Business-IT Alignment In Municipalities - The Swiss Case

Municipalities face huge challenges today in the context of rapid technological changes and E-government. Therefore business-IT alignment (BIA) plays a growing role in municipalities today. We consider the level of BIA in Swiss municipalities based on various variables relating to municipality size, artefacts that underpin BIA, and the satisfaction of the municipalities with IT services. We investigate BIA using a deductive approach that employs a survey and develops a behavioral partial least square model. BIA is more of an issue the larger the municipality (number of inhabitants). The results show significant indications that these artefacts and roles make a significant contribution to user satisfaction and hence to BIA. Roles, tasks, competencies and responsibilities, defining- and documentation artefacts as well as structural differentiation of IT and the degree of internal IT management and standardization frameworks are elements which can be clustered into the factors of structural differentiation of IT and IT management.