by Sudeepa Nair

Created on: March 09, 2009

Strategic IT plan

Information technology is continuing to be an indispensable tool for organizations to achieve their business objectives. This is exactly the reason why it is important to have a strategic Information Technology plan for an organization. IT is an enabler' or tool whose effectiveness is determined by how it is put to use. Some pointers for creating a strategic IT plan:

1. Align the IT strategy with the overall business strategy: A good place to start is the organization's vision or mission and the means to achieve it. For instance, if the organization's mission is to become the number one in its market through uncompromising customer service, then its IT strategy has to be devised for customer orientation. A quick internal and external communication system with a responsive information sharing and storage system could be a part of this plan. Likewise, if an organization's mission is to provide cost effective customer solutions, then a cost efficient IT strategy would be handy. The strategy might aim towards keeping the IT department lean and flexible.

2. Determine the role played by IT: Aligning the IT strategy with the overall business strategy will also help to move onto the next step of determining how important a role IT plays in the organization. This is an eye-opener as often, organizations which spend millions on their IT needs realize at a later stage that most of the expenditure was unnecessary. This is then followed by the additional costs of revamping or scaling down, not to mention, the heartburn.

3. Measure the IT quotient of the organization: Another important aspect of creating an IT strategy is to gauge the current levels of IT readiness of your organization. Some organizations tend to be more IT savvy than others, of course, here, when we say organization, we imply employees. The strategy has to take into account additional resources required to train employees and improve their IT quotient. It will be sad, indeed, if the Chief Technology Officer devises an ultra modern IT strategy only to be shot down by employees who prefer something simpler.

4. Strategic IT decisions: Once we determine the IT quotient of the organization, we move on to the important task of budgeting. Allocating resources, deciding whether to outsource to IT providers, determining whether to buy off-the-shelf products or develop in-house; these are some of the important decisions to make at this point.

5. Create a flexible plan: Finally, it is important to keep the plan as flexible as possible. The IT strategy has to be constantly aligned with business objectives, stakeholder expectations and customer demands and although, the ultimate objective may not undergo a change, the plan has to be reviewed and fine-tuned regularly.

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