When Gartner's current CIO took the helm and called attention to terminal misalignment, was it a case of the emperor's new clothes? Here's a candid look at where Gartner's been and where it's going.

Reader ROI

- Learn how a prominent analyst firm recognised its own alignment problems.

- Understand the processes it developed to recover strategic alignment.

- Get a behind the scenes look at the IT operations of the A¼ber-analysts Gartner, one of the world's most influential information technology research and consulting companies, makes its living dispensing advice on technology, strategy and business.

-IT alignment. So it is profoundly ironic that the company recently faced its own misalignment woes. During the late 1990s, the consultancy suffered from a chronic lack of communication between its IT department and its far-flung business units. That disconnect cost the company millions of dollars every year, in the estimation of its own CIO and other observers.

These troubles were exacerbated by a no-holds-barred acquisition strategy that went awry in the dust of the dotcom bust last spring. Like some of its clients, Gartner saw its market valuation and share price drop, and it had to sell off and take a loss on some of what it swallowed during the boom-time feeding frenzy. The company is now applying its own advice internally and using the lessons it learned in restoring alignment between its own IT department and its business side to meet the recession-time challenges of restoring investor confidence and bolstering its bread-and-butter research revenue.

Here is the story of how Gartner dug itself into a hole and how it is digging out.