TU/e notebook program - Technische Universiteit Eindhoven

3.7 Analysis
3.7.1 Strategic Alignment
The strategic intentions that were extracted from the Strategic Blueprint of Eindhoven
University of Technology were the subject of the Alignment Practice of the New Information
Economics method. The method consists of three parts, of which two were used for the
evaluation of the notebook program. The first part, the strategic alignment shows that the
activities that are being performed are in alignment with the strategic intentions. It shows that
all activities are being performed to a larger extent to fulfill strategic intention A (Integrated
IT facilities for all students). Strategic intention B (Embedding IT in the education program)
is mainly supported by the entries of Applications and Infrastructure, while the entries of
Management as defined in that asset pool are also connected, but to a lesser degree. The same
applies to the entries of Service, although some services like enrollment of first-year students
and help desk / on-site support are more important than others to fulfill the strategic intention,
and therefore are better aligned to it.
Considering the third strategic intention C (Competitive advantage) just a few applications, all
entries in the infrastructure and most of the services are important and aligned. No entries
from the management asset pool are considered to be aligned with this strategic intention.
This is because the interviewees didn’t think these management processes are important to
achieve the desired strategic intention. In general the activities that are being performed to
achieve the strategic intentions are well aligned.
Next to the strategic alignment of the activities to the strategic intentions, the Internal
Alignment has to be performed. This practice contains the evaluation of the alignment
between applications and infrastructure; is the latter supportive for the used and needed
applications? According to the interviewees there is no misunderstanding about the alignment
of the infrastructure to the applications. Especially the Network LAN & Wireless, but also
internet and security are highly aligned. There are some exceptions: the Notebook
Information System is not a web application, so internet is not applicable and therefore not
aligned to it. Another exception is software licenses as an infrastructural entry; this is not
important for the Student Information System, so those are not aligned either.
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