Strategy & Planning

IT strategic planning entails developing a strategy that uses IT resources to meet business goals. The plan outlines the technology and funds needed to meet these objectives. By outlining priorities and the steps required to achieve them for the best return on investment.

The company IT strategic plan functions as a guide to IT decision-making. Organizations can cut costs and promote growth by aligning IT with business strategies and goals.

An IT strategic plan outlines:

The company’s long-term and short-term objectives

The benchmarks measuring your success

The resources needed to meet your goals

Which tech investments does the company need and why they’re important

Why is IT planning important?

Strategic planning for IT helps businesses stay competitive in a changing environment. As years pass, new tech innovations give early adopters an edge. On the other hand, poorly managed technology investments can set an organization back. IT planning ensures businesses use the best tools to stay ahead.

An effective IT strategic plan can:

Cut operating costs and unnecessary expenses in your IT budget

Improve communication between teams and leadership

Quickly respond to market changes and shifting demand

Align your tech with attainable business goals

Highlight deliverables with the highest value

Prioritize security and risk prevention

Components of IT strategies

Business leaders and staff base an IT strategic plan on their technology’s relationship to desired outcomes. It takes careful analysis of your business performance. Your organization’s opportunities, risks, strengths, and weaknesses will also shape the plan. You can identify the resources and barriers at play by weighing the goals you’re working toward against the ones you aren’t ready to prioritize.

More specifically, the components of an IT strategic plan include:

Technology roadmap: a list of tech investments, their requirements, and the result of their implementation relative to business goals

Transition support: the training, communications, and infrastructure needed to help your staff work toward new goals

IT inventory: your current IT capabilities and resources

IT governance: corporate compliance standards that ensure optimal performance and security

Key performance indicators: the metrics used to gauge the success of your plan and your ability to follow it

Timeline: the measure of time needed to implement your strategy and release new products or features

Workflows for all roles: outlines who will assist with your strategy and what they’re responsible for

Objectives and deliverables: the product you want to build, focusing on products that meet your wider goals

Best practices for strategic planning

To implement the best IT strategic plan, follow these best practices:

Remember the big picture: Don’t focus too much on the specifics when building your strategy. Instead, create a larger framework for decision-making. This broad approach will suit many specific situations.

Lean into iteration: Writing an IT strategy isn’t a one-and-done process. Make room for updates and adaptations to changing conditions. This agility will help your plan reach long-term goals instead of burning out early.

Don’t restrict your strategy: Your plan isn’t only for senior management and IT staff. If other employees and departments can help, factor them into your plan.

Stay proactive: Don’t wait until your plan runs into an issue before making changes. Anticipate upcoming threats and deviate from your plan to avoid them. A purely reactive strategy will face more of an uphill battle.