IT Strategy for the Growth of the Business

Posted by SharonEvans on December 2nd, 2012

Right kind of IT strategy is needed for growth of any modern day business. There are many components of it which are considered by system administrators while developing the perfect system, but the component that is of greatest importance is of course information security. As any process analysis starts with analysing the strength and weakness of the system, developing a secure system for information transfer should head the list of priority. The analysis will be done on the basis of existing IT components and their scope of integration with future applications and systems.

IT strategy typically involves planning of staffing, allocation of budget and designing of timetable keeping in view of information security of the entire system. The infrastructure strategy, for example, involves handling system hardware, networks and operating systems. All of these are vulnerable to security threats in the form of virus and malware attack, information theft and data loss. Your strategy for IT management should carefully scan all of them to minimize the scope of attacks and other threats, both physical and virtual.

Application strategy is another component of IT strategy that is to be implemented for ensuring information security. You need to have the applications that would ideally support your business process like managing day-to-day operations or warehousing of your assets. The objective should be to include software that will increase your profit along with presenting an efficient working platform. For increasing profitability you must have some CRM software that would take care of sales promotion and customer support. And, for increasing operational efficiency you must have some ERP system. Both of these strategy components must ensure secure transfer of information.

IT strategy involving innovation is another important component that can increase the profitability for a business. Business owners always look for technologies and applications that are ahead of time. This helps in taking the business to the next level and in keeping it ready for competition. But with futuristic technologies come complex and advanced security requirement. Information security to support innovative technologies needs the best system in place for smooth operation. One should look for some established solution providers that are capable of presenting several services like security compliance, designing suitable architecture, vulnerability assessment etc.

Sourcing in IT strategy also plays a very important role. When your business plans to add a new product or services in the existing chain, the first decision you need to take is either to buy or to design it in house. According to the sourcing decision, information security solutions are to be designed as well. In the primary stage you will have to take decision regarding security incident and monitoring and alerting options because it become difficult to tweak the system once the backbone has been already developed. You must therefore think of incorporating anti-malware and anti-phising modules in your system while designing the security strategy.

Last one is the cost component that plays an important role for designing the IT strategy for your business. But the investment decision should never influence the information security options. Do not compromise on this if you want to enjoy the long-term benefits of technological marvels.

As the business grows globally, information security becomes extremely critical to manage. You need perfect IT strategy to tackle all possible types of virtual threats.