A wise being once said, “If it’s not aligned with your business goals, then your IT strategy will be at best, pointless and at worst, destructive.” That wise being was us, in our awesome Developing Your IT Strategy: 7 Steps blog. But before you dive headlong into that bad boy, let’s look at why business and IT strategy alignment is crucial. For all kinds of reasons.
Whoa There, What’s an IT Strategy, and How’s It Different From a Business Strategy?
There’s no shame in getting back to basics. A business strategy is a plan that helps define your future in terms of its objectives – how you’ll develop its products and services. This includes the process of determining your position in the market and how you plan to compete. It defines what products or services you offer, how you can price them, and more.
An IT strategy, created through an IT strategy framework, is a plan that helps define the future of your business in terms of how you’ll use technology to meet your business objectives. This also includes the process of developing, implementing, and managing your IT.
The critical difference between these two concepts is that an IT strategy has a narrower focus on information technology, whereas a business strategy encompasses all aspects of an organization’s operations.
When you’re mapping out your business strategy, you’ll focus on understanding your customers’ needs and wants. When you’re mapping your IT strategy, you focus on the IT ecosystem you need to be able to meet those needs and wants.
Why Business and IT Strategy Alignment Is Crucial
The best reason to align your IT and business strategy is that it makes you look super-good. That’s because a ton of good things come out of it. Here are just six of our favorites:
Reason 1: Technology Keeps Happening
Technology is constantly changing how we live and work. (Duh.) These changes usually result in greater efficiency, which, in turn, raises the bar of consumer expectations and demands. For many businesses, trying to keep up with the latest tech advancements and satisfy shifting audience demands can feel like a never-ending three-legged race.
The old-school approach to IT is not very strategic: adopting technology to focus on solving current problems. The new approach focuses on being proactive to ensure you’re taking advantage of new technologies. Being proactive with your tech also helps future-proof your company against potential market disruptions.
The only way to fully tap into the influential power of technology for your overall business success is to align your business and IT strategies. This will help you take advantage of the latest tech innovations and reap the benefits of new opportunities. And, as an added party favor of wisdom, having an IT strategy will also make it easier to manage that pesky, ever-changing digital climate and adopt new technologies with clear strategic intention.
Reason 2: Transforming The Perception of IT
In the bad old days, when IT and business didn’t talk to each other, it was easy to view IT as more of a cost than a valuable business tool. “Gak, the system’s down again. Gotta talk to those weirdos in IT with the screen-saver sunburns” – you know the drill. But, aligning your IT strategy to business goals will demonstrate to the unbelievers just how much good IT contributes to business success and its potential to make things faster, better, safer, and generally less sucky.
Reason 3: Keeping You Competitive
Aligning your business and IT strategies ensures that technology becomes a powerful tool for achieving your business goals. This synergy can lead to innovative products, enhanced customer experiences, and efficient operations that give you that competitive edge. Go you!
Reason 4: Simplified Decision-Making
When IT strategy is focused solely on activities and tech that supports your business strategy, it makes decision-making a whole lot easier. You’ve reduced a universe of tech possibilities down into a manageable framework. Ask yourself, “Does this tech/activity/way of working further our business objectives?” If it’s a “nope,” forget it. You can make far more informed and focused decisions about your tech priorities, investments, and resource allocation.
Reason 5: Better Understanding
Before any strategy can align with any other strategy, you need to do a whole lot of talking. If you’re an IT person, you’ll be talking to all the other people who are involved in the business strategy. You’ll start learning about each other’s priorities and problems and see how the whole business fits together. And that kind of collaboration leads to better understanding and problem-solving. That’s a win right there.
Reason 6: You’ll Save Money
With better alignment, you can say goodbye to buying IT stuff that your business doesn’t actually need or want. Yay to decent IT procurement practices! You’ll be better able to purchase and allocate resources and avoid over-provisioning or underutilizing your IT infrastructure. With only the right use of the right IT infrastructure, you’ll right-size (it’s a word) associated costs like warranties, cloud service fees, and software licensing.
Business And IT Strategy Alignment Doesn’t Need To Be Difficult
If you don’t have a business strategy, don’t panic – because at least now you have a starting point, i.e., get a business strategy. Once you know where you’re going, you can start thinking about the kind of IT support you’ll need to make it happen. When you first start out on your alignment adventure, things will be wild and wooly. That’s normal. And don’t forget, if you need to pick some expert IT brains to help work out what IT might be best to achieve those shiny business goals, give us a bell. We’d love to help.
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