The truth is changing your organization to incorporate this new strategic thinking will not be easy. So where do you begin?

• Is it with economics by performing ROI analysis on your IT programs?
• Is it organizationally, with new staff taking up new positions in demand and portfolio management?
• Are there elements of service design, transition, and operations that must be in place first before there is any value in service strategy?

Well, the simple answer is yes — and no — to all the above questions. That might sound like a cop-out, but the right answer for your business really depends on your organization and whether it is ready to accept IT as more than just a support function for the business.

To find the right path for your organization, you must first understand the role IT plays in its success. To do this let’s define a rating system to identify exactly what type of IT organization you are providing:

The above example is a four-level hierarchical scale used to illustrate the ideas throughout this topic. It begins at the bottom with the technology-driven, more traditional reactive IT support model and rises up to an innovative, integrated, business-driven IT organization at the top. So now let’s find out where you are and where your business needs up to be on this scale.

Before we talk about IT objectives, we need to understand our organization’s business objectives and the unique needs of each department, business unit, or functional group. After all, these groups are IT’s customers. First ask yourself:

• What is our business?  What does the company we are servicing sell to stay in business and keep us employed?
• Who are the IT group’s customers? This requires an understanding of how our business is structured and what we in IT provide to them in order for them to achieve their desired business outcomes.

Now that you know your business structure and operation, you must learn to “talk their language” when you approach them. This means understanding the terms they use and the value that they receive and desire from IT. In order to do this, let’s structure a simple set of assessment questions:

• What elements of IT’s services does each of our customers value?
• Which of these services do they depend on?

Let’s rate them on a scale of most to least important to that customer’s business need, then delve a little deeper:

• What is the profile of use for these services? Do they need them 100 percent of the time? Are certain services critical at particular periods? Which services do they rarely use?
• What business processes do these services support and deliver?
• Is the IT organization lacking in specific areas where we need to be delivering?
• And finally, where, on the scale of system- to strategy-based IT, do they need IT to be operating in order to continue their success?

Once we understand how IT is needed and used by our business we can begin to plan for the implementation of strategic IT services. To move to this next level we now need to look internally and ask ourselves:

• Are we operating efficiently in all these areas?
• Are we meeting these business needs?
• Have we been surprised by any answers the business gave?