Focusing IT on business outcomes:

99 percent of chief executive officers (CEOs) say that information technology (IT) is essential to business competitiveness, but only 31 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) believe IT is sufficiently aligned with business objectives and strategy. This white paper focuses on the concept of business service management (BSM) and offers a path toward more effective IT/business alignment. In brief, BSM is an approach to focusing the efforts of IT operations on business outcomes. The idea is that IT acts not only as a service providing business but as a fully engaged strategic partner taking actions to help the overall business achieve its goals. The emphasis for IT, then, becomes one of managing the overall health of business services—not only from a technical perspective, but also from the point of view of the business.