To be effective IT must add value and contribute to the success of the organisation. Organisations which succeed in making good use of IT typically have a well defined and executed IT Strategy.

What is an IT Strategy?

An IT Strategy is a medium term plan to translate business strategy into IT action. It includes:

• Identification of what the business' priorities are.
• Translation of these business priorities into IT deliverables.
• Identification of projects and initiatives which address these deliverables.
• Identification of issues which will affect the chances of success, and plans to mitigate these issues.
• Identification of the support model which will support the IT infrastructure and IT user community.
• Plans to cope with the unforeseen - including disaster recovery.

The IT strategy is a costed plan, providing both costs and expected benefits; it can be used as a basis for setting an IT budget and for measuring the contribution IT has made to the business. It is also invaluable for communicating what IT is doing within the IT team, with external suppliers and most importantly within the organisation itself.

Why Waterstons?

Our processes

Waterstons have a tried and tested methodology for helping businesses formulate and clarify IT strategy. This methodology is the result of many years of experience supporting organisations through this process and will improve the chances of a successful project.

Our people

Producing an IT strategy is a team exercise; it needs to involve people within the organisation and as much IT expertise and creativity as possible. To facilitate this, Waterstons work very closely with clients throughout the IT strategy process and involve a very broad range of their most experienced people at the key stages of the strategy creation.

The key steps

• Clarify and quantify the business strategy in a form which will allow the organisation’s IT needs to be clearly recognised.
• Identify areas where IT based solutions could be delivered.
• Audit the key software systems in use and establish gaps in functionality.
• Check the design and robustness of the underlying infrastructure and support model.
• Produce a three year plan including costs and expected benefits.

How to get started

Contact us and ask about the IT strategy process.

We'll come to see you to find out about you and what you want to achieve and we'll let you know how we can help and how much it might cost.

We'll then need to spend some time with you to plan how the project will unfold and who will be involved.

Then we will provide a fixed price quotation to support you through the process, ending with presentation and agreement of the IT Strategy.

Alistair McLeod
Executive Consultant and specialist in IT Strategy and Business Intelligence.

For more information on IT Strategies call 0191 3845891 or email:
consulting@waterstons.co.uk