5 Benefits of Developing and Implementing an IT Strategy

5 Tips to Develop an IT Strategy

Discover a new way to design an IT strategy suited to your IT compliance team needs to keep all your technology running optimally and securely without creating stress and worry. 

Every endeavor runs more smoothly with a solid plan and strategy to achieve any goals. The same philosophy applies to Information Technology (IT). IT teams have more responsibilities on their desks than ever before, making it vital to create optimal conditions for success for them and for your organization.

What Is an IT Strategy?

“A technology roadmap is a high-level, visual plan that communicates an organization’s technology strategy. It’s also known as an IT roadmap, technology roadmaps help internal teams make strategic decisions around their technical infrastructure.” -Andre Theus, VP of Marketing at ProductPlan.

Sometimes called a technology strategy or an information and communication technology (ICT) strategy, an IT strategy is a plan of action that focuses on creating an information technology plan constructed to optimize efficiency, value and results. (1) A well-crafted IT strategy’s fundamental objective is to maximize the return on IT investments.

Learn 5 Benefits of Developing and Implementing an IT Strategy

Based largely on clear and concise communication, a technology strategy helps everyone stay on the same page, regarding new technology, regulations, operations, processes and overriding goals for the organization. It also fosters teamwork, which is a vital component of a healthy IT program for a business. An ICT strategy builds trust, boosts motivation and helps to ensure success.

Learn about five benefits to developing your own IT strategy.

1. Creates More Defined Goals and Ways of Achieving Those Goals

Somewhat like a roadmap, an IT strategy usually aligns with the overarching business strategy. Since CIOs and IT managers represent the business as well as the IT department, it is critical to make sure both work together in tandem. Developing an engagement and feedback process facilitates that alignment and ensures that IT staff and C-level executives understand what is happening at all times. Everyone understands the priorities for IT projects and practices, so there are never any surprises.

2. Allows for Delegation of Decision-Making

It is often challenging for managers to delegate decision-making due to a variety of difficulties, which include incomplete information, an unsupportive environment, ineffective communication and poor timing. (2) A strategic plan addresses those issues and more to help communicate your thinking to your managers to delegate tasks to staff, providing a framework that encourages confident decision-making. It creates a shorthand to let your team understand what management is thinking and trying to communicate, so they can comply quickly and correctly. When employees know the strategic IT plan, they will take your instructions and follow the structure of the established plan.

3. Helps to Identify and Correct Bottlenecks Quickly

Once you have created a strategic plan that identifies personnel for respective responsibilities, you can see where potential issues lie and course correct. For example, if you have an upcoming audit, it is important to ensure the availability of the team members who ordinarily perform this crucial function.

Here are a few additional ways that a strategic ICT plan can help your organization:

• Helps to avoid technology procurement redundancies, such as multiple software programs that perform the same tasks
• Aligns communication methods to avoid the confusion involved when employees are using a variety of media, such as VoIP, email, Slack, Messenger and WhatsApp. (3)

4. Gives Guidelines for Creative Thinking

It is important to have quick and creative thinkers on your team to deal with the ever-changing landscape of the digital world. However, allowing unbridled creativity can lead to a longer and more complicated path to a solution. It is easier to address a complex problem when everyone has a basic idea of the desired result and how to reach it.

5. Provides Tools to Respond to Change

Given the way technology changes so quickly today, it is important to leverage change to your organization’s advantage. Work to learn about changes on the horizon far in advance and develop a plan to manage those changes with as little disruption as possible. Even more important is the fact that IT strategic planning allows your team to be better prepared for unexpected changes, such as a system outage.

Contact us to schedule a free consultation with the Centerpoint IT team to discuss creating an IT strategy tailored to your Atlanta business’s needs.