Under such high-pressure conditions, anticipated merger synergies are difficult to achieve in the short-term. And reconfiguring the entire it infrastructure to effectively and efficiently support new business strategies does not get any easier (Walter 134).

The misalignment of business strategy and it strategy has been recognized as a major hindrance to the successful exploitation of competitive advantage in the financial services sector. (Watkins, 1992). Pressure on management to focus on both sides of the cost-income equation has become a priority item on the agenda for most CEOs and CIOs. Some observers have argued that business strategy has both an external view that determines the firm's position in the market and an internal view that determines how processes, people, and structures will perform. In this conceptualization, it strategy should have the same external and internal components, although it has traditionally focused only on the internal it infrastructure -- the processes, the...
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