IT Strategy
A technology plan tied to what the business is trying to do, and funded.
Where the money goes, what the architecture allows, and what gets built first.
Advisory. A full strategy, or the single decision that has to be made well.
CIOs and IT leaders, and the executives who have to fund what the strategy asks for.
The plan has drifted from the business, the investment mix cannot be defended, or a board asked for a strategy and what came back was a list of upgrades.
The practice
Business drivers first
Growth, margin, an acquisition to absorb, a regulator to satisfy. The strategy is written to serve these, and it is tested against them at the end.
Current state
What you run, what it costs, what condition it is in, and which of the complaints people raise are worth money to fix.
Investment mix
Run the business against change the business. What is funded, what is starved, and what the balance says about the year ahead.
Architecture boundaries
Which platforms are strategic, where data is allowed to live, what integration looks like here — set once so every project is not a fresh argument.
Roadmap
Sequenced, costed and dependency-aware, in a form that survives a budget cycle and can be read by a board.
Business case
The numbers behind the plan: cost, benefit, what it takes internally, and what happens if you do nothing.
Sourcing posture
What you build, what you buy, what you outsource, and what you should stop paying someone else to do.
Governance of the plan
How it gets reviewed, what triggers a change, and who is allowed to authorize one. A strategy nobody revisits is a document.
Every layer holds the one above it.
Work in this order and the plan can be defended in front of a CFO. Work in the other order and it cannot.
- 01Business drivers
Growth, margin, an acquisition, a regulator, a workforce that changed shape. Nothing above this line is decided without them.
- 02Investment mix
Run the business against change the business — the proportion, and what it says about the year ahead.
- 03Architecture boundaries
Which platforms are strategic, where data lives, what integration looks like here.
- 04Roadmap and business case
Sequenced, costed, and written in the numbers finance already uses.
We build the strategy from your business drivers: the investment mix, the architecture boundaries every project works inside, a sequenced and costed roadmap, and the business case that gets it funded.
Drivers decide everything above them
Growth, margin, an acquisition, a regulator, a workforce that has changed shape. These set the investment mix — what runs the business, what changes it, what should stop — and the mix decides the roadmap. Work in that order and the plan can be defended in front of a CFO. Work in the other order and it cannot.
The output is a decision, not a document
A short, ordered list of what to do, what each item takes, and what it costs you to keep waiting. A strategy that cannot be acted on in the next two quarters is an essay.
It has to survive contact with the budget
Which is why the business case is part of the work rather than something the business is left to write afterwards. Cost, benefit, internal effort and the cost of doing nothing, in the numbers finance already uses.
What you keep
The code and the data·Your existing relationships·Approval and control·The ability to stop·The off switchWhat that means
Enterprise Architecture
Standards, reference models and the governance that makes them stick.
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Demand, capacity and money, managed as one view instead of three arguments.
Learn more ↗IT Operating Model
How IT is organized, funded and held to account — and who decides what.
Learn more ↗IT Service Management Design
Designing the processes — not running your service desk.
Learn more ↗Program & Project Delivery Assurance
An independent read on whether a programme is where it says it is.
Learn more ↗IT Financial Management
Knowing what technology costs, where it goes, and what it buys.
Learn more ↗Fractional CIO
Senior technology leadership, in whatever shape the situation needs.
Learn more ↗Start with a 45-minute briefing.
No pitch. We’ll map your situation against what actually works and tell you honestly where to start.