The results of an internal audit show that the business and IT acquire resources differently, which causes duplicate purchases. Which of the following is the BEST way to address this issue?

Aligning IT objectives to business procurement processes is a step towards better collaboration, but it doesn't guarantee the elimination of duplicate purchases without a unified acquisition mechanism.

Involving business in IT procurement decisions is a good practice for collaboration and understanding requirements, but it doesn't solve the issue of disparate processes leading to duplicate purchases.

Establishing a centralized procurement approval process ensures that all resource acquisition requests, whether from business or IT, flow through a single, coordinated channel. This centralized approach enables proper oversight, demand aggregation, identification of redundancies, and adherence to consistent purchasing policies, thereby directly preventing duplicate purchases and optimizing resource utilization.

Defining roles and responsibilities through a RAG (Red, Amber, Green) chart clarifies who does what, but it is a communication tool that won't prevent duplicate purchases if the underlying procurement processes remain separate and uncoordinated.