How We Define Business IT Strategy                                     

BMA strongly believes that the most successful IT initiatives are those which fuse business strategy, technology strategy and operational needs. Our strategists help clients utilize information technology strategically to impact basis of competition, performance, economics and value creation. Moreover, our teams provide the business, its customers, and suppliers/partners with more effective technology services.

BMA approaches IT strategy and improving IT value by understanding where IT contributes to shareholder value, the IT cost structure, the business value of the asset base (existing investment in technology), the business value of services provided by IT, the business value of planned and in-process investments (projects), how IT demand drives IT costs, and effective structures for delivering and managing IT products and services.

Our Business IT services encompass a range of activities, including:

• IT Strategy and Planning

• IT Strategy: Business/IT strategy through to architectural and organization structures

• IT Value: IT Investment Portfolio Performance

• IT Value: Improving the ROI on IT Spend

• IT Management

• IT Assessments: Assessing IT performance, Diagnosing IT performance issues

• Improving IT Effectiveness/IT Transformation: Achieving significant change in IT value through changes in governance, organization structure, targets, vision, processes, skills, HR programs, and other elements

• IT Cost Containment: Also called “IT Performance Improvement”

• IT Sourcing

• IT Outsource Advisory Services: Identifying and assessing outsource opportunities

• Sourcing IT services and technology

• IT Merger and Integration

• IT Due Diligence

• IT Integration Planning

Industry Expertise

BMA's Business IT Strategy approach and tools have been applied in a wide variety of global industries including manufacturing, hi-tech, insurance, banking, consumer business, and health care.

Major Business Issues Addressed

When corporations partner with our consultants, they find experienced answers to challenging questions facing CIOs. Corporate leaders value someone who can skillfully navigate through the choices that simultaneously increase rewards and heighten the business risks. These major business IT issues include:

1. Which areas of the business need IT attention?

2. What are the customers’ needs for technology and services (both internal and external)?

3. Which technologies and services should we be implementing/considering/upgrading/ replacing/retiring?

4. What is the “appropriate” level of business continuity and information protection capabilities?

5. How well is IT performing?

6. What are the value, risk, and tradeoffs of the proposed initiatives? How do we make sure each initiative actually deliver the promised value?

7. How does our overall portfolio of spending line up against the needs and direction of the overall business?

8. What is our architectural strategy?

9. What should we be spending on IT? How does our IT cost structure compare against the market? What changes do we need to make to our vendor management strategy and policies?

10. What changes do we need to make to our internal IT organization/people/skills to perform effectively?

11. What changes do we need to make to our capital and/or operating budget, planning processes, and/or IT governance and oversight processes?

12. In a tight economy, which projects could be deferred, and why? In a growth economy, where are we constrained?

13. In a tight economy, which people could we afford to lose and which ones do we need to keep? In a growth scenario, where are we constrained?