Build a Business-Aligned IT Strategy

Success depends on IT initiatives clearly aligned to business goals, IT excellence, and driving technology innovation.

Executive Summary

IT strategies are often nonexistent or ineffective.

• According to the Management and Governance diagnostic (MGD), 74.6% of organizations have an IT strategy process they feel is ineffective (Info-Tech, Management and Governance Diagnostic; n=1,931).
• IT does not do a good job of communicating their support for business goals, therefore, 23.6% of CXOs still feel that their goals are unsupported by IT (Info-Tech, CEO-CIO Alignment Diagnostic; n=863).

IT departments that have not developed IT strategies experience alignment, organization, and prioritization issues.

Three-quarters of surveyed CEOs value tech leaders with experience fostering operational stability and strategic business alignment (CIO Journal, 2020), however…

• The CIO is seen as an order taker by business executives. This usually results in the demands on IT far outstripping the IT budget.
• Projects and initiatives are not prioritized around business objectives. Synergies and dependencies are recognized too late. Projects are often late or put on hold because of sudden changes to business requirements.

Follow Info-Tech’s approach to developing a strong IT strategy.

• Use Info-Tech’s industry-focused approach to discern the business context.
• Clearly communicate to business executives how IT will support the organization’s key objectives and initiatives using the Strategy Presentation Template.
• Use Info-Tech’s Prioritization Tool to help make project decisions in a holistic manner that allows for the selection of the most-valuable initiatives to become part of the IT strategic roadmap.

Info-Tech Insight

A CIO has three roles: enable business productivity, run an effective IT shop, and drive technology innovation. Your IT strategy must reflect these three mandates and how IT strives to fulfill them.

Info-Tech’s approach

1. Establish the Scope of Your IT Strategy

Establish the scope of your IT strategy by defining IT’s mission and vision statements and guiding principles.

2. Review IT Performance From Last Fiscal Year

A retrospective of IT’s performance helps recognize the current state while highlighting important strategic elements to address going forward.

3. Build Your Key Initiative Plan

Elicit the business context and identify strategic initiatives that are most important to the organization and build a plan to execute on them.

4. Define IT’s Operational Strategy

Evaluate the foundational elements of IT’s operational strategy that will be required to successfully execute on key initiatives.

Info-Tech’s methodology for IT Strategy

Info-Tech’s methodology for IT Strategy

Blueprint deliverables

The IT Strategy Workbook supports each step of this blueprint to help you accomplish your goals:

Goals Cascade Visual

Elicit business context and use the workbook to build your custom goals cascade.

Initiative Prioritization

Use the weighted scorecard approach to evaluate and prioritize your strategic initiatives.

Roadmap/Gantt Chart

Populate your Gantt chart to visually represent your key initiative plan over the next 12 months.

Key deliverable:

IT Strategy Presentation Template

A highly visual and compelling presentation template that enables easy customization and executive-facing content.

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

DIY Toolkit

"Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful"

Guided Implementation

"Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track."

Workshop

"We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place."

Consulting

"Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project."

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options.

Guided Implementation

What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

A typical GI is between 8 to 12 calls over the course of 2 to 4 months.

Workshop Overview

Contact your account representative for more information.

workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

Workshop Requirements

Phase 1

Establish Scope of Your IT Strategy

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• How to build IT mission and vision statements
• How to elicit IT guiding principles
• How to finalize and communicate your IT strategy scope

This phase involves the following participants:

• CIO
• Senior IT Team

To complete this phase, you will need:

IT Strategy Presentation Template

Use the IT Strategy Presentation Template to document the results from the following activities:

• Mission and Vision Statements
• IT Guiding Principles

IT must aim to support the organization’s mission and vision

A mission statement:

• Focuses on today and what an organization does to achieve it.
• Drives the company.
• Answers: What do we do? Whom do we serve? How do we service them?

"A mission statement focuses on the purpose of the brand; the vision statement looks to the fulfillment of that purpose."

A vision statement:

• Focuses on tomorrow and what an organization ultimately wants to become.
• Gives the company direction.
• Answers: What problems are we solving? Who and what are we changing?

"A vision statement provides a concrete way for stakeholders, especially employees, to understand the meaning and purpose of your business. However, unlike a mission statement – which describes the who, what, and why of your business – a vision statement describes the desired long-term results of your company's efforts."

Source: Business News Daily, 2020

Characteristics of a mission & vision statement

A strong mission statement has the following characteristics:

• Articulates the IT function’s purpose and reason for existence
• Describes what the IT function does to achieve its vision
• Defines the customers of the IT function
• Is:
  • Compelling
  • Easy to grasp
  • Sharply focused
  • Concise

A strong vision statement has the following characteristics:

• Describes a desired future achievement
• Focuses on ends, not means
• Communicates promise
• Is:
  • Concise; no unnecessary words
  • Compelling
  • Achievable
  • Measurable

Derive the IT mission and vision statements from the business’

Begin the process by identifying and locating the business mission and vision statements.

Ensure there is alignment between the business and IT statements.

Note: Mission statements may remain the same unless the IT department’s mandate is changing.

1.1 Construct mission and vision statements

Objective: Help teams define their purpose (why they exist) to build a mission statement (if one doesn't already exist).

30 minutes

Step 1:

• Gather the IT strategy creation team and revisit your business context inputs, specifically the corporate mission statement.
• Begin by asking the participants:
  • What is our job as a team?
  • What’s our goal? How do we align IT to our corporate mission?
  • What benefit are we bringing to the company and the world?

Ask them to share general thoughts in a check-in.

Step 2:

• Share some examples of IT mission statements.
  • Example: IT provides innovative product solutions and leadership that drives growth and success.
• Provide each participant with some time to write their own version of an IT mission statement.

Step 3:

• This step involves reviewing individual mission statements, combining them, and building one collective mission statement for the team.
• Consider the following approach to build a unified mission statement:
  • Use the 20x20 rule for group decision making. Give the group no more than 20 minutes to craft a collective team purpose with no more than 20 words.
• As a facilitator, provide guidelines on how to write for the intended audience. Business stakeholders need business language.
• Refer back to the corporate mission statement periodically and ensure there is alignment.
• Document your final mission statement in your IT Strategy Presentation Template.

1.1 Construct mission and vision statements (cont.)

Objective: Help teams define their ideal culture (how they work together to achieve their purpose) to a vision statement.

60 minutes

Step 4:

• Gather the IT strategy creation team and revisit your business context inputs, specifically the corporate vision statement.
• Share one or more examples of vision statements.
• Provide participants with sticky notes and writing materials, and ask them to work individually for this step.
• Ask participants to brainstorm using the following questions:
  • What is the desired future state of the IT organization?
  • How should we work to attain the desired state?
  • How do we want IT to be perceived in the desired state?
• Provide participants with guidelines to build descriptive, compelling, and achievable statements regarding their desired future state.
• Regroup as a team and review participant answers.

Step 5:

• Ask the team to post their notes on the wall.
• Have the team group the words that have a similar meaning or feeling behind them – these will create themes.
• When the group is done categorizing the statements into themes, ask if there's anything missing. Did they ensure alignment to the corporate vision statement? Are there any elements missing when considering alignment back to the corporate vision statement?

Step 6:

• Consider each category as a component of your vision statement.
• Review each category with participants; define what the behavior looks like when it is being met and what it looks like when it isn’t.
• As a facilitator, provide guidelines on word-smithing and finessing the language.
• Refer back to the corporate vision statement periodically and ensure there is alignment.
• Document your final mission statement in your IT Strategy Presentation Template.

Source: Hyper Island Toolbox

Tips for Online Facilitation

Pick an online whiteboard tool that allows participants to use a large, zoomable canvas. Set up each topic at a different area of the board; spread them out just like you would do it on the walls of a room. Invite participants to zoom in and visit each section and add their ideas as sticky notes once you reach that section of the exercise. If you’re not using an online whiteboard, we’d recommend using a collaboration tool such as Google Docs to collect the information for each step under a separate heading. Invite everyone into the document but be very clear in regard to editing rights. Pre-create your screen deck and screen share this with your participants through your videoconferencing software. We’d also recommend sharing this so participants can go through the deck again during the reflection steps. When facilitating group discussion, we’d recommend that participants use non-verbal means to indicate they’d like to speak. You can use tools like Teams’ “raise hand” tool, a reaction emoji, or just have people put their hands up. The facilitator can then invite that person to talk.

Input

• Business mission statement
• Business vision statement

Output

• IT mission statement
• IT vision statement

Materials

• Screen
• Projector
• Sticky notes
• Markers
• Whiteboard
• Paper
• Collaboration/brainstorming tool (whiteboard, flip chart, digital equivalent)

Participants

• CIO
• Senior IT Team

Download the IT Strategy Presentation Template and document your mission and vision statements in section 1.

IT mission statements demonstrate the IT function’s purpose

The IT mission statement specifies the function’s purpose or reason for being. The mission should guide each day’s activities and decisions. The mission statements use simple and concise terminology and speak loudly and clearly, generating enthusiasm for the organization.

Strong IT mission statements have the following characteristics:

• Articulates the IT function’s purpose and reason for existence
• Describes what the IT function does to achieve its vision
• Defines the customers of the IT function
• Is:
  • Compelling
  • Easy to grasp
  • Sharply focused
  • Inspirational
  • Memorable
  • Concise

Sample IT Mission Statements:

• To provide infrastructure, support, and innovation in the delivery of secure, enterprise-grade information technology products and services that enable and empower the workforce at [Company Name].
• To help fulfil organizational goals, the IT department is committed to empowering business stakeholders with technology and services that facilitate effective processes, collaboration, and communication.
• The mission of the information technology (IT) department is to build a solid, comprehensive technology infrastructure; to maintain an efficient, effective operations environment; and to deliver high-quality, timely services that support the business goals and objectives of ABC Inc.
• The IT department has operational, strategic, and fiscal responsibility for the innovation, implementation, and advancement of technology at ABC Inc. in three main areas: network administration and end-user support, instructional services, and information systems. The IT department provides leadership in long-range planning, implementation, and maintenance of information technology across the organization.
• The IT group is customer-centered and driven by its commitment to management and staff. It oversees services in computing, telecommunications, networking, administrative computing, and technology training.