The genesis and use of a template to assist small to medium sized enterprises in developing an IT strategy

The results of this author’s experience of working with over 20 companies in developing and implementing IIS supports the work of Levy and Powell [6]. The IT strategy Template presented in Appendix 1 is based on ideas suggested by Earl [2] and Blili & Raymond [1] has been used as a practical framework for developing an ISS for an SME and documenting the resulting IS / IT / IM plans.

Though the focus of the referenced work is on the development of an Information Systems Strat-egy for the Small to Medium sized enterprise the experience of the author is that the development of ISS is only a small part of delivering business benefit to an SME. The resulting projects required to implement an ISS and put in to practice IS / IT / IM plans can unfold over a two to three year period. During this time the ISS is itself under review.

Acknowledgements: The author wishes to acknowledge the contribution of Mark Gregory, Profes-sor, Decision Sciences and Information Systems at Rennes International School of Business, Rennes, France. Jo Peate, Teaching Company Associate, Crosrol Ltd. and IT consultant at ITmanager.co.uk Ltd. and Steve Scott, Huddersfield University Business School.