Build an IT Strategy for Small Enterprises
Get in front of your workload with a right-sized and business-aligned IT strategy.
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Contributors
- Ken Piddington, Chief Information Officer and Executive Advisor, MRE Consulting
- Kyle Saverance, Chief Information Officer, Coker College
- Small enterprise (SE) IT departments are so overburdened with managing the day-to-day that strategic thinking is an afterthought. 69% of SE IT departments surveyed claim their IT strategies were less than adequate.
- IT struggles to communicate its current or potential support of business goals. 41% of SE business leaders feel that their goals are unsupported by IT.
- All IT departments are limited by their capacity, but SEs feels this constraint more than their MLE counterparts. Necessary strategic initiatives are neglected if their value and risk doesn’t translate to business terms.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Don’t build a strategy to appease executives or view it as a request for permission. You’re making the case for the enhancements to the whole organization’s capabilities through the technology you deliver and operate.
- Business stakeholders cannot translate how IT initiatives will help achieve their objectives or mitigate risk. Explain IT’s role in value creation and share the ownership of tech risk.
- SEs invariably have less capacity, talent, and tools to meet a similar demand to MLEs. Prioritization is imperative to success, as is conveying how all gaps impact the business.
Impact and Result
- Clearly communicate to business executives how IT will support the organization’s key objectives and initiatives using the Small Enterprise Executive Presentation Template.
- Use Info-Tech’s Initiative 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.
- Demonstrate to business executives and the IT organization how the IT strategy was created using Info-Tech’s Small Enterprise IT Strategy Template.
Start here – read the Executive Brief
Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should create a well-defined IT strategy, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.
1. Identify the target state
Identify the IT organization target state using the business context to ensure IT supports business needs.
2. Assess the current state
Conduct an assessment of the IT organization current state to understand where IT currently stands.
3. Bridge the gap and create the strategy
Analyze the difference between the current state and target state on a capability perspective, then brainstorm initiatives to bridge the gap and secure approval for the IT strategy.
Guided Implementations
This guided implementation is a six call advisory process.
Guided Implementation #1 - Identify the target state
Call #1 - Identify the business context status and IT implications.
Call #2 - Create components of the IT target state.
Guided Implementation #2 - Assess the current state
Call #1 - Assess current IT capabilities.
Call #2 - Examine additional factors impacting IT and identify the current IT maturity.
Guided Implementation #3 - Bridge the gap and create the strategy
Call #1 - Assess the gaps to the target state.
Call #2 - Refine the communication materials and plan.
Book Your Workshop
Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Identify IT Implications
The Purpose
- Conduct analysis and facilitate discussions to uncover what business needs mean for IT.
Key Benefits Achieved
- An understanding of what business needs mean for IT.
Activities
Outputs
Review the business context.
Review links between business capabilities/business initiatives with business goals.
- Links between business capabilities/business initiatives with business goals
Identify IT implications from the documented business context.
Group the IT implications into themes from seven perspectives.
- Implications on IT from the business context
Module 2: Define the IT Target State
The Purpose
- Define goals and target state maturity to get a sense of where IT needs to go. Clearly understand where IT needs to go by defining the target state IT capabilities.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Identifies and documents, at a high level, IT’s target state. Additionally, the list of target state capabilities defines in more detail and clarity how the target state will look.
Activities
Outputs
Define IT goals.
- IT goals
Determine the IT goal alignment to business goals.
Indicate the target state IT maturity.
Identify target state IT capabilities required to achieve IT goals.
Consolidate target IT capability map.
- Target state IT capabilities
Module 3: Assess the IT Current State
The Purpose
- Gauge where the IT organization currently stands to get a baseline so that gaps can be identified between the current and target state.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Provides an assessment of the current state in terms of capabilities, planed initiatives, factors impacting IT, budget, and current state maturity.
Activities
Outputs
Review diagnostic results.
Assess current IT capabilities.
- Documented current IT capabilities and the gap to the target state
Conduct IT SWOT analysis.
- IT SWOT analysis
Identify current state maturity.
Assess the gaps between current- and target-state capabilities.
- Overall IT capabilities gap analysis
Module 4: Bridge the Gap and Create the Strategy
The Purpose
- Identify the gaps between the current and target states and brainstorm initiatives to address the gaps. Set out next steps to reach IT strategy approval.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Identify the projects needed to reach the target state from the current state.
- Link how the
projects support IT capabilities, IT goals, and the business context.
Activities
Outputs
Map key current IT initiatives to IT and business goals.
- Documented relationship between IT goals, capabilities, and initiatives.
Brainstorm initiatives to address the gaps in capabilities.
- List of new initiatives to reach the target state
Create initiative profiles.
- IT initiative profiles
Prioritize IT initiatives.
- IT strategy prioritization matrix
Create roadmaps for key IT initiatives.
- IT strategy roadmaps
Summarize the highlights of the IT strategy.
After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this Blueprint, and what our clients have to say.
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
Office of the Attorney General
Guided Implementation
10/10
$12,742
50
WellLife Network
Guided Implementation
8/10
$2,548
5
Halifax Port Authority
Guided Implementation
10/10
$100K
50
Public Utility Commission State Of Oregon
Guided Implementation
10/10
$2,546
5
City Of St Catharines
Guided Implementation
10/10
$50,000
20
Sioux Lookout Meno-Ya-Win Health Centre
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
5
Euclid Systems Corporation
Guided Implementation
10/10
$6,366
5
Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP
Guided Implementation
8/10
$5,000
2
City of Walla Walla
Guided Implementation
10/10
$12,733
20
Prince Resorts Hawaii
Guided Implementation
9/10
$12,733
60
Denver Zoological Foundation
Guided Implementation
8/10
N/A
3
Westoba Credit Union Limited
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
N/A
Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority
Guided Implementation
8/10
$4,000
5
Hamilton Public Library
Guided Implementation
8/10
N/A
N/A
Quartz Health Solutions, Inc.
Guided Implementation
8/10
$6,366
20
Tci, LLC
Guided Implementation
5/10
N/A
N/A
City of Brookings
Guided Implementation
6/10
N/A
15
The Research Institute of the MUHC
Guided Implementation
6/10
$1,000
2
Charlotte County Sheriff's Office
Guided Implementation
8/10
$6,366
15
Clasen Quality Chocolate, Inc.
Guided Implementation
6/10
N/A
N/A
Moorings Park Inc
Guided Implementation
6/10
$6,366
5
Addax Petroleum
Guided Implementation
6/10
$6,366
N/A
City Of St Catharines
Guided Implementation
6/10
$20,000
N/A
SIM Group
Guided Implementation
6/10
N/A
N/A
Snavely Forest Products Inc.
Guided Implementation
6/10
N/A
N/A
Moore Norman Technology Center
Guided Implementation
8/10
$2,546
N/A
Fraser Valley Regional Library
Guided Implementation
6/10
$5,000
5
Bristol Bay Industrial
Guided Implementation
8/10
$12,733
N/A
Hope Global
Guided Implementation
8/10
$12,733
N/A
ServicePower
Guided Implementation
6/10
N/A
N/A