Implementing an IT strategy takes time and effort and must account for business needs and constraints. Having a reliable IT consulting firm, such as HRCT, can help you keep your projects on track.
In order to create a successful IT strategy, you need to build a reliable team, ensure you’re aligned with business objectives and make strategic choices. The strength of your IT strategy affects the efficiency of company business operations.
Here are seven steps for creating an ideal strategy that works with on-premise teams and trusted IT consulting firms, such as HRCT.
How Can You Build Your Team?
As an IT leader or CIO, it’s up to you to create a strategy for building a diverse team of professionals. The most important thing to cultivate is a sense of ownership. If you display this in your dealings with prospective employees and current IT staff alike, then leaders and professionals will follow suit. Look for direct reports with a passion for new technology tempered by experience with how to utilize new tools strategically.
How Can You Align Your IT Resources to Business Strategies?
A systems assessment is one of the best ways to align IT goals and projects with the needs of the business. An internal assessment involving cross-functional teams can pinpoint systems that aren’t serving the organization as needed. HRCT can perform an assessment of your current phone, computer and network systems to suggest areas of improvement that can help the business run more efficiently.
What Should Your 3-Year Roadmap Look Like?
A roadmap should show the critical improvements needed over the next two to three years. This roadmap is the culmination of stakeholder prioritization and includes projects that align with budget expectations. Next, your team needs to feel confident that the defined objective are, at least in theory, achievable. The certainty of completing projects on time decreases the further out your plan stretches, but frequent updates allow you to adjust your roadmap to match the changing needs of the business.
How Can I Align My Architecture with the Roadmap?
Without the proper architecture to support your IT strategy, you aren’t likely to be very successful. Drawing up an architecture roadmap gives your team and decisionmakers an opportunity to assess how realistic the final plan is — from financial and staffing perspectives.
Do you need to adjust expectations between the current and future states due to any known constraints?
Your architecture roadmap provides a technical view of the current software and hardware assets and a glimpse of the future state of your desired infrastructure. Use the architecture roadmap frequently in discussions with the rest of the business. It’s a great way to limit scope creep and remind everyone that every asks impacts the budget and cost.
What’s the Best Way to Make Strategic Choices?
Try not to overcommit by succumbing to the pressure to deliver projects on time regardless of distractions and changing priorities. There’s never enough funding to complete every project that’s needed by the organization. Plus, compliance and regulatory demands can be unpredictable and push back other projects.
Unfortunately, changing priorities often put different departments at odds with one another. As an IT leader, it may be up to you to get everyone in a room to decide on which projects most impact the vision of the company.
How Is IT Management Included in Strategic Planning?
The strategic plan helps you make hiring decisions and can also show you where you need to bring in external resources. For example, if replacing outdated phones and computers is high on your company’s priority list, it may make sense to outsource this effort since you are unlikely to need a large number of technicians to support the systems once they are installed and calibrated.
Computer companies, such as HRCT, can shortcut your critical path and get your project done on time and within the agreed-upon budget.
What’s the Best Way to Secure Final Plan Approval?
After you hash out all the priorities and strike a deal on the final dates, you’re not done yet. It may seem archaic but getting a physical sign-off from all stakeholders is a great way to hold everyone accountable when disputes arise over resources and funding down the line.