IT Toolkit: By James Stapleton

To flesh out what exactly the role of IT Strategy is we need to break it down to it's core and figure out how it can benefit a company. 

An IT Strategy should answer the following questions:

• Are we doing the right things with technology to address the organization’s most important business priorities and continuously deliver value to the clients?

• Are we making the right technology investments?

• Do we measure what is the real value to the organization derived from that technology?

• Is our current Information Technology agile enough; flexible to continuously support a successful organization?

• Is our Information Technology environment properly managed, maintained, secured, able to support the clients, and is it cost effective?

• Can our strategy support current and future business needs?

An IT Strategy is an iterative process to align IT capabilities with the business strategy and requirements:

• It is a documented and approved process (part of the organization’s governance framework)

• It is iterative (it needs to be frequently be revisited). Traditionally, IT strategies are updated and communicated on an annual basis, usually to meet budget cycles. This should be considered the minimum review period. If an emerging technology surfaces that has the potential to enhance the business, it should be investigated and communicated to the business as soon as possible. A one-year cycle may  be too late.

• It  is a strong alignment of business and IT capabilities rather than designing IT solutions to support business requirements

  • Assuming  that both business and IT capabilities drive each other

  • Assuming that business drives IT and not the other way around

• The IT Strategy sets future direction for IT function in the organization

  • Ensuring that the IT budget is spent on value creation activities for the business

  • Creating shareholder value

  • Helping to maximize the return on IT investments

• The IT Strategy may include sub-elements such as:

  • Infrastructure strategy

  • Application strategy

  • Integration strategy

  • Service strategy

  • Sourcing strategy

  • Innovation strategy