An (IT) strategy is no good if it's a one shot guess at the future and is only top down driven.

An (IT) strategy is no good if it's a one shot guess at the future and is only top down driven.

A realistic view on an IT strategy will show that it is the consolidation of three elements:

• the IT strategy per business unit (bottom up & continuously applied and reviewed on basis of feedback)



• the IT strategy on corporate level (top down & continuously applied and reviewed on basis of feedback)



• the IT strategy on new technological developmemts (consistently applied and reviewed on basis of feedback)

An IT department that wants to grow into a strategic business advisor can be helped by running IT as a "businesses within a business" (BWB)

The BWB concept is not identical to outsourcing or IT as a profit center but is sound entrepreneurship consisting of :

• knowing your customer, treating customers as clients that "buy" from you (documented in "Internal contracts")


• defining a value proposition by looking up into the value chain of your customers


• doing SWOT analysis (competition is outsourcing and decentralisation)


• delivering the value at a minimal cost (building and maintaining partnerships & focusing on core activities)
  
• judicious risk-taking & innovation


• embracing competitiveness, strategies, and growth opportunities.
  

The roadmap to transform IT department into a BWB consists of:

1. IT managers have defined their lines of business (e.g. subject matter experts, coordinating, quality assurance, etc.)

2. Developing and marketing a catalog of an organization's products and services (to clarify clients' expectations and staff's accountabilities)

3. establishing clear internal contracts, pre-requisite to a consistent practice of internal contracting is a culture of empowerment and accountability, this implies:

• a PMO that doesn't disempower the IT resource owners but takes up the role of facilitor and QA


• a culture of internal contracting supported by top IT and Business management

The Implementation of the IT strategy is done mainly through the process of demand and portfolio management and the needed IT governance. Each demand / request must be analysed to define what the customer is buying and to identify the prime contractor who's in the business of selling it.