Why IT Strategy?

During a reception before a recent presentation on IT Strategy and the value of strategic thinking, the speaker from Strategic IT Associates was barraged with questions. Here is a sample:

Why does anyone actually need an IT Strategy?

Why have an IT Strategy?

What value is there for me in an IT Strategy?

What is an IT Strategy?

The business doesn't have a strategy, how can I have one?

Things are going well in IT, I don't need no stinkin' strategy.

A strategy is like a mission statement, isn't it? You write it down and put it away and it doesn't impact anything? Does it?

I'm mired in the day to day. I don't have time to stop and think about strategy. What will it do for me anyway? Nothing!

Now these questions summarized succinctly the lack of strategic thinking in most small and medium sized businesses. Why is that? What preconceived notions do many businesses have about strategy. Here are a few:

• The word strategy evokes an academic look and feel. It does not apply to the real business world. It belongs in books.
• Strategy is something that has little to questionable value. It's irrelevant.
• There is little to no agreement on the definition of strategy... strategy at one organization is tactics at another.
• Strategy cannot be translated into tactics. It can have no impact on what an organization does from day to day.
• Having a strategy only impacts senior management.
• Doesn't anyone read Dilbert? Strategies are just a way of impeding or penalizing the employees.

At Strategic IT Associates we believe that strategy is the overriding consideration when deciding how to do business and how to do IT. Strategy is the vision and blueprint for the IS department. Strategy provides the overriding direction and the governance for what gets done. Strategy encompasses taking a high level view of the business and the IS department. It involves developing a framework from which to organize staff, build infrastructure, select appropriate technologies, and engineer processes. It addresses overlying concerns about how to deliver IS services, how to organize the department, how to align with the business, and how to define processes and procedures. Strategy provides the basis for what gets done on a daily basis. It allows for technology selection and decision making. Without a strategy...

• You are most likely spending too much on technology.
• You are often doing the wrong projects.
• You are hiring the wrong technology people.
• You are buying the wrong technology solutions.
• You are not focusing all your time, money and energies where they belong... on your customers.
• You are allowing technology to stand in the way of business success.
• You are not realizing the full potential of the business or IT.

Because...

A clearly defined strategy is the secret solution to technology success!

Because a strategy will allow you to:

• Link your strategy to your tactics
• Link your tactics to your people
• Link your people to the strategy
• And impart meaning and commitment to what people do on a daily basis to ensure the success of your business.