Your guide to Technology Plans & the IT Roadmap

What is a Technology Plan?

As we move towards a digital future, IT plays a vital role in how we create, develop and manage our workloads. Having a solid plan of how technology will facilitate growth across your business is pivotal to your on-going success.

A Technology Plan a primary document that prescribes how technology will support the business strategy and help drive business priorities over both short-term (annual) and longer-term (3-5 year) periods.

Typical strategic plans are like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, they will include growth plans for new and existing markets, analysis of competitive landscapes, HR requirements and financial considerations. A core piece of this jigsaw puzzle is the alignment of your IT strategic Technology Plan.

What are the main features of a Technology Plan?

STRATEGY	A Technology Plan starts with defining a clear strategy, it should list your business’s core priorities and objectives moving forward.
TIMELINE	Dates, Duration and Size – your timeline should reflect upcoming long-term projects and initiatives with estimated deadlines.
PRIORITY	A prioritised list of strategic opportunities that are driven by the business and enabled by IT.
COST	The plan needs to justify investments and estimates of each project’s cost.
IT LEADER	A senior staff member or project manager should oversee each of the IT projects, from conception to completion.

How can technology departments support Technology Plans?

IT staff play an integral role in the development of an Technology Plan. Some of their core responsibilities include ensuring the business has current versions of system architecture and inventory.

These assets should be periodically updated with details about end-of-life dates, statements on usage, the number of users and the system owner. An ongoing reviewed list of emerging issues identified by the IT support staff should also be kept.

What is the value of a Technology Plan for my business?

Your business’s IT department can leverage the plan to improve planning for projects and resources.

It functions to help your team anticipate resourcing needs, plan assignments, software and vendor selection, as well as foresee budgetary needs ahead of time. In general, it makes it possible to begin planning for IT requirements well in advance.

Every business is unique, that’s why having clarity around your IT strategy is key to ensuring you’re ready to make the move to a modern workplace.