Myths Around IT Strategic Planning

Why do strategic planning ?

Myths around defining a strategic direction

Myth: Five years -- we can’t see that far into the future things are changing too rapidly.

There are goals and objectives that enterprise must meet to remain competitive that have to be thought out years in advance.

Building out CRM capabilities Transformation initiatives eg., getting off the mainframe, IT agility so that we can move into new markets quickly Building out data warehouse and BI capabilities

These kinds of capabilities typically require a multi-year programme

Myths around defining a strategic direction

Myth: The business does not need IT to set its own course.

There are some things, not many, that you don’t need some aspect of IT involvement to accomplish.

IT used to be about building back office systems, used by employees, now its also about;

Enabling a better customer experience Providing the information necessary to “sense” changes in the

market place Providing agility to respond the changes in the market or to move

into new markets

This might have been true if we were operating in a “green field” IT environment, instead of one that is a 30 years old where the new has to work with the old.

Myths around defining strategic direction

Myth: IT does not need the Business, we can build an IT strategy for them

− There are some things, not many that you don’t need some aspect of business involvement to accomplish .

− Only when there is an alignment between what the business needs and what IT delivers is real business value achieved and only if IT delivers it when the business needs it.

Myths around defining a strategic direction

Myth: It’s a 5 year planning exercise;

− We set realistic and unambiguous goals

− We prioritize those goals

− We layout a “roadmap” of intermediate milestones showing when we will achieve both intermediary and long term goals

− We don’t focus on how, but we do a reasonability check on our capabilities both for IT and the business.

− A roadmap is not a plan – it’s a preliminary step to building one

Myths around defining a Strategic Direction

Myth: It’s a post-funding activity

− Having a roadmap does not guarantee that a line of business will get more funding; it’s a pre-requisite not a nice-to-have

− The argument is even stronger because IT and the business built it together.

− Roadmaps can be used to show what is possible, given sufficient level of sustained investment

− Roadmaps have been used at the senior management level to show that the business has a clear, unambiguous set of objectives that need to be accomplished, that are in line with the overall corporate objectives

Why do IT Strategic Planning

• The initiatives that require a strategic thinking, are likely transformative and most likely the ones that are essential for the enterprise to remain competitive in the near future.

• There is little that can be done these days, without IT being involved, but this does not mean that IT should set the direction on behalf of the business

• The IT strategic plan has a better chance of being funded, being implemented and providing real business value if IT and the business work together on the plan – one does not lead and the other follow.