How to plan effective IT strategies and get funding

An Information Technology department is often associated with being a cost center due to the nature of its operations. IT departments are, as a result, often delegated as support or service units to the company’s economic drivers, the business units. For this reason, most IT managers and executives often find themselves hard-pressed when it comes to seeking funding for IT projects or initiatives. If you’re an IT manager, you can expect the usual barrage of questions from top management on matters such as Return on Investment (ROI), cost-benefit analysis, or anything that has to do with the company’s bottom line.

One long-term plan that an IT manager can build a strategy on is how to drive the gradual transformation of an IT department from a cost center to a profit center. A lot of planning needs to be done for this to be successful.

An effective IT strategy plan includes: setting goals, analyzing all of the risks involved (Risk Management), knowing your team and your plan’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for improvement, and identifying all the threats to reaching a desired goal or objective.

I’ll tackle some of the goals that an IT manager can focus on to help facilitate this transformation in my future blogs.