How can your IT strategy stay competitive?

Invest in new technologies Focus on digital services Identify your competitors Analyze your competition Know your customers Be strategic

A good alternative to SWOT is SOAR analysis: Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results. While SWOT analysis takes a look at where a company is, SOAR strives to be forward-thinking to address the potential of the business. By eliminating weaknesses and threats, SOAR focuses on positive elements more likely to be influenced by the company.

Before 1989 an Enterprise Architecture for the current state had a handful of items. John Zachman changed this with his matrix of 36 types of item. In any EA framework, your current state can be extensively described.

A key input in developing or updating an IT Strategy should be the Business Strategy, which articulates business motivation of Growth, Risk, Experience or Cost. Current state assessment should be focused on Gap analysis by leveraging business drivers as well as by performing maturity assessment of business capabilities and underpinning data, application and technology architecture that enable teams to deliver products and services, allowing the technology organisation to prioritise or re-prioritise their efforts aligned to business motivation.

For an effective IT strategy, it's crucial to ensure it reflects the business's primary goals. Unfortunately, many IT plans don't hit the mark, primarily because they don't align with what the company aims to achieve. To get this right, engage in in-depth conversations with business department leaders. Together, identify the core objectives and ensure they resonate with the overarching vision of the organisation. If there are discrepancies, it's essential to collaboratively address them. Beyond this, when considering any system changes or tech shifts, always dig deeper. Instead of focusing solely on the change itself, understand the underlying reason driving it, as this will give you clarity on the true objectives at hand.

The best way to align your IT strategy with your business objectives, in any organisation whether big or small is to by setting SMART goals for each of your IT projects with clear outcomes which will add, improve or meet one or more of your organisation's business objectives. Once it's done, half battle is won and now complete energy has to be focused on realising those objectives with proper planning and correct execution of the IT projects.

The technology strategies should be based on meeting the needs of the business as defined by the business. There needs to be a service level agreement setting the technology performance goals. The technology strategy must be focused on enabling those goals to be met.

Revisit, refresh, realign. Do it regularly. Small businesses should do this every six months. Bigger ones, once a year. If you change too frequently, you'll end up in a mess. But if you wait more than a year, your IT plans might not match your business targets.

A key problem here is that the organisation doesn't appreciate that IT strategy is something that needs constant consideration over the life of the business, if -- of course -- that business is in a place where it wants to be on a path of continuously improving efficiency. This requires senior leadership to "push down" to the organisation the message that IT is strategically important, and provide tools to empower anyone within the business to contribute to how that strategy is formed and implemented.

The need for adaptability within strategy depends on the industry you operate within and the rigour of compliance and resilience burden applied by regulators. Another critical element is tracking value realisation and impact on the business, providing a closed feedback loop to pivot or double down on the established IT strategy.

"Enterprise Architecture is that thing between strategy and execution." -John Zachman Your Enterprise Architecture should be updated yearly. It should contain a present, a future and a plan. It should have a business, interface, data, app and infrastructure layer or the equivalent. It should achieve the mission and implement the strategy, not adopt all the shiny flashy toys currently in vogue. It should budget change and avoid excess efforts.

Technological innovations are so fast paced that even for specialists in that field, it is hard to track ALL the news. Web3, blockchain, AI, and other emerging technologies are becoming a part of our daily lives, but the implementation of these technologies into daily business activities is a lengthy process. My advice would be: 🟢Keep an eye on KOLs who talk about new emerging technologies, so you can stay on track. 🟢 Attend specialized events, such as summits and conferences. 🟢Find people and companies that are experts and can help you with implementing innovation within your organization. Staying up-to-date in this fast-moving tech landscape is a constant challenge, but it is a must to keep your business at the forefront.

In our unpredictable world, as evidenced by unexpected events like the COVID pandemic, the principle of 'business composability' becomes crucial. It's the ability to reconfigure and adapt business structures that enabled many companies to thrive amidst sudden changes in the business landscape. Similarly, our IT strategies should be designed with the same adaptability in mind. It's imperative to periodically, every six months or one year, revisit and refresh the IT strategy, ensuring it not only aligns with the current business objectives but also retains the flexibility to support the organisation's ongoing commitment to business composability.

In an ever-changing landscape, organisations can leverage a digital mindset to disrupt or be disrupted, Transform business models or launch new ones to improve competitiveness and growth. Digital mindset and top-down strategy are critical, starting with the board's acknowledgement and importance in improving intensity and stakeholder value.