Hoque is chairman and CEO of Enamics, Inc. and founder and chair of BTM [Business Technology Management] Institute. His published works include e-Enterprise and The Alignment Effect. Sambamurthy is Eli Broad Professor of IT at Michigan State University and Co-Chair of the BTM Global Research Council, BTM Institute. He is the author of Unleashing IT-Enabled Value Nets. Zmud is Michael F. Price Chair in MIS at the University of Oklahoma, Michael F. Price College of Business, and Co-Chair of the BTM Global Research Council. He is the author of Framing the Domains of IT Management. Trainer is Senior Vice President and Global CIO of PepsiCo, Inc. and Co-Chair of the BTM Global Research Council. Wilson is Executive Vice president and CIO, Marriott International, Inc., and Co-Chair of the BTM Global Research Council.
In the Preface, Hoque recalls a time (1999) when he observed “that in company after company how haphazardly people managed technology, particularly technology spending. The business principles they applied in other areas were not being applied to technology...In many firms it was bought and deployed on a hope and a prayer...I became convinced that business executives and technology executives still viewed each other across a chasm, even if they were now sitting at the same table. Only when they took off their business or technology hats and worked together to build the business could they succeed.”
That description still applies to many organizations today. For their decision-makers, this volume offers invaluable information and counsel as they struggle to achieve effective convergence of business and technology and then manage it, a process as difficult as competing and winning in a “three-legged race.” The metaphor is apt. Speed alone is insufficient. Balance is also essential, as are determination and endurance. The first step in the process is to “get BTM on the executive agenda” and understand what BTM is and can do; determine strategic positions and make the right investments; agree on “who’s in charge”; and complete other preparations, meanwhile sustaining effective communication, cooperation, and collaboration between and among everyone involved.
The authors organize their material within two main sections. In Part I, they examine business technology management (BTM) at the most strategic levels, where the board, CEO, and entire senior management team must be actively involved if an organization expects to be successful. In Part II, they delve deeper into specific issues central to combining and coordinating business and technology initiatives in proper alignment with the given strategy. Readers will appreciate the provision of an “Executive Agenda” section at the conclusion of each chapter that reviews and summarizes key points, and suggests what “next steps” should be taken. Here, in a single volume, is a rigorous and thorough examination of “The BTM Standard”: a set of guiding principles that create a seamless management approach based on 17 essential capabilities grouped into four functional areas: governance and organization, managing technology investments, strategy and planning, and strategic enterprise architecture.
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