How to Map Business goals vs IT goals

UnderstandingHow Business Goals Drive IT GoalsExecutive Briefing

Understanding How Business Goals Drive IT Goals

IT Governance Institute®

The IT Governance Institute (ITGITM) (www.itgi.org) is a non-profit, independent research entity that provides guidance for the globalbusiness community on issues related to the governance of IT assets. ITGI was established by the non-profit membership associationISACA in 1998 to help ensure that IT delivers value and its risks are mitigated through alignment with enterprise objectives, ITresources are properly managed, and IT performance is measured. ITGI developed Control Objectives for Information and relatedTechnology (COBIT®) and Val ITTM, and offers original research and case studies to help enterprise leaders and boards of directors fulfiltheir IT governance responsibilities and IT professionals deliver value-adding services.

DisclaimerITGI has designed and created this publication, titled Understanding How Business Goals Drive IT Goals (the ‘Work’), primarily as aneducational resource for control professionals. ITGI makes no claim that use of any of the Work will assure a successful outcome. TheWork should not be considered inclusive of any proper information, procedures and tests or exclusive of other information, proceduresand tests that are reasonably directed to obtaining the same results. In determining the propriety of any specific information, procedureor test, controls professionals should apply their own professional judgement to the specific control circumstances presented by theparticular systems or information technology environment.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

ITGI wishes to recognise:

The ResearchersWim Van Grembergen, Ph.D., University of Antwerp Management School, and IT Alignment and Governance Research Institute, BelgiumSteven De Haes, Ph.D., University of Antwerp Management School, and IT Alignment and Governance Research Institute, BelgiumHilde Van Brempt, University of Antwerp Management School, and IT Alignment and Governance Research Institute, Belgium

ITGI Board of TrusteesLynn Lawton, CISA, FBCS, FCA, FIIA, KPMG LLP, UK, International PresidentGeorge Ataya, CISA, CISM, CGEIT, CISSP, ICT Control SA, Belgium, Vice PresidentYonosuke Harada, CISA, CISM, CAIS, InfoCom Research Inc., Japan, Vice PresidentHoward Nicholson, CISA, CGEIT, City of Salisbury, Australia, Vice PresidentJose Angel Pena Ibarra, CGEIT, Consultoria en Comunicaciones e Info., SA & CV, Mexico, Vice PresidentRobert E. Stroud, CA Inc., USA, Vice PresidentKenneth L. Vander Wal, CISA, CPA, Ernst & Young LLP (retired), USA, Vice PresidentFrank Yam, CISA, FHKCS, FHKIoD, CIA, CCP, CFE, CFSA, FFA, Focus Strategic Group, Hong Kong, Vice PresidentMarios Damianides, CISA, CISM, CA, CPA, Ernst & Young LLP, USA, Past International PresidentEverett C. Johnson, CPA, Deloitte & Touche LLP (retired), USA, Past International President

IT Governance CommitteeTony Hayes, FCPA, Queensland Government, Australia, ChairSushil Chatterji, Edutech Enterprises, SingaporeKyung,Tae Hwang, CISA, Dongguk University, KoreaJohn W. Lainhart IV, CISA, CISM, CGEIT, IBM Business Consulting Services, USAHugh Penri-Williams, CISA, CISM, CCSA, CIA, Adcatel, FranceEddy Schuermans, CISA, PricewaterhouseCoopers, BelgiumGustavo Adolfo Solis Montes, CISA, CISM, Grupo Cynthus, MexicoRobert E. Stroud, CA Inc., USAJohn Thorp, CMC, I.S.P., The Thorp Network Inc., CanadaWim Van Grembergen, Ph.D., University of Antwerp Management School, and IT Alignment and Governance Research Institute, Belgium

COBIT Steering CommitteeRobert E. Stroud, CA Inc., USA, ChairGary S. Baker, CA, Deloitte & Touche, CanadaRafael Eduardo Fabius, CISA, Republica AFAP SA, UruguayErik Guldentops, CISA, CISM, University of Antwerp Management School, BelgiumJimmy Heschl, CISA, CISM, CGEIT, KPMG, AustriaDebbie A. Lew, CISA, Ernst & Young LLP, USAGreta Volders, Voquals, Belgium

3© 2 0 0 8 I T G O V E R N A N C E I N S T I T U T E . A L L R I G H T S R E S E R V E D .


Acknowledgements cont.ITGI Affiliates and SponsorsISACA chaptersAmerican Institute of Certified Public Accountants ASIS InternationalThe Center for Internet SecurityCommonwealth Association for Corporate Governance Inc.FIDA InformInformation Security ForumInformation Systems Security Association Institut de la Gouvernance des Systemes d’InformationInstitute of Management Accountants Inc.ISACAITGI JapanNorwich UniversitySocitm Performance Management GroupSolvay Business SchoolUniversity of Antwerp Management SchoolAldion Consulting Pte. Ltd.Analytix Holdings Pty. Ltd.BWise B.V.CA Inc.Consult2ComplyHewlett-PackardIBMITpreneurs Nederlands B.V.LogLogic Inc.Phoenix Business and Systems Process Inc.Project Rx Inc.Symantec CorporationTruArx Inc.Wolcott Group LLCWorld Pass IT Solutions

The researchers wish to recognise:This research project was commissioned by the IT Governance Institute and was performed by the IT Alignment and GovernanceResearch Institute of the University of Antwerp Management School (UAMS) in Belgium. ITGI also provided the necessary contactinformation from the ISACA member database for building the expert team. We are grateful to the valuable support of the COBITSteering Committee and would like to thank Erik Guldentops, who initiated this research and provided us with many ideas on ITgovernance. Thanks also go the expert team members for taking the time during several rounds to provide us valuable answers andfeedback on the questionnaires.


Table of Contents

Table of ContentsIntroduction.......................................................................................................................................................................................................6

Research Background ......................................................................................................................................................................................7

General Findings ..............................................................................................................................................................................................8

Sector-specific Findings .................................................................................................................................................................................12

Full Research Report Available ....................................................................................................................................................................17

List of Figures .................................................................................................................................................................................................18



IntroductionIn today’s complex and constantly changing business world, IT’s alignment to the business and IT governance are high on the agenda of executive management. Strategic planning based on the alignment of IT goals to business goals is a key component in business/IT alignment. It is important that an enterprise start with a clear view of its mission and a thorough definition of its supporting strategyand business goals. This then needs to be translated into goals for the IT department, which are the basis for the IT strategy. Finally, thesupporting IT processes must be carefully planned to translate the IT strategy into action. For these planning efforts, enterprises may belooking for guidance to identify the set of important business goals and IT goals, and how they interrelate.

Research into this subject by the IT Governance Institute was discussed in previous Information Systems Control Journal articles1 andled to the publication of a set of generally applicable business goals for IT and associated IT goals in COBIT®.2 Extensive follow-upresearch was performed to gain more insight into this set of business and IT goals and their linkage. This white paper presents the mainresults of the follow-up research project in which a group of experts in different sectors were asked to validate, prioritise and link a set ofbusiness goals and IT goals. This research has also resulted in a significant improvement of the business goals for IT and associated IT goals in COBIT® 4.1. In addition to this white paper, a full research report that includes all of the detailed data is available at www.itgi.org.


1 Van Grembergen, W.; S. De Haes; J. Moons; ‘IT Governance: Linking Business Goals to IT Goals and COBIT Processes’, Information Systems Control Journal, vol. 4,2005 and Van Grembergen, W.; S. De Haes; H. Van Brempt; ‘How Does the Business Drive IT? Identifying, Prioritising and Linking Business and IT Goals’, InformationSystems Control Journal, vol. 6, 2007

2 IT Governance Institute, Control Objectives for Information and related Technologies (COBIT), USA, 1996-2008, www.itgi.org

Research Background

Research BackgroundThis research project follows up on the findings of a pilot study that resulted in a list of 20 generic business goals and a list of 28 genericIT goals, first published in COBIT 4.0. The objectives of the research presented in this white paper are to: • Validate these lists for completeness, consistency and clarity • Gain more insight into goals and priorities for different sectors• Examine the relationship between IT goals and business goals

In practice, every enterprise has its own distinct sets of business and IT goals. Priorities within these sets will differ depending on avariety of internal and external factors such as company size, market position, degree of IT dependency, industry and geography. Thisproject chose an industry approach and started with a pilot in the financial sector that was then replicated for four other sectors: • Manufacturing and pharmaceuticals• IT professional services, telecommunications and media• Government, utilities (e.g., energy, oil and gas) and healthcare • Retail, distribution and transportation

For the prioritisation and linking of the goals, a Delphi method was used. This method is based on a structured process for collectingand distilling knowledge from a group of experts by means of several feedback rounds. For this study, a team of experts was asked toprioritise a list of business and IT goals by using a ranking technique, and the averaged results were returned to them. Different interviewrounds were performed to achieve consensus amongst the experts on the important goals and how the business goals are linked to the IT goals.

The ISACA member database was used as a major source to identify subject experts. In total, 158 business and IT professionals, eithermanagers or auditors, participated from enterprises with more than 150 employees. All five industry sectors were represented. One of theassumptions was that experts holding a management or auditing position have sufficient knowledge of both IT and business goals.Figure 1 presents the expert team’s composition by sector and geographic location.


Retail, Distributionand Transportation: 16

Government,Utilities and

Healthcare: 39

IT ProfessionalServices, Telecommunications

and Media: 40

Financial: 38

Manufacturing andPharmaceuticals: 25

Europe: 37

Latin America: 3Australia: 7

Middle East: 18

Asia: 28

Africa: 14

NorthAmerica: 51

Expert Team by Sector

Total number of subject experts: 158

Expert Team by Geographic Location

Figure 1—Expert Team Composition


General FindingsThe research reported in this white paper was executed in enterprises of different industries, sizes and geographic locations. This sectiondiscusses some general findings that are relevant to the whole data set.

Identifying and Validating Business and IT Goals

During the research, the original list of IT and business goals (as published in COBIT 4.0) was validated and reviewed multiple times, andevolved to a generic list of 17 (IT-related) business goals and 18 IT goals. Overlap, inconsistencies and ambiguities amongst the differentgoal definitions were reduced to a minimum. The goals turned out to be generically defined and applicable across all sectors.

Figure 2 presents the final list of business and IT goals, categorised by their corresponding balanced scorecard (BSC) perspectives. Thegenerically defined goals provide a guideline for companies to help them identify their set of important business and IT goals. Inpractice, enterprises will need to develop their own subset, but they can do that efficiently by:• Starting from these generic business and IT goals• Updating these goals for enterprise specifics (strategy, infrastructure, etc.) • Adding measures to track goal achievement

Documenting the Top 10 Business and IT Goals

The lists of business and IT goals have been prioritised over five different sectors. Figure 3 presents the top 10 most important businessand IT goals, consolidated over all sectors. Apart from some minor exceptions, the separate lists of the different sectors include the same business and IT goals in their individual top 10. This proves that there is a very high degree of consensus that these business andIT goals are the most important ones. Filtering the results by company size and geographic location confirmed the stability of these listsof top 10 goals.


Figure 2—Validated Lists of Business and IT Goals

Business Goals IT GoalsFinancial (Corporate) Perspective Corporate Contribution3

– Manage (IT-related) business risks. – Offer transparency and understanding of IT costs, benefits and risks.– Provide a good return on (IT-enabled) business investments. – Ensure IT compliance with laws and regulations.– Improve financial transparency. – Account for and protect all IT assets.– Ensure compliance with external laws and regulations. – Drive commitment and support of executive management.

– Improve IT’s cost-efficiency.– Align the IT strategy to the business strategy.

Customer Perspective User Orientation– Improve customer orientation and service. – Make sure that IT services are reliable and secure.– Establish service continuity and availability. – Provide service offerings and service levels in line with business requirements.– Offer competitive products and services. – Translate business functional and control requirements into effective and – Achieve cost optimisation of service delivery. efficient automated solutions.– Create agility in responding to changing business requirements. – Accomplish proper use of applications, information and technology solutions.– Obtain reliable and useful information for strategic decision making.Internal Perspective Operational Excellence– Improve and maintain business process functionality. – Maintain the security (confidentiality, integrity and availability) of information– Improve and maintain operational and staff productivity. and processing infrastructure.– Enable and manage business change. – Deliver projects on time and on budget, meeting quality standards.– Ensure compliance with internal policies. – Optimise the IT infrastructure, resources and capabilities.– Optimise business process costs. – Provide IT agility (in responding to changing business needs).

– Seamlessly integrate applications and technology solutions into business processes.

Learning and Growth Perspective Future Orientation– Acquire, develop and maintain skilled and motivated people. – Acquire, develop and maintain IT skills that respond to the IT strategy.– Identify, enable and manage product and business innovation. – Acquire knowledge and expertise in emerging technologies for business

innovation and optimisation.– Ensure that IT demonstrates continuous improvement and readiness for

future change.

3 Because IT may not have a direct impact on the perspectives listed under business goals, the associated IT goals are called corporate contribution, user orientation,operational excellence and future orientation.

General Findings

Financial and Customer-oriented Goals Score High in Importance

Although priorities may differ from sector to sector, in general, business goals categorised in the customer and financial perspective ofthe BSC score high in the ranked list, while the internal and learning and growth perspective goals receive lower scores overall. As anexample, the customer-oriented business goals ‘Improve customer orientation and service’ and ‘Establish service continuity andavailability’ and the financial-oriented business goals ‘Ensure compliance with external laws and regulations’ and ‘Manage IT-relatedbusiness risks’ make up the top four in the generic list and are also systematically ranked high to very high in the individual lists bysector, geographic location and company size.

This trend is confirmed in the IT goals list; the IT goals for the related IT BSC corporate and user perspectives are higher in the list thanthose for the internal and the learning and growth perspectives. For example, the corporate contribution-related goals ‘Align the ITstrategy to the business strategy’ and ‘Ensure IT compliance with laws and regulations’ and the user-oriented goals ‘Make sure that ITservices are reliable and secure’ and ‘Provide service offerings and service levels in line with business requirements’ are systematicallyranked high for the different sectors, geographic locations and company sizes.

It is remarkable that the future-oriented business goal for acquiring and maintaining the necessary skills only just makes it in the list oftop 10 business goals (number 8). Its IT counterpart goal, ‘Acquire, develop and maintain IT skills that respond to the IT strategy’, failsto break into the list of top 10 most important IT goals.

The Role of Sector-specific Characteristics in Prioritising Business and IT Goals

In general, a relatively high degree of consensus was found regarding the most important (top 10) business and IT goals. However, anumber of sector-specific characteristics were identified. As an example, the IT professional services sector’s high dependency on IT skills is confirmed with a higher ranking for the goal ‘Acquire, develop and maintain IT skills…’. Another important asset(differentiator) for the enterprises operating in this sector is (knowledge of) advanced technology, which explains the higher importanceof ‘Identify, enable and manage product and business innovation’.

A more detailed discussion on sector-specific differences is presented in the next section, addressing the following sectors:manufacturing and pharmaceuticals; IT professional services, telecommunications and media; government, utilities and healthcare; andretail, distribution and transportation.


Figure 3—Prioritised Lists of Top 10 Business and IT Goals

Top 10 Business Goals Top 10 IT Goals1. Improve customer orientation and service. 1. Align the IT strategy to the business strategy.2. Ensure compliance with external laws and regulations. 2. Maintain the security (confidentiality, integrity and availability) of information 3. Establish service continuity and availability. and processing infrastructure.4. Manage (IT-related) business risks. 3. Make sure that IT services are reliable and secure.5. Offer competitive products and services. 4. Provide service offerings and service levels in line with business 6. Improve and maintain business process functionality. requirements.7. Provide a good return on (IT-enabled) business investments. 5. Ensure IT compliance with laws and regulations.8. Acquire, develop and maintain skilled and motivated people. 6. Translate business functional and control requirements into effective and9. Create agility in responding to changing business requirements. efficient automated solutions.

10. Obtain reliable and useful information for strategic decision making. 7. Deliver projects on time and on budget, meeting quality standards.8. Drive commitment and support of executive management.9. Improve IT’s cost-efficiency.

10. Account for and protect all IT assets.


The Impact of Size and Geographic Location

Comparing differences amongst regions in the world or contrasting enterprises of different sizes revealed fewer variations, which mayindicate that sector-related characteristics have a higher impact on setting priorities. Still, there are some minor but interesting differences.For example, larger enterprises tend to pay more attention than smaller enterprises to business goals such as ‘Ensure compliance withexternal laws and regulations’ and ‘Manage (IT-related) business risks’. In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the IT goal ‘Acquire, developand maintain IT skills that respond to the IT strategy’ appears to be less important compared to other regions in the world.

IT Goals: More Generic Than Business Goals

Another finding is that, in general, the level of agreement amongst the experts for the list of prioritised business goals is lower than thelevel of agreement for prioritised IT goals. A possible explanation is that business goals may differ more depending on some external orinternal factors—such as sector-specific characteristics, enterprise size and geographic location—while prioritisation of IT goals mayfollow a more generic pattern and may be less influenced by these aspects.

Different Levels of Linking Relationships

This research also contains detailed findings on how IT goals can support business goals (figure 4). From this matrix, it becomes clearthat some goals are defined on a higher level than others. For example, the IT goal ‘Align the IT strategy to the business strategy’supports all business goals in a primary (P) or a secondary (S) manner, indicating that its scope is broadly defined and covers multipleareas of IT responsibilities. On the other hand, business goal 15, ‘Improve financial transparency’, and IT goal 13, ‘Offer transparencyand understanding of IT costs, benefits and risks’, show only a primary relationship to each other, confirming their similar and narrowlydefined scope.


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Align the IT strategy to the business strategy. P S S P P P S S P P S S P S S S PMaintain the security (confidentiality, integrity and availability) of information P P P P S S Pand processing infrastructure.Make sure that IT services are reliable and secure. P P P P S S S S S S S SProvide service offerings and service levels in line with business requirements. P P S P P S S S S S S S S SEnsure IT compliance with laws and regulations. S P P S S S PTranslate business functional and control requirements into effective and S S S S P S S S S S S S S Sefficient automated solutions.Deliver projects on time and on budget, meeting quality standards. S S S S S S S S S SDrive commitment and support of executive management. S S S S S S S S S SImprove IT’s cost-efficiency. S P P P SAccount for and protect all IT assets. S S S S S S Acquire, develop and maintain IT skills that respond to the IT strategy. S S P S S S S SProvide IT agility (in responding to changing business needs). S S S S P P SOffer transparency and understanding of IT costs, benefits and risks. S S S S POptimise the IT infrastructure, resources and capabilities. S S P S P S SAccomplish proper use of applications, information and technology solutions. S S S S S S S S S S S S SSeamlessly integrate applications and technology solutions into businessprocesses. S S P S S S S S S S SEnsure that IT demonstrates continuous improvement and readiness for S S S P S Pfuture change.Acquire knowledge and expertise in emerging technologies for business S S P S S S S Pinnovation and optimisation.

P = primary, S = secondary

Figure 4—Linking IT Goals to Business Goals

General Findings

Applying the Results

Preliminary results of this research have already been taken into consideration for the continuous COBIT development/update process andcontain valuable new opportunities for further updates and follow-up research. The results of this research provide practical guidance forprofessionals as they build business and IT goals for their specific organisation. Enterprises can do that efficiently by starting from thesegeneric business and IT goals, selecting what applies to them, and updating them for enterprise-specific situations. This will be a goodstarting point towards implementing IT governance.



Sector-specific FindingsAlthough, as indicated previously, a relatively high degree of consensus was found regarding the most important (top 10) business and IT goals, a number of sector-specific characteristics were identified. In this section, some sector-specific findings are discussed in moredetail regarding the importance of specific business and IT goals.

Manufacturing and Pharmaceuticals Sector

The prioritised lists of business and IT goals for this sector are presented in figures 5 and 6. Both lists of business goals and IT goals weregenerally in line with the overall cross-sector findings (figure 3). As this is often a highly regulated sector, ‘Ensure compliance withexternal laws and regulations’ was rated somewhat higher in the importance lists for business goals (moved from ranking 2 to 1) and ITgoals (moved from ranking 5 to 3). Compared to the other sectors, the learning and growth objective ‘Acquire, develop and maintainskilled and motivated people’ was seen as less important in this sector (six places lower in the list). Also, the IT goal ‘Drive commitmentand support of executive management’ ranked lower in the list and was seen as less important, which may suggest that IT in these sectorsis still seen as less strategic. Between the different sub-sectors of manufacturing and pharmaceuticals, no major differences were noticed.

IT Professional Services, Telecommunications and Media Sector

Figures 7 and 8 present the ranked lists of business and IT goals for the IT professional services, telecommunications and media sector.

The importance ranking in this sector is, for the most part, in line with the overall results. Customer- and financial-oriented goals scoredhigh, in line with the generic lists (figure 3). The learning and growth business goal ‘Acquire, develop and maintain skilled andmotivated people’ is found higher in this list as compared to other sectors. This seems logical since this sector represents many ITservices and consultancy enterprises, where knowledge and skills are their most important resources. Another important asset(differentiator) for the enterprises operating in this sector is (knowledge of) advanced technology, which explains the higher importanceof ‘Identify, enable and manage product and business innovation’. The business goals ‘Establish service continuity and availability’ and‘Improve and maintain business process functionality’ scored lower compared to most other sectors. This may be explained due to lowerfocus (and lower budgets) on their own internal processes while most efforts go to customer services.


Figure 5—Prioritised List of Business Goals for the Manufacturing and Pharmaceuticals Sector

Rank Business Goals BSC1 Ensure compliance with external laws and regulations. Financial2 Improve customer orientation and service. Customer3 Establish service continuity and availability. Customer4 Improve and maintain business process functionality. Internal5 Offer competitive products and services. Customer6 Create agility in responding to changing business requirements. Customer7 Provide a good return on (IT-enabled) business investments. Financial8 Manage (IT-related) business risks. Financial9 Obtain reliable and useful information for strategic decision making. Customer

10 Achieve cost optimisation of service delivery. Customer11 Enable and manage business change. Internal12 Improve and maintain operational and staff productivity. Internal13 Optimise business process costs. Internal14 Acquire, develop and maintain skilled and motivated people. Learning and Growth15 Improve financial transparency. Financial16 Ensure compliance with internal policies. Internal17 Identify, enable and manage product and business innovation. Learning and Growth

Sector-specific Findings


Figure 6—Prioritised List of IT Goals for the Manufacturing and Pharmaceuticals Sector

Rank IT Goals BSC1 Align the IT strategy to the business strategy. Corporate

2 Make sure that IT services are reliable and secure. User

3 Ensure IT compliance with laws and regulations. Corporate

4 Maintain the security (confidentiality, integrity and availability) of information and processing infrastructure. Operational

5 Provide service offerings and service levels in line with business requirements. User

6 Translate business functional and control requirements into effective and efficient automated solutions. User

7 Deliver projects on time and on budget, meeting quality standards. Operational

8 Improve IT’s cost-efficiency. Corporate

9 Offer transparency and understanding of IT costs, benefits and risks. Corporate

10 Provide IT agility (in responding to changing business needs). Operational

11 Acquire, develop and maintain IT skills that respond to the IT strategy. Future

12 Optimise the IT infrastructure, resources and capabilities. Operational

13 Account for and protect all IT assets. Corporate

14 Drive commitment and support of executive management. Corporate

15 Ensure that IT demonstrates continuous improvement and readiness for future change. Future

16 Seamlessly integrate applications and technology solutions into business processes. Operational

17 Accomplish proper use of applications, information and technology solutions. User

18 Acquire knowledge and expertise in emerging technologies for business innovation and optimisation. Future

Figure 7—Prioritised List of Business Goals for the IT Professional Services, Telecommunications and Media Sector

Rank Business Goals BSC1 Improve customer orientation and service. Customer2 Ensure compliance with external laws and regulations. Financial3 Manage (IT-related) business risks. Financial4 Acquire, develop and maintain skilled and motivated people. Learning and Growth5 Offer competitive products and services. Customer6 Provide a good return on (IT-enabled) business investments. Financial7 Establish service continuity and availability. Customer8 Create agility in responding to changing business requirements. Customer9 Obtain reliable and useful information for strategic decision making. Customer

10 Achieve cost optimisation of service delivery. Customer11 Improve and maintain business process functionality. Internal12 Identify, enable and manage product and business innovation. Learning and Growth13 Enable and manage business change. Internal14 Improve and maintain operational and staff productivity. Internal15 Optimise business process costs. Internal16 Ensure compliance with internal policies. Internal17 Improve financial transparency. Financial


Government, Utilities and Healthcare Sector

Figures 9 and 10 present prioritised lists of business and IT goals for the government, utilities and healthcare sector.

While most customer-oriented business goals scored high in the generic list, this sector placed three out of six customer-oriented goals atthe bottom of the importance list. This may be explained by some typical characteristics of the sector such as strong focus on budgetcontrol, complex decision structures and political influence. However, governmental institutions are also increasing their focus onproviding adequate customer (citizen) services, which is confirmed by the high priority for the customer-oriented goals ‘Improvecustomer orientation and goals’ and ‘Establish service continuity and availability’. This is in line with the other sectors.


Figure 8—Prioritised List of IT Goals for the IT Professional Services, Telecommunications and Media Sector

Rank IT Goals BSC1 Align the IT strategy to the business strategy. Corporate2 Maintain the security (confidentiality, integrity and availability) of information and processing infrastructure. Operational3 Provide service offerings and service levels in line with business requirements. User4 Make sure that IT services are reliable and secure. User5 Ensure IT compliance with laws and regulations. Corporate6 Deliver projects on time and on budget, meeting quality standards. Operational7 Translate business functional and control requirements into effective and efficient automated solutions. User8 Improve IT’s cost-efficiency. Corporate9 Acquire, develop and maintain IT skills that respond to the IT strategy. Future

10 Drive commitment and support of executive management. Corporate11 Accomplish proper use of applications, information and technology solutions. User12 Account for and protect all IT assets. Corporate13 Seamlessly integrate applications and technology solutions into business processes. Operational14 Offer transparency and understanding of IT costs, benefits and risks. Corporate15 Provide IT agility (in responding to changing business needs). Operational16 Acquire knowledge and expertise in emerging technologies for business innovation and optimisation. Future17 Optimise the IT infrastructure, resources and capabilities. Operational18 Ensure that IT demonstrates continuous improvement and readiness for future change. Future

Figure 9—Prioritised List of Business Goals for the Government, Utilities and Healthcare Sector

Rank Business Goals BSC1 Ensure compliance with external laws and regulations. Financial2 Establish service continuity and availability. Customer3 Improve customer orientation and service. Customer4 Manage (IT-related) business risks. Financial5 Improve and maintain business process functionality. Internal6 Improve financial transparency. Financial7 Obtain reliable and useful information for strategic decision making. Customer8 Acquire, develop and maintain skilled and motivated people. Learning and Growth9 Ensure compliance with internal policies. Internal

10 Provide a good return on (IT-enabled) business investments. Financial11 Improve and maintain operational and staff productivity. Internal12 Optimise business process costs. Internal13 Enable and manage business change. Internal14 Achieve cost optimisation of service delivery. Customer15 Offer competitive products and services. Customer16 Create agility in responding to changing business requirements. Customer17 Identify, enable and manage product and business innovation. Learning and Growth

Figure 10—Prioritised List of IT Goals for the Government, Utilities and Healthcare Sector

Rank IT Goals BSC1 Maintain the security (confidentiality, integrity and availability) of information and processing infrastructure. Operational2 Align the IT strategy to the business strategy. Corporate3 Make sure that IT services are reliable and secure. User4 Ensure IT compliance with laws and regulations. Corporate5 Translate business functional and control requirements into effective and efficient automated solutions. User6 Provide service offerings and service levels in line with business requirements. User7 Drive commitment and support of executive management. Corporate8 Account for and protect all IT assets. Corporate9 Provide IT agility (in responding to changing business needs). Operational

10 Offer transparency and understanding of IT costs, benefits and risks. Corporate11 Improve IT’s cost-efficiency. Corporate12 Seamlessly integrate applications and technology solutions into business processes. Operational13 Acquire, develop and maintain IT skills that respond to the IT strategy. Future14 Ensure that IT demonstrates continuous improvement and readiness for future change. Future15 Accomplish proper use of applications, information and technology solutions. User16 Optimise the IT infrastructure, resources and capabilities. Operational17 Deliver projects on time and on budget, meeting quality standards. Operational18 Acquire knowledge and expertise in emerging technologies for business innovation and optimisation. Future

Sector-specific Findings

Due to the nature of the sector, competition-related goals and goals with respect to change are seen as less important. This is revealed bythe lower scores for the business goals ‘Offer competitive products and services’ and ‘Create agility in responding to changing businessrequirements’. This is not directly translated to the list of IT goals; on the contrary, the IT goal ‘Provide IT agility’ is ranked within thetop 10 (number 9), which is three places higher compared to the total list of goals. Thus, while the business seemed to feel less(important) need to be agile in response to changing (external) business requirements (or maybe business requirements are not changingthat much), the IT services departments felt they should react more directly to the changing (internal) business requirements.

Compared to other sectors, cost optimisation-related goals such as ‘Provide a good return on investment…’ and ‘Achieve costoptimisation of service delivery’ scored lower in the importance list. An exception was the utilities sub-sector, which had a higherimportance rank for ‘Provide a good return on (IT-enabled) business investments’ (number 7). It is typical for the government, utilitiesand healthcare sector that internal (and external) policies are to be strictly followed, which was confirmed by the highly ranked businessgoals ‘Improve financial transparency’ (number 6) and ‘Ensure compliance with internal policies’ (number 9), respectively nine andseven places higher than in the generic list. This is reinforced even in the utilities sector, which may be a consequence of the specificmarket situation (monopoly/oligopoly) requiring a controlled environment.

Within the list of IT goals, there was one goal with a remarkable difference compared to other sectors: the goal ‘Deliver projects ontime and on budget, meeting quality standards’ ends up at the bottom of the list, 10 places lower than other sectors. In the healthcaresector specifically, the IT goal ‘Drive commitment and support of executive management’ is ranked very high (number 3).

Retail, Distribution and Transportation Sector

This sector represents retail, distribution and transportation enterprises. Figures 11 and 12 present the results based on the feedbackfrom 16 respondents in the first round and 10 in the second round.

This sector also shows some significant differences compared to the overall cross-sector list. For example, this was the only sector wherethe business goal ‘Ensure compliance with external laws and regulations’ (number 10) was not in the top three, indicating thatcompliance is not a major priority in the retail, distribution and transportation sector. From the sector-specific characteristics, it seemsthat customer loyalty is rather weak in this sector and initiatives are undertaken to deal with this situation. This is also confirmed by thetop four most important business goals, which were all customer-oriented.


Figure 12—Prioritised List of IT Goals for the Retail, Distribution and Transportation Sector

Rank IT Goals BSC1 Align the IT strategy to the business strategy. Corporate2 Provide service offerings and service levels in line with business requirements. User3 Make sure that IT services are reliable and secure. User4 Maintain the security (confidentiality, integrity and availability) of information and processing infrastructure. Operational5 Ensure IT compliance with laws and regulations. Corporate6 Translate business functional and control requirements into effective and efficient automated solutions. User7 Optimise the IT infrastructure, resources and capabilities. Operational8 Provide IT agility (in responding to changing business needs). Operational9 Drive commitment and support of executive management. Corporate

10 Account for and protect all IT assets. Corporate11 Deliver projects on time and on budget, meeting quality standards. Operational12 Acquire, develop and maintain IT skills that respond to the IT strategy. Future13 Ensure that IT demonstrates continuous improvement and readiness for future change. Future14 Improve IT’s cost-efficiency. Corporate15 Accomplish proper use of applications, information and technology solutions. User16 Acquire knowledge and expertise in emerging technologies for business innovation and optimisation. Future17 Offer transparency and understanding of IT costs, benefits and risks. Corporate18 Seamlessly integrate applications and technology solutions into business processes. Operational


Another remarkable difference compared to other sectors concerns the learning and growth business goals. For example, the goal‘Acquire, develop and maintain skilled and motivated people’ scored very low (number 14) compared to the overall list (number 8); onthe other hand, this is the only sector in which the learning and growth business goal ‘Identify, enable and manage product and businessinnovation’ had a place in the top 10 (number 7). Together with the high ranking for ‘Offer competitive products and services’, this maybe explained by the increased competition in the market. Also, the business goals ‘Create agility in responding to changing businessrequirements’ (number 4) and ‘Optimise business process costs’ (number 7) received a higher priority compared to the overall businessgoals list. Because of the retail, distribution and transportation sector-specific characteristic of low profit margins, it seems logical thatthe attention for keeping costs under control is higher in this sector.

As for the IT goals list, no major differences in the top six goals compared to overall sectors were noted. The goals ‘Optimise the ITinfrastructure, resources and capabilities’, ‘Provide IT agility’ and ‘Ensure that IT demonstrates continuous improvement and readinessfor future change’ are seen as more important compared to other sectors. This again may confirm the high priority for offeringcompetitive products and services in a timely matter. Surprisingly, the goal related to cost optimisation seemed less important than othergoals: ‘Improve IT’s cost-efficiency’ (number 14) fell lower down the list than in other sectors.


Figure 11—Prioritised List of Business Goals for the Retail, Distribution and Transportation Sector

Rank Business Goals BSC1 Improve customer orientation and service. Customer2 Offer competitive products and services. Customer3 Establish service continuity and availability. Customer4 Create agility in responding to changing business requirements. Customer5 Provide a good return on (IT-enabled) business investments. Financial6 Manage (IT-related) business risks. Financial7 Optimise business process costs. Internal8 Identify, enable and manage product and business innovation. Learning and Growth9 Achieve cost optimisation of service delivery. Customer

10 Ensure compliance with external laws and regulations. Financial11 Obtain reliable and useful information for strategic decision making. Customer12 Enable and manage business change. Internal13 Improve and maintain business process functionality. Internal14 Acquire, develop and maintain skilled and motivated people. Learning and Growth15 Improve and maintain operational and staff productivity. Internal16 Improve financial transparency. Financial17 Ensure compliance with internal policies. Internal

Full Research Research Available


Full Research Report AvailableThis white paper presents a solid and strong list of 17 generic business goals and 18 generic IT goals, validated and prioritised overdifferent sectors. Together with the linking information between both, it provides a good basis upon which to build a generic cascadefrom business goals to IT goals. A strong list of top 10 most important business and IT goals was identified over the different sectors andfurther analysis by sector and geographic location identified interesting deviations, which increases the practical relevance for companiesoperating in a specific sector that want to use these lists to help them identify a good set of business/IT goals.

More detailed information regarding the full research methodology and resulting data by specific industry, size or geographic location isavailable in the complete research report at www.itgi.org.


List of FiguresFigure 1—Expert Team Composition...............................................................................................................................................................7

Figure 2—Validated Lists of Business and IT Goals.......................................................................................................................................8

Figure 3—Prioritised Lists of Top 10 Business and IT Goals.........................................................................................................................9

Figure 4—Linking IT Goals to Business Goals.............................................................................................................................................10

Figure 5—Prioritised List of Business Goals for the Manufacturing and Pharmaceuticals Sector .............................................................12

Figure 6—Prioritised List of IT Goals for the Manufacturing and Pharmaceuticals Sector........................................................................13

Figure 7—Prioritised List of Business Goals for the IT Professional Services, Telecommunications and Media Sector ..........................13

Figure 8—Prioritised List of IT Goals for the IT Professional Services, Telecommunications and Media Sector.....................................14

Figure 9—Prioritised List of Business Goals for the Government, Utilities and Healthcare Sector ...........................................................14

Figure 10—Prioritised List of IT Goals for the Government, Utilities and Healthcare Sector....................................................................15

Figure 11—Prioritised List of Business Goals for the Retail, Distribution and Transportation Sector.......................................................16

Figure 12—Prioritised List of IT Goals for the Retail, Distribution and Transportation Sector .................................................................16


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