Planning an Effective IT Strategy

Sam Bloedow
IT Strategy drawn on white board

Meeting with hundreds of business leaders each year, I find they have a picture of what they want their business to look like in the future.  They have an annual plan with goals and metrics that need to be achieved to get the business closer to that picture.  And they have annual department plans to support their company plan.

But when I ask what their IT plan looks like, most tell me one of two things:

  1. They don’t have a plan
  2. Their plan only contains the technology they need to replace or renew

So how does that support your business plan?   

It doesn't.  Business is ever changing and technology is ever changing.  Your IT plan should too.  Fact is, technology today helps make every other function in your business more effective and efficient.  Increasing the revenue each employee can support. 

So what does effective IT planning look like?

  1. You need an IT leader that understands your business and technology strategically.  Not a manager or director but a Chief Information Officer (CIO).
  2. The CIO needs to be strategically guiding and directing all things technology.  Hardware, Software, Business Applications, and Services because those things all need to work in concert together for your business.
  3. The CIO holds recurring IT steering meetings with all functional leaders of the business.  Evaluating the existing IT plan against the changing business needs, to ensure they are still the top priorities and identify new business needs to explore in the future.
  4. Initiatives on the IT plan need to be quantified in business terms, like: hours they could save the business a month or the revenue at risk.
  5. New productivity initiatives to further support your business plan should be provided by the CIO based on their analysis of how each function works.
  6. New risk to the business plan should presented based on in depth analysis of the areas your current technology footprint is outside of IT best practices.

At Thriveon we help companies create more effective IT plans, guide them to making the right strategic IT investments, and ensure those IT investments obtain the business value they were meant to.  Schedule a meeting to learn more.

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