Computer Associates International Inc., (CA) CTO, Yogesh Gupta, said Thursday that IT organizations must better understand their companies" strategic and tactical goals, and more closely align their technology investments with those goals in order to maximize their contribution to the performance of the business.

During an address entitled "Business-savvy IT: The primacy of data management", at the Interop Data Management and Compliance Conference, Gupta explained that many organizations are struggling with IT best practices, and treading water when it comes to compliance, because of poor linkage between technology management and the business.

He said that IT must improve its visibility into core business processes if it is to fully leverage its budget dollars and human capital. "IT organizations must first understand and model the key processes that drive the business and enable regulatory compliance, and then link IT services to the management and monitoring of those processes," said Gupta. "To accomplish this, they need both an effective methodology and the requisite technology for highly disciplined IT management."

Gupta explained that organizations need to be diligent in analyzing their business objectives, mapping out optimal technology solutions for supporting those objectives, and deploying those solutions in a way that is secure, auditable and adaptable to change. Gupta identified several steps for aligning IT with the business:

* Research business needs;

* Define IT-enabled processes to support those needs;

* Determine how the business process model interacts with IT services;

* Implement a flexible IT infrastructure as the foundation for IT services;

* Manage IT at the business process, IT service and underlying infrastructure levels;

* Design responsive change management into all business processes;

* Reconcile changes in IT services and infrastructure.

"Because the business world today is so dynamic, IT needs to carefully coordinate and continually revisit its alignment with the business," said Gupta. "IT also requires tools that allow it to effectively track the shifting relationship between the business requirements and the enterprise IT environment."