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WHAT ROLE SHOULD MANAGEMENT PLAY IN IT?EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Many SMEs (small and medium-size businesses) rely on their IT systems to enhance operational efficiency. Some SMEs leave the planning of their IT strategy to IT personnel who, whilst they may be very knowledgeable in the field, are unlikely to understand the company’s overall business objectives and operating environment as well as the people running it. This executive summary focuses on outlining the role company managers are best-suited to play in designing, implementing and monitoring a firm’s IT strategy on an ongoing basis.

Why management needs to be involved in strategic decisions relating to IT

Essentially, your company’s IT system is a tool. If used effectively, it is a tool that can help virtually every aspect of your business function more efficiently. But like any tool, your company’s IT infrastructure must be used properly to provide the maximum utility. To accomplish this, a variety of decisions must be made, many of which require insight into your company’s overall business objectives and strategy. As a result, there are a number of reasons why management should be involved in devising a company’s IT strategy, including:

IT personnel may not have an overall vision for using the system: The IT personnel you hire, whether in-house employees or third party consultants, can tell you how to use the IT assets you have, but they may not understand your business well enough to know exactly what these assets should be used for or how they should be used.

Costs can spiral out of control without management guidance: In our experience, one of the most significant dangers of management inattention when it comes to the IT planning and implementation process is the potential for costs to spiral out of control. A well-conceived and properly implemented system can repay its costs many times over, however, if IT assets are purchased without management insight as to how they fit into the company’s overall strategy, it can lead to what is called equipment or solution “bloat.”

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A system can meet the firm’s immediate needs but be poorly adapted for scalability or long-term growth: IT personnel should not be expected to by themselves accurately project a company’s growth or future computing needs. This function requires the insight of a company’s management - who are best-suited to estimate the future trajectory of a company’s business.

How management can work collaboratively with IT personnel and experts

Focus on specifying clearly identifiable goals and benchmarks for the company’s IT system: The more specific you can be about exactly what you would like your IT system to do, the more likely it is that such personnel will be able to select the best IT assets for the job and provision them to function optimally. One way to communicate the goals you want the company’s IT system to attain is by using benchmarks focussing on areas such as:

• Reporting capability• Security measures (Anti-virus software, firewall, etc.) • Marketing integration and enhancement• Communication functionality (email, VOIP, etc.)• Data storage capacity• Business continuity

Clearly communicate cost parameters for achieving these goals: As mentioned above, one risk associated with lack of management input into the IT planning and design process is that costs can get out of control. Even if management is overseeing the planning process, it is still important to provide your IT staff with clear cost parameters for the acquisition and operation of IT assets.

Avoid “system bloat”: System bloat, as alluded to earlier, is often a sign of a poorly designed system. It typically refers to a system which has acquired a variety of nonessential features, solutions, and equipment.

Strategic IT goals to aim for

From the foregoing, it seems clear that a company’s managers should play an important part in the strategic planning process for the company’s IT system. In doing so, some of the strategic goals they may want to aim for include:

Planning sessions: To monitor and optimise the company’s IT system, management should establish a series of regularly scheduled meetings to review and plan ahead for the company’s technology needs.

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Set system performance metrics: These metrics answer the question of what exactly should your system be able to accomplish. Some metrics that can be used include:• System processing time • Availability/downtime• Record retention and access times• Security data including number of security breaches, if any, as well as any other security

incidents Return on investment (ROI) analysis: Whilst it is not necessarily easy to determine exact dollar-in, dollar-out figures related to your IT system, management should make an attempt to quantify the benefits received for the money spent.

IT security: Identify the most important data to protect and discuss with your IT team how this can best be done. Doing so often involves the following actions:• Limit access to vital information as needed• Establish IT security procedures for company staff to follow• Perform penetration and other security tests on a regular basis to evaluate any potential

vulnerabilities

Business continuity: The importance of modern IT systems to businesses has grown as technology has improved its functionality. Whilst data backup can help you restore valuable files that might be lost during an outage or security breach, backup services can’t restore your system to full operation by themselves. Thus, companies are increasingly looking to procure business continuity solutions which allow them to restore their IT services as quickly as possible in the event of an outage.

Training: The best IT system in the world won’t function at its full potential if a company’s staff is not adequately trained to operate it. Your strategic goals should include a training plan which encompasses both the initial employee training process and regular training reviews to make sure your staff is up-to-date with any new features or policies relating to the operation of your system.