1. www.bsg.co.zaBSG INSIGHTS • IT STRATEGY FOCUS1
What is it?
An IT strategy is an integral part of the overall
organisational strategy. It is a comprehensive plan that
guides organisations on how technology can help them
achieve their goals, boost their competitiveness and
increase their chances of success through technological
innovation, cost savings and process automation. The
IT strategy should consider all facets of technology
management, including cost control, skills, hardware,
software, risk management and other areas of enterprise
IT, as well as how investments in these capabilities
support the overall business strategy. An effective IT
strategy should allow IT to be flexible enough to adapt to
changing business priorities, available skills and budgets,
new technologies and evolving user and customer needs.
IT strategies should be revisited often to ensure the
business is making the right technology investments and
that these investments align with the business strategy.
IT environments that are properly planned, managed,
maintained and secured are better able to support the
current and future needs of businesses.
There are a number of factors to consider when
developing an integrated IT strategy. Key to the process
is understanding whose input is critical in developing
meaningful outcomes. Bearing in mind that the primary
customer of any IT function is the business it serves, it is
imperative that the needs of the business be considered
when drafting the strategy. By engaging with business
stakeholders throughout the development of the strategy,
and by asking them to represent the customers of the
organisation, businesses are able to ensure that the
primary needs of their core users are met.
Why is it important?
In the past, IT strategies were often drafted in isolation,
withlimitedconsultationwithwiderbusinessstakeholders.
This resulted in strategies that were operationally focused
and not aligned to the needs of the business, leading to
inefficiency and wasted time, money and effort. IT soon
became an obstacle to business success rather than a
strategic driver.
Thebusinessworldisshrinkingdaily.Customersareincreasinglymoretech-savvyandtheinstantgratification
generation demands change and innovation now. This, combined with the upsurge in cloud solutions and
distributed workforces, makes IT strategy progressively more important to all organisations – especially as
businesses look to cut costs and operate more effectively.

2. www.bsg.co.zaBSG INSIGHTS • IT STRATEGY FOCUS2
A meaningful, transformative IT strategy will help
businesses to understand how they can operate more
effectively and efficiently, and will expose issues
and bottlenecks that may be tripping them up, while
articulating a vision for technology as a transformational
force for the organisation. It should detail how businesses
can use technology to innovate, extend their offerings and
differentiate themselves from competitors, while reducing
unnecessary spend, optimising processes and improving
compliance.
Defining an effective IT strategy can be complex. But if
it’s well thought out and planned, businesses can notice
massive, technology-driven changes.
Step one: Understand the business’ strategic
drivers
A vital part of the process
is to have a clear view of
what the business needs
and wants as well as
the key success criteria,
business processes, goals
and business drivers. This
requires in-depth business
analysis to understand what
the business does, how it does it and what success looks
like, ultimately bringing IT and business into alignment.
All stakeholders should be involved to establish their
strengths and challenges and how these affect the overall
business goals.
This process should also focus on discussing and
understanding what the end-users need – it’s crucial that
they get this step right the first time, as it will define all
other areas of the project. Although the IT strategy should
be agile and flexible, any missed opportunity could prove
costly.
Step two: Understand the current state of IT
Gain an holistic understanding of how IT is supporting the
business today to identify what is working, what isn’t and
what could be done differently.
Key stakeholders and IT users should be engaged,
using a structured process to understand what their
expectations of IT are and how they feel IT is living up to
those expectations. Staff and customers are essentially
the end-users of IT, and should not feel that it prevents
them from doing their jobs effectively or makes engaging
with the business and using its services difficult.
Allow the stakeholders to guide the business.
Acknowledge and understand the issues that arise out of
these dialogues and brainstorm how technology can be
used to overcome these.
Step three: Identify gaps, risks and opportunities
for improvement
Businesses will now have a better understanding of
the gaps that exist between where IT is and where the
business strategy requires it to be, as well as between
business expectations and IT delivery. They can then take
a proactive view on how to mitigate future risk and take a
strategic view of aspects such as regulatory compliance.
Technology should not expose businesses to unnecessary
risk – and any risk that is identified should be viewed as
an opportunity to improve processes. Compliance, for
example, poses significant risks within most industries.
IT should therefore include specific design steps around
how compliance can be incorporated into new systems
and process development.
Step four: Define the future state of IT
Forward-thinking companies are able to predict issues
before they arise, putting them a step ahead of their
competition. This means that they don’t focus only on
current problems and opportunities and build a picture
that talks to what ‘good’ would look like in three to five
years – is it cloud-enabled? Is everything offered as
a service? The IT strategy should focus on supporting
businesses to meet their strategic targets and providing
the flexibility to scale and adapt to future strategic goals.
With the vision and future state defined, businesses will
then identify and document the strategic themes and
priorities that will deliver this vision. The themes often
align to important strategic themes for the business as a
whole, while priorities tend to align to key IT programmes
and initiatives – the point is to show what IT is working
towards, what its key focus areas are, and how they align
to organisational priorities.
Understand the
current state of IT

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Step five: Measure
An IT strategy is not complete
without defined measures of
and metrics for success. These
allow businesses to track their
progress towards success and
make adjustments to get back
on track where necessary.
Business stakeholders and IT managers who are closely
involved in the planning of the IT strategy may start
to develop tunnel vision, which is where IT strategy
consultants can assist by bringing fresh perspectives
and unbiased assessments of businesses’ IT strategies.
They can also provide advice and guidance on how
business architectures and roadmaps of initiatives can
be optimised to meet goals.
A well-planned and effectively executed IT strategy can
helpbusinessestobecomemoretransformative,effective,
efficient and agile. By making the right technology
investments, businesses will be able to diversify their
offerings, uncover new revenue streams, save money,
retain staff, and attract and keep customers – and that’s
the ultimate goal of all organisations.
Who we are:
BSG is passionate about being a proactive force for positive
change. We do this by thinking differently and helping
business leaders solve problems through customer-centric
and fact-based decision making approaches. With two
decades’ experience in consulting and technology we
make a difference in everything we do by taking an outside-
in view and removing assumptions to deliver outcomes.
We are committed to delivering visible business benefit as
a result of the work we deliver to our clients through our
people.
BSG started trading in 1997, after identifying a gap in
the market for services to create synchronicity between
business and IT functions. Initially specialising in Business
Analysis, BSG today offers a full house of service and
advisory capabilities designed to close the gap between
business and IT.
At BSG, we strive to deliver business value by collaboratively
guiding our clients to better understand which initiatives
will deliver the most value, and working together to make
these a reality. By defining and understanding the purpose
for change, we design practical solutions to build the bridge
between the business expectation and the technology
implementation.
How we can help you:
BSG has a proud track record of helping our clients succeed
by developing authentic relationships based on trust and
delivering results based on tangible business benefit.
We have helped our clients succeed across a variety of
environments and challenges.
We partner with our clients to help them solve business
problems and improve their business operations by
applying customer-centric, fact-based decision making to
our core offerings which include:
• Fact-based decisioning through business analytics
• Helping to translate strategy into operational outcomes
• Shaping positive market disruption through innovation
• Designing and building critical systems
• Managing the implementation of core platforms
• Defining, managing and delivering business and
technology projects effectively
Wedelivertheseofferingsthroughthefollowingcapabilities:
• Strategy advisory and enablement (business and IT
strategy)
• Analysis and design (customer experience, Running
Lean, Scrum)
• Software delivery
• Solution consulting
• Delivery management (programme and project
management)
• Agile learning solutions