The Consultant’s Role in the Strategic Alignment Process

The Strategic Alignment (SA) between Information Technology (IT) and Business remains a priority for managers, according to recently realized studies in several countries. However, as found by a large number of the surveys on this subject, SA does not constitute a priority to companies when planning and implementing IT. Also, consultants often participate in the SA process, particularly to develop and implement IT devices, as much for strategic as operational purposes. The role of these consultants has not been sufficiently analyzed in research on SA. Considering the importance of the consultant’s role in the SA process, our study proposes a discussion of this role as an external agent. Therefore, we analyzed the case of a strategic corporate portal developed in a large transnational company. We adopted participant observation and semi-structured interviews to collect data in this longitudinal case study. The main results we highlight are the complex roles of IT consultants during the AE process, based on their technical and sociopolitical knowledge and especially the need for knowledge sharing. Consultant skills were also necessary to fulfill more effective roles in the AE process.