Information technology (IT) has become a vital component of many organizations. When these organizations implement a business-aligned IT strategy, it can tremendously help digitally transform their processes to improve efficiency, increase customer satisfaction, enable data-based insights, limit human error, reduce costs, and much more.
However, without an effective IT strategy that’s aligned with your organizational goals you’ll leave your business vulnerable to inefficient processes, security risks, and operational sprawl.
Growing Need for IT Strategy Alignment
By 2025, the global digital transformation market is projected to reach $1,009.8 billion, up from $469.8 billion in 2020. Organizations of all sizes are pouring money into IT, but many are failing to reap the desired benefits. Unfortunately, this is nothing new.
A 2012 study by McKinsey showed that IT projects deliver over 50 percent less value than predicted, and 17 percent of large IT projects go so poorly they can threaten the very existence of the company.
One of the main reasons why so many IT projects don’t meet the expectations of those who greenlight them is the fact that organizations often don’t align their IT strategy with business goals. In fact, many organizations don’t have any IT strategy whatsoever, and that’s a big problem.
The more money organizations spend on IT, the larger the financial and operational consequences of a poor aligned IT strategy become. Furthermore, the gap between those whose technology investments are efficient and those who spend money inefficiently becomes wider as well.
IT Strategy Must Be Proactive
Gartner defines the term “IT strategy” as the discipline that deals with how IT is used to help organizations win in their chosen business context.
Based on Gartner’s definition, it’s clear that an IT strategy is subordinate to a business strategy. This means that an organization’s IT goals should always support its business goals and determine which technologies will be implemented and used.
As such, an IT strategy should be proactive and use IT solutions to improve the organization’s ability to support not only current key business objectives but also future ones.
Organizations should ask themselves, “Where do we want to be in X years? How can we adjust our IT strategy to best reach the destination?” Based on their answers, they can then start implementing IT initiatives that align with their goals and contribute to business development.
But that’s not how it always is. Many organizations are reactive in their approach to IT, implementing necessary IT solutions only when their lack starts causing business problems. Needless to say, the reactive approach to IT is inefficient and costly.
There are also organizations that have a proactive IT strategy—but one that doesn’t align with their business goals. Such organizations are essentially trying to build a house using two different sets of blueprints, and the lack of alignment robs them of an important competitive advantage.
Putting a Business-Aligned IT Strategy in Place
To put in place a proactive IT strategy that aligns with your business goals, you need to know what your business goals are. Breaking down each goal into actionable and measurable business objectives can make it easier to understand how IT can support them.
Once you know where you want to go, you need to figure out where you currently are by taking a detailed look at your technology posture. Create a detailed catalog of your existing IT capabilities and capacities, and assess how they’re helping you meet established objectives.
The gaps revealed by the assessment can be used to develop short-, medium-, and long-term IT objectives that align with your corresponding business objectives.
The last step is the most important one and something many organizations, especially those with limited internal IT resources, struggle with: the implementation of the IT strategy plan.
The good news is that this—as well as all previous steps—is something we at TechGen can help you with by providing the expertise and experience you may lack at a price you can afford. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you implement an aligned IT strategy within your organization.