Creating an IT Strategy

It’s that time of year again when business owners and managers start thinking about the new year ahead and making plans for where they want to steer the business and what success looks like for the next 12 months.

No doubt it’s going to be an interesting year ahead with the forecasted ‘shallow recession’ and inflation and employment still running hot.

When building a business strategy, it’s always a good idea to take time out offsite and reset the overall vision and goals using a high-level lens, and then adding some substance to the plan by building out a 3-way financial forecast.

How many of us, when creating a business strategy, also take the time to create an IT strategy?

An IT Strategy is a comprehensive plan that defines how technology should be utilized to meet IT and business goals. It is a blueprint of how technology can support your overall business strategy.

It should encompass all facets of technology management, including cost, hardware and software management, vendor management, and risk management.

By creating an IT strategy off the back of your business strategy, you can ensure that the business resources and focus is aligned around where you are going as a business, and that IT becomes an enabler and supports your growth plans rather than just being an overhead – or worse still a distraction and pain point for the business.

Some of the key points to think about including in your IT strategy include:

• Vision. The most important component of the strategy is an overall vision for where your business aspires to be from an IT perspective
• Roadmap. What are the key projects and milestones which will be committed to over the course of this year
• Business Alignment. How do these projects align with the overall goals of the business
• Budget. How will funding be allocated to these IT projects and what will the requirements be?
• Competitive Advantage. How can technology be used in our business to give us the edge over our competitors?
• Short and Long-term Goals. What immediate needs do we have for resources and infrastructure, and then what do we need to be planning for over the nest 3-5 years?
• Governance. This is a key one – how can we monitor and measure that the investment being made in IT is delivering the desired outcomes?

Involving key people from each department in the business when building this IT strategy is essential to ensure the most important needs are covered, along with co-ordinating the approach and resources to deliver a platform which will support the long-term objectives of the whole business.

As a business leader, proper understanding and implementation of your plan will ensure that your business is well-positioned to win in a competitive economic environment. Contact us if you would like to chat about what to include in an effective IT Strategic plan.