Why Business Strategy should inform your IT Strategy

You can create your IT and Business Strategy at the same time. In most cases, your business’s direction drives the tactics you need to implement, and IT is no exception. Your IT strategy should deliver you closer to achieving your business goals. Here are a few examples of IT projects that align with your business strategy:

1. Accounting system – this needs to support growth and data management.
2. Manufacturing system – this can be can an upgrade of your basic accounting system to something more enterprise (called an ERP) to help track inventory better and process jobs.
3. CRM (customer relationship management system) – managing your sales, quotes and client engagements. This can also help with marketing efforts.

Security

We talk about cybersecurity, but you should also consider the surety of your systems. Making sure you pick the right vendors and products isn’t just about the security of your data; it’s about ensuring the longevity of the decision you’ve made. We have seen technical decisions lead to 2-3x the original project cost where the vendor or product decides to close down, or operational costs increase from initially low monthly fees. Both of these issues can trap you into costs you didn’t budget for. Your IT strategy can help you pick the right products and vendors.

At Totali, we have helped clients create requirements lists, shortlist vendors, interview vendors, and manage vendor relationships. All of this is completely transparent; we do this with your interests at heart. The decision is yours to make, but with the right questions, you can make better decisions.

People and places

Keeping your team aligned to your IT strategy means they can access the tools they need when they need them. In 2020 we saw the entire world working from home for the first time. This meant IT became vital to operations, and those businesses that were well prepared managed to switch to the home office quickly, whereas a business that didn’t struggle and in most cases needed to pause for at least a few months.

BYOD (bring your own device) is a perfect example where the business hasn’t always provided the right tools for their team, so they decide to use their own. Many companies no longer provide mobile devices to their employees; however, their employees use work email on their personal device. These things all need policies to manage the risks to your business and keep everything safe and secure.