Strategy for Buying IT

So why do you need a strategy when it comes to buying IT?

First, there is the minefield of jargon and impenetrable specifications -- the megabytes, and RAM, and 32 bit clients. How can you make sure that the machine you buy will meet your needs and won't become outdated within a couple of years? And what of printers, scanners and modems; important components of any computer system?

Then there are more complex issues like getting a network, providing e-mail for all your staff, or deciding on maintenance contracts and support. How should you go about buying your equipment? How to choose a supplier that will provide good after-sales support?

Finally, and most importantly, how to develop an IT strategy to ensure that whatever you buy helps to develop your organization's services and doesn't just become a drain on limited resources?

IT Strategy - the Basic Rule

Computers are not an end in themselves: the old adage still holds true.

• Decide what you want to do
• Choose the software to achieve that end. Software means the programs or "application software" that you use for things like word processing, accounts or e-mail. Fairly intangible, you can't touch it.
• Choose the hardware to run the software.Hardware means the computer equipment you use to run your software. It is solid, you can touch (or kick) it.

This doesn't mean that you have to engage in soul searching every time you buy a new piece of equipment. Often the decision about what to buy will be fairly obvious; if you want a new computer it will usually make sense to buy the standard office PC of the day.

But these decisions don't happen in isolation. You have to consider the needs and future direction of your organization. And your new purchase will have to fit in with your existing IT set-up. Will there be compatibility problems? Do you need to upgrade software?

It will help enormously if you have an IT strategy that sets a framework and guides your purchasing decisions. This strategy will deal with issues like equipment purchase and upgrade; software standardization; support and training and staff roles and responsibilities.

The important thing about the IT strategy is that it shouldn't exist in isolation but should be seen as a way of implementing the organization's aims and objectives in delivering its services. An IT strategy must be more than a preamble to a shopping list: it should reflect how an organization aims to use and manage IT to improve its services. Although an IT strategy document will deal with technical issues it should be written in non-technical language; comprehensible to the least IT literate member of your management committee.

IT-Led Decisions

We argue above that you should decide what to do, then choose software to do that task, and finally choose hardware to run that software. Although the "task - software - hardware" process provides a sound route for IT purchase, some decisions will be IT-led. Few people thought it would be good to send messages by computer, went out and looked for software and then got a computer network to run it on. No, e-mail became available and because it was there and useful, we all started to use it.

There's nothing wrong with that -- indeed some of the most successful uses of IT in voluntary organizations have come about by someone seeing the potential of new technology and using it in an innovative way.

But innovation is high risk and often harder than you expect. Be skeptical about the promises of new technology, realistic about the resources that will be required, especially if software development is involved, and be very clear about what it is you want to achieve.

Article in collaboration with London Advice Services Alliance.