Obviously, in order to form a full-fledged strategic plan for the development of IT in an enterprise, appropriate organizational and financial conditions and prerequisites must be created.
At the same time, for successful strategic IT planning, in fact, the same conditions and prerequisites are needed as for the successful implementation of any IT projects.
Basic organizational and financial prerequisites for developing an IT strategy.
The company has a business development strategy (there is no clear business development plan, there will be no clarity on how to develop Information Systems).
Heads of functional divisions should reach an agreement on further directions of automation.
The significant role of the IT service in the enterprise, a short distance between the owners or top managers and the head of the IT service (when the IT service is not clear on the overall goals of business development, it is impossible to ensure the consistency of business and IT plans).
The amount of investment in IT that matches the scale of the tasks.
The enterprise must develop steadily (it is impossible to develop an IT strategy for a rapidly growing company or a company undergoing major changes, such as a change of ownership).
When developing an IT strategy, two factors play a role: a common vision of the directions of automation among all managers on whom IT decisions depend, and significant status IT services in the enterprise. At the same time, customers first of all say that the lack of agreement between various departments about the directions of IT development is the main problem in developing an IT strategy.
Plans for new IT projects can come from a variety of sources, from the CIO, interested functional leaders, and CEO or other top managers. And it depends on the person of the initiator how these plans will meet the needs of the business.
After the formulation of goals for IT, a general definition of ways to achieve them occurs - a strategic plan. Like the goals themselves, a strategic plan can consist of two parts: a plan for the development of application systems and a plan for improving the processes of an IT service. Both of these plans may consist of a description of development directions, projects implemented in each direction, and major milestones for each of the projects.
Accordingly, the directions of IT development are initially determined. At the same time, it is advisable to analyze the existing reference models of IT development for the possibility of their application in your own organization.
So, when determining the directions for the development of applied applications, one can rely on the existing classes of information systems corresponding to the ones they automate. subject areas", in particular:
As part of determining the directions for the development of IT service processes, the following “general” opportunities should be considered:
Implementation of a service-oriented interaction between the IT service and core business units, including related Service Management software tools.
Outsourcing some of the functions of the IT service to perform them with the best price-quality ratio.
Development of hardware and software infrastructure (for example, transition to SOA) support.
Creation of a repository of the company's business processes.
Formal regulation of the activities of the IT service.
Staff development.
Building relationships with IT vendors.
Once development areas have been identified, given a certain IT budget, it may be appropriate to prioritize areas and, accordingly, the amount of funding for each of them.
Further, within the framework of each of the adopted strategic directions of development, it is possible to determine specific projects, their goals, objectives, results and main stages. The set of goals and results for each of the projects can be presented in the form of a "results register" for the convenience of further monitoring the implementation of the IT strategy.
As a result, having determined the IT goals, the current and target IT architecture, as well as the areas of work and specific projects to achieve them, having compiled a register of results describing the intermediate results to achieve the IT goals, the company has a formal document that sets the vector for everything that is done with corporate IT worthy of being called "IT strategy".
Implementation of IT strategy. In fact, the implementation of the IT strategy consists in the implementation of planned projects aimed at introducing new business applications and improving the existing infrastructure, as well as improving the processes for supporting it.
IT project and IT project portfolio management can be done using standard methodologies such as PMBoK. Success or failure in the implementation of IT projects determines the success or failure of the implementation of the IT strategy as a whole. Projects can be carried out by the company itself or by an external IT company, such as a system integrator. In the latter case, as a rule, a two-sided project team is formed, consisting of both the integrator's specialists and the customer's specialists.
When planning project execution, one should take into account the general success factors of projects, as well as the fact that IT projects are often highly politicized, especially in large companies, therefore, appropriate support for projects should be ensured through targeted work with centers of influence in the company.
The following 8 success factors for IT projects stand out:
Project support at the level of company management.
Involving users in the project from the earliest stages in order to better understand their requirements on the one hand and win their support on the other hand.
Experienced project manager.
Clearly defined project goals.
A clearly defined scope of the project.
Detailed planning with a large number of intermediate goals and results.
Clearly regulated project management process.
Maximum possible use of existing standards and standard solutions.
Also, to increase the likelihood of success in implementing an IT strategy, it is necessary to analyze and manage the associated risks.
Development information technologies will take place in the face of change. organizational structure and core business processes. Mistakes in restructuring decisions can be held responsible for IT and, in the worst case scenario, lead to discrediting IT projects.
Lack of staff awareness of ongoing activities and the level of their training, which can cause tangible resistance to innovation.
Topic Summary
An IT strategy, or a strategic plan for the development of information technology, is a scenario according to which it is supposed to develop the information and computing systems of an enterprise. It helps to understand which areas of the production and economic activities of the enterprise most need automation. In fact, an IT strategy is a document that is addressed to company executives and answers the question of how to use IT for business development, what needs to be done for this, and what financial, human and other resources will be needed.
An IT strategy saves an enterprise time, money and labor, and this effect is well illustrated by the example of automating a geographically distributed enterprise. The main indicator of the quality of a strategy is its suitability for implementation. In order for a strategic plan not to end up in the trash or in the archive, it must satisfy certain conditions: first of all, be linked to strategic goals development of the business of the enterprise and provide fallback options in the event of an unfavorable development of events, that is, complications during automation.
Components of an IT strategy:
- - the results of the analysis of the business processes of the enterprise, as well as the degree of their automation;
- - detailed analysis of requirements for information and computing systems
- - several options for the development of information systems (the most expensive, the cheapest, etc.), with a risk assessment for each option;
- - cost, time and resource estimates for relevant IT projects.
Review questions
- 1. What is an IT strategy.
- 2. Goals of the IT strategy.
- 3. List the content of the IT strategy.
- 4. Describe the factors influencing the development of an IT strategy.
- 5. List the success factors for the IT strategy.
- 6. Components of IT strategy.
This and a dozen other articles by A. Mikhailov are combined into the book "", 145 pages, 2018. To get the book you need to visit this site.
This topic is considered in much more detail in the book by A. Mikhailov, "", 450 pages, 2018.
This article belongs to a series of publications on IT strategy: what it consists of, how to develop it, whether it can be done on your own, or is it the prerogative of high-browed consultants gathered within projects worth $100,000 or more.
The material of the articles is based on the best international practices of IT strategic planning and practical experience author: 10 years of consulting on IT management (of which 7 years at IBM), 10 years of work as an IT service manager in Russian and foreign companies, 5 years of teaching courses on IT strategies and IT strategic management in leading Russian business schools. The author participated in the development of IT strategies for dozens of large Russian enterprises, and also helped to develop more than fifty IT strategies for IT directors of medium and small enterprises.
IT vision and mission are needed to develop IT goals. And if your IT service has no goals, then where are you going?
Introduction
As a rule, when developing strategies, including IT, it is said that all projects must comply with "long-term goals" and also with "vision and mission." Let's try to consider why it is necessary to coordinate IT projects with something.
There are many different definitions of the vision and mission of a business. The definitions are quite similar and differ in details, which is described in a number of textbooks. But on the vision and mission of IT, there is no textbook or consensus. In the concepts and IT strategies of some companies there is a "vision" but no "mission" and vice versa.
In Russian, there is also no stable interpretation of the subtlety of the differences between vision and mission. Therefore, further definitions of the vision and mission of IT are proposed by the author of this article, by analogy with the vision and mission of a business.
IT Vision is a representation of the desired and potentially achievable future state of IT. The IT vision tells us what we want to achieve in terms of IT and complement the business vision.
Mission IT describes how the IT service is going to achieve the desired state of the IT vision. The IT mission supports the company's vision and mission, and explains the specifics of the IT service.
The mission may indicate IT users and services provided, as well as attitudes towards centralization / decentralization, outsourcing / insourcing, innovativeness of the IT service.
Under strategic IT goals we will understand long-term (for a year or more) IT goals that support the strategic goals of the business.
Accounting for business requirements / Business impact on the vision, mission, strategic goals of IT
The IT service is one of a dozen business units. When planning IT development, it is necessary to find out (and agree on!) what not only the CEO and CEO, but also the heads of all major functional departments want from IT (Fig. 1):
Rice. 1. Alignment of the vision, mission and strategic goals of business and IT
Further, for simplicity, the term "Business" will include all functional units (except IT). In line with best practices, the alignment of IT and business priorities is as follows:
1. The vision and mission of the business defines the vision and mission of IT
2. The strategic goals of the business determine the strategic goals of IT (it is more correct to talk about the “alignment” (alignment) of strategic goals, as well as the vision and mission of IT with the vision, mission and goals of the business. In some cases, IT can actively influence the business.)
3. Business strategy defines IT strategy
The business impact on IT can be multifaceted. At a minimum, it is advisable to consider the following objective factors:
- Planned changes in the business strategy, for example, the transition to territorial expansion or cost reduction;
- Buying or selling certain businesses;
- Historical percentage of IT funding and its relation to the industry average and closest competitors;
- Change in requirements for information security and a host of other factors.
Also worth noting is subjective factors, whose influence can be no less strong than that of objective factors:
- Already established relationships between IT and business managers;
- The number of costly mistakes that (according to other managers) IT has made in recent years;
- Personal dislike of managers, etc.
A new CIO may be significantly less influenced by subjective factors than a CIO with a long service record in the enterprise.
Sources of information for the vision, mission and strategic goals of IT
Consider what else, besides the impact of the business, it is advisable to consider when developing the vision, mission and strategic goals of IT:
- The specifics of the external environment
- Availability of internal capabilities
- Ambition and qualifications of business and IT leaders
Let's consider these factors in more detail.
The specifics of the external environment:
- Market conditions: the growth of markets makes very different demands on IT than the crisis;
- IT development trends: the growth of outsourcing, the trend towards IT centralization, Internet sales opportunities, etc.;
- Industry specifics: for extractive industries, IT requirements, and, as a rule, the complexity and cost of IT, may differ significantly from banks and telecommunications companies;
- Competitors: First of all, you need to compare your IT service with your closest competitors. If the director of your company finds out that competitors have successfully (as he was reported) implemented SAP, you will have to explain that 1C is much cheaper. And it's good if you can remember that two years ago you were not given money to implement Axapta;
- Suppliers: it may be worthwhile to exchange information with suppliers using SCM class information systems;
- Legislative and Regulatory Requirements: An example is the Personal Data Act, which required some IT departments to make significant changes to their applications. There are a lot of requirements for financial institutions;
- and many other factors that are discussed in detail in the literature on strategic business management.
Availability of internal features:
- Already existing applications and infrastructure, the existing organizational structure of the IT service, the number and qualifications of staff;
- What has already been outsourced, is it expected to increase its share;
- Data, applications, infrastructure and IT management are now centralized or decentralized. What is expected to be done in the next few years;
- and a host of other opportunities and challenges.
Ambition and qualifications of business and IT leaders
In foreign literature on strategic management, such a component as “the ambitions of owners and managers” is mentioned, but somehow in passing. But from the point of view of Russian realities, this is a very important component for determining the mission, vision and long-term goals!
For example, there are leaders who, according to their management style, are downright inclined to implement something as soon as possible (and this is not necessarily a CIO, it can be a general and financial director). Faced with a lot of problems and not implementing one technology, such leaders quickly move on to another new and expensive “toy”.
But the author of this article, when he was the CIO of the information and analytical center, managed to transform the IT service from a cost center into a significant source of profit and new opportunities for other departments of the company.
Generic IT Strategic Objectives
An analysis of fifty IT strategies showed that two-thirds of the goals are typical for many enterprises. The following typical strategic IT goals can be noted:
- Implementation of new IT services
- Improving the quality of existing IT services
- Improving the stability (reliability) of IT operations
- Improving data security
- Increasing the transparency of IT work
- Improving the quality of IT management
- IT centralization
- IT standardization
- Using open standards
- Reducing IT costs (this goal is more likely during crises)
And here are examples of strategic IT goals specific to each specific IT service:
- Implementation of the XYY system (during September-November 2012)
- Transfer of works on server support to outsourcing (complete by the end of December 2012).
Examples of vision, mission, strategic goals of IT
Consider use cases strategic management to develop the vision, mission and strategic goals of IT. Here is an example for a fairly proactive IT service. For ease of perception, the vision and mission are combined:
Rice. 2. An example of the vision, mission and strategic goals of IT
In another example (see Fig. 3), an example of obtaining strategic IT goals based on existing business goals is considered.
Alexander Mikhailov, MBAin strategic management,
/ /
Development of IT strategies: Russian and foreign approaches
In Russian and foreign literature, the author of this article managed to count at least seven approaches to the development of IT strategies:
1. . This approach, unfortunately, is found in most Russian organizations;
2. . An example of this approach: "performance technical means should grow by 25% annually”;
3. “ ”. This approach consists in periodic attempts to introduce the latest achievements of computer thought: e-business, mobile commerce, etc.;
4. IT is supposed to support the organization's key success factors;
5. . Within the framework of this approach, the IT strategy should flow smoothly from the enterprise strategy, its mission, vision, goals and objectives;
6. . It is assumed that the IT strategy not only supports the strategy of the enterprise, but also influences it;
7. . This is a rather specific understanding of IT strategies for government agencies and information firms.
And one more approach that includes everything else: "". Here, the IT strategy is designed to support exotic approaches such as "Extreme Programming Theory".
The listed approaches to the development of IT strategies are applicable to large and small organizations, but first of all, they mean fairly large enterprises with one main business.
1. Lack of strategy
This approach is used by most Russian organizations. Actually, for small businesses that are not directly related to IT, the lack of an IT strategy written and approved by the heads of all departments may not be a problem (especially if the director is also the head of all other departments), which cannot be said about large enterprises.
Of the pleasant aspects of this approach, it is worth noting its simplicity, which is quite a lot. And far from every large Russian enterprise has a strategy for the enterprise as a whole, as well as strategies for marketing, finance and production. 
There can be many unpleasant moments in the absence of an IT strategy:
-
- dissatisfaction of users and management of the enterprise with current information support;
- IT inefficiency in general, etc. etc.
In general, the effectiveness of business support in the absence of an IT strategy can be judged very subjectively, which usually leads to dissatisfaction among users, IT staff, and enterprise management.
2. Planning of hardware and software
Perhaps, in terms of mass use, this approach is in second place, after any lack of any IT strategy. A significant part of Russian IT directors has a technical education, and they did not graduate from business schools. This results in a good understanding of the technical specifications rather than anticipation of the business needs for information services.
Perhaps in most books on IT management (books with titles like " Information Systems Management”), the development of an IT strategy is understood as an assessment of trends in the development of hardware and software and forecasting the needs for them.
In this case, it is also not necessary to talk about how effectively IT supports the business, even if, as is customary in modern English, the Russian word “efficiency” is divided into effectiveness and efficiency. But, of course, the planning of hardware and software is better than any lack of planning, i.e., at least, this approach allows you to somewhat minimize the cost of procurement. This approach is most appropriate for a stable market and production, where nothing has changed much for a number of years, as it was, for example, two hundred years ago.
A relatively typical example of an IT strategy formulated within the framework of this approach is an annual increase in the productivity of technical facilities by 20-25%. Although, as noted above, this cannot be called a strategy, since it is not clear what is supposed to be achieved.
3. "Vanguardists"
This approach is significantly more fun and much more expensive than the previous ones. Thanks to the efforts of marketers who are not in vain, who are promoting high-tech novelties (such as e-business, mobile commerce, etc.), the recipients of this advertisement have an itch to immediately purchase and start using it.
Such a desire appears rather not among users, since they will have to work with this further, but among IT specialists and / or enterprise managers. The most dangerous in this regard is the general director of the enterprise, because he will insist on an avant-garde (though not necessarily adventurous) approach in marketing and other areas.
According to Gartner research, all enterprises, regardless of the industry in which they operate and income, in relation to the purchase of the latest hardware and software, are divided into three groups:
-
- enterprises that innovate at about the same time as competitors;
- enterprises that innovate after competitors have tested it on themselves.
This division also applies to individual consumers, i.e. rather depends on the preferences of the decision makers. Accordingly, calls to buy the latest achievements of international computer thought have always been and will be, especially since there is always a hope that these achievements will immediately solve all existing problems.
The time, money, and other resources required to implement a new, "cool" but ill-adjusted technology can be quite large, so it's much more interesting to drop the case halfway and start trying the next new technology. Participation in such projects is remarkably described in Yordon's book "The Kamikaze Way. As a developer software survive in a hopeless project." The title fully conveys the meaning of the book, and the main recommendation is not to participate in such projects.
4. Key success factors
This approach is very rare in Russia. Key success factors (KSF) are those few moments in the activities of the company, to which it should pay the closest attention. CSFs depend on the market in which the enterprise operates, as well as on the strategy of the enterprise.
According to this approach, it is necessary to informatize business processes that directly affect the critical success factors of the enterprise. Accordingly, the key success factors of the enterprise determine the strategy, goals and objectives of IT.
For example, the strategy of IKEA is based on the rapid adaptation of production to market requirements, a wide range of products. One of the key success factors is fast and reliable supply. Accordingly, first of all, it is necessary to implement information systems that support supply, for example, SCM (Supply Chain Management).
It sounds quite simple, but even the company's management does not always have a clear and unambiguous idea of the company's strategy and key success factors. Each of the top managers can adhere to at least one strategy and have five key success factors in their heads (and it’s good if at least the employees of each of the managers are aware of this). It is not clear how the CIO should behave in this situation.
The idea that IT should support the key success factors of an enterprise is not new; it was expressed by the programming classic of the 70s, J. Martin. In the 1990s, Price Waterhouse Coopers successfully developed an approach to developing IT strategies based on Key Success Factors.
Actually, you can develop a whole hierarchy of key success factors, which is well covered in management textbooks:
- KFU for the market (industry) in which the enterprise operates;
- KFU for the enterprise;
- KFU for business units, incl. IT services;
- KFU for specific managers and employees.
5. IT strategy is driven by business strategy
This approach is widely used in international companies, and in Russia is also present.
The classical approach to the information support system and the IT service (or whatever the IT department is called there), as a department of the organization, for which it is necessary to set a functional strategy [
The functional strategy is a management plan for the work of the main business units: production, marketing, finance, etc. A business should have as many functional strategies as there are core functional divisions. The main task of the functional strategy is to support the overall business strategy of the company and its competitive approaches. The strategies of the main divisions must be aligned and not just serve their own narrow functional goals. ] supporting the organization's strategy is described in the well-known book on strategic planning /4/. The same approach, but from the standpoint of the information system, is described in /1/.First, at the enterprise level, it is necessary to determine its vision, mission, main goals, strategy, and then take the same step for the IT service. This assumes that IT in the enterprise is secondary and supports the core business (which, as a rule, is fully true).
The hierarchy of strategies and the order of their development are shown in the figure. First, the mission of the holding is developed, then its goals and objectives, and only after that - the strategy.
The next step is the development of exemplary missions, goals and objectives, as well as strategies for enterprises included in the holding. In the process of their coordination, the goals, objectives and strategy of the holding can be somewhat adjusted.
Then, exemplary missions, goals and objectives are developed, as well as strategies for the functional divisions of the enterprise (IT, marketing, finance, etc.).
Generally speaking, within each functional strategy there can be operational strategies. But even without them, it is already clear that for enterprises that have not strategic planning, there is no written and agreed strategy, it is rather futile to try to develop an IT strategy in this way.
The specific strategy of a particular firm at a particular time is unique, but at the level of an individual business there are a dozen or two well-developed "pure" (or "root") strategies. For a particular situation, most likely, only a few possible "pure" strategies will do. Moreover, it is almost guaranteed that the use of an inappropriate strategy for a given situation will not lead to success, and a combination of several suitable strategies is worse than each of them separately. There are quite a lot of typical strategies of a company (see table), but the author, unfortunately, does not know about the publicly available typical IT strategies corresponding to them.
Enterprise Strategic Alternatives
|
Corporate strategies |
Business Strategies for Saturated Markets |
Business strategies for growing markets |
|
Diversification Strategies |
Cost minimization strategy |
Deep Go-to-Market Strategy |
|
Change of Course and Restructuring Strategies |
Differentiation strategy |
Market development strategy |
|
Capital rollover and liquidation strategies |
Focus strategy |
Product development strategy |
|
Strategies for international diversification |
Innovation strategy |
Diversification strategy |
|
Rapid response strategy |
How to distinguish between different businesses? For example, a telecommunications holding includes an enterprise for the manufacture of linings for rails. In this case, it is quite obvious that this enterprise should be considered on its own and not informatized at the level of telecommunications companies. But at the same time, the corporate IT strategy may involve the consolidation of procurement of technical equipment and the requirement for accounting compatibility.
6. "Alignment" IT strategy and business strategy
This approach develops the previous one (building an IT strategy based on the business strategy) plus refinement of the enterprise strategy, taking into account the capabilities of IT. This approach is quite complex, but makes it possible to develop the most effective IT strategy. 
The modern approach to information technology (at least on the part of its developers) suggests that IT can provide strategic business benefits. An appropriate approach to the development of IT strategies does not imply a rigid linking of the IT development strategy to the organization's strategy, but the "alignment" (alignment) of these strategies. Or, in a slightly different formulation, how the information technologies used can support the current and future activities of the organization, maintain the organization's existing competitive advantages and provide new ones. Gartner adheres to this approach, and it is also recommended as part of the ITIL methodology.
Aligning IT strategy with business strategy is a fairly new approach that emerged about ten or fifteen years ago. This was facilitated by the emergence of personal computers and their integration into global networks, which significantly increased the role of IT for business, but also significantly increased the complexity of the information systems created.
Within the framework of this approach, the development of an IT strategy results in the definition of the main directions of development, as well as specific goals and objectives for the next 2-4 years in the following areas:
- information services provided to users;
- used applications, hardware and software, networks;
- organizational structure of the information service.
At the same time, an analysis of business processes and the need for their automation is also carried out, the mission, goals and objectives of the IT department are developed.
7. Industry approaches
In addition to the above approaches to the development of IT strategies, there are a number of industry-specific approaches, among which there are several rather typical ones:
- "IT Development Concepts" or what IT strategies look like for Russian government organizations eg ministries;
- "Information as a commodity": IT strategy for information firms.
IT development concepts
For many, it is no secret that information systems in our country were developed even before the advent of personal computers (and even before perestroika!). Only earlier, all developments were carried out by order of the state and for the state. A significant part of the complex, distributed throughout the country, information systems and is now being developed by order of government agencies.
Since there were GOSTs for most of the work in the USSR, they were also for the development of Automated Systems (AS). The author participated in the development of large information systems for government organizations, and I can note that GOSTs recommend a fairly good approach to the development of complex information systems.
Information as a commodity
This approach to the development of IT strategies is relevant for information firms, for which information (for example, databases) is the final product. At the same time, with some stretch, we can consider the company's strategy and IT strategy to be the same.
Those. information technologies are used by such firms as the main, not an auxiliary business process. In the author's opinion, there are no fundamental differences in the strategic planning of firms that live on the sale of information and ordinary firms. About five years ago, during the explosive growth of Internet companies, there was a lot of talk about other business models of such companies and their fundamental difference from ordinary manufacturing companies. But the recent crisis and the “deflation” of most Internet companies demonstrated the viability of conventional approaches to developing strategies for companies operating in the information business.
Approaches to building IT strategies for information firms are given in /3/, recommendations for the creation and support of modern information systems - in /2/.
However, the reality is much broader than the above approaches to the development of IT strategies. Another approach is rather irrational, but nevertheless quite common:
"Exotic"
In Shakespeare's tragedy "Hamlet", d.1, p.5, it is said: "There are many things in nature, friend Horatio, that our wise men never dreamed of." The reality is much broader than the above approaches to the development of IT strategies. Let's just give an example of the ever-living methodology of "extreme programming".
When describing other approaches to the development of IT strategies, for a number of reasons, examples of the use of these approaches in well-known Russian organizations. But there is no strength to refrain from referring to one of the approaches to developing an IT strategy published in the CIO magazine (N3, 2003), especially since this approach is used by one of the parent organizations of the Moscow Construction Complex. The approach is that an IT strategy is developed to support the execution of IT projects that are carried out according to the methodology of "extreme programming" - see sidebar.
Although it is not clear from the quotes given what the exact structure of such an IT strategy is, how and by whom it is developed, the declared goal of developing an IT strategy - supporting the methodology of "extreme programming", in the opinion of the author, is very doubtful.
Perhaps, programming technologies are developing in a different direction - increasing requirements for the software being developed, including an increase in the documents required for this. For example, international consulting firms have now developed volumes of business process requirements for offshore programming firms. If we recall that fifteen years ago, when programming on personal computers, there could be no documentation at all, then the trend is obvious.
Almost every enterprise today has an IT service. Moreover, this term refers to both a department of several dozen specialists and one system administrator. However, the level of IT use in a business is determined not by how many IT professionals it has, but by how consciously such use occurs. Is it only " technical support"the main goals of the business, or is the business planning process closely related to it? In the latter case, we are talking about the emergence of an IT strategy.
What is an IT strategy?
To answer the question "What is an IT strategy?" rating agency Expert RA" conducted a study "Strategic goals of enterprises and IT" The basis of the study was interviews with top managers of consulting companies (IBS, CROC, TopS BI, CompuLink, SAP CIS, etc.), CEOs and CIOs of customer companies (Toyota Business Car, " Ingosstrakh, Aeroflot, AlfaStrakhovanie, etc.). According to the majority of survey participants (22 specialists were interviewed in total), an IT strategy is a document that should give company executives an answer to the question of how to use information technologies for business development and what resources are needed for this.In other words, an IT strategy is a scenario according to which it is supposed to develop enterprise information systems.IT strategy concerns not only the development of IT, it determines priority areas and identifies the degree of importance of IT for business as a whole , and for its individual areas.We can say that an IT strategy is technical task for a complex enterprise automation project.
You can live without an IT strategy, but you don't have to. The loud name "IT strategy" (or, in other words, "IT strategic development plan") includes, according to Felix Glikman, CEO of TopS BI, things that are quite obvious from the point of view of IT specialists. In a technical sense, this is the architecture of applications and data that support the company's business, IT infrastructure (servers, networks, personal computers). Also part of the IT strategy - organizational aspect IT sphere, that is, the principles and organization of building an IT service in a company that will ensure the operation of applications and infrastructure. Included in the IT strategy and IT budget, which defines how internal costs companies, for example, for personnel, premises, and payment for services and products of external providers (vendors, consultants, integrators). The IT strategy also includes detailed plan implementation of the main (significant for the company) initiatives in the field of IT, indicating the points of achievement of key results.
"There is no doubt that all the components of the IT strategy listed above are reviewed once a year by IT managers in one way or another, at least for the formation of the company's IT budget for the next year in the fall," says Felix Glikman. I.e tactical planning in the IT sector is carried out by almost all companies. What usually does not allow such plans to "hold out" to the strategy is the limited time span of planning (usually 3 years) and the lack of a direct connection with the needs of the business due to the weak participation in the planning process of business leaders and key users of the company.
When is an IT strategy needed?
In what case is it possible for an enterprise to have an IT strategy? According to Felix Glikman, IT development plans in one form or another are always present in companies. "The question of the quality and completeness of such plans remains open so that they can be called an IT strategy," he said. There are a number of signs by which this can be determined. First of all, it is the presence of a clear business development strategy. If not general plan business development, there will be no clear plan for the development of information systems. The role of the IT service in the enterprise is also important - the low status of the IT service and its director indicates that information technology is of low importance for the enterprise. To form an IT strategy, you need an amount of investment in IT that matches the scale of the task. At the same time, the enterprise itself must reach the stage of stable development (it is extremely difficult or simply impossible to develop an IT strategy for a rapidly growing company).
According to Alexander Tukunov, a member of the TopS Group of Companies Management Board, enterprises rarely engage in a comprehensive, systematic development of an IT strategy. "Ideally, there should be an IT department that has its own regulations, which once a year issues a certain concept of IT development, an IT strategy, and then can deal with its changes, monitor efficiency, and adjust if necessary," he says. ideal, in practice this is quite rare. Consultants estimate that 30% of businesses have an IT strategy in place, and another 50% plan to develop one.
The study showed that an IT strategy is needed primarily by certain types of enterprises. These are companies operating in highly competitive markets, retail markets, companies specializing in logistics, insurance companies, banks, aviation industry enterprises, as well as public and geographically distributed companies various industries. The need to develop an IT strategy can arise in different situations. According to Alexander Tukunov, they can be combined into three groups. The first case is when it becomes necessary to coordinate the main directions of development of the IT sphere with new business strategy company (in such a situation, the customer of the IT strategy will be the top manager of the company - the CEO). That is, the enterprise has a business strategy, and its task is to understand how IT resources can support this strategy, and, taking into account these requirements, develop an IT strategy.
Reengineering of business processes of any large structural division of the company (usually leading a separate line of business in the company) also entails the need to change the IT sphere of this division following the reengineering of activities. In this case, the order for the IT strategy follows from the head of this structural unit.
Finally, the emergence of new technological capabilities that can more effectively support current business activities can initiate the development of an IT strategy. structural divisions company or the entire company as a whole (in this situation, the initiative to order an IT strategy belongs to the IT manager - CIO). Some products or solutions appear on the IT solutions market that can radically change the course of business processes and procedures. These changes are tracked by the IT department and suggest using them to build a business strategy. In such a case, an IT strategy must be developed or changed in order to use such solutions.
Signs of a Good IT StrategyA good IT strategy should include:
A good strategy should:
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CEO and CIO - conflict or interaction?
The management of any company receives information about the state of affairs in various departments in various ways. These are reports, indicators of information systems, and often just a fragmented receipt of such information in conversations with employees. In the case of the IT department, the situation is exacerbated by the fact that the efficiency of the IT infrastructure can hardly be expressed in concrete numbers. Dmitry Vasiliev, First Deputy General Director of CROC, believes that today's accounting systems, in particular accounting, do not allow evaluating the effectiveness of the applied IT strategy.
This breeds misunderstanding. Dmitry Sadkov, director of management consulting at IBS, emphasizes that the conflict between "CEO and CIO" is a conflict of two-way misunderstanding. "There are claims not only from business to IT, but also from IT to business. And these are justified claims - managers often do not want to personally deal with IT strategy problems and do not want to understand that IT can follow the business in its development."
At the same time, almost all experts agree that the main factors for the success of an IT strategy are the involvement of management and the allocation of a special managerial resource for these purposes. The IT department of the company will not be able to develop a full-fledged IT strategy on its own. "The most common mistake is when such development takes place within the IT department, - Alexander Tukunov is sure. - Whereas the participation of those involved in business strategy as a whole is necessary." If there is no such participation, then, according to the apt expression of Dmitry Vasiliev, sometimes the position of an IT director resembles an attempt "to catch up with a fleeing business with its tasks, and the business keeps running away and running away. And it is not clear whether you will catch up with it or not." "The quality of IT planning, i.e. IT strategy, and its value to the company depend on more from the involvement of the most interested party in the development of the IT strategy - business users, and to a lesser extent from the presence of a business strategy in the company," agrees Felix Glickman. He is sure that, as in the situation with the implementation of ERP systems, the development of IT - strategies should be a common cause: IT professionals and key users for whom it is planned to create (upgrade) the company's information system.Working with key users and company management during the IT strategy development project allows not only to get more up-to-date information about the needs of the company's business (compared, for example, to those set out in the Business Strategy document), but also to prove to management the need to invest in IT, enlist the support of heads of structural divisions when defending the IT strategy at the company's board of directors. Therefore, the formal adoption of an IT strategy by a company and the allocation of investments for its implementation directly depend on the level of support for this IT strategy by the heads of the main business divisions of the company.
Engaging consultants: arguments for and against
At the same time, many experts believe that sometimes the development of an IT strategy is beyond the power of a company without the help of consultants. Customers generally believe that it is best to develop an IT strategy in-house, although they find the help of a consultant useful ("outside view"). According to the consultants themselves, enterprises order the development of an IT strategy from a consultant for the following reasons: firstly, due to the limited capabilities of their own IT service, because high-quality specialists are needed to develop an IT strategy, and enterprise specialists are usually overloaded with current work, secondly - for representative purposes, thirdly - thanks to the efforts of a consultant already working at the enterprise.
For those surveyed customers who used a consultant to develop an IT strategy, the strategy was most often developed not by an IT implementation consultant, but by a business consultant. An IT strategy consultant may be initiated by an enterprise CIO who needs to document the actions he intends to take. From the consultant's point of view, this the best option, as it generates less conflict between consultants and enterprise IT professionals. Also, the initiative to attract a consultant may come from the CEO of a public company. In this case, the well-known consulting company. The worst option from the point of view of a conflict of interest is when the task of developing an IT strategy for consultants is set by the shareholders of the enterprise, who are dissatisfied with the work of their IT service. After all, in this case, consultants, in fact, have to "impose" a new vision of the role of IT to those who have previously been involved in the development of IT in the company.
Another problem is related to the complexity of the entire planning chain - from business plans to specific automation projects (see figure). To advise on individual "links" of this chain, enterprises today hire different consultants: business consultants develop overall strategy business development and functional strategies, "hardware" and telecommunications projects are planned and implemented by integrator companies, implementation consultants are engaged in the implementation of management systems.
This division of labor has a number of disadvantages - consultants working in adjacent areas give conflicting recommendations. For example, a business consultant develops a strategy that is in no way compatible with the capabilities of the information system, in the selection and implementation of which the implementation consultant takes part. At the same time, responsibility for the final results is blurred (each consultant is responsible for his own area). According to the consultants, each of the influential senior managers on large enterprise usually lobbies "his" consulting project and "his" consultant. This leads to conflicts of interest and increases the risk of project failure.
The study by RA "Expert" has revealed a fairly obvious trend - consultants tend to expand the scope of their activities. Each of the consultants encroaches on a related field of activity: a business consultant advises on IT strategy, ERP system implementers and system integrators claim not only the role of IT strategy developer, but also the role of business consultant. The advantage of consulting "from one source" is obvious - the lower cost of complex consulting. If an enterprise hires a separate, "point" consultant for each task, the total cost of services will be 3-4 times higher than in the case of consulting "from one source". But there are also problems that complicate the involvement of one consultant for complex counseling. This is the lack of elaboration of new payment schemes for services (a percentage of the economic effect obtained, a bonus system instead of the traditional Time & Materials and Fixed Price schemes). In addition, customers do not want to become dependent on a single consultant, and the choice of such a consultant is not easy - the applicant consulting company must have highly qualified specialists in all types of consulting on its staff.
However, even the involvement of consultants does not guarantee that their recommendations will be useful. Irina Shuvalova, development director of RA "Expert RA", cites the following fact - 70% of the paid services of the consulting market, in fact, are money thrown away for clients, these recommendations have not been applied. Can we assume that this is the result of a simple misunderstanding? According to Irina Shuvalova, there are rather hidden psychological mechanisms that hinder strategic vision - a person is not inclined to trust radical recommendations that run counter to his own vision of the situation: "This is a mechanism for the psychological protection of managers."
In general, all experts are unanimous - an IT strategy in one form or another is necessary for any enterprise. It does not always have to exist in the form of a "thick" document approved by the management, it can be a more "mobile" document. "Today, any enterprise has an IT strategy in one way or another, so there is no point in discussing whether it is needed," says Felix Glikman. "Today, the main question is what kind of IT strategy should be, what is needed to make it really effective."
If we talk about this process in the context of information technology, then it consists of successive stages that begin with the collection of business information, information about the state of affairs in the field of IT and, ultimately, in the formulation, execution of a list of IT projects and updating the strategy with taking into account new information, as shown in Fig. 1.4.
Rice. 1.4.
There are many variations of those techniques that are used at the stages of the process: these are quasi- financial instruments , such as portfolio management of application systems, and tools that have come from the field of marketing, such as SWOT analysis (SWOT - Strengths , Weaknesses , Opportunities and Threats ), i.e. analysis of strengths and weaknesses as well as opportunities and risks.
A more detailed picture of the process of developing and implementing an IT strategy is shown in Figure 1. 1.5. In this picture, business and IT management work together to formulate an IT strategy based on the strategic business plans of the enterprise and its business units. According to the criteria adopted by the organization, the most priority projects are selected for inclusion in the strategic IT plan. As the projects included in the IT strategic plan progress, the plan is updated to reflect additional information, which could appear in the business plans of the enterprise and departments. An important aspect is Feedback, which provides an update to the IT strategy based on an analysis of the metrics used to evaluate the progress and results of projects.
Rice. 1.5.
And if the general features of the process of developing and using an IT strategy are clear, then the very concept of "IT strategy" needs to be clarified. Taking into account the above general discussions of the problem, we can propose a model of what is an information technology strategy both in terms of its main elements (content) and in terms of organizing the strategy formulation process ( , , ). Figure 1.6 shows the main elements of the information technology strategy model.
Rice. 1.6.
Thus, we have the following.
The basis for discussing and developing IT strategy is the business strategy, whether it exists in an explicit form or not (we will look at how to solve this problem when there is no explicitly formulated business strategy).
The next fact is that an IT strategy consists of two main parts: a strategy for changing the portfolio of enterprise application systems and a strategy for developing enterprise IT resource management processes. This reflects two fundamentally different areas of activity for information technology departments. This separation also helps management apply different criteria for evaluating the contribution of each of these areas of IT activity. Note that aspects related to the strategy of managing IT resources are closely related to that part of the enterprise architecture that we called the architecture of operations or IT management (see "Architectures for government agencies. Examples", "The effectiveness of IT investments"), and application portfolio change plan - with application architecture.
Two key tools are used to develop strategy: enterprise information technology architecture and financial instruments. Architecture defines the boundaries of IT related solutions, while financial instruments are used to evaluate possible options related to the implementation of the strategy, i.e. they are planning and implementation tools. Both can be formulated in business language, which means they can serve as the basis for a joint discussion of IT strategy between business and IT management.
The last component of the strategy is the people and sourcing strategy (use of internal and external resources): this part of the IT strategy is concerned with providing the resources needed for implementation.
In accordance with Gartner recommendations, it is advisable to divide the issues of planning the development of an organization's IT systems into 3 separate documents - respectively "IT Strategy", "IT Architecture" and "Project Implementation Plan". The development of these documents is based on the formation and analysis of the discrepancy between the target state of enterprise systems (i.e., the state in which IT provides requirements from the business, taking into account the prospects for its development) and the existing state of IT systems.
How does this model relate to Russian reality?
In Russian periodicals, in a few few articles, including, the results of interviews with IT managers of a number of large companies. It should be noted that there are quite significant variations in the definition of the content of the document describing the IT strategy. Some authors propose to include a number of architectural issues in the document, including hardware, communications, and operating systems. An alternative view is that for a company with an established business, an IT strategy may well fit on one page of text. All respondents, of course, agree on the recognition of the determining role of the company's business strategy and the need to involve managers in the process of developing an IT strategy.
Other various options for the composition of the IT strategy and descriptions of approaches to its development are given, in particular, in reports at FOSTAS conferences (http://www.fostas.ru).
The article by A. Mikhailov is devoted to the development of an IT strategy. It is given short review foreign practice of forming an IT strategy as a way to move a company (including information systems, IT infrastructure and IT services for managing it) from the current state to the required future state. At the same time, an attempt is made to correlate this experience with the domestic practice of developing automated systems according to GOSTs.
In an article prepared on the basis of a report by A. Barkin from A.T. Kearney focuses on developing an enterprise-first IT strategy. This situation, in fact, is quite typical for Russian enterprises, since many of them are only now realizing the need to move away from today's, largely spontaneous, IT development practices. Here they affect short term the existence of a new economy, and the past events of the financial crisis of 1998, and the eternal limitation of funds allocated for automation. Accordingly, the first step is very often accompanied by possible errors. We will consider this aspect in more detail in "Communication of business strategy and IT strategy. Management and control structures. IT project portfolio management". On the other hand, as noted in this article, it is sometimes easier for the pioneer to "lay a well-designed foundation and build a solid, but open to evolution" information system - here (yet!) the burden of past mistakes and the skeptical attitude of business units is not crushed. How can one not recall here the joke that "it was easy for God to create the world in seven days, since there were no legacy systems."
Unfortunately, more or less complete statistics on the presence of an IT strategy in Russian enterprises is absent. In a 2003 survey of IT executives in metal manufacturing and trading companies, only 18% said they had an IT strategy with confidence, and half reported having one rather than not. About half of the respondents noted that the company's management considers IT strategy a purely technical issue. And according to a survey of participants in the 3rd annual all-Russian forum of users of ERP systems, organized by TopS Business Integrator in February 2005, 54% of the participants already have an IT strategy, and another 34% plan to develop it in the near future. This is indirect evidence that the information systems that serve the business of our enterprises are already reaching a certain degree of maturity.
Returning to the IT strategy model proposed above, we will make the necessary clarifications.
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