to fix issues reported in IT service
management (ITSM) or ticketing systems with little regard for
whether those issues have a business impact.
Technology infrastructure is managed to optimize technological
performance, and investment and refresh decisions are based
on those factors. Requests for support from business areas are
generally viewed as frustrations and given a lower priority, often
resulting in failure or delays.
If this sounds familiar, don’t worry—you’re not alone. It remains
the reality for many organizations. But IT-centric IT costs real
money and makes it incredibly difficult to keep up with the pace
of business, which means it’s time to get on the road toward
better health.
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 Fitness level 2:
Aligning to IT business needs
Level 2 organizations still demonstrate many of the same
behaviors seen at level 1, but IT leadership now understands
that this needs to change. Technology executives recognize
importance of supporting the business and are working to
shift priorities and behaviors.

Many organizations have found themselves at this point recently

and are using this awareness as a springboard for higher levels of
fitness. However, changing the behaviors that are built in to how IT
operates proves difficult, and that holds organizations at this level

2 of fitness for longer than they want.

The bottom line

According to the Flexera 2020 State of Tech Spend Survey, only 18%
Characteristics of organizations reported they were very mature when it came to
Level 12 fitness
fitness characteristics
organizations demonstrate: identifying wasted IT spend. That wouldn’t happen if relationships
commonly experience: between IT and the business were better.
• A lack of communication between IT and
• Ctheonflict
business
both within IT and between IT and
the business, and between technology
• priorities
Independent investment
and business in technology
priorities
by business areas through contracts with
• Tvendors
echnology that
spend
bypass
misaligned
IT entirely
with IT’s stated
priority of supporting the business
• Project delays on critical initiatives because
• T ofooITmany
bottlenecks
projects initiated within IT with
no ability to deliver them all
• A tactical focus for technology that
• G prioritizes
aps in understanding
stability and maintenance
how best to use over
technology
innovation and to achieve
business business
growth goals
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3 IT leadership is now accepted as part of the business planning
Characteristics
At level 3 organizations are typically:
• Driving technology investments based primarily
on business factors, not technology factors
• Embracing modern technology management
approaches including IaaS, PaaS and SaaS
• Aligning technology and business leaders
with technology acting as consultants to
the business on technology and trends
•U
 sing IT systems to capture business
relevant data that can further improve
business performance
•E
 volving from a technology-driven infrastructure
to a business-driven infrastructure focused on
integration of business needs, workflow and
decision support
Fitness level 3: Prioritize IT
and business investments
At this point in the fitness journey, IT is being reinvented as an
internal service provider to the business. They are focused on
enabling business needs and this translates into the work they
do. Investment decisions are designed to optimize business
value—whether those investments are project, support or
operations based.
process and acts as a subject matter expert advising business
areas on how current and emerging technologies can be used
to improve business performance. IT is beginning to evolve from
a hands-on function to a thought leadership function, shifting
to software as a service (SaaS) and similar third-party models
where appropriate.
The bottom line
Organizations at this level are eager to springboard into higher
levels of fitness. But be wary of moving too fast. Many still have
work to do to strengthen IT performance. In fact, the 2018 Harvey
Nash/KPMG CIO Survey revealed that 55% of organizations still
rate IT and business alignment as moderate or worse.
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 Fitness level 4:
IT as valued partner
IT has become a critical strategic partner of the business.
Technology investments are always aligned with the strategic
priorities of the business—even as those priorities shift in
response to changing circumstances.

Technology strategy creates an environment focused on evolving

with the business over maintaining stability and consistency.
Investments are more service based to enable adaptability.

IT’s strategic focus is not limited to support for projects—operational

investments and support decisions are also viewed through the

4 same strategic lens. IT teams increasingly combine business

understanding with technical expertise, becoming embedded
with the business areas they support.

Characteristics At level 4, organizations build the foundation for digital

transformation by creating an environment where IT is a
Level 4 fitness organizations regularly
demonstrate: catalyst for both technological and business innovation.

• Strategy-driven technology decisions for The bottom line

projects, operations, and support At level 4 the benefits of the IT maturation journey come to life—and
business leaders need to get here sooner rather than later if they
• Proactive technological leadership
want to compete. Research conducted by North Carolina State
with IT leaders identifying the business
opportunities and threats presented by University’s Enterprise Risk Management Initiative and Protiviti Inc.
emerging technology trends found that businesses ranked digital transformation as their number
one risk factor in 2019—up from 10th the year before.
• Real partnership where business and IT
functions collaborate at all levels to identify
and implement the best business solutions
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5
Characteristics
Level 5 fitness organizations:
• Eliminate standalone IT, integrating technology
management into every element of their business
• Reinvent the culture and leadership mindset to
better support customers and stakeholders through
digital products, services, and business practices
• Continuously innovate to use emerging
technologies while supporting existing
products, services, and operations in the
most effective and efficient ways possible
• Manage their technology as a single integrated
environment that continuously evolves and
adapts to changing circumstances
Fitness level 5:
Fully aligned organization
At the highest level of fitness, digital transformation has been
achieved and IT as a separate function will cease to exist.
Technology will be integrated into every aspect of the business.
The most mature organizations view technology management
not as a separate function, but as an integral part of business
management. There is a single, consolidated enterprise
roadmap for strategic success made up of existing digital
products and services as well as innovative technology-
enabled solutions.
All business functions collaborate to manage a digitally enabled
environment that is continuously evolving. Total alignment
of focus and execution is the only way for organizations to
optimize performance.
The bottom line
IDC’s 2019 Worldwide Semiannual Digital Transformation Spending
Guide predicts that global spending on digital transformation will
reach $2 trillion annually by 2022. With that much money on the
line, the entire business must be geared around maximizing return
on investment.
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The journey to fitness
IT investment fitness cannot be achieved simply by throwing money With that in place, organizations must recognize that digital
at the problem. It begins by understanding what IT needs to support transformation is not just a technological revolution—it is a
the business and how the current environment is creating barriers to fundamental shift in how business gets done that will impact
that requirement. every aspect of the business. With that mindset in place,
and the cultural change happening, the practical changes
At the same time, the fitness curve cannot be short cut.
required to achieve the higher levels of fitness will become
Organizations must prepare for the challenges and opportunities
relatively straightforward.
of digital transformation by actively investing in their current
IT function to: Wherever you are in your IT fitness journey, ServiceNow has a
solution to support your IT organization. Start by exploring IT
• Improve alignment between technology and
Business Management to discover how business works better
business functions
when IT is a strategic partner.
• Enhance the business acumen of technology
leaders and managers
Start Exploring
• Develop a strategy designed to fully leverage
current and emerging technology

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 Align strategic investments and initiatives to meet business
objectives with IT Business Management from ServiceNow.

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