Your digital transformation journey begins with creating awareness and alignment on where you are and where you want to go. This process is called IT Strategic Planning.
We often see organizations start down the path of digital transformation without a clear vision and understanding of what they want to accomplish. Without this clarity of purpose, stakeholders will often fill the void with their own objectives and priorities. Stakeholders with different functions, or within different departments, may develop competing objectives and priorities. This misalignment can ultimately undermine your initiative and potentially even result in organizational conflict. The IT Strategic Planning process begins with aligning IT with Business Strategy.
Aligning IT with Business Strategy
Aligning IT with Business Strategy happens through an Information Technology (IT) Strategic Planning process. IT Plans begin with understanding and communicating the Business Strategy. Technology Strategy comes next which takes a holistic view of the IT environment and how IT will support the Business. Once the Technology Strategy is in place, more detailed Technology Plans can be built.
Business Strategy. You should be able to clearly articulate the business drivers a particular initiative is supporting, how it supports the vision of the organization, and what business outcomes the initiative is expected to deliver upon.
Technology Strategy. Create alignment with your IT resources on what the business needs are and how the initiative(s) will support them. Assess the current state of the impacted function(s) and align on the desired future state and roadmap and begin allocating resources to planning.
Technology Plan. After there is alignment on the roadmap, you can begin to detail specific plans. Examples might include an IT Operations Plan, Infrastructure Plan, or Security Plan.
Together, your Business Strategy, Technology Strategy,
and Technology Plan make up your IT Strategic Plan.
What are IT Strategic Plans?
IT Strategic Plans are the vehicle used to ensure that the organization is leveraging technology and technology enabled services, to create value for the organization, stakeholders, customers, and partners. Strategic Plans are the “on ramps” to arrive at short- and long-term organizational objectives.
Typically, getting to an IT Strategic Plan starts with a technology assessment or series of assessments. MSS Business Transformation Advisory partners with customers to assess and understand the current state of the organization and to define a roadmap and strategy for achieving the desired future state vision. This service helps define a detailed strategy for driving the expected business outcomes associated with change or transformation initiatives. We utilize a tailored approach to assessments that is supported by best practice approaches, frameworks, and tools.
Common technology assessments include:
- Security Assessment. Gap assessment of current state of Information Protection program with plan to close gaps
- Operations Assessment. Assess IT operating model and performance and develop plan to close gaps and improve performance
- Infrastructure Assessment. Assess current state infrastructure and identify opportunities for savings and improved performance including leveraging cloud services
- IT Operations Assessment. Assess IT value and performance from a business perspective; how well it meets business needs and objectives
- Business Alignment Assessment. Assess how well the IT plan aligns with business objectives and strategies
- Vendor Assessment. Risk assessment of a SaaS vendor: high-level review of third-party technologies, using a security scanner to identify vulnerabilities.
Learn more about our Technology Assessments
Many of our Assessments result in a Technology Roadmap and presentation designed to create organizational alignment around a future and transition state. The final component of the IT Strategic Plan is to build out the detailed technology plan(s) that the organization will execute against. Examples might include an IT Operations Plan, Infrastructure Plan, or Security Plan.
We would love to talk about your business. Please fill out our contact form or send us a note
and we will get back to you shortly! Advisory@mssbta.com or 602-387-2100.
What other Digital Transformation Services does MSSBTA provide?
- Transformation Oversight. What will your governance processes and vendor QA program look like? Transformation Oversight goes beyond what typically falls under the realm of Project Management. It involves developing good governance processes to provide visibility of project execution and enable quality decision making while simultaneously holding your vendor(s) accountable. Learn about Transformation Oversight
- ERP System Selection and Implementation. Have you selected the right Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System? What won’t your ERP Vendor do? Choosing an ERP System may seem like an overwhelming task for those who have never gone through the ERP System Selection process. It is a big decision your organization will be living with for the next ten or more years. MSS Business Transformation Advisory has unparalleled experience in ERP System Selection and Implementation. Read about ERP Selection and Implementation
- Vendor Selection. Which Vendor(s) should I choose? In today’s market there is a convergence in capabilities between technology vendors. Aligning stakeholders, gathering differentiating requirements, conducting market research, developing your RFP, scheduling demos, and evaluating vendors can be a difficult, resource-intensive, and time-consuming project. MSS Business Transformation Advisory can help you select the right vendor on an accelerated timeline. Learn more about Vendor Selection services
- Enterprise Change Management. What is the impact of change on your people? Change is hard. A Digital Transformation is a huge change for any organization. We understand large technology initiatives do not typically fail for technical reasons; instead, they often fail because the “people side of change” is not managed well. MSS Business Transformation Advisory has unparalleled experience in Enterprise Change Management. This way for more on ECM
- Business Process Improvement. Are you automating good processes? A Digital Transformation is one of the best opportunities you will ever have to improve your processes and gain efficiencies by leveraging technology. MSS Business Transformation Advisory can help address any gaps in skill, knowledge, or capacity while simultaneously providing third-party perspective and insight to ensure you will design for success. Find more information on BPI
Advisory@mssbta.com or 602-387-2100.