IT is crucial in developing, growing, and executing most modern businesses. It’s gone beyond a supporting role in the business process to a mandatory foundation for growth.
Many organizations understand this paradigm shift. However, some are yet to address core IT strategy issues hampering business growth or posing a threat to sustained growth.
11 Common IT Strategy Issues Businesses Often Deal With
As Dallas’s top-rated IT outsourcing company, we’ve seen the impact of these strategic issues firsthand. This article will cover them in detail.
Lack of a strategic vision
One of the most significant IT strategy issues businesses have to be aware of is the absence of a holistic strategy vision. The technology leaders in any company must come together to draw a vision that encapsulates the organization’s current IT landscape, the levels it has to reach, and a detailed outline of how to achieve the desired results.
Lack of an IT strategy roadmap
An IT roadmap lays out the approach and steps a business must take to generate more value from its IT infrastructure. The roadmap will help the business stay ahead of trends, achieve a competitive advantage, and improve the customer experience.
Poor awareness
For an IT strategy to be successful, the relevant stakeholders in the organization must have a complete understanding of the modern and emerging technologies and how they can potentially affect the brand.
Awareness of the latest technological trends and a tech-driven approach to business decisions will increase the possibility of achieving set goals and objectives with IT.
Inadequate alignment with business goals
An actionable IT strategy must take the business goals of any organization into account. Due to the deep integration of IT into the business process, the IT department has to be at the forefront of dissecting the business objectives. With a clear understanding of what the company intends to achieve, the IT department can chart a course of action that will contribute to achieving those goals.
Poor understanding of the competitive advantage
In a fiercely competitive business environment, an IT strategy needs to highlight areas where the organization holds the advantage over the competition. The goal here is to put more resources and effort into driving home this competitive advantage. It’s the best way to maintain an edge over the competition.
Poorly defined short-term and long-term objectives
The lack of clear objectives is one of the most common IT strategy issues for businesses.
An IT strategy should highlight what the organization intends to achieve in the short term. Some examples of short-term goals include:
- Re-training existing staff
- Identifying redundant systems and processes
- Strengthening access control measures
- And more
Similarly, the IT strategy should clarify long-term goals. Some good examples of long-term goals include:
- Eliminating legacy systems
- Modernizing the website
- Upgrading the user interface of applications
- Moving to the latest IT security infrastructure
- Adopting AI
- And more
Lack of input from key business unit heads
A successful IT strategy draws insights from important department heads. What IT infrastructure do they need to meet departmental objectives? Working with the recommendations of these key players increases the probability of meeting your organization’s broader strategic goals.
Irregular assessment
Organizations must maintain flexibility with their strategy assessment. It’s the best way to match the pace of technological advancements and the fluidity of the business environment. Regular review is essential to avoid strategic issues in such an ever-changing landscape.
The regular assessment will provide the organization with a clear picture of their strategy adherence and the adjustments necessary to stay on course with the roadmap.
Poor employee-facing security
Employee security is one of the key IT strategy issues facing businesses today. Negligent employees are a major cause of data breaches in affected organizations. Cybercriminals use phishing attacks targeted at such employees to access critical business infrastructure.
Businesses can mitigate this risk by infusing a strategic plan for employee security awareness into the wider IT strategy. It’s important to have a clear map of employees with access to sensitive information in the company. The map needs regular updating to limit access where necessary.
Educating employees on phishing attacks and conducting regular drills featuring mock attacks can help make employees more security conscious. It’s also important to evaluate policies like BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) to see how it affects the core IT strategy.
Inadequate data loss and recovery protocols
The risk of data loss is a threat most businesses face regularly. However, only a few have data loss and recovery protocols built into their IT strategy. Businesses may lose data to human error, cyber-attack, equipment malfunction, and natural disasters.
Implementing a recovery plan that incorporates cloud-based tools allows businesses to store sensitive information without the fear of data loss. A comprehensive recovery protocol will feature the following elements:
- External storage
- Cloud services
- On-site and off-site backup servers
- IT support contacts
- Business continuity plan
Poor hardware management
The hardware in any organization’s IT infrastructure influences the efficacy of the IT strategy. Businesses must select pieces of hardware with this view in mind. For example, the configuration of work computers can reduce the efficiency of new business software. Compatibility issues may also hamper productivity.
Drive Business Growth With A Robust IT Strategy
An airtight IT strategy is a clear series of processes your business must follow to derive full value from your IT infrastructure. Business models worldwide heavily rely on the successful implementation of these strategies for growth. Therefore, IT strategy issues left unattended can hamper the advancement of the affected organization.
At Network Elites, we help businesses create a robust IT strategy with all angles covered. We are a highly experienced team specializing in delivering high-level and customizable IT solutions. We have years of positive history working with multiple sectors, as exemplified by our diverse pool of clientele.
Working with us gives you access to a team of cloud specialists, business consultants, software specialists, and hardware experts. Contact Network Elites today at 972-235-3114 to discuss your IT strategy issues with a local company in Carrollton, TX. You can also click here to learn more about the benefits of outsourcing IT support.
