Build a Business-Aligned IT Strategy
Success depends on IT initiatives clearly aligned to business goals, IT excellence, and driving technology innovation.
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Three-quarters of surveyed CEOs value tech leaders with experience fostering operational stability and strategic business alignment; however:
- The CIO is seen as an order taker by business executives. This usually results in the demands on IT far outstripping the IT budget.
- Projects and initiatives are not prioritized around business objectives. Synergies and dependencies are recognized too late. Projects are often late or put on hold because of sudden changes to business requirements.
Follow Info-Tech’s approach to developing a strong IT strategy:
- Use Info-Tech’s industry-focused approach to discern the business context.
- Clearly communicate to business executives how IT will support the organization’s key objectives and initiatives using the IT Strategy Presentation Template.
- Use Info-Tech’s IT Strategy Workbook to help make project decisions in a holistic manner that allows for the selection of the most valuable initiatives to become part of the IT strategic roadmap.
Book Your Workshop
Onsite Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn’t enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our Project Workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a road map in place to complete your project successfully.
Book NowModule 1: Pre-Workshop: Elicit Business Context
The Purpose
Conduct analysis and facilitate discussions to uncover what business needs mean for IT and how IT plans to support the business.
Key Benefits Achieved
Build an understanding of what business needs mean for IT, the business strategy, and a clear alignment between the two.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | Complete recommended diagnostic programs. |
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| 1.2 | Interview key business stakeholders, as needed, to identify business context: business goals, initiatives, and the organization’s mission and vision. |
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| 1.3 | (Optional) CIO to compile and prioritize IT success stories. |
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Module 2: Establish the Scope of Your IT Strategy
The Purpose
Define statements, principles, and goals to establish the scope of your IT strategy and assess IT’s past performance.
Key Benefits Achieved
Identify and document the scope of your IT strategy and the successes from IT’s past performance (business value realized, key milestones and successful projects, etc.).
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | Review/validate the business context. |
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| 2.2 | Construct your mission and vision statements. |
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| 2.3 | Elicit your guiding principles and finalize IT strategy scope. |
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Module 3: Build Your Key Initiative Plan
The Purpose
Identify high-priority key initiatives to support the business, enable IT excellence, and drive technology innovation.
Key Benefits Achieved
Build your key initiative plan along with your goals cascade visual to clearly communicate business alignment back to your key initiatives.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | Identify key IT initiatives that support the business. |
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| 3.2 | Identify key IT initiatives that enable operational excellence. |
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| 3.3 | Identify key IT initiatives that drive technology innovation. |
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| 3.4 | Consolidate and prioritize (where needed) your IT initiatives. |
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Module 4: Build Your Key Initiative Plan (Continued)
The Purpose
Identify high-priority key initiatives to support the business, enable IT excellence, and drive technology innovation.
Key Benefits Achieved
Build your key initiative plan along with your goals cascade visual to clearly communicate business alignment back to your key initiatives.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
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| 4.1 | Determine IT goals. |
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| 4.2 | Complete goals cascade |
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| 4.3 | Build your IT strategy roadmap. |
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Module 5: Define Your Operational Strategy
The Purpose
Evaluate the key components on an operational strategy that will help your team execute on your key strategic initiatives.
Key Benefits Achieved
Build a strong operational strategy to ensure IT can deliver what they promise and put in place the mechanisms to govern your journey.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
|---|---|---|
| 5.1 | Identify metrics and targets per IT goal. |
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| 5.2 | (Optional) Identify required skills and resource capacity. |
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| 5.3 | Discuss next steps and wrap-up. |
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Module 6: Document Strategy
The Purpose
Complete your strategy by building a highly visual and compelling presentation that enables easy customization and executive-facing content.
Key Benefits Achieved
Simple, appealing, and inspirational communication of your strategy to all key stakeholders is a must to ensure IT’s success.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
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| 6.1 | Complete in-progress deliverables. |
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| 6.2 | (Optional) Set up review time for workshop deliverables. |
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