Month: January 2020

Are you still doing IT Strategy the old way?

In our business, regularly we find Technology leaders say that want to innovate; however, when we examine their IT Strategy, we observe two very big hindrances to achieving innovation.  

  1. First – No Innovation in the Plan
  • No technologies identified
  • No resources to conceive, identify or implement the innovation
  • No external confluences from which to draw innovation
  • No budget allocated to research or test solutions
  1. Second – Planning Done in the Same Old Way
  • The strategy is based on current and past, not in the future.
  • The strategy does not involve pre-vetting with other parts of the organization.
  • No tools are used to capture, track and facilitate the effectiveness of the strategy.
  • Strategy becomes nothing more than an IT Spend Plan.

When developing and IT Strategy for 2020 and beyond, incorporate innovative elements into your IT strategy but don’t neglect the best practices of the past.  These include:

  • Research technology market for innovations specific to your industry.
  • Collaborate ahead of time with business units that will be impacted by the IT strategy to get buy-in and clearly defined requirements for the business’ future plans.
  • Evaluate how effective your previous strategies were with respect to the spend plan, and use the data to guide decisions for the next phase of strategy.

 

CIOs: don’t get trapped in the Matrix

CIOs juggle day-to-day responsibilities and developing strategy while staying alert for IT weaknesses that threaten to negatively affect their company. Nothing spells a CIO’s demise like being unprepared to mitigate unexpected tech failures.  Corporate tech stumbles, be it a security breach, application outage, or a failed disaster recovery, can easily end up as an article in The Wall Street Journal.

It’s imperative for technology leaders to stay one step ahead of any potential trouble. A great way to ensure you’re receiving up to date, strategic advice is to enlist a trusted consultant to assist in developing plans and procedures that will mitigate or eliminate risks.

A large gap exists between identifying the need for a professional consultant and receiving the funds to hire assistance due to multiple factors.  You might run into negative responses for a number of reasons:

  • Budget problems: no funds are budgeted for security proofing.
  • Business-oriented decision-makers fail to thoroughly analyze the risks involved when operating under lax security protocols.
  • Decision-makers are unwilling to invest in security measures.
  • Political tension and competition exists between departments—every vertical has funding needs and struggles to maintain budgeting priority.

Avoiding the urge to concede to other business priorities or downplay the importance of IT investments is a challenging task that every IT leader must undertake.  Guide strategic decision making and make your case for an increased budget with data. Evaluate the results of previous priorities in relation to the spending plan and use this information to defend and build on your organization’s IT strategic priorities.