Strategic Planning Concepts Apply to

¶ … Strategic Planning Concepts Apply to it Planning? Why the Principles of Strategic Planning Apply to it Planning The more integrated the value chains of businesses become, the more critical information is as the primary corporate asset as it unifies an entire enterprise and allows it to be agile, market-driven and centered on the customer.

The previous generations of corporate governance that kept strategic planning separate from it strategic planning perpetuated the concept of it being only a "daily tone" and not a competitive force, part of the core competitive strength of a business. Uniting it planning and strategic planning is now critical for any business to be able to meet and surmount the challenges of turbulent markets, rapidly growing new markets, and the need for exceptional insight into entirely new technologies (Titus, Covin, Slevin, 2011).

It can be the basis of internal efficiency or it can serve as the catalyst of completely redefining a business model as well. The forward-thinking companies in the 21st century are considering how to transform it into a competitive advantage instead of relying on it as just as utility. The intent of this analysis is to explain how the general principles and strategies of strategic planning apply to it planning. There are also there areas that do not overlap and they are also described.

In general however, there is much more overlap between it planning and strategic planning compared to ever before. IT Planning and Strategic Planning: Creating a Competitive Advantage The parallels between it planning and strategic planning are predicated on a series of shared objectives and initiatives that unify the direction of each. The focus within it planning is shifting from just providing information systems and a core set of enterprise applications to run a business to become a core catalyst of competitive advantage in an enterprise (Titus, Covin, Slevin, 2011).

This is because role-based access to data and information is proving to be the most effective approach to greater effectiveness and the generation of results. With it planning aligning analytics and information to roles and not just generating thousands of reports, this area of businesses is become more critical to the strategic planning process (Lavarda, Giner, Bonet, 2011). An area of increasing overlap of between it planning and strategic planning is the reliance on interprocess and system integration as well.

This continues to mature extremely rapidly as a crone area of focus within enterprises that seek to create more of a competitive advantage for themselves through the real-time use of analytics and information. A decade ago process and system integration would have been removed from strategic planning, as these latter areas would be seen as part of the it platform structure of a business.

Today, the extent to which a company's processes and it systems are integrated is the extent to which their strategic plans can be attained and the focus on long-range goals can be kept consistent (Hassan, 2010). This integration of systems is now critical for businesses to attain the level of process, department and division synchronization necessary to attain their strategic plans. From the context of tight coordination within a company to attain strategic goals and objectives, it planning and strategic planning continue to converge.

Another factor that illustrates how the general principles and strategies of strategic planning apply to it planning is from the customer orientation mindset. The focus on who exactly the customer is for a given series of it systems must always stay in focus for the projects and programs to stay on track and meet or exceed expectations, and deliver value. The same holds true with the strategic plans of businesses and their focus on delivering value and return on shareholder investment over time (Hassan, 2010).

This common focus on the customer is essential for both to stay on track and gain support internally, and attain their specific goals. Where it planning and strategic planning diverge however is in the area of technology emphasis. Increasingly this is becoming the only area of divergence. It planning will continue to focus on how to take technology and modify it to support legacy systems and applications while at the same time concentrate on how to purchase new systems to keep pace with existing projects.