Why does your business need an IT strategy?
In the present digital world, having a suitable IT strategy for businesses is essential. IT plays an integral role in the smooth functioning of all other departments of a company.
Everything from production, sales, marketing to human resources and security rely on IT to offer the necessary support for their applications. Therefore, it is essential for organizations to have an effective IT plan or roadmap. Now business strategies and IT strategies have become inseparable, and act as a perfect tool to ensure that the businesses are prepared to deliver the best value to their customers.
What is IT Strategy?
Information technology or IT strategy is comprehensive planning which outlines how the technology can be utilized to meet the IT as well as business goals. It is a written document that involves details of several factors which affect the company’s investment in technology. It covers different aspects of technology management like cost management, hardware and software management, human capital management, vendor management, risk management, etc. Executing an effective IT strategy requires managed services who have rich experience and expertise. The support team needs to work closely with the organization to understand the business, available budget, legal requirements and other lines of business and user groups to achieve success.
Organizations which lack IT strategy are clueless organizations just like a directionless ship in the sea of this 21st-century marketplace. Failure to execute an effective IT strategy can result in wastage of time and resources as the staff will have to come up with outdated systems which were never planned and designed to cope with the present business’s size and workflow.
Tips for creating an effective IT strategy
- An IT strategy must be planned for the upcoming three to five years by identifying the business capabilities for this specific time to achieve the desired business goals.
- The gap analysis for each capability should be done to assess the difference between the current maturity level and the required level to achieve the goal.
- The complete focus then shifts toward the technology to identify and analyse how the gaps can be addressed.
- The target technology architecture is designed to support the desired business capabilities.
- An assessment is carried out to check the gap between the current technology architecture and the target one.
- Then the roadmap can be created and prioritised in terms of the technology architecture design to address all these gaps.
Benefits of an IT Strategy
- Identifies duplication and bottlenecks
- Keeps control of the money
- Assures that you are meeting all your business needs
- Enhanced collaboration and data management
- Enables you to leverage technology to its fullest
- Allows automated data transfer
- Cost-saving through automation of responsibilities
- Enhanced Data management
- Gives You an edge over your competitors
IT Strategy Planning Process
Outline your business goals and objectives
In order to design an effective IT strategy, you must ensure that it perfectly caters to your overall business strategy. It is because the main function of an IT strategy is to provide the necessary support to your business and help you achieve your desired goals.
Define your scope and timeline
Everyone must have a clear idea about the purpose of your IT strategy. As part of the procedure, you must meet the key people from every department. They will tell you how they’re making use of technology currently and what are their future business plans. With all their inputs, support services in Dubai will be able to design a suitable IT strategy that provides the right support for each business unit.
Review your existing setup
While developing the IT strategy it is essential to review your current IT infrastructure so that you can identify your current problems and see what resources related to data recovery, networking solutions, security solutions, etc. are working and useful.
Create a roadmap
It is the largest and the most difficult step that defines the resource allocation and architecture. Initially, you may start by defining your technology architecture which comprises of the major software, hardware and tools that will be used. Then it is broken down to department specific technology that may be needed to meet the desired business goals. Finally, you have to consider how the different parts of your architecture fit together efficiently, and which procedures govern their integration.
Establish your metrics
Measurement is also an essential part of this process. You will not be able to identify any sort of gaps or weaknesses. You must make sure that your IT strategy is functional and cost-effective. In order to confirm this, you may identify KPIs and analyze your performance over time. It is essential to track a range of metrics as this enables you to be more proactive in identifying and resolving the issues before they start impacting the end users.
Whether your organization needs skills and experience to fill any gap in your system, plans to consult an expert IT team to design a customised infrastructure or cybersecurity strategy, or want assistance on how to become more work efficient and reduce expenses by creating a suitable IT strategy, Swift IT can cater to your needs.
Swift IT is one of the top IT solutions company in Dubai and we have developed proven methods to meet all your core IT objectives and offer efficient managed services. Also, being a renowned company for IT support in Abu Dhabi, we have deep experience in designing IT strategies and implementing new advanced technologies that can give you a competitive edge.
Contact Swift IT today for a free consultation and get the best IT service in Dubai!
