IT Strategy Plan Example and Template

Regardless of your industry or what stage of business growth you’re at, a well-built IT strategy plan can accelerate your progress, ensure smarter IT investments, and help you meet your business objectives with less friction. 

Below, you’ll find an easy-to-follow IT strategy plan example that walks you through the process step-by-step.

IT Strategy Plan Example

The specifics of each technology strategy can vary widely, but here’s a simplified strategy example of what a common framework may look like over three years. 

Note that, when possible, it’s important to use quantifiable numbers, as these are extremely helpful for measuring performance and determining whether or not you accomplished your business objectives. 

Overall Business Goals

• Increase operational efficiency by 20%
• Boost business revenue by 30% in three years
• Streamline resource allocation and find top vendors
• Increase IT network visibility
• Heighten data security and improve data management
• Gain actionable insight through analytics to guide future strategic planning and 

Technology Initiatives

• Streamline IT procurement for computer monitors, laptops, and mobile devices
• Accelerate employee onboarding by 20%
• Reduce IT spending by 25%
• Make IT networks more secure and optimize risk management by leveraging cutting-edge data security strategies
• Implement IT asset management to boost network visibility

Timeline

First Year

• Research potential software and services that can help you meet your business strategy objective
• Purchase relevant software and services
• Upgrade your information technology infrastructure
• Improve data security standards
• Use a centralized dashboard to monitor your IT inventory

‍Second Year 

• Automate processes like IT procurement and equipment management
• Leverage insights generated from analytics to improve efficiency, resource allocation, and change management security to enhance your strategic plan

Third Year

• Continue to refine and improve in all areas of your technology strategy
• Develop an enhanced technology roadmap and future action plan based on your findings

‍Key Performance Indicators

• Operational costs after implementing your strategic initiatives
• ROI from your technology investment
• Business revenue growth
• The number of data security incidents post-strategic planning
• Change management metrics like employee engagement and stakeholder satisfaction
• Your confidence level in making data-driven decisions

IT Strategy Template

Key Components of an Effective IT Strategy Plan

First of all, an effective IT strategic plan should fully align with your overall business priorities. Everything done through your plan should strive to help your company become better, stronger, more efficient, and more profitable. 

Next, there should be maximum stakeholder engagement, where everyone involved in the IT process, from end-to-end, should be on the same page during strategy planning. 

This doesn’t necessarily mean there’s 100% agreement on every detail across the board, but everyone should be in the loop and know what’s trying to be achieved. 

Otherwise, any instances of siloing during the strategic planning process can lead to potential communication breakdowns that could slow down your progress. 

There should be a well-laid-out strategy roadmap, where each step of planning is broken down into manageable steps. That way, you can seamlessly execute your strategic plan more efficiently, and you’re less likely to be overwhelmed when striving to meet each business goal. 

There should also be careful IT budgeting and financial planning, where 1) you have a clear understanding of how much you can spend on each area of your strategy plan, and 2) appoint specific individuals to oversee each phase to ensure you stay on track. 

Besides that, you’ll want to have policies in place for overseeing compliance and security to ensure that you’re following relevant industry standards and data protection guidelines, as this is a fundamental part of best practices. 

Some simple examples can include restricting access control and only partnering with vendors with high-level security. 

Lastly, be sure to establish crystal clear metrics to measure performance so you can be certain what is and isn’t working with your strategic plan. 

Real-World IT Strategy Plan Examples by Industry

While there should be considerable overlap in terms of business goals among all companies, it’s important to note that the specifics of a strategic plan can vary from industry to industry. 

To showcase this, here’s a table of some of today’s top industries, along with what their primary business objectives and initiatives may look like. 

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Your IT Strategy Plan

There are six main steps in creating a strategic plan, which break down as follows. 

Step 1

Carefully identify your business goals, both short-term and long-term. In most cases, three years is a good number to aim for, in which you’ll want to pinpoint exactly what needs to happen throughout that timeline, breaking it down into manageable chunks. 

Step 2

Assess your current IT capabilities by looking at things like: 

• Hardware
• Software
• Vendors
• Analytics
• Security
• Workflows
• Budget
• ROI

Step 3

After assessing current IT capabilities, figure out the weaknesses or inefficiencies that are creating a gap from getting your current IT environment to where you’d like it to be ideally. 

For instance, this could include choosing new vendors, updating analytics, and refining workflows for a more successful IT strategy. 

Step 4

Decide which initiatives you need to meet your strategic objectives. Be specific and make moves that will result in measurable outcomes. 

If, for example, your strategic goal was to increase the size of your remote workforce and streamline IT asset retrieval and asset management, you might partner with a third-party expert like allwhere to handle the bulk of the process.

With allwhere, we handle laptop and equipment retrieval, end-to-end procurement, ship IT assets all over the world, and take care of all of the IT logistics. Also, you can track everything conveniently from a single dashboard, so you always know the status. 

Step 5 

Establish a definitive timeline so you know what needs to be accomplished by when. This should help make executing your strategic plan more manageable and give you a clear view of where your progress is at all times. 

Step 6

Use KPIs to see how effective your strategic plan is and what adjustments need to be made. Also, plan on making continual iterations, as your strategic plan will likely evolve over time. 

Best Practices for Implementing Your IT Strategy

A critical precursor when planning is to ensure there’s full buy-in for each initiative from all relevant stakeholders. From your CEO thought leader to your chief strategy officer to sales to marketing and beyond, everyone should be on board.

Next, establish a clear line of communication throughout the entire planning process. 

From initial planning to strategy development to execution to later iterations, be sure that all your stakeholders are up-to-date on what’s happening to achieve your business goals more efficiently. 

Also, develop a documentation workflow, where things like security measures and compliance protocols are recorded every step of the way. This achieves two objectives. 

One, it reduces the likelihood of unethical activity, as team members know that all activities are being logged. And two, you have a clear paper trail if an issue arises, which is critical for protecting your business from fines and penalties, as well as reputational damage. 

And piggybacking off our previous point, make security and compliance a top priority when strategic planning for IT implementation. This AuditBoard guide offers a lot of helpful information for building a security-first culture.

Wrapping Up

Establishing an effective IT strategy is essential for building a strong foundation for technology use within your company. 

Whether you’re in SaaS, ecommerce, retail, or any other industry, a strategic plan is crucial for keeping your company efficient, productive, secure, compliant, and most importantly, profitable. 

Below you’ll find a strategy template to serve as a strategic plan example to help you get started.