| |
 |
| Formulating a Global IT Strategy |
7 Jun 2007 |
| |
IT Strategy
- The strategy must have clear purpose and use. It must address the questions of the key stakeholders.
- It must align with the rest of the business, and should succinctly address the main needs of the business, its aspirations, and recognize the role and possibilities of IT.
- IT strategy must address the key questions of business strategy, information strategy, how to manage IT and how to maximize return from technology access.
- The plan must be fiscally responsible - there are a lot of IT strategies that are not. It must strike a financial balance between the need to balance IT spend with the business need for growth and productivity improvement.
- The IT strategy can be used to facilitate effective communication as this is where a lot of work carried out globally falls short. If you are working in France, for example, social considerations are in the top-three issues for business executives. And if they are not, employees will put them back there very quickly.
Focus on value
- Address the how-to-do things rather than what and the why. A lot of IT strategies fall into extensive cross-cultural arguments about what and why and rarely address the how.
- Measure progress, or the lack of it.
- The strategy must be useable over time rather than being merely useful to inform at a particular point in time.
Outsourcing
- You must develop a relationship with the vendor and it must be an ongoing long-term relationship.
- Understand the culture of the offshore location. Employ people from the country you are doing business with to help you with negotiations.
- Outsource the less business-critical activities before you outsource the critical activities.
- Develop a risk mitigation strategy.
- Choose your outsourcing partner carefully because it can be costly to switch later.
Global data synchronization
- Before you go too far in implementing global data synchronization, verify that the quality of data within your organization is good, clean, consistently interpreted data. Do that inside before you push it outside or you will upset your partners quicker and you will waste money.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
