How IT Strategy Can Help.
It is commonplace for many companies and their executives to become overwhelmed with different projects presented to them. Staff is adamant at times with their claims that each one will bring value to their organization. It’s almost always well-meaning by staff and employees, trying to make their daily life easier. And it’s almost always true that technology has the opportunity to make that difference for them. However, it becomes tough to qualify each new ask coming your way without a strategy in place. You also may feel like another technology out there might have more significance to your company. IT strategy has changed over the years. It still includes the traditional tech side of things. For example, reviewing infrastructure items like servers, firewalls, workstations and planning into the budget for the coming year. It also now includes adopting new tech like artificial intelligence machine learning, robotic process automation, and custom-built apps. The barrier of entry is lower, and it is becoming a reality for mid to small-size companies to deploy them. IT strategy is becoming more the core part of any organization’s corporate plan. This article intends to describe solut’s approach to IT strategy.
How we deliver IT Strategy.
Our IT strategy approach is aligned with our overall company purpose, empowering you with uncomplicated solutions. This is the core of how we do business. We deliver on this purpose with the just cause to help adapt organizations in an ever-changing world so they can continue providing value to the people they serve. We’d like to take a no-one-left-behind approach. Technology can displace people, but we focus on projects that can truly empower and raise the tide for all ships. We try and act on our purpose to understand how our clients deliver value and how we can help. This way, any recommendation we provide will be tied to value. We want to create a linear connection to how it supports what you sell will and how you serve with clear metrics of success like ROI and net present value.
The experience of engaging with solut in IT strategy begins with a discovery phase. We want to understand what industry you’re in, what industries you serve, the overall corporate structure and strategy. We want to learn how you deliver value, what goals you have for IT strategy and the overall culture around innovation and technology throughout your organization. After getting a clear understanding of your company through the discovery phase, we offer two different options. First, we provide our strategy in a la cart version to select various items within our package. A technical audit, digital audit, a cost-benefit assessment, disaster recovery/business continuity plan, a technology budget, and a road mapping exercise. These are the pieces we believe should occur every year within an organization. The technical audit will identify the traditional infrastructure gaps in our best practices. A digital audit reviews 6 core business processes. Each involves technology is working well “current state” or needs improvement “future state.” A cost-benefit assessment we believe is crucial to go through before deploying any type of new technology. Every organization should have a business continuity plan or disaster recovery plan. If your organization currently doesn’t have one, we recommend building one, and then it should be reviewed every year. A technology budget is paramount to having a clear understanding of your costs to your business. It would look at upgrading workstations, potential large capital projects like new firewalls, servers, possible migration to the cloud, etc. Finally, the road map is informed by the technical and digital audit. It reviews various opportunities and identifies projects to move them forward, capturing what costs are involved and what value would be gained. A road map also includes pacing the projects through the year or years. We offer this in a 12-month package with a reoccurring financial commitment or in the prementioned a la cart offer.
Who IT Strategy is and isn’t for.
The result is evaluated, and defined projects that help your organization adapt to that ever-changing technological world. You’ll have a clear understanding of the ROI of each individual recommendation. You will move on from the ad hoc response. This is a proactive approach to doing business and working with technology. It is paced and measured. Our goal is not to sell you endless audits or reoccurring engagements but work with you as a partner, a subject matter expert and clearly identify the value of each individual project. We have a network of technology experts (in-house and out of the house) that are aware of all the new applications and tools. We can work with new technologies like AI, machine learning, robotic process automation, and much more. This process and building an IT strategy will sharpen your competitive edge.
Where we find other IT companies go wrong is the natural habit of leaning into infrastructure tech. Keeping infrastructure up to date and current is critical to reducing risk and improving productivity for your organization. We need to be conscious of that bias and provide the acumen areas in technology. This means a balanced approach to recommended solutions, a focus on ROI and risk mitigation. Our key performance indicators are based on that premise. Revenue, profit, and EBITA are essential, but they are lagging indicators to the process, the solution, and the ROI delivered. Your success will be our success.
The IT strategy team is an integrated one. We have vCIO consultants that act as facilitators performing assessments, audits, road mapping, writing disaster recovery plans, and business continuity plans. We have our customer experience and projects team to assist in several projects from these assessments. Finally, we have an innovation team that helps review the assessments and reports to identify innovation opportunities to implement, like process improvement opportunities, advanced tech, and more.
What you can expect from moving through the workflow is to enter the discovery then into the assessments. A vCIO writes the report findings and brings in the team to review and revise. The next step after report review is then to road map potential projects. After project approval, the execution occurs, and the rest of the team gets involved. Depending on the project’s scope, it could be our client experience or projects team, the vCIO again, our innovation team, or perhaps even a third-party provider. Our driving philosophy is that there will be an infinite place for technology to solve business problems. Those who adopt solutions will have a sharp competitive advantage. With time, the problems will change, and so will the tech, but our effort to be the catalyst should remain steady while leaving no one behind. If you’re curious about engaging in a strategy session, our vCIOs would be happy to help.