Mohammed Ali

Although the business IT alignment phenomenon has garnered much attention in the fiercely competitive modern service industry, aligning business and IT strategies still presents a challenge in enterprise. Despite the selection dilemma enterprises face when deciding on the most effective business-IT alignment approach, the proliferation of cloud computing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is attracting many service enterprises to create business value. This paper provides insight into how cloud SaaS applications can be a source of value creation for enterprises operating in the service sector. Using a case study approach and semi-structured interviews, the findings aimed to determine how aligning IT strategy and business strategy can lead to value creation. On-demand self-service, rapid elasticity and measured service were among the most persuasive dimensions of business-IT alignment, while vendor-lock-in, incompatibility issues and potential security and privacy issues were among the most dissuasive dimensions of business-IT alignment. Future research could explore other cloud service models, such as Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) applications that support business-IT alignment to reveal how and why other cloud service applications can succeed or fail.