This book is written for the strategic planner who, if they do their job right, makes it possible for the rest of us to stay employed. Their ability to clearly envision the future of the marketplace, the competition and the enterprise means the difference between long term success and failure. The strategic planner's skill is vital and their decisions may be of broader consequence than those of most others in the organization. Their ability to put all this information into a concise, clear, energizing, action oriented Vision Statement can make the difference between organizational success or failure over the long term. The purpose of this book is to pass along the result of a series of business and personal experiences and the teachings and guidance of some great mentors. Those experiences and mentors combined over time to provide a set of skills and knowledge about how to develop simple, clear information technology strategic plans supporting long term enterprise objectives. Along the way I've developed a set of rules that are useful for strategic planners and leaders. This book presents a streamlined planning tool for the information technology strategic planner that can be used effectively in any type of organization whether it is a corporation, non-profit or government enterprise. Through a series of logical steps it requires the technology planner to first understand the vision, infrastructure and operation of the enterprise they are supporting. Using this information a complementary vision and infrastructure are developed for the IT group supporting the enterprise. The desired objective is an IT plan that not only supports, but also enhances, the ability of the enterprise to achieve its business or competitive objectives. An excellent tool that results is a one page Guiding Document that states in clear terms the Strategic Target, the Benefits provided by the Strategic Plan, and the Action Items that will be taken by the team to achieve those Benefits. This planning methodology has successfully been used by the author for more than a decade.
About the Author: Tom Ireland grew up as an "Air Force Brat" bouncing around military installations in the U.S. and Far East. He often says that growing up in the military was one of the best adventures a kid could have. It was during this adventure that he was able to spend three of his high school years in Japan. After high school Tom attended Oklahoma State University where he received BS in Electronics Engineering and a minor in mathematics. While there Mr. Ireland published his first paper in "The Oklahoma State Engineer". That paper won first place in a competition at Oklahoma State and in the Big Eight Universities. Upon graduating from college he accepted a commission in the United States Air Force where he served in several capacities, most notably Plans and Programs Officer, in Turkey and North America. While an Air Force Officer and later as a Department of Defense civilian he managed technology program management teams responsible for communications and electronics installations in the Middle East, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio and other military installations in the Ohio region. His Plans and Programs duties included disaster preparedness; survival, recovery and reconstitution of military forces; and war planning. After leaving the Air Force Tom went to work for a technology division of the Mead Corporation responsible for designing and operating their networks in support of what was at that time the world's largest on-line, full-text search and retrieval data base. He eventually moved to Mead Corporate Staff where he successfully integrated their network operations. He also directed the modernization of, and assumed operational responsibility for, the corporation's client computing services systems. At Mead he was asked to participate in a Vision Team which successfully established a long term IT Vision for the corporation. Mr. Ireland later went to work for CompuServe/UUNet. Over the course of three years he fully integrated the operations of their Class A web hosting data centers while the operation was expanding from three to twenty data centers across North America. Tom is now the Chief Technology Officer for a technology team supporting several cities in southwestern Ohio. He also provides technology support to the regional Tactical Crime Suppression Unit and the Organized Crime Task Force.