IT Strategy Consulting - IT Strategy Consultants London

Creating Your IT Strategy Is Vital - We Help You Get It Right

More than ever, competitive, regulatory and environmental factors are forcing businesses to leverage the potential benefits of emerging technologies. Digital Megatrends such as Big Data, Cloud Platforms, Mobile Workforce, Green IT, Artificial Intelligence, Automation and the Internet of Things are the catalysts behind this massive organizational disruption.

But the almost endless flexibility of modern IT means that businesses and organizations are presented with a bewildering array of choice. This presents a significant challenge in the absence of a universal, ‘one size fits all’ approach to IT Strategy.

Running your business without an IT Strategy Plan is like heading off on a long journey without a detailed map. Sure, you might end up at your destination eventually, but it’ll take you longer, be more expensive and you’ll get lost, frustrated and demoralised along the way.

Indeed, the exponential pace of change and the increasing adoption of digital strategies mean that organizations can not afford to have a simple IT Strategy but must define a comprehensive and responsive one that is aligned to their wider business strategy.

What Is an IT Strategy?

An IT Strategy is the overall plan that comprises the purpose, objectives, principles and tactics relating to how technologies, people and operations within a particular organisation will meet business aspirations.

As such it’s a fundamental asset of any organisation. Yet in our experience the strategy is often out-of-date or worse still, non-existent.

In particular we see strategy fail when IT is ‘bent into shape’ to address business requirements.

The key to creating a successful strategy is to ensure that business and IT capability are aligned. IT is no longer purely reactive, defensive and intended to preserve the status quo.

What we mean by this is that both IT and business drive each other forward as opposed to business being the only driver - IT is forcing the change agenda too.

Therefore a successful strategy is one where any money spent on IT drives maximum return for the business as opposed to being ‘just another overhead’.

How is an IT Strategy Created?

Our IT Strategy service comprises a structured methodology that is designed to work closely with all parts of your organisation to create an effective and practical multi-year IT strategy.

We create it using Gartner’s proven Demand-Control-Supply model. This delivers a plan for the evolution of your applications and infrastructure that aligns to your business needs and objectives.

This in turn enables us to facilitate the definition of an appropriate technical operating model to allow you to execute the IT strategy with confidence.

Within this, we take a Business Capability led approach that enables us to focus on what business capabilities you need to deliver your strategy in a technology neutral way

Once established we are then able to overlay existing and proposed technology solutions to simply and easily articulate how the technology estate should evolve to achieve the desired business outcomes.

IT Strategy Process

Our approach is based on the Gartner 'Demand, Supply and Control' IT strategy model which we have used extensively and successfully with many client engagements.

Our expert consultants use this framework to ensure complete objectivity during the discovery, business engagement and sponsorship phases, driving IT alignment to support the strategic business demand.

The framework follows three distinct steps as follows:

Demand

considers the business context, business capabilities and strategic ambitions

Control

provides the principles and governance framework necessary to drive the day-to-day activity.

Supply

outlines the target architecture to support the strategy and provides a high level roadmap of how to achieve the target.

Who’s Involved in the IT Strategy Process?

Creating an IT Strategy requires the commitment and input of various stakeholders within the organization. First and foremost is a Project Sponsor. Ideally this person is a senior decision maker, ideally a C-Level Executive on the Board.

Without such high level sponsorship any strategy initiative is pretty much doomed to fail.

The IT Strategy process will involve various meetings with key Stakeholders and depending on the size of the organization will typically include representatives from some or all of the following functions:

Application Development

Architecture (Enterprise, Data, Solutions, Application, etc.)

Business Users

Compliance/Risk

Evaluation/Quality

IT Support

Legal/Regulatory

Line Management

Project Management /Change

Security

System Development

The aim is to engage individuals and teams who can contribute in a meaningful and constructive way to the process.

Any engagement will commence with a Kick Off meeting attended by all Stakeholders to ensure that everyone is ‘on the same page’.

This is then followed by one-on-one, team and workshop meetings depending on the size of the organization.

IT Strategy Deliverables

The primary deliverable is an IT Strategy document. Typically this will include the following structure:

Introduction
Background, Objectives & Scope
Business Strategy & Organizational Overview
Business Drivers
‘IT Vision’ Defined
IT Investment, IT Asset and IT Organizational Alignment
Prioritised set of Initiatives
Implementation Options
Outline Migration Plan
IT Strategy review and change method

Gap Analysis: As-Is state:
- Organization Structure
- Regulatory, Environmental or Competitive forces
- Current Business Processes
- Software, Applications, Licensing, Databases & Interfaces
- Hardware, Network & Infrastructure
- Current Initiatives & Projects
- IT Organization & Costs

Gap Analysis: Future state:
- Future State Business processes
- Software, Applications, Licensing, Databases & Interfaces
- Hardware, Network & Infrastructure
- Strategic Imperatives
- IT organization & Costs

IT Strategy Consulting Examples

A Transformational IT Strategy for Network Homes

Client:

Network Homes

Annual Turnover:

£230 million

Background:

An award-winning housing association with over 45 years’ experience of providing affordable homes

The Problem:

Changing demands of their customers and the impact this was having on their operational directorates

Scope:

To develop a ‘Business to IT strategy’ for the entire Network Homes organisation

Our Approach:

Based on the Gartner 'Demand, Supply and Control' IT strategy model we facilitated presentations and discussion with the senior team and key Stakeholders over an accelerated 12-week period

Results:

The resulting strategy was approved by the Executives and Directors to enable a Business Transformation programme to commence

Customer Feedback:

"Mosaic Island have worked with us to deliver more than just an IT strategy, the breadth and scope of their analysis, recommendations and investment themes are now core parts of our in-flight Business Transformation programme."

- Jon Dawson, Executive Director of Integration

See the full Network Homes IT Strategy Case Study here.

An Innovative Business to IT Strategy for New Charter Homes

Client:

New Charter Homes

Annual Turnover:

£100+ million

Background:

New Charter Homes owns and manages around 16,500 homes in Tameside

The Problem:

Business Directorates and Units were not aligned with IT so that the resulting IT Strategy was too technology focussed rather than business focussed

Scope:

Mosaic Island was commissioned to audit how Information Technology was perceived across the organisation and how it serves the business

Our Approach:

We conducted a comprehensive survey and analysis. A number of themes were presented around organisation, governance, planning and architecture. We developed a comprehensive Business to IT strategy, engaging all elements of the business, developing a Business Capability Model and provided a clear 3 year IT investment roadmap and vision

Results:

Business and IT closely aligned leading to increased business confidence throughout the organization. Emphasis on 'Digital' and 'Self Service' by default and adoption of a 'customer centric business model

Customer Feedback:

"Mosaic Island developed an innovative Business to IT Strategy for us, engaging business every step of the way through the use of interactive consultancy-led workshops and a very structured and methodical approach. In the words of one of my colleagues: ‘business has never felt so connected to IT, we are all aligned’ and this gives us confidence to move forward with an IT strategy and a resulting IT roadmap expenditure that can support our increasing business growth and business diversification."

- Christine Amyes, Executive Director of People

See the full New Charter Group IT Strategy Case Study here.

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Case Studies

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