Example: Using Guiding Principles to Guide Enterprise Wide IT Strategic Planning

This document details the IT Strategy plan based upon a demand and supply view of business IT alignment. Good discussion on the monitoring and control processes as well.

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is critical to enabling and supporting business operations strategic goals. The ultimate aim of this ICT Strategy Plan Document is to provide a clear and concise direction on how to invest in and use ICT.

This ICT Strategy addresses the following:

• The Requirement for Tactical and Strategic ICT Investment: This ICT Strategy provides the strategic intent for the acquisition and use of ICT in clear and unequivocal terms and sets the foundation for portfolio management of ICT programmes and services in the future. It also describes how ICT enables business processes to be more effective, efficient and agile, and sets out the approach to reducing the year-on-year running costs for ICT.
• Standardization and Economies of Scale: While recognizing the unique requirements of each business division and function, this strategy also seeks opportunities (and obligation!) for common solutions that can be applied across the enterprise recognizes the opportunity and obligation to make more use of common ICT where
• Effective Control of ICT Investments: Decentralized planning and budgeting has merits but a key pitfall this strategy tries to eliminate namely, cost optimization. It provides for better information capture, visibility and control across the enterprise to reduce year-on-year operating costs
• Maximizing Return on Investment: Using a set of common guiding principles, this strategy guides an enterprise wide approach to using IT to support business requirements. The use of these guiding principles enables better utilization of resources, re-use, and a simpler, more agile and more innovative approach to procuring new ICT Services, responsive to changes in operational and business need, and to technological advances.

CIOs can learn how to use IT to support business processes and long term strategic direction at the lowest possible cost.