Comments on Lisa Breytspraak Jasper: What is IT Strategy?

Better late than never here -- The 2 comments abo...

2009-12-08T16:22:59.108-07:00

Better late than never here -- The 2 comments above are quite interesting food for thought..I have a slightly different way of looking at things.. I actually think a company's IT strategy should cover 2 different prongs, which are somewhat linked to one another. It should start with an 'external' IT strategy which deals with how a company can leverage IT to develop/maintain a competitive advantage against other firms in the marketplace -- this can be as simple as using IT to increase the processing speed of your back office or something as advanced as the platform which customers use to interact with your business (i.e. ebay's website interface, etc.). The other prong is the 'internal' IT strategy which you reference in your article; how you best deliver your IT to your organization -- this is some combination of internal delivery, outsourcing, and a hybrid model. These internal and external pieces obviously intersect to form the company's overall IT 'strategy'

just my 2 cents

I would like to weigh in on this. There is only o...

2009-11-25T10:17:06.401-07:00

I would like to weigh in on this. There is only one strategy, that is, the company or business strategy as you point out. There is a risk to the business when each supporting organization devises a separate functional strategy. Each believe theirs is the differentiator and therefore become silos fighting for funding, resources, etc.
It is more favorable to the business if leaders within each function work together to create long term execution plans that support the overall strategy, ensuring the business objectives are thread throughout.

Based on your philosophy, the planning and execution of the business strategy and defining what that means for IT is the key...

Why is an IT strategy any different than say a Mar...

2009-11-12T10:26:34.680-07:00

Why is an IT strategy any different than say a Marketing strategy? The Marketing strategy is developed so tools and techniques can be appropriately applied to support the Business' objectives. Costs and investment choices flow out from there within the Business' allocated budget. An IT strategy should do the same thing. Like Marketing, IT's role is to support the business, not be a business unto itself. I think a lot of companies lose sight of this.