Many businesses stumble over common mistakes that make it hard to align their IT systems with long-term business goals. In this article, we’ll explore five key aspects of planning an IT strategy that aligns with your business objectives and avoids common pitfalls.
At the risk of stating the painfully obvious, anything we plan for IT must be subordinate and in service to our current and future business goals. Despite not wanting the IT cart to lead the business goal horse, it is surprising how often we encounter IT decision-making that is completely divorced from higher-level strategic planning.
Common examples of this misalignment include:
Lack of Cloud Adoption: The IT team resists migrating from on-premise databases and applications to cloud services (Azure, AWS, Google Cloud) due to fears of change, despite the business goal of enabling remote work and global collaboration.
Aging On-Prem Servers: The IT department continues investing in physical servers instead of transitioning to cloud infrastructure, contradicting the business goal of reducing capital expenditures (CapEx) and increasing operational flexibility.
Inability to Collaborate on Files: Teams store documents locally on laptops or on-prem servers rather than using cloud-based collaboration platforms (e.g., Microsoft 365, Google Workspace). This not only inhibits real-time collaboration across departments or geographies but also introduces version control issues, with multiple conflicting versions of the same document floating around.
Outsourcing IT Without Strategic Alignment: IT leadership outsources key functions to third-party providers without aligning with business objectives, leading to inefficient vendor relationships and increased costs.
Where to begin?
If you've read through this list and can't relate to any of these, congratulations! You are definitely in a much better place than most companies. However, read on if you find yourself nodding your head or wincing in pain at one or more examples.
The first thing to say about IT-business goal alignment is that you are definitely not the first person to struggle with its challenges and complexity. As such, there are entire libraries of business literature, cases, and models to help IT decision makers come to effective solutions. Popular frameworks, to name a few, are COBIT, ITIL, TOGAF, and McKinsey’s Three Horizons approach. With this said, you can also start by simply ensuring that your next big IT decision is not made without first having answers to questions like:
In sum, a fairly common mistake is making major IT decisions based on the existing needs instead of the long-term vision. Your IT strategy must be a direct extension of your business objectives, not a separate entity. In what follows, we discuss some of the main barriers and solutions to this common business problem.
One of the most common mistakes in IT strategy is maintaining outdated assumptions about existing IT platforms and investments. Businesses often:
Why is it seemingly so difficult for so many companies to abandon legacy systems that no longer serve them, particularly given the wide array of new options?
Many businesses struggle to modernize their IT infrastructure because large-scale migrations can feel overwhelming, especially with limited in-house resources or outsourced IT teams focused on basic maintenance rather than strategic upgrades. The fear of disrupting critical services, whether internal operations or customer-facing systems, often leads to hesitation, even when inefficiencies are obvious. Additionally, if a legacy system is still functioning, albeit inefficiently, decision-makers may de-prioritize modernization in favour of more immediate business concerns. As a result, IT upgrades are often delayed until a failure occurs and forces reactive decisions, rather than being planned as part of a proactive strategy.
To ensure your IT systems meet your needs, consider whether your current provider offers the scalability, security, and compliance your business requires or whether it’s time to look for alternatives.
That brings us to the next point of what you need to know to have a good IT strategy in 2025.
Your IT strategy is only as strong as the team managing it. A typical risk flag is relying on a single individual with concentrated knowledge, which can create vulnerabilities. For example, if your IT Manager cannot go on vacation without causing a disruption, it’s time to reassess your team’s resiliency and redundancy.
To determine if you have the right team in place, ask yourself:
If you’re answering “no” to these questions, it’s a sign that your IT function isn’t positioned for growth. Instead of just continuously patching over outdated systems or relying on a reactive team, hire or outsource the talent needed to reach your current IT goals. The right team should actively push your IT strategy forward, ensuring your technology enables business success rather than holding it back.
Of course, having the right people is only half the battle. Even the best team can’t execute a strong IT strategy without the proper financial support. If your budget is focused on keeping outdated systems running instead of making strategic investments, you’re setting your team up for failure. Let’s talk about how to make sure your IT budget actually drives business growth.
If you think you're saving money by cutting IT costs, think again. Bad IT can be more expensive in the long run than investing in the right solutions today. From clunky systems that slow your team down to unexpected outages and security risks, the hidden costs of underfunded IT add up fast.
Still not convinced? Here’s where businesses go wrong when budgeting for IT:
So, what’s the solution?
Stop treating IT like a cost to be minimized and start investing in the systems, tools, and expertise that will drive your business forward. And if your IT provider is just keeping the lights on instead of helping you plan for the future, it might be time for a new approach.
The real question isn’t “How much does IT cost?” It’s “How much is bad IT already costing you?”
Once you've secured the right financial resources, the last thing to consider when planning your 2025 IT strategy is knowing where to invest it. Technology constantly evolves, and making the wrong bets - or worse, failing to prepare for the future - can leave your business stuck in the past. So, how do you ensure your IT strategy stays ahead of the curve? It starts with understanding what's coming next.
If your IT strategy is just about keeping things running, you're already falling behind. Make time to evaluate how new technologies could help you meet your business goals before outdated systems start working against you. The companies that thrive aren't the ones clinging to what's familiar but the ones that actively plan for what's next.
Ask yourself: Where does your business need to be in 3-5 years, and is your technology set up to get you there?
As you plan, keep the following key areas in mind:
Businesses that don’t plan ahead end up racing to change instead of driving it. The smartest IT strategies don’t just solve today’s problems, they set the foundation for future success.
Make IT an Asset, Not a Liability