How to Design Right IT STRATEGY for your Company?

RAVI SHARMA

IT consulting | Virtual CxO Service | Programmatic Advertising | Lead Generation with AI | Remote Staffing Specialist | Cyber Security | AI | Cloud | Drive sustainable growth | IIM-C alumni ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Published Nov 25, 2016

In the past decade the need to be technologically updated has become fundamentally important. The digital age has propelled a technological revolution of sorts.

Everyday innovative business models, products as well as services are launched so as to enhance the quality of customer experiences. The businesses of today have a dire need to develop right technology as well as IT strategy in order to attain highest realms of success.

If you want to compete in world of fast changing digital markets you need to operate at an equally high speed; you should be able to respond fast to ever changing market scenario, customer desires or competition.

This puts distinctive pressure on an organization’s technology platform. You not only have to use technology to create value but this action needs to be done super fast. Companies are dealing with this challenge by taking to various approaches like design thinking, Agile and DevOps.

Technology is changing the way companies work. The speed at which business is done is increasing at a rapid rate. Also the way in which IT functions render solutions is changing. The IT strategy should be designed in such a way to meet varying needs of digital world.

The classic approach to IT strategy

The classic approach to developing IT strategy encompasses a reasonably structured, chronological process which takes into account a long-term view of a company’s technology needs along with a solid plan which will help meet these needs. The main steps of the classic approach are:

1. Completely understand business capabilities which will be required over span of coming 3-5 years so as to bolster your organization’s strategy and fulfill its goals.

2. Weigh up the gap between the organization’s current maturity as against its capability and level needed to realize its goals.

3. Identify the way how technology can be put to use in order to address gaps between present and required maturity level of business competence.

4. Plan target technology architecture which will bolster the much needed business capabilities.

5. Fully understand the gap between a companies’s current as well as target technology architecture.

6. Develop clear cut roadmap for creating target technology architecture.

An IT strategy which is developed by making use of Classic approach has a three- to five-year time horizon which is in sync with a company’s overall goal as well as business strategy. But, as we see the speed at which digital markets are evolving it is has become very difficult to develop a strategy for your organization with three- to five-year vision.

As a matter of fact, it is sometimes contended that if you focus too much on long-term goals as well as plans, the organization’s ability to deal with unavoidable changes in the markets which happen over shorter timescales diminishes big time. Any kind of rigidity followed while developing IT strategy can actually act limiting. Basically if the IT plan is long term it might fail to deliver current needs of your company.

An Agile IT strategy?

Speeds as well as agility have come up as key factors in ascertaining whether a company can survive in present day rapid moving dynamic markets. Business strategies to be developed should be flexible so that organizations can easily change directions if needed and even re-prioritize to build new capabilities at a fast pace.

This clearly connotes, that an organizations technology strategy should be flexible. It should be able to bolster any changes in organization’s strategy and way of operation.

The agile approach to IT strategy is quite like the classic approach but with certain differences which takes into account requirement for speed as well as flexibility.

Steps to develop Agile IT strategy include:

1. Recognize business capacities which will be required over span of time in accordance to organization’s present strategy as well as goal.

2. Build up high-level technology foresight which clearly delineates main facets or elements which the organization’s technology platform will need in order in order to reinforce the organization’s strategy.

3. Be in agreement with planning horizon which needs to be come under ambit of technology strategy (organizations which face fast changing markets will have to work on 6 to12 month horizon whereas those in relatively stable markets can go for a 12-24 month planning span).

4. Agree on the business capabilities which will take prominence during the decided planning horizon. Also assess gaps between present and much needed level of business capacities.

5. Identify as well as prioritize technology initiatives needed to manage the gaps between present and needed level of most vital business capacities.

6. Construct a roadmap which delineates initiatives which will be rendered during the pre decided planning span.

7. Repeat the steps 3-6 towards as you approach end of current planning period. Repeat steps 1-6 if your company’s goal and overall IT strategy need to be updated.

The agile technology strategy calls for two-way as well as interactive approach with the IT personnel who are working together with staff from other key areas of business during each and every step of process. In Agile approach the company architecture plays a very important role.

Without right IT strategy a company cannot stay ahead in competition. The technology direction of an organization paves way for its future success.

Business technology is a slow but unyielding process in which the traditional technology changes form into innovative technology in order to reveal mind blowing business results.

A wide array of strategies can help you accomplish business goals, but efficacy of any single business strategy depends hugely on technology.

Flexibility is in IT strategy is must. It helps to cope up with changing environments as well as with prevailing market forces. It is important to revisit IT strategy of your company on regular basis so as to verify its effectiveness as per prevailing business conditions.