One result of such lack of alignment is that IT evaluation practice tends to
become separated from business needs and plans on the one hand, and from
organizational realities that can influence IT implementation and subsequent
effectiveness on the other. Both need to be included in IT evaluation, and
indeed are in the more comprehensive evaluation methods, notably the
information economics approach (see below).
Another critical alignment is that between what is done with IT and how it
fits with the information needs of the organization. Most management
attention has tended to fall on the ‘technology’ rather than the ‘information’
element in what is called IT. Hochstrasser and Griffiths (1991) found in their
sample no single company with a fully developed and comprehensive strategy
on information. Yet it would seem to be difficult to perform a meaningful
evaluation of IT investment without some corporate control framework
establishing information requirements in relationship to business/organizational
goals and purpose, prioritization of information needs and, for example,
how cross-corporate information flows need to be managed. An information
strategy directs IT investment, and establishes policies and priorities against
which investment can be assessed. It may also help to establish that some
information needs can be met without the IT vehicle.