IT Strategy Consulting - Part I

This post is directed towards breaking the different aspects in contemplating the IT Strategy and Consulting. This introspection of what I understood from the term IT Strategy occurred when I attended an interview in which I was asked what IT Strategy Consulting meant. 

At the outset it is imperative to think who would need a Strategy now? Be it any sector. Any respectable organization in any sector now should/must have formulated their Strategy over the years. During the early 1970s and mid 1980s most of the organizations have dwelled with the fantasy of strategizing their businesses. However IT Strategy and Consulting is ever evolving and is equally applicable for the software providers and clients, consumers alike. 

Strategy in any sector without direction is a crime. The key element of breaking the different aspects of IT Strategy stands in understanding who, why, what, when and how determine this direction.  For ex. A retail market chain giant willing to engage consumers by formulating cool offers through real time data enhancement or introducing a new era of billing system for consumers willing to pay by NFC. In this scenario the CIO of the retail market giant should consider all the requirements of their future direction and point them out to the IT services delivery team either an internal one or an external one. The requirement gathering from the CIO comes from various discussions organized across length and breadth of the value chain. There could be another scenario, where in the IT services companies would wants to decide whether to strategically target at the customers who need the trending solutions or to develop relationships through infrastructure projects that run for a couple of decades. These two perspectives one from a Client sided approach and another from a Service provider approach cause the term “Strategy Consulting” in IT to be a Cliché, meaning that in one scenario the Client Strategically looks at a particular requirement and Consults a Service provider. In the other the Service provider itself is strategically challenged whether to approach clients with emerging technologies or nurture relations to enjoy a couple of decades of contracts. It is a completely different ball game when we speak about the product based companies who all strategically strive to deliver a unique selling point. This is where Apple Inc does very well following The Golden Circle approach (talked about in my previous blog).

However I aim to target at the basic elements of IT Strategy Consulting from the above mentioned broad landscape. 

From a Client approaching a service provider perspective, the visiting CIO in collaboration with the senior leadership team does a process survey within the organization and comes up with a requirement. Such projects can be handled by independent consultants or big names. They would follow a DMAIC (listed below diagrammatically) approach and give some improvement suggestions to the client. Most often some of those suggestions generate providing smart software solutions to the consumers.

Based on the process enhancements suggested by the consultants or by the organization itself, an IT strategy is formulated by the CIO on consultation with an IT consulting firm. The following elements are generally seen in a Client and Service Provider consulting environment.

The control part often features outside the regular consulting lifecyle. This is where most of the IT Strategy and Consulting is channeled. (To be continued with the Control part soon)