Week 4 - Strategic Alignment Model (SAM)

Source / Reference:
1) "Strategic Alignment: Analysis of Perspective" by Preston Coleman and Raymond Papp 2006
http://sais.aisnet.org/2006/Coleman-SAIS2006-paper.pdf

Subject: 
In Lect 4 - Which alignment strategy in SAM model is the best? and why?


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Response:
The alignment of an organization is being assessed using Strategic Alignment Model (SAM). SAM indicates the degree of attention that needs to be paid to both business processes and information technology. Normally, CEO and CIO are the persons in charge of assessing the alignment of an organization.

Different organizations will have to use different perspectives according to their specialization fields. I wouldn’t say there is a BEST alignment perspective since everything has its strengths and weaknesses. It’s just like the Yin and Yang, where everything needs to be balanced. Thus there is no one universally superior perspective.

According to a study done by Preston and Raymond from The University of Tampa, the most common perspectives are strategy execution and technology potential. In Strategy Execution, business processes drives the changes of information technology architecture. It focuses on transformation of the business. Normally, Utilities industry uses this approach the most. In Technology Potential, the value of information technology is shown. Miscellaneous industry uses this approach more often than other industries. 

During the lecture, we have been taught the 4 perspective of SAM, namely Strategy Execution, Technology Transformation, Service Level and Competitive Potential. Actually there are 4 more, namely Organization IT Infrastructure, IT Infrastructure Strategy, IT Organization Infrastructure and Organization Infrastructure Strategy. Other than that, there are also 4 fusion perspectives that are formed from the combination of two of the previous 8 perspectives.