Technology and business do not work on a calendar or fiscal year. Plans change, things happen and in order for your business to remain successful, you must plan for changes. Based on our experience, we’ve developed a 3-6-12-24 month rolling plan.
The goal of this plan is to break implementation actions and reactions away from planning and strategy. This gives your IT group specific action items and goals (3-6 months), while at the same time giving your financial planners and upper management sound budgeting and planning tools (12-24 months), without restraining the necessary flexibility associated with a business.
The 3-6-12-24 month rolling plan accommodates changes and provides the tools to budget properly, plan resources, allocate direct and indirect staffing, plan facilities, alert other departments, etc.
One of the fundamental properties of the rolling SmartIT plan is the concept of WID (Write-It-Down). Personnel will inevitably change and most IT budgets and plans are scratched out around budget planning time. The actions throughout the year are ‘reactive’ to the whims of the business, owner’s requests, politics, favoritism, and preference of certain projects. Writing it down provides an unbiased ‘truth’ stick, whereby actions are identified, a time line set, and responsibility is given and accepted. It provides a paper trail for reviews, budget to actual, personnel transition, policies (personnel and computer/network use). It’s the cheapest ‘risk’ management any organization can print, and provides legal support, procurement policies for IT staff, etc. The goal of the WID philosophy is to be specific about the plan and to publicize it throughout your organization, so that everyone is on board and rowing in the same direction.
The result of SmartIT is feedback and review. A quarterly review provides focus and feedback, and eliminates surprises as to the progress of your project, the state of your systems and usage.
By Dynamic Business Solutions, Inc. A Vermont Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner
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