Strategic Positioning of IT in Global Organizations: a Visual Mapping Approach

Executives in large global corporations are faced with a number of non-alternative decision parameters determining the strategic positioning of their IT units. These parameters include organizational structures, competence development and distribution among central and local levels, goal setting and type of value contributed to the organization. Although the existing body of research addresses these issues in numerous ways, the concepts have not been fully applied in practice.
This paper proposes a tool for strategic positioning of IT in large global companies. It contributes to the overall understanding of the role of IT in value creation from a business process perspective, and at the same time practitioners may use it to diagnose, communicate and plan IT positioning in their companies. The tool consists of visual maps assigning different steps of the business process management lifecycle to either central or local departments of a company. In this approach, eight strategic IT positioning scenarios are defined. For each scenario, characteristics, examples of companies using it, as well as required competencies are defined.The paper concludes by highlighting applications of the tool and identifying possibilities for future research.