What is IT Strategy: A Comprehensive Overview

Information Technology is now an inherent need of any organization, business, or industry. The traditional tactics of business have faded, and businesses are leveraging technology to get growth-driven outcomes.

Investing in IT infrastructure is the right thing to do now. But it would help if you had a strategy.

Want to know how?

This article aims to cover all the important aspects of IT strategy and help you prepare for it in a well-defined way. Whether you own a small or large business, this article will be of great assistance to you.

It is perfect to start with some basic information, so let’s start!

Understanding IT Strategy: What Is It?

One of the best points about IT strategy is that it dissolves all the barriers to the growth of an organization. Before you adopt an IT strategy, it is necessary to understand its basics.

So, let’s start with the definition.

IT strategy is a long-term roadmap to utilize the latest technology to achieve the organization’s goal. The motive is to gain sustainability, and scalability and make technology investments worth aligning with business priorities.

In simple terms, information technology strategy is blueprinting how technology will help a particular organization or enterprise drive growth and success.

Dynamic, strong leadership is required to implement and execute a perfect IT strategy. The CTO (Chief Technical Officer) and CIO (Chief Information Officer) play key roles in it if your question is what makes an IT strategy perfect.

A perfect IT strategy not only includes technology management but also includes human resources management, cost management, software and hardware management, risk management, and others.

The following characteristics make an IT strategy perfect:

• Your Information Technology strategy must be aligned to the strategic goals of your business.
• Before developing an IT strategy, IT leaders like CTOs and CIOs must have a clear understanding of the organization’s existing IT infrastructure, systems, resources, and others.
• It must bridge the gap between the organization’s objectives and technological solutions.
• IT strategy must be clear and measurable so the organization’s progress can be tracked with ease.
• It must be flexible to adapt to the changes due to technological evolution.
• The IT strategy must be according to the stakeholders, i.e., employees, customers, etc.

Types of IT Strategy

You want to implement an IT strategy for your business, right?

So, it would be best to know what the different types of IT strategies are. It is like:

• Business Driven

The business-driven IT strategy is directly related to the vision, mission, and objectives of the organization. Its prime goal is to drive value for the stakeholders.

The characteristic of the best business IT strategy is that it remains centered on customers, the latest market trends, and industry standards.

• Technology Driven

The technology-driven IT strategy stands for an IT strategy that is driven by innovation and the latest technology to gain competitive advantages.

Its key focal points are improving the customer experience, generating revenue streams, and leveraging the latest technology for business growth.

• Balanced IT Strategy

It helps align IT goals with small business strategy. For implementing a balanced IT strategy, a holistic and integrated approach is required.

It starts with assessing, goes through defining the desired state, prioritizing IT strategy goals, managing resources, communicating with stakeholders, reviewing IT goals, and ends with implementation.

• Agile IT Strategy

As its name implies, Agile IT strategy is based on practices and principles of Agile software development.

Its prime focus is to deliver value to customers in an iterative, incremental, and collaborative way. It allows businesses to stay ahead of the curve to handle potential challenges.

Key Stats: Digital Transformation

Undoubtedly, most businesses focus on IT strategy for digital transformation.

To get an insight into the market, here are some notable stats that can help you make the best decision to implement the IT strategy for your business.

• Global spending on digital transformation leveraging IT strategy is expected to hit $3.4 trillion by 2026 at a CAGR of 23%.
• 45% of executives admitted that their company needs digital transformation utilizing the latest technologies. On the other hand, 77% of companies have adopted a digital-first business strategy.
• 97% of companies sped up their digital transformation after the Pandemic.
• A Chief Digital Officer actively involved in an organization’s digital transformation is 6 times more likely to succeed.

Why do you need an IT strategy?

An IT strategy is a roadmap to success that shows how an organization uses technology to achieve its specific goals.

It helps organizations improve their operational abilities, streamline the process, enhance productivity, and attain cost-effectiveness. It also helps in prioritizing IT initiatives to gain high ROI.

So, if you own an organization and need all the things mentioned above, then it is the right time to make a fail-proof IT strategy. For the best results, you can use the assistance of an experienced IT consulting services provider.

Key Components of IT Strategy

To develop a robust IT strategy, you must know what the key components of an IT strategy are for business.

Let’s begin with the list of key components.

• The Vision

The CTOs, along with CIOs and other technology, must define the vision by outlining the organization’s current needs, where they want to reach them, and what the required measures are.

• IT Asset Inventory

It includes all the assets that a company possesses, including human and technical assets.

You need to figure out what resources can be used and what resources need to be replaced while applying the IT strategy. The resources include data centers, computers, utility equipment, telecommunication equipment, licenses, and others.

• IT and Business Alignment

The IT department must know what the company wants to achieve to contribute to making an actionable IT strategy that takes the entire organization’s objective into account.

• Technology Assessment

Technology or IT assessment is one of the crucial components of IT strategy. Assess your current IT infrastructure to find insights about technology issues, business issues, and risks.

• Financial Evaluation

Implementing an IT strategy is nothing. You also need to know what funds you have and what you can spend on IT strategy. It also includes past and future investments.

• Security & Risk Management

Security & risks are everywhere, and so is an IT system. You must identify the potential risks and mitigate them to get the best outcome from your IT strategy.

• Prioritization

The IT department needs to prioritize important projects and initiatives that can drive high ROI for business.

Benefits of IT Strategy

Developing an IT strategy is not an individual effort; it is an organization’s effort. Implementing an IT Strategy is beneficial for business, and here are the reasons.

• When in sync (IT strategy and business goals), it ensures that the business achieves its goals.
• IT strategy maximizes investment value and business performance.
• It helps organizations stay ahead of the curve using emerging technologies.
• Using legacy systems, you can’t handle the threats, so the better idea is to implement modernization by following an IT strategy.
• IT strategic plan helps in cost optimization as it ensures better resource utilization and curbs useless spending.
• It improves the decision-making and resource allocation ability of the IT department for prioritizing long-term benefits.
• An IT strategy helps in digital transformation and improves communication within an organization.

How to Create an IT Strategy for Business

After going through all the information, it is time to read how to create an enterprise IT strategy.

• Outline Business Objectives

The core objective of creating an IT strategy is to improve business performance, so defining a business objective is a must. Define it based on sales & marketing goals, growth, demand forecast, and others.

• Define Scope

Making a list of business goals is nothing. Defining the scope, who will be the stakeholders, and when you are going to apply is necessary.

• Assessing Current Infra

Here, you are not going to reinvent the wheel but rather assess your current infrastructure to identify how your existing resources are working, what resources are available, and what you need to add. This assessment will help you create a perfect IT strategy for your business.

• Roadmap for Resource Allocation and Architecture

The next step is to create a roadmap for resource allocation and IT system architecture for an organization.

Here, you also need to think from the department’s point of view like human resources, finance, marketing, and others.

• The KPIs

Define KPIs so you can measure the effectiveness of your IT strategy. The KPIs are agility, project delivery time, marketing and sales, qualitative indicators like end customer feedback, and others.

• Buy-in and Budget Validation

Get approval for the budget to execute the IT strategy and prepare a data-driven forecast of the IT program’s ROI, including senior management officials.

• The Implementation

This is the step where you’ll implement the IT strategy. It includes H/W & S/W upgrades, network components, and systems to support it.

Once it is implemented, train your end-users, stakeholders, and employees on the new system and then evaluate it for optimization.

Final Thoughts

IT strategy is one of the critical segments of an organization’s overall strategy, as most organizations are dependable on technology. It is crucial to have competitive advantages and achieve goals.

The best part is that based on your objectives, you can choose any type of IT strategy, such as business-driven IT strategy, technology-driven IT strategy, balanced IT strategy, and agile IT strategy.

Technology is continuously evolving, so the role of information technology strategy has become crucial, and you need to play smarter with it.

The better idea is to connect with an experienced IT consulting services company. The experts will help you implement the technology strategy in any way you want.

Arka Softwares is a well-known IT consulting services provider with experience in assisting diverse organizations worldwide with their IT consultation needs.

If you have any queries or want to know more about IT strategy for your organization, it will be pleasurable for us to book a free consultation call.