Process Adaptability in the IT Supply Chain

The continuous pressure to minimize IT costs challenges the IT function to achieve a balance between its own effectiveness and the productivity of the users in the business functions that it serves (i.e., user effectiveness). In many cases, user effectiveness is sacrificed to ensure IT function effectiveness. Process adaptability improves the IT organization’s entrepreneurial ability by balancing these conflicting productivity and performance objectives. This article applies a process-ambidexterity framework to examine how process adaptability in IT is affected by the choice of different strategies for IT Demand Management as well as different fulfillment strategies for IT Supply Chain Management. Alternative fulfillment strategies are presented, along with criteria and indicators that impact IT and user effectiveness that have been applied within major firms. IT and senior business executives will find this article valuable for helping understand how they can influence the balance between IT and user productivity through their choice of different Demand Management and IT fulfillment strategies. Academic readers will discover that, while process adaptability in IT is an important enabler for implementing dynamic alignment between business and IT function objectives, there may be circumstances where IT process adaptability is not a priority for the business.