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Advanced
How To Guide
Formulating an IT/eBusiness strategy for SMEs
2
. How to formulate your strategy
There are four broad ways of approaching
ICT strategy. In practice a combination of these may prove most appropriate.
1.
Responding to events such as customer demands, computer failures and approaches
form salespeople as and when they arise. While companies should certainly be willing
to change their strategy in response to external changes or to new insights and
understanding gained by implementing ICT projects, we would not advocate a completely
ad-hoc, "make it up as you go along" approach.
2. Hire
external consultants, or use internal IT staff, who will glean the knowledge they
need about your company by interviewing the relevant internal staff and will then
present you with a nice bound report. If that is the approach you adopt, the rest
of this briefing document may prove of some limited help in informing your discussions
with the consultants.
3. Invite various potential IT suppliers to
meet with you, examine your existing situation, suggest what you need and make
a pitch as to why you should buy the solution from them.
4.
Assemble a cross functional team of internal staff and managers, possibly assisted
by one or more independent external experts, to formulate the strategy.
If
pursuing option 4, the team should be picked so that between them they have a
deep knowledge of the various factors that should influence your ICT strategy,
namely your company's: -- Overall
business strategy and business environment, including your customer's wishes etc.
- Existing
IT facilities, skills etc.
-
Physical process and the types and quantities of information you process or could
benefit from processing.
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The types of solutions that are feasible given the current state of Information
Technology and the implications of the possible solutions in terms of up front
and operating cost, lead time, staff resources required etc.
-
The amount of resources available in terms of cash and staff and management time
and the alternative uses to which they could be put, if they were not devoted
to IT or eBusiness.
Realistically,
your team is unlikely to have all this knowledge and
will have to dig out the balance of it over the course
of the strategy formulation exercise.
It can be very helpful if team members are informed
about how IT and eBusiness can be applied and are familiar
with the process by which it is planned to formulate
the strategy. A training course on these topics will
add cost and delays upfront but may prove very worthwhile
in the longer term.
The assistance of someone who is competent at facilitating
strategy formulation teams and experienced in the formulation
of ICT strategy (ideally in companies of your size and
nature) is also helpful. Some consultancy companies
can, for a fee, offer a combined service of training,
facilitation of workshops, analysis of your existing
IT capabilities and advice about what is currently feasible,
its likely costs and the names of suitable suppliers
and will help you negotiate with these suppliers. For
significant projects, this work can require many consultancy
days with consequent cost.
If you are unwilling to pay consultants for comprehensive
facilitation and training, some internal thinking about
your needs, some home study about ICT (discussed in
a later section) combined with even a one day workshop
with a business savvy IT expert who is not trying to
sell you anything, may prove very useful, before talking
to potential IT suppliers.
Ideally you should apply a structured approach to strategy
formulation. Here is one possible set of steps to follow.
Do bear in mind that in reality, strategy formulation,
particularly in SMEs, is generally a lot messier and
less structured than the steps below might suggest.
You may not end up rigidly following these steps, but
even if you do not, keeping them in the back of your
mind may prove helpful.
While implementing these steps bear in mind that detailed
consultation with those likely to be affected, whether
inside the company or outside it, is vital. It is necessary
both to ensure the best strategy and to maximise the
likelihood of co-operation when the times comes to implement
that strategy. Clear communication that creates neither
unnecessary fears nor excessive expectations is also
important.
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