Technology Strategy

Patrick McConnell

This chapter will describe some of the key concepts and definitions of technology strategy and strategic technology alignment. The chapter introduces the concept of an information technology model that is aligned with the concept of a business model, as well as stressing the importance of directors and senior executives understanding the firm’s existing IT model and articulating the firm’s desired IT model as part of their overall corporate strategy.

WHAT IS TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY?

As with strategy, there are many definitions of “IT strategy”. The Cambridge Dictionary describes it as a “detailed plan about the computer systems needed to make an organisation effective, their cost, the skills needed to use them, etc... Business strategy needs to be linked to IT strategy.[emphasis added]” However, this definition puts the cart before the horse, and the linkage should be viewed the other way around since IT strategy needs to be linked to business strategy. Gartner, the IT research and consulting group, takes this perspective, defining IT strategy in their glossary of IT terms as “the discipline that defines how IT will be used to help businesses win in their chosen business context”.