In this newsletter we’ll talk about Strategic IT KPIs, why they are important and what type of Strategic KPIs are now important for a modern IT team.
In my upcoming How to IT Strategy Course, we’ll go into more detail around Strategic IT KPIs and their role in helping create and measure the success of your IT Strategy. You can sign up for early access and an early bird discount (when the course launches) at howtoitstrategy.com
Why?
Strategic IT KPIs need to speak to the significant transformative impact that IT Strategy and team are having on the business.
Tip
It is really important to focus on what you want to measure first and not immediately start limiting your thinking on what you need to measure with thoughts of how you are going to measure. Only once you are happy with what you need to measure should you start to think about the how.
It is absolutely worthwhile to be thinking about what those Strategic IT KPIs are when you are creating your IT Strategy, its the perfect time to be able to say, this is where we are heading and this is how we are going to know that we are heading in the right direction so you can course correct your strategic execution and demonstrate progress.
What KPIs?
There are a number of different metrics that an IT Leader should be measuring, monitoring and managing, i believe and have found it useful in practice, to limit Strategic IT KPIs to a small number. focusing on a small number is also a good exercise for questioning and reinforcing if you are clear enough on your IT Mission and Vision.
In my experience there are 4 key categories of Strategic IT KPIs that should be considered when thinking about your Strategic IT KPIs. The actual specific type of KPI within these categories might be different depending on the context of your business.
1) Customer Satisfaction
An important factor that influences your ability to successfully execute your IT Strategy is your IT team’s reputation and standing in the business. Measuring the level of customer satisfaction is a key temperature check on how your customers feel IT are doing. Depending on your organisation’s context this could be about just gauging your colleagues as internal customers, or even your actual customers e.g. through NPS. Regardless of how you choose to measure this, understanding the impact IT is making on your customers is essential.
2) ROI
A modern IT team has to be able to demonstrate the tangible value it is delivering to the business. Focusing on ROI rather than cost is an important step in recognising the necessary move of IT from old-school cost base to strategic enabler.
3) Time to Value
Delivering change is a key value stream for IT. You absolutely need to be able to measure and improve on your ability to help the business go from idea to delivered value.
4) Compliance
This category of KPI is one that will very much depend on the nature of your business and exactly what type of compliance responsibilities are within the remit of IT e.g. GDPR, PCI DSS, ISO27001, etc etc. Regardless of the specifics you must be able to measure, monitor and improve your IT compliance.
In this newsletter we’ve briefly discussed why IT KPIs are important and some key categories of strategic IT KPIs. In my upcoming How to IT Strategy Course we will go into more detail about how to ensure you create a great IT Strategy. You can sign up here for early access to the course when it launches and an early bird discount.
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