Good strategy and governance are vital for your IT team to be able to support your main business strategy. A good strategy can make the difference between IT being just a cost centre to being an enabler for profit or to helping you stand out in a crowded market. Too many businesses consider their IT strategy as a separate entity to their main businesses strategy, this can lead to a multitude of problems.

Business and IT has experience of aligning business and IT strategies together so they both drive the business in the same direction. We provide consultancy in several specific areas:

• IT Governance
• Strategy Analysis & Design
  • Business Strategy
  • Operational Strategy
  • IT Strategy
  • Sourcing Strategy

IT Governance

Governance is a subject and can mean many things to many people, in its simplest form governance controls 'how and why' you do something, it goes hand in hand with your strategy which is again in its simplest form the 'what and when'.

Producing a beautifully aligned strategy without the corresponding governance is an exercise in futility; even the most basic strategy document should have an associated governance document. A governance document can include a multitude of subjects including:

• Policies & Procedures
• Standards
• Decision Reasoning
• Compliance (both internal and external)
• Accountability and Ownership
• Roles and Responsibilities

Whenever we are required to produce a strategy document for a client, we always strongly suggest that a governance document is greated at the same time. Business and IT has produced many governance and strategy documents over the years, from those we have produced several models that can be tailored to our individual clients needs.

Strategy Analysis & Design

Business Strategy

Every successful organisation has at its heart a robust business strategy. Starting with assessment of market opportunity, and leading to identification of actions required to achieve objectives, Business and IT can help you determine the direction you want to take your organisation, then create solutions to give you a competitive advantage in the drive towards your achievement of your strategic objectives. Our strategic services include:

Business case development – taking into account time, cost and resources, a strong business case will help you assess the financial viability and operational feasibility of any project or product.
Organisational planning – working closely with our clients’ teams to develop understanding of required changes and an effective implementation route to ensure organisational readiness for any major change project or programme.
Strategic direction – working with clients at a senior level to understand their current and future business needs, we support development of strategic thought prior to construction of implementation programmes.

Operational Strategy

Your operational strategy should help you define and implement the tactics, systems and processes required to support delivery of your organisations’ overall business strategy. At Business and IT, our knowledge and experience allows us to work with clients to identify an operational strategy fit for purpose and flexible enough to support the overall corporate strategy and gain competitive advantage. As part of this process, we will also:

• Design effective operational models
• Create strategies for dealing with regulatory change
• Develop operational strategies to accommodate effective management of investment

IT Strategy

Many companies find definition and development of a technology strategy a significant challenge. But whether your needs encompass data, applications, infrastructure or even standardisation of your technology infrastructure, Business and IT can help:

• Define your technology strategy, including data, applications and infrastructure
• Standardise your technology infrastructure to enable more efficient operations
• Assess emerging technologies and provide strategic recommendations
• Ensure your IT strategy is aligned to your business strategy
• Put your strategy in words that non-IT executives can understand
• Virtualisation Strategies

Sourcing Strategy

Sourcing strategies can be critical to business success; strategic decisions about non-core activities can free management and operational resource to focus on the core activities that create value and competitive advantage. Business and IT can help you identify which areas of your IT can be outsourced effectively, and develop the most appropriate strategy for your business by assessing the impact of sourcing options including:

• Outsourcing
• Rightsourcing
• Offshoring
• In-sourcing