5 Steps to IT Planning and Strategy for Success
Strategic planning for businesses, large or small, is a critical process to achieve its goals and be profitable. Proper strategic planning includes both short-term and long-term planning and should touch upon every aspect of the business including: production and sales, organization structure, employee development, fiscal planning. What some organizations may not realize is that their Information Technology (IT) must also become a strategic goal and a key part of this planning process.
Organizations need to understand how they currently use technology and how it can be used strategically to improve business processes, making them more efficient and less costly, potentially increasing market position.
So what is IT planning really? Much like traditional business planning it is the process of determining how your organization can best use your technology to further your mission. It involves assessing your existing resources, defining your needs, and exploring solutions. We’ll break it down into 5 steps:
1. Define Success For Your Organization
Use strategic goals to create aligning IT goals, make sure there is universal agreement throughout the organization
2. Assess Your Existing Resources
Define the current state of your organization’s technology by bench-marking where you are versus where you would like to be.
3. Define Your Needs
Identify business needs and priorities.
4. Explore IT Solutions
Based on your business needs, what should your IT solutions include?
5. Create a Technology Plan
Use the knowledge gained from the previous steps to craft a strategic IT plan – What are the benefits, tasks and costs of implementation? Are there risks to address?
