Saturday, February 8, 2014

Reasons Why A Company Needs To Have An IT Strategy In Place

By Hilaria Ramos


The use of computers within the workplace has changed a lot since their first implementation, which was mainly done at departmental level. In those days no thought was given to compatibility issues and communication. Most computers worked on a stand-alone basis so communication was done face-to-face, and documents printed out and mailed. Communication over a network, and data transfer, are second nature these days, so an IT strategy must address these changes.

The majority of the problems that have to be overcome when developing a coherent plan is historical. The individual departments were given their own budgets to purchase the technology for their team. Very little attention was paid to any compatibility issues with other departments. As well as being a problem on a single company site, as businesses merge the issues become exaggerated.

The major players in deciding upon a strategy to take the company forward are the business managers and the IT manager. A preliminary task for the IT manager is to find out what is already being used, and compatibility issues that have been discovered. It is then time for the business managers to get together and discuss the goals and the budget.

The next task for the information technology manager is to determine how to make use of the tools already in use, and what systems need replacing. This is where budgetary constraints are extremely important. This might be a good time to get advice from an external consultant, as they would be able to understand the overall picture, and have a better insight to what is available.

A major part of implementing an IT strategy successfully is good communication with everybody who is to be affected. It could be that managers of very specialised departments can see problems that are not obvious to the strategists. Some people will go out of their way to delay any changes, however, if the reason for change is communicated correctly problems should be averted.

However, it is also important to realise that external forces can have a bearing on the success of any plan. Technology is constantly changing, and you might be planning to use tools that will be outdated in the near future. In order to reduce this happening, milestones should be set and the overall strategy should be flexible within certain boundaries.

To even start contemplating changing an IT system whilst not reducing business efficiency can be daunting, especially if you hope to work within a very small budget. This is a good time to acknowledge your limitations. It might be better to approach some consultancies who specialise in projects like yours, and get quotations. This might seem an expensive route to take, but these companies usually offer maintenance contracts as well.

The main purpose of developing an IT strategy is to ensure that a company; however widespread, can communicate and work together efficiently. This will ensure that there is a more dependable system, and therefore, easier to support. This is the aim of every company and with careful planning and communication, it is possible to achieve this goal.




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