After spending countless hours working on your business strategy, you finally have an awesome plan for where your business is going. But, you know what could make it even better? An IT strategy! There are so many IT strategy benefits–a clear strategy makes achieving your business goals easier.
IT strategy sits at the grownup’s table alongside all the other Big Strategies–people, business growth, and new markets. Each of these strategies plays a part in underpinning your business values and achieving your business goals. We’re not saying an IT strategy is better than all the other strategies, but a good IT strategy is packed with benefits that give every other strategy wings. Yes, we’re biased and unashamed.
Wait, Do I Understand What an IT Strategy Actually Is?
Simply put, an IT strategy is a plan that describes how you use tech and tech people to contribute to your business goals. Put less simply, it answers the what, who, when, where, how, and why questions of how you approach IT.
You don’t just think up an IT strategy while waiting for your latte (soy, double shot) at Starbucks. An IT strategy should be carefully thought through and informed by your IT governance strategy (wait, you have IT governance, don’t you?) and business strategy.
How IT Strategies Work: A 1930s Gangster Movie Script
To illustrate exactly how an IT strategy might work, here is a summary in 1930s movie script form:
Business Strategy: “OK boys, one of my business goals is to increase the headcount by 20% in order to muscle into the healthcare sector in twenty of the lower forty-eight. Make it happen.”
IT Governance: “OK boss, to get into this game, we need to get compliant with HIPAA and SOC 2 for starters. We’re gonna need to revolutionize our onboarding process and secure data wherever our people are working. Whatcha gonna do about it, IT strategy?”
IT Strategy: “No problem. We’ll make it happen. We’ll talk to the HIPAA and SOC 2 boys and get a whole ton of data security protocols in progress. We’ll start with mobile device management, ‘cos that’ll check off onboarding automation, and write up some IT security policies that will go live on every device we got by the end of next month. We’ll enforce passcodes on all them dumb ‘schmos in Sales, and we’ll talk to the HR people to get some sweet role provisioning in. Yeah, and if a new team member doesn’t work out, we’ll offboard him securely, if you know what I mean.”
That was pretty terrible, but you get the drift.
Our Favorite IT Strategy Benefits
There are so many IT strategy benefits; here are some of our favorites:
- Makes Decision-Making Clearer
A clear IT strategy helps you focus on the things that really matter, and that means decision-making gets a whole lot easier. Will that amazing new IT product help you achieve your business goals of improving productivity and/or hitting a new market? Nope? Then pass. - Makes Budgeting Easier
Because your IT strategy is linked to your business strategy, you get a more accurate understanding of what IT infrastructure you should be planning and budgeting for. You’ll also be able to assess what infrastructure is no longer serving you. There’s no point paying for things you’re not using, and your IT strategy will help you identify them. - Clarifies and Optimizes
An IT strategy can help you clarify and communicate some super-vital issues. Here are a few you’ll find in any good IT strategy:
Procurement
Your strategy guides you in what to buy, who you buy it from, and how much you want to pay for it. It’ll guide you on the minimum compliance standards required from your suppliers and give indications of how much to pay for hardware, software, and licenses. If your business strategy has a particular flavor - such as cost reduction, green purchasing, or high growth - your IT procurement decisions should support it.
Compliance
Whether you’re aiming for certification with one of the data security regulatory frameworks or just want to reduce the risk of malware infection, data breach, or surprise downtime, your strategy should cover how you approach data security. It’ll help you decide if BYOB is too risky, whether onboarding automation is the way forward, what kind of firewall to light up, or who’s responsible for your IT asset register.
Disaster Recovery
Your IT strategy helps you enact the protocols that will stop the jello from hitting the fan as well as help you design the cleanup protocols if the jello actually does hit the fan. This includes preventative strategies: compliance, identifying and securing critical networks, training staff to be better at data security, and creating automated backups as well as recovery strategies for connectivity and business operationality.
Operational Effectiveness
Your IT strategy dictates how you manage your IT infrastructure to be as effective as possible. This could mean fun things like migrating to the cloud, introducing automated onboarding, going cross-platform so your developers can have those shiny Macs they want, outsourcing IT management (pick us, pick us!), or maintaining rather than replacing your spare devices (again, pick us!).
Future Proofing and Horizon Scanning
Every so often, you’ll want to gaze into your crystal ball to discover how IT can protect your business from any possible horrors and risks (future proofing) and take advantage of the new opportunities and delights yet-to-come (horizon scanning). There’s room in your IT strategy to plan for alternative futures.
Get Started On Your IT Strategy
If you already have an IT strategy, we’re super-pumped about it because IT strategies are our thing. Let’s compare notes. If you don’t already have an IT strategy, now you know the benefits of a good one–let us help you with yours. No overwhelm. No fancy talk. Just decent, almost-housetrained geeks helping you do great things for your business.
Want some advice on your IT strategy? Give us a call, we’re here to help.