Business and ICT alignment in higher education: a case study in measuring maturity

Aligning information communications technology (ICT) to business goals is a common issue cited by senior executives. More recently, the higher eduction sector in the UK led by the UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), a government funded body for driving innovation in UK education and research by championing digital technologies has also focussed its attention on the need for alignment. This paper reports on the deployment of a Strategic ICT toolkit (SICT) that aims to provide a maturity measure of the extent of alignment of an institution. The results from the survey distributed to 65 senior managers in the organization indicate that EA and integration requirements between business and IS planning are central to increasing the maturity levels for universities engaged in business and IT alignment. Given the paucity of this type of research in the tertiary sector, this paper contributes further to our understanding of this important area.