Your information technology department has already set a mainframe, client-server and PC strategy. Now you're considering network computing, Internet and electronic commerce. Faster than you can collate and staple a new strategic plan, a new technology catches hold and renders your document obsolete. If all of this leaves you wondering how to keep abreast of new technology strategies to help accomplish your agency's mission, read on. Before your IT department can use technology strategies effectively, you must be aware of the purpose of your agency.
Strategies are like hammers.
A hammer is a great tool for driving a nail into a wall, but you wouldn't go out and buy them by the dozens. A technology strategy is the hammer the IT department provides so an agency can accomplish its mission or purpose. The purpose may be as mundane as issuing campsite reservations to vacationers or as worldly as carrying out foreign policy. It's from here, though, your consideration of IT strategy begins. Now that you have one eye focused on strategy and the other on purpose, here's how to proceed.