What Should Your Company’s IT Roadmap Look Like?

As partners to many local businesses and organizations, we focus on exploring new opportunities to keep your business productive, competitive, and secure. Part of that approach involves developing an operable and sustainable IT roadmap that allows you to reach your business goals.

What Is an IT Roadmap?

Oftentimes in organizations, there is a disconnect between the strategy layer of your business and the technology which, in turn, can stunt growth or even derail you from reaching your business goals. An IT roadmap is a plan for implementing the technology that supports the growth and goals that you’ve laid out for your business.. It typically outlines when, why, and what solutions will help the company move forward in a cost-effective manner. With our clients, we conduct a technology assessment and risk analysis to develop a 24-month roadmap that’s customized for your company’s needs.

Over the course of those two years, the IT roadmap guides you through a timeline of initiatives and projects. The improvement opportunities are prioritized jointly by our IT team and your company. To ensure all goals are met, start and end dates, durations, and project sizes are predetermined. We also estimate the cost of each project, to ensure you stay within your budget.

We revisit the IT roadmap regularly to ensure we’re still on track to meeting your goals. We understand that revisions are necessary at times, so all roadmaps are adaptable and flexible. 

Common Elements of an IT Roadmap

Every business has different technology needs. This is why every IT roadmap we create is unique to your business. There are, however, certain elements that the most roadmaps contain, which include:

• Goals. The short-term and long-term goals determine what’s needed to maintain the system and establish what the company is hoping to achieve with its managed IT services.
• Risk Factors. Organizations need to acknowledge the internal and external barriers that could prevent them from achieving their goals.
• System Plans. This includes what new system capabilities the business has, in addition to the release plans that establish when updates take place. System plans should be broadly communicated throughout the company to ensure everyone is on the same page.
• Training. With any new system, employees need guidance so they can continue to provide for the company’s clients or customers.
• Status Reports. Regular status reports keep everyone informed of what new technology is being implemented.

Why Your Business Needs an IT Roadmap

The new technologies you implement, support your employees and provide a clear path toward your company’s goals. Overall, the IT roadmap allows you to act strategically when making investment decisions and more easily manage projects by creating a plan of action for maintaining existing technologies and introducing new solutions.

A successful technology roadmap keeps the business focused on the most important objectives, while identifying the necessary initiatives to support the company’s needs. Your entire team can visualize the plans and understand the implications for each person in the organization.

Creating an IT roadmap can put your company ahead of the competition. But this is only one part of the process. If you’re ready to get started, contact us today.

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