Date: 2008-06-04
Purpose: The primary goal of this research is to describe the IT function and examine how its alignment to an organisations strategy affects the way it is organised.
Method: The chosen method was a purely theoretical examination with the use of the case study of Windham International as primary resource and secondary resources such as book and literature review used for the thesis.
Research Questions: How does the alignment of IT to business strategy affect the organisation of the IT function?
Conclusion: One of the findings was that a few researchers seem to suggest that the centralized mode of organising IT was symbolic of the past, while outsourcing and decentralization are the modern approach to organising IT. Wyndham International shows the opposite, after the introduction of the CIO in 2002, centralization was the chosen mode of organisation because that was what would best fit the new strategic approach of the organisation. Insourcing rather than outsourcing proved to be a winning formula.