September’s finally here, and hopefully with it comes a little peace and quiet as all the kids go back to school. With a bit more serenity and time to focus, now’s the perfect time to look at your IT strategy and check it's doing its best for your business.
The pandemic shifted many of us to working from home, only visiting the office when necessary. Many businesses had some degree of infrastructure in place to facilitate this shift but might not have had the time to look at how it affects their overall IT strategy.
An important part of modern business management is ensuring your IT strategy takes full advantage of any available resources. If every employee is aware of and understands your IT strategy, it can go a long way towards achieving your business goals and getting the most value out of your business’ IT infrastructure.
So, what is an IT Strategy, and why do we need one?
As part of your overall IT Capability, your IT strategy document lays out your business’ ability to utilise its technological assets and skills effectively, to add value. One thing to keep in mind is that your IT strategy is a business document that should be able to be understood by any employee, not just those with a technological background.
Beyond meeting business needs and improving organisational processes, the purpose of an overarching IT strategy is to clarify your long-term goals and create a framework that can be referred to when making short or mid-term decisions. Almost all companies have been forced to make changes over the last 18 months, so your existing IT strategy might need adjusting slightly to maximise the technological capability of your business.
Now that children are back in school, focus on your IT strategy and evaluate how your needs might have changed since it was first implemented, or even whether you need to start from scratch!
To get started, there are a few key elements and principles to bear in mind when thinking through a new strategy or amending an old one. Firstly, the core principle of any strategy is to enable your organisation to meet its goals. It is important to directly reference these business goals and reorientate, where necessary, to support your overall vision. While it's easy to get dragged into the minutiae of software, tools, and pipelines, it’s essential to keep the end goal in sight.
One of the most straightforward ways of getting started is to perform an audit. By speaking to employees, customers, or anyone else involved in the process, you can find out which areas are hindering processes and can even gain some valuable insight on how to address those issues. It’s important to make sure all aspects of your current IT strategy and infrastructure are included in any audits; any progress made could become redundant if anything slips through the cracks.
If you want some help getting started with your IT strategy, or want a hand performing a comprehensive audit, contact Pearce IT Today!