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The goal of strategic IT planning is to map out possible risks and determine the best plan to mitigate those risks – it’s an on-going check of your organization’s resiliency. Each IT strategy plan must be aligned with the organization’s overall business vision, strategy, and objectives and include long-term initiatives and a technology roadmap. Our process for strategic planning focuses on three pillars: infrastructure risks, cyber risks, and employee, business & operational risks.

Infrastructure Risks

• Check the readiness and the ability to continually monitor infrastructure and other communication tools for the higher load of employees working remotely. Turning to a trusted partner to perform a health check of your network will help.
• Check to see if corporate systems can be managed remotely without the physical presence of IT employees (operations, support, etc.). You may realize that you need additional assistance with the remote monitoring and management of your systems.
• Where are your weakest links? Identify infrastructure vulnerabilities and design countermeasures to alleviate the risks.
• Have sufficient IT support for remote employees that provides near real-time assistance.
• Verify the number of software licenses that ensure remote access success.

Cyber Risks

• Ensure the security and monitoring of applications for remote access and tighten controls. 
• Test applications for remote use capabilities and ALWAYS keep updates and patching current.
• Implement or enforce Employee Security Awareness Training. There has been an increase in malware attacks since the start of the pandemic and the announcement of the stimulus payments.
• Review and update your incident response plan to help IT staff detect, respond to, and recover from network security incidents.

Employee, Business & Operational Risks

• Identify the key roles that require on-site access and create a back-up plan in case of their absence. If your IT manager is not able to perform their job, who will?
• Review, realign and test scenarios, plans, and measures to restore business operations in the event of a significant system failure.

These steps should give you a solid idea of where to start and what to look for. As always, if you have any questions about strategic IT planning for your organization, we’re here to help.