#it plan

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The Importance Of Effective IT Strategic Planning

It goes without saying that IT (Information Technology) is a vital part of any organisation. Technologies change over night, securing the appropriate funding can be challenging, not to mention the potential conflicts in organisational priorities. However, it is absolutely essential that organisations have a roadmap in the form of an efficient and effective plan for the future. As Crawford Greenewalt, former president of the DuPont Company, once said, “Every moment spent planning saves three or four in execution.” A robust and thorough IT strategic plan not only sees time saved in the execution phase, but can result in considerably higher returns on investment.

According to Architecture and Governance Magazine, some Fortune 500 companies and government agencies have validated returns on investment as high as 700% as a result of their investment in IT strategic planning.

What is an IT strategic plan?

IT strategic plans are most commonly 3 – 5 year proposals that consist of organisational and project goals, objectives and overall guiding principles. IT strategic plans can range from incredibly specific, in which precise time frames, costs and resources are detailed, to more generalised plans, which leaves it open to department and senior managers to establish the project goals and objectives. Effective strategic plans focus your resources, time and money by prioritising the projects that generate the most significant benefits for the organisation.

Oftentimes the process undertaken to develop a strategic IT plan is just as important as the plan itself. The IT strategic plan should complement the strategies, goals and objectives of other divisions within the organisation. Involving the other units of the organisation early in the process can help to shape and improve the overall objectives through gaining a better understanding of what is necessary for all involved. This approach can be vital in ensuring the plan receives the appropriate funding and resources.

For example, marketing and sales could be managing a significant increase in the amount of customer data. IT could begin planning for how the organisation will handle that increase through expanding on-premise data storage, moving to the cloud or upgrading the capabilities of the data analytics team. If these data storage and analysis resources are inadequate, then steps can be taken to shore them up internally or to locate an outside IT consultant that these tasks can be outsourced to.

An IT strategy would address these gaps and highlight the need for the organisation to build out the supply of skills and infrastructure necessary to meet the demands of multiple divisions of the organisation.

It is important that IT not only think of it’s strategy in terms of technological solutions, but rather think in terms of business goals and opportunities.

A number of organisations use the services of IT consultants to perform the process of creating an IT plan to help provide objectivity and dedicated resources for the creation of a strategy.

IT strategy creation

In order to develop an efficient and effective plan, project management best practices must be followed. This entails the creation of a project charter, developing and following a detailed project plan, as well as the formation of a project team with a project manager to oversee and steer the entire process. In the beginning stages of the formation of the project team, the definition of roles and responsibilities is vital. Likewise, the project team should consist of representatives from all major organisational departments.

Discovery

Information and feedback is gathered from all relevant stakeholders. This includes hardware and software inventories, documentation for telecommunications services, network topology diagrams, organisational charts, policies and procedures, disaster recovery and continuity of operations plans, as well as all other relevant documentation.

Additional information is gathered through internal and external stakeholder surveys, interviews and focus groups with the goal of assessing how current IT is performing, what challenges people face and what opportunities are available.

Analysis

Once all relevant documentation and information is collated, an analysis of the data is performed. This attempts to look at best practices and gap analysis in order to understand current IT deficiencies with the goal of developing recommendations based on the findings.

During this phase it is vital the project team are consulted to ensure these initial findings are in alignment and on target. It is likely however that additional research will be required.

Documentation

Goals and objectives are formed, along with overarching guiding principles in order to aid the writing of the strategy. The guiding principles in particular help guide and shape the overall decision-making, particularly when issues arise that are not part of the goals and objectives.

For example, the strategy might include that IT will take a cloud-first approach when purchasing new technologies and software. The project team then need to provide adequate feedback within this documentation phase to aid the prioritisation of strategic initiatives and plan objectives. This includes the assurance that funding, time frames and resources are not only realistic but achievable for the project.

Following this, a detailed strategy is written where feedback is obtained from the project group and relevant stakeholders.

Review

The feedback is used to revise and finalise the plan. The project manager then presents the plan to senior management, IT staff and other relevant stakeholders, following which the strategy is usually published and distributed internally.

Following the completion of the plan, the objectives and initiatives are implemented within the specified time line and budget. As the implementation of the IT strategy takes place over the 3-5 years of the plan, it’s vital that progress and performance are monitored and tracked. More often than not, the plan will be revised and adjusted during this time as a good plan is always under construction. External, and unpredictable, factors such as emerging and disruptive technologies, the economy and legislative change can impact and alter the original implementation.

You can learn more about eStorm’s IT consultancy and we help you get the most out of your IT environment.

eStorm Australia is an IT managed service provider headquartered in Brisbane. We partner with your business and provide IT solutions and services that suit your specific requirements. Our solutions include a variety of services that are critical to overall business success and competitive advantage.

Respect for ROI Any decision made in a business, whether or not it pertains to IT, is largely informed by the likelihood that return on investment, or ROI, that the business could potentially see is promising enough that it makes he decided-upon action worth it. A quality IT project manager should have the ability to estimate the ROI of a proposed project well enough to judge if the return is worth the anticipated investment. The project manager you bring in should know to question if the change will help to increase operational efficiency or profits, and be able to determine that based on situational analysis.

Problem-Solving An analytical mind should be a prerequisite in your search for a project manager. The ideal candidate will have considerable insight into IT systems and how they operate, from physical hardware and networking components to software solutions and cloud-based applications, and the ability to predict and mitigate obstacles to the end goal. Keep an eye out for candidates who can take all of these considerations into account and develop a best-fit approach for your business’ needs.

Loquacious with Laymen If all of your employees had the same knowledge and insight concerning your IT projects as your IT project manager did, there wouldn’t be a need for a project manager in the first place. As a result, your project manager will likely need to discuss technical aspects of a project with non-technical business members. This will require the ability to translate the technologies that are implemented in such a way that you and your other employees are able to grasp the benefits and tradeoffs that each solution offers.

Be Decisive There’s a natural inclination to resist change, especially in the workplace, even more so when these changes are going to put restrictions on employees. However, the IT project manager is the one responsible to put these changes into place, pushing against that resistance. Sometimes that may take the form of blocking access to social media sites through a content filter, or deciding to cancel an IT project if it doesn’t generate the return on investment that it needs to. Whatever the situation, a project manager needs to be able to make the tough calls and form a decision based on all information available.

If your company is in need of the services that a project manager can provide, Infradapt is here to offer support. Call 800.394.2301 to learn more about how our team can help you reach IT success.

When implementing a new project, expectations run high and deadlines must be met. The temptation is to feel so pressured to get the project finished that the planning phase is rushed. If even a small detail is overlooked and a shortcut is taken in this early stage, it can come back to bite you in a major way–perhaps even derailing the project altogether. This is especially the case for an IT project.

CIO.com provides a working ratio of why such oversight is important for IT projects of any size, especially during the more risk-prone discovery phase. “Discovery is the crux of project risk. Although the discovery and architecture phases of a project may represent only 15 percent of the overall effort, an error or omission early on can cause cost overruns of 150 percent or more.” Have you experienced an issue of this scope in any of your company’s previous projects?

In order to prevent your next IT project from facing a disastrous end like this, you’re going to want to invest the time needed to perform the discovery and architecture phases correctly, the first time. But how can you make sure this happens?

For starters, working closely with your vendors and service provider is a must. If you detect that they’re not thoroughly answering your questions or that they’re trying to rush the project in any way, then you’ll need to speak up about it, before it’s too late. Instead, you need to make sure your vendors are guiding you through each step of the process, and that they’re assertive enough to present you with options and tough choices when it comes to unpleasant tradeoffs.

Secondly, you need to know what it looks like when a project is being rushed or shortchanged. This can be difficult to catch for a busy business owner with only a surface-level knowledge of IT. At Infradapt, we know what this looks like and we want to pass this information onto you. When in the discovery/architecture phases of your next (or current) IT project, look for a vendor taking these four shortcuts.

The documents prepared for the project are based less on what your company’s specific needs are, and instead are overly influenced by industry jargon and sales propaganda. The idea here is to overwhelm a business owner with features and benefits that sound great, but may not be precisely what the project needs and what real users would actually use. Classic snake oil sales strategy.

Project requirements aren’t prioritized adequately. This shortcut will provide poor guidance when it comes to the step-by-step implantation of the project, and the hard trade offs that are sure to pop up when dealing with a budget and a deadline will hit unexpectedly.

The project requirements are lacking important steps, like transitions in the end-to-end business process. If these gaps are uncovered during the implantation phase instead of the discovery phase, then meeting these unplanned requirements will push back the schedule, and may even change the entire scope of work needing to be done.

The needs of the business evolve dramatically enough over the course of the project that the project proves to be insufficient upon its completion. Keep in mind that technology itself is prone to becoming obsolete by newer solutions. Shortsightedness in both areas can make it frustrating to have to go back and redo the project much sooner than expected.

These four shortcuts can devastate an IT project, or any project for that matter. One way that you can safeguard your business from these risks is to hold consultation sessions all throughout the course of the project–as opposed to leaning heavily on the original project roadmap, which may grow more unreliable as the project progresses from phase to phase. Infradapt can provide this kind of project oversight for your next IT initiative, as well as spend the time needed in the early phases of the project. This will ensure that no stone is left unturned and every possible circumstance is accounted for.

Give us a call at 800.394.2301 and don’t plan your next IT project without first consulting with the pros.

Was ist IT-Strategie oder ein IT-Strategie Plan?

IT-Strategie

Eine erfolgreiche IT-Strategie oder auch IT-Strategie Plan genannt, sichert die Business-IT-Ausrichtung im strategischen Maßstab. Dieser nach IT ausgerichtete Plan sollte alle Facetten des IT-Managements umfassen, einschließlich Kostenmanagement, Personalmanagement, Hard- und Software-Management, Lieferantenmanagement, Risikomanagement und alle anderen Aspekte in der IT-Umgebung.

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