What does information strategy mean? How is it different than IT planning, or strategic planning for nonprofits? Information strategy helps nonprofits create a technology roadmap that guides their business-critical strategies in the long term, and also helps them implement smart quick projects that align with long term goals.
Information strategy is conceptually much broader than information technology (IT) strategy. It encompasses all of the prerequisites required to support the management of information to advance organizational objectives. A solid information strategy seeks to answer the following questions:
Leadership
Does the organization’s leadership have clarity of vision, alignment, and engagement? What do nonprofits need from their tech leaders?
Governance
How will information be sourced, organized, managed, and leveraged? What makes nonprofit tech projects succeed? How does your organization document your governance requirements and responsibilities?
Data
What information does the organization need or want to manage? How does data quality define your nonprofit organization?
Processes
What are the processes by which the organization pursues opportunities and manages information? What are 10 questions your nonprofit’s technology roadmap should answer?
Technology
What technology best supports the organization? What is the secret to building a better nonprofit technology selection process?
We use the Build Information Strategy framework, either explicitly or implicitly, with all nonprofit organizations we work with, to examine change across all five aspects in every project, and to build a plan to manage change through leadership, communication, and time management.
Taking such a holistic, circumspect approach is vital to the success of all “technology strategy” or “technology roadmap” projects, as well as to system/software selection and implementation support. If you aren’t sure of your leadership capacity to implement wide-reaching technology change, Build also can work with you as an interim or part time CIO. Having an information strategy helps nonprofits align short, medium, and long-term technology projects and investments into a coherent roadmap, and helps disparate departments invest in technology that isn’t siloed or working against common goals.
Contact us to start a conversation and understand your information strategy.
