ITSMA - Strategy Health Check

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Strategy Health Check

Strategy in many IT services organizations can be summed up crudely as "doing what we did before, but better." Finance drives an annual planning process designed to increase revenue and profit in pretty much the same areas as the year before.

A bit harsh? Perhaps, but ITSMA research suggests that marketing typically takes a back seat in the strategy process; competitive and opportunity analysis is generally quite thin; and a negotiated aggregation of business unit financial goals serves as the foundation of most organizations' "strategies."

How effectively does your strategy process anticipate and respond to market and competitive change? Take ITSMA's Strategy Health Check for a quick review of your company's approach.

Does your firm have a strategy written down?

Yes

Is it updated at least every six months?

Yes

Was the reason for the most recent change clearly communicated to the management team in your company?

Yes

Is there a person in your firm responsible for tracking market change?

Yes

Is there a person in your firm responsible for tracking competitors?

Yes

How quickly are market or competitive changes reflected in your strategy?

Quarterly

Half yearly

Annually

Never/Rarely

How quickly do changes in strategy directly link to current performance measures?

Within 3 months

Within 6 months

More than 6 months

Is each element of your portfolio of services reviewed regularly against a set of revenue, profit, growth, strategic fit and competitiveness measures?

Yes

Do investments change as a result of this review?

Yes

10.

How involved is marketing in strategy formulation?

Heavily/
drives it

Contributes
insight

Contributes
data

Not involved

11.

Can your sales force describe your differentiators from each of your major competitors?

Yes

12.

Do you have a case study demonstrating where you won business against these competitors as a result of each of these differentiators?

Yes

13.

In what percentage of deals are you surprised by what your competitors do?

Less than 25%
of deals

Between 26-33%
of deals

More than one
third of deals

14.

How often do finance and marketing discuss the implications of changes in the market?

Regularly

Occasionally

Never

Your Score =

Scoring:
0-10 sell the shares
10-20 you've started but need to build on it
20-30 you're on the way the rest is straightforward
30-40 please help us with case studies!

Check here if you would like to receive a complimentary report of the findings of this survey (this opportunity will expire on September 30, 2004). All results are kept completely confidential.

Name:	*	Title:
Company:		Email:	*

ITSMA Marketing Tools provide guidelines, checklists, tips, and other applications to help improve marketing programs and organizations. They are available to ITSMA members as a benefit of membership. Suggestions for new tools are welcome; please send them to rleavitt@itsma.com.

Phone: 1-888-ITSMA92 (Outside the U.S. +1-781-862-8500)