The Arthur D. Little IT Governance Study examined IT governance at 63 large corporations. The study found that, as a result of limited satisfaction with existing IT governance, 47% of corpora­tions intend to rework their IT governance, as figure 1 shows.

IT governance: a key management lever for aligning IT and business

Why do so many companies struggle with IT governance? The fundamental complexity of the interaction between IT and business is at the heart of the problem. Business and IT rely on one another, but speak different languages. The typical mismatch of business requirements and the solutions delivered by IT illustrates this. Furthermore, sustainable alignment cannot be achieved through a single good decision, implementation project or sourcing deal, but requires a clear strategy that underpins ongoing decision-making. As one business manager puts it: “In the end, though a joint effort, we rescued our ERP project. But what comes next? There must be a better way than permanent fire-fighting mode.”