Technology within business has never been more important than it is now. As IT is such a critical part of day-to-day business, it’s important to think about how new technologies such as cloud computing and AI can fit into your IT strategy.
By optimising your IT strategy and using it to embrace innovation, you can increase your business potential. It’ll also allow you to stay secure as IT threats emerge, and make sure the evolution and growth of your business is supported.
This blog explores how you can boost your business IT strategy to get better results.
What is a business IT strategy?
A business IT strategy is like a roadmap that aligns your IT with your future business plans. A well-planned IT strategy enables your organisation to think long-term to evaluate your IT needs and priorities before making any significant investments in equipment or new solutions. The strength of your strategy can also have an incredible impact on your organisation’s success.
Developing this strategy has become a critical element of organisational leadership in recent decades, due to the growing importance of technology in the workplace.
This importance has been amplified over the past few years as organisations focus on making the journey into the cloud and digitally transforming.
Why do you need a business IT strategy?
A good business IT strategy can provide many benefits, including:
- Easier planning: Once your strategy is set, it becomes much easier to plan. You’ll be able to predict your future IT spending, required resource and system investments you need, based on your strategy.
- Prepare for future tech: A good IT strategy should embrace upcoming technology and allow you to make the most of innovation. The strategy should include future tech you may utilise, as well as general processes for adopting new solutions efficiently.
- Stay protected against cyber risks: As technology evolves, you may be in danger of new cyber risks. Your IT strategy should ensure your security adapts with your business, keeping you consistently protected.
- Support business growth: As your business grows, your IT must too. You need to have systems that cope with demand, empower every staff member and keep processes moving. An IT strategy can plot your future actions to ensure they match your growth plans.
The difference between a standard IT strategy and an agile IT strategy
When it comes to your IT strategy, there are two options: standard or agile. A standard IT strategy is usually a structured process which produces a long-term view of the technological requirements and a plan for meeting those needs. Traditional IT strategies will typically plan for three to five years.
An agile IT strategy is similar, except the focus is on a much shorter term. Dependent on the stability of the organisation’s market, these businesses may need to work on either a 6-12 month or 12-24 month planning period.
For a standard strategy, you will start by identifying the organisation’s capabilities and goals. An assessment can be carried out by a specialist IT consultant to address gaps in your organisation’s IT infrastructure.
A technological roadmap can then be created to address these gaps, prioritising in terms of which technology architecture is most critical for achieving the organisation’s vision.
A roadmap for developing an agile IT strategy will be delivered during a planning period. At the end, the organisation can evaluate and adjust, giving adaptability to identifying new priorities and the technological initiatives required to support the business.
The fast-changing nature of a digital world provides organisations new challenges and opportunities. They therefore need an adaptable IT strategy.
Implementing an agile IT strategy for your business is much more beneficial due to the fast changing nature of digital technologies and the need for IT infrastructures to be more scalable.
5 tips for your business IT strategy
1. Outline your business goals
The first step in developing a business IT strategy is to make sure that it is aligned to your overall business strategy. This is because the primary function of an IT strategy is to support your business and help you to achieve your short and long-term business goals. You should begin by outlining your business needs, goals and high-level objectives.
Key areas to look at will include:
- Your current sales pipeline and future sales targets
- Future plans regarding business partnerships, mergers or company acquisitions
- Growth strategies and plans for your organisation’s future
- Any other “action plans” the departments in your organisation are working towards
2. Define your scope and timeline
Everyone in your organisation must share the purpose of your business IT strategy, and understand who is responsible for each part. During this part of the process, its beneficial to meet with key members of each department to see how they use the technology your organisation already uses.
As technology is changing at such a rapid rate, it’s important that the agility of your incoming IT infrastructure matches the speed you do business at and are able to flexibly match this with developing your IT strategy.
3. Review your existing IT infrastructure
It’s important to review any existing IT infrastructure your organisation to identify any problems you currently have, and what’s working well. You should also consider how your employees in different departments use the technology that’s available and ascertaining what they do and don’t use.
Thinking critically about how your organisation’s IT is being used and analysing this will deliver the best value. It’ll give your organisation the ability to develop a business IT strategy that utilises resources you already have in the most effective manner.
4. Create a roadmap
Creating a roadmap in the development of your IT strategy can be complex. However, if planned properly, it makes it easy to define resource allocation.
Defining the overall technology architecture should be the first step, as this is made up of the major software, hardware and other tools your organisation will be using. Breaking this down to department-specific technologies and considering how these different parts of your architecture fit together is also a huge advantage.
5. Establish your metrics
You need to make sure that when you are developing a business IT strategy that it is functional and cost-effective. KPIs should be identified to help analyse performance over time, not only is this important but also tracking the range of metrics is important too. This can help your organisation be more proactive in the identification and the solving of underlying issues before they impact your end users.
Infinity Group are leading IT consultants, supporting businesses across the UK. Our team of specialist, Microsoft-certified consultants can help you to get the most out of your business IT strategy. We’re also there to support you all the way.
