Eight Keys to Success When Creating a Technology Strategy

Your association’s technology strategy must be more than a patchwork of IT systems and digital solutions. Each component should align with your organization’s overall mission and goals. An effective digital or technology strategy is both a communications and management tool. It demonstrates IT’s understanding of the association’s objectives, establishes a methodology that facilitates the accomplishment of those objectives and provides a suite of metrics to determine how effectively those objectives have been met.

Do you want to increase operational efficiency? Take a 360-degree view of your members? Extend your reach to non-members? Ensure you don’t get left behind during the mobile revolution? Having a technology strategy can help you do that.

Sherry Budziak, executive lead consultant and .orgSource founder, recently teamed with other experts to develop a strategic technology planning practice statement for the Association Forum of Chicagoland. It concluded:

“To be successful over the long-term, (an) organization must develop strategic technology goals that support an organization’s business goals in every other functional area. …. Understanding the centrality of IT to an association’s strategic initiatives is more important now than ever before.”

Here are eight keys to succes when building or revising your organization’s technology strategy: 

• Involve a senior leadership “sponsor” and include strategic thinkers from across the organization.
• Assess current technology capabilities and determine if there are infrastructure gaps that are hindering you from meeting your organizational goals.
• Identify key features and benefits needed to further your objecitves
• Interview staff, volunteers and members to gain an understanding of current and future technology needs that will help them meet their goals.
• Explain how the technology plan will help your organization achieve its business objectives. Sometimes it’s easier to get buy-in from your board when the pitch is jargon-free and comes from someone outside of IT.
• Prepare a roadmap for the evaluation, acquisition, implementation and/or enhancement of systems.
• Set realistic timelines and budgets.
• Ensure clear matrix are established and monitored.

If you are ready to create a technology plans or refine an existing one and need help  navigating the process,  the .orgSource team can help.