Technology is at the core of every single thing your small business does these days. Whether protecting data, protecting resources, or simply maintaining a friction-free experience for your customers, an effective and consistent information technology (IT) strategy is essential for every business.
Implementing an IT business strategy is also important and useful when it comes time to scale up your operations. From handling more customers to more employees and everything in between, information technology strategy is also at the core of every business goal and constitutes the foundation you need for future growth. And failing to develop a robust, effective IT strategy can have the opposite effect on your business, costing you customers, opportunities, and significant money from your operations budget.
We’ll define just what is IT strategy, do a deep dive into how to develop an IT strategy, and provide some IT strategy examples and an IT strategy template to help you get started. Throughout we’ll also explore the option of IT strategy consulting and how many small businesses benefit from employing external IT firms and shared services to keep their organizations humming.
What is an IT strategy?
Much the same way you have a marketing strategy, a hiring or HR strategy, and so on, an IT strategy is just as important and might be even more so. Simply put, an IT strategy is “a comprehensive plan outlining how the organization will successfully use technology to meet IT and business requirements.” [1]
As you can imagine, large enterprise operations have thousands of employees with thousands of laptop computers, mobile phones, logins, files, and so on, so an IT strategy is a must have for any organization of this size. As proof of this fact, we found that 96% of IT professionals say their company uses IT asset management software to track and manage its IT hardware assets.*
What you might not realize, though, is that small businesses and startups have much more to gain from developing an efficient and effective IT strategy—and far more at stake if they do not have one in place. With fewer customers and resources, SMBs cannot really stand to lose either. But data breaches, equipment failures, site outages, and security issues can have an enormous impact on small businesses, costing an enormous percentage of the overall operations budget and impacting profitability for an extended period of time.
Why is an effective IT strategy important for businesses?
There are several reasons why an effective IT strategy is worth a significant investment of time and resources, especially for small businesses.
- Time savings: An effective IT strategy will take into account the compatibility of systems, software, and equipment, as well as identifying redundancies that can be eliminated. Making sure systems work well together saves time for not only your staff, but also your customers.
- Budget constraints: Making the most of your budget is critical for any SMB, and when it comes to IT resources this is especially true. Choosing cost-effective software and systems, and avoiding costly incidents or repairs, can help stretch your limited budget farther and prevent issues later on.
- Scalability: Every small business is aiming to grow, and having a well-planned IT strategy in place will make that much more possible. One of your IT strategy components will be a consideration of capacity and growth capabilities, which in turn will help you ensure that your business can grow without needing expensive upgrades or system replacement.
- Flexibility: As needs change, you want your business to be able to quickly adapt and change. Crafting an IT strategy with this in mind allows your business to respond to changes in the market, new opportunities that your competitors might miss, and new ideas for growth avenues internally and externally.
- Safety and security: A well-crafted IT strategy will also include all of the considerations for protecting your resources, your company data, and your customer data. Most companies recognize that protecting data is key, as we discovered that 41% of businesses surveyed say their company backs up their business data daily, while 43% do it on a weekly basis and 13% back up their business data monthly.* With an eye on security and crisis management, your IT strategy will help your business avoid or prevent costly breaches, maintain customer trust, and ensure that your systems remain functional without interruption.
On the other side of the coin, not implementing an IT strategy, or neglecting to build a comprehensive one, could impede business growth, limit opportunities, and result in costly and damaging data breaches or equipment failures.
Effective IT strategy examples
Many businesses, organizations, and nonprofits have created effective and well-regarded IT strategies, but here are a couple of favorites that are worth noting.
- University of Illinois: While far from a small business context, the University of Illinois’ IT strategic plan is notable for a number of reasons. First, because they have to consider so many audiences and users from different areas, and with different needs. Second, because one of their primary objectives is to streamline the user experience, including a focus on accessibility: “Use IT to reduce the barriers that arise due to disabilities and deliver inclusive, usable, accessible IT services throughout all aspects of the University.” [2]
- NASA: NASA’s IT strategic plan [3] is worth examining as well, especially the section covering how the plan is aligned with the organization’s overarching strategic plan. Especially notable is the part which states, “NASA’s IT strategic goals provide direct or cross-cutting support to achieving the Agency’s goals.” It then goes on to describe how NASA’s IT community will enact and provide both types of support, and how the IT strategic plan is designed to support the overall organization’s goals.
These large organizations, although far removed from the SMB world, provide some terrific real-world examples of components and considerations that should be part of any IT strategy.
How to develop and implement an IT strategy
If you were to ask a dozen IT professionals and service providers how to create an IT strategy, you might get several different answers. But you would almost certainly get a sense that there are some important best practices and steps to take that virtually everyone agrees upon. Let’s break down the process of how to develop an IT strategy here into more manageable steps.
Define your business objectives
The first and perhaps most important step is to understand and define your business objectives. That way you can ensure that any IT strategy you develop will be in alignment with the existing business strategy.
And according to recent research from Gartner, “The primary purpose of an IT strategy is to provide a clear explanation of what IT will do to help the enterprise realize its strategic ambition. To do this, it must be structured around the business strategy and make a clear connection between actions that IT will take and specific elements of the business strategy.” [4]
There are numerous resources out there to help you follow these steps and build your IT strategic plan, but one of the best is the Gartner IT Strategic Planning Guide [5], complete with information to not only help you build your IT strategy but also consider and avoid potentially costly mistakes and missed considerations as you work through the guide.
Consider your current IT infrastructure and business processes
With a full understanding of the overarching business strategy in hand, you can take a thorough look at your current IT practices, infrastructure, resources, and needs. This will make it possible to identify gaps as well as areas that work, and how you can plan for scalable growth as needs change.
You likely already have an inventory of hardware and software in use, but if not, this would be a perfect opportunity for an audit, as well as a chance to solicit ideas for expansion or additions from the full staff.
Identify your technology and process needs
Related to the above step, identifying your current process needs and those gaps in the hardware or software (or networking) capabilities will help you create a robust IT strategy plan built for security and growth.
This step will also allow you to identify areas for potential cost savings through the implementation of shared services or cloud technology, among other options. [6]
Create your strategy roadmap
Next, with needs and existing technologies identified (as well as business strategy and organizational goals), you can begin to identify the strategic objectives for your company’s information technology and map out the process and timeline for getting there.
This step is one of the more rewarding parts of the process, because it allows your IT department and CIO (or other organizational leaders) to not only envision the future, but create a plan that makes it possible. The roadmap should include information including a vision statement for the IT strategic plan, current and anticipated future needs, and the path for meeting those needs.
Allocate resources and budgets
This is the real “dollars and cents” part of the process – your chance to take those needs, goals, and the strategy into account and really understand how much things will cost. This is an opportunity area, too, because you can identify not only present costs but also future costs (with pricing adjustments for inflation, perhaps), overall budget and percentage of budget for most needs, and prospective cost savings with certain choices.
This includes allocating expected savings toward future upgrades or expansions, providing guidance for the IT budget and the organization’s overarching budgets as well.
Outline and communicate your implementation plan
Now you arrive at the “how” part of the plan. This covers how you are going to put this plan into action, how it will impact departments and the organization overall, and what is needed from other departments and employees in order to make the plan successful.
The communication and sharing of the plan should include consideration of change management, including the timing or schedule for making changes to systems and resources, training for employees, and help resources.
Measure and evaluate performance
Your IT strategic plan should also include clear methods and measurements for evaluating the performance of the overall strategy, as well as steps to take to make changes and adjustments. Then, once you have implemented the IT strategy, you have already given consideration to the review and reporting, as well as points of comparison with the full business strategy.
How can you leverage IT services to create your IT strategy?
While enterprises and large organizations often have large IT departments, small businesses usually do not have the budget or space for a full-service IT operation. Fortunately, there are IT services and service providers available specifically to meet the needs of SMBs and growing startups.
And if your organization is looking to leverage IT services in order to create or implement your IT strategy, be sure to include this information and consideration as part of your IT strategy development. The desire to utilize IT services should also inform your planning and approach. Recent research from Gartner also shows that the service-optimizing model helps to put more focus on the outcome instead of the technology. [7] And even more research provides advice and steps to follow when you are beginning the process of finding and choosing IT providers. [8]
UpCity’s IT Services Providers directory includes local, regional, and nationwide service providers who have been trusted and reviewed by countless satisfied clients. Whether you are looking for a firm to guide you through the IT strategy development process, or you want to explore specific IT services and their potential cost savings, there are dozens of expert firms that are easy to find and connect with through UpCity’s network.
Begin your IT strategy development with expert insight
While we have done our best to include as much information in this guide as possible, the topic of creating an effective IT strategy could easily fit into several dozen books. This piece is designed, though, to help you get started on the process and take into consideration as many pieces as possible to create a robust strategy and implementation plan for your business.
As you get started you can continue reading about specific considerations here at UpCity. Whether you are primarily concerned with choosing a secure operating system for your business, developing an IT disaster recovery plan, or developing an IT service continuity management plan to get things back up and running after a breach or loss of data, you can find additional resources in our IT services hub.
Sources
- The Growing Importance of IT Strategy for Small Businesses, InfoTech
- University of Illinois IT Strategic Plan, University of Illinois
- NASA Information Technology Strategic Plan, NASA
- Executive Essentials: Create and Execute an IT Strategy That Contributes to Enterprise Success, Gartner
- Build an IT Strategic Plan That You Will Actually Use, Gartner
- 10 IT Cost Optimization Techniques for Private and Public Sector Organizations, Gartner
- Use the Service-Optimizing IT Operating Model to Run IT Like a Business, Gartner
- IT Services Strategic Sourcing Guide, Gartner
Survey methodology
*UpCity’s IT Management Survey was conducted in June 2023 among 500 respondents to learn more about IT management practices at U.S. businesses. All respondents were screened for IT positions at companies with 1000 or fewer employees.