information technology business plan

Technology Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their technology businesses. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through a technology business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

What is a Technology Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your technology business as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan for a Tech Company

If you’re looking to start a technology business, or grow your existing technology business, you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your technology business in order to improve your chances of success. Your technology business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

Sources of Funding for Technology Businesses

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a technology business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable, but they will also want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business. Personal savings and bank loans are the most common funding paths for technology businesses.

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

If you want to start a technology business or expand your current one, you need a business plan. Below are links to each section of your technology business plan template:

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of technology business you are operating and the status. For example, are you a startup, do you have a technology business that you would like to grow, or are you operating technology businesses in multiple markets?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the technology industry. Discuss the type of technology business you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers. Provide a snapshot of your marketing plan. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.  

Company Analysis

In your company analysis, you will detail the type of technology business you are operating.

For example, you might operate one of the following types of technology businesses:

• Network technology : this type of technology company specializes in providing the computers, printers, scanners, and phones within an organization and making sure they are all linked together in order to work seamlessly with one another.
• Software technology: this type of technology company specializes in providing and/or installing the appropriate software needed for the business. This will include the programs and productivity tools for the organization’s computer network.
• Customer relationship technology: this type of technology company focuses on providing a customer relationship management system (CRM) that keeps track of all customer interactions and information in order to consistently provide exceptional customer service.

In addition to explaining the type of technology business you will operate, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to question such as:

• When and why did you start the business?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include the number of client companies served, number of positive reviews, reaching X amount of client companies served, etc.
• Your legal structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the technology industry.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the technology industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating. 

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy, particularly if your research identifies market trends.

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your technology business plan:

• How big is the technology industry (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the market?
• Who are the key suppliers in the market?
• What trends are affecting the industry?
• What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your technology business? You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section of your technology business plan must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: individuals, small businesses, and local companies that need technological services.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of technology business you operate. Clearly, large companies would respond to different marketing promotions than small businesses, for example.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, include a discussion of the ages, genders, locations and income levels of the customers you seek to serve.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.

Finish Your Technology Business Plan in 1 Day!

Don’t you wish there was a faster, easier way to finish your business plan?

With Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template you can finish your plan in just 8 hours or less!

Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other technology companies. 

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t direct competitors. This includes technology companies such as Geek Squad, local stores that sell and rehab tech equipment, online technology companies, etc.

With regards to direct competition, you want to describe the other technology businesses with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will be technology businesses located very close to your location.

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

• What types of technology do they provide?
• What areas do they serve?
• What type of technology company are they?
• What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
• What are they good at?
• What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ customers what they like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Is your technology business more capable than the competition?
• Will you provide technology services that your competitors don’t offer?
• Will you provide faster technology service?
• Will you provide better customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.  

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a technology business plan, your marketing plan should include the following:

Product : In the product section, you should reiterate the type of technology company that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific products you will be offering. For example, in addition to technology services, will you provide computer repair, 24/7/365 service, phone installation, and any other services?

Price : Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your marketing plan, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.

Place : Place refers to the location of your technology company. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success. For example, is your technology business located near an office complex, an urban setting, or a busy neighborhood, etc. Discuss how your location might be the ideal location for your customers.

Promotions : The final part of your technology marketing plan is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

• Website and SEO marketing
• Commercials
• Social media marketing
• Local radio advertising
• Business networking

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your technology business, including updating technology, client communication and scheduling, marketing, and implementing and installing the new technology for a client.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to obtain your XXth client company, or when you hope to reach $X in revenue. It could also be when you expect to expand your technology business to a new location.  

Management Team

To demonstrate your technology business’ ability to succeed, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company. 

Ideally you and/or your team members have direct experience in managing technologys. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act like mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in managing a technology business or are connected to a wide network of professional organizations that frequently utilize technology.  

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements.

Income Statement : an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you take on one new client company at a time or multiple new client companies ? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets : Balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. While balance sheets can include much information, try to simplify them to the key items you need to know about. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your technology business, this will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $50,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement : Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt. 

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a technology business:

• Cost of technology to be installed
• Cost of software and equipment
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff
• Business insurance
• Taxes and permits
• Legal expenses

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your list of technology services, types of clients you will be targeting, and the areas your technology business will serve.  

Putting together a business plan for your technology business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the technology industry, your competition, and your customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful technology business.  

Don’t you wish there was a faster, easier way to finish your Technology business plan?

OR, Let Us Develop Your Plan For You

Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.   Click here to see how a Growthink business planning advisor can create your business plan for you.

Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

IT Company Business Plan: Everything You Need to Know

An IT company business plan is a detailed plan for running and developing an information technology company. 3 min read updated on September 19, 2022

An IT company business plan is a detailed plan for running and developing an information technology company. It should describe all aspects of the business, including the company's description, product description, marketing strategy, and financial analysis, in a clear and precise manner.

Tips for Writing a Great Business Plan

A business plan should set out a clear roadmap for developing and expanding your business. Keep the following points in mind while writing a business plan:

• Test your idea. Avoid the temptation of jumping into a business merely on the basis of the success stories of others. Discuss your idea with prospective customers, vendors, and other people in the industry.
• Study the market to get an idea of industry trends, underlying challenges, and scope of future growth.
• Share your business plan with your employees. It is not something to be kept confidential.
• Write it in a clear and concise manner. Be specific, and cover all areas of the business.
• Put the plan to use; simply filing it away will not serve any purpose. Refer to it whenever possible.
• Revisit and revise your plan as your business grows.

Sections of a Business Plan

A typical business plan includes the following sections:

• Executive summary.
• Description of the company.
• Market research.
• Product or service description.
• Management structure.
• Sales and marketing strategy.
• Financial Analysis.

Benefits of Writing a Business Plan

Writing down your business plan offers the following benefits, among others:

• You get to understand your business better.
• It increases the chances of your business's success.
• It makes it easier to raise capital for a startup.
• Businesses with a written plan grow at a higher rate than those without any written plan.

Steps to Writing a Startup Business Plan

1. Have a Clear Objective

• Make sure that the company description is not ambiguous. The company description can also include your business's mission statement.
• State the reason for choosing that specific business. For example, you might be prompted to open a restaurant because no other restaurants in your area serve the cuisine your restaurant specializes in.
• Discuss the vision and growth prospects of your business in brief.

The summary should be concise and should not exceed four paragraphs.

2. Identify Your Target Market

Narrow down your target market based on geography, demography, psychology, and behavior. Your final target market may look like the following:

• Ages 20 to 35
• Living in the New York area
• With an annual income of $50,000-$60,000
• Who are interested in recycling and sustainable living

3. Analyze the Competition

Perform a competition analysis and differentiate your product accordingly. Price and quality can be two important differentiating factors. You should analyze the competition while simultaneously identifying your target market since both these steps are a part of the market research section of your business plan.

4. Prepare a Budget

Estimate the amount of funds you will need to start and operate the business. Many startups fail due to lack of funds. Preparing a budget beforehand will reduce this risk. When calculating your budget, consider all possible expenses, including the following:

• Cost of equipment.
• Money required for buying or leasing property.
• Legal fees.
• Employees' salaries.
• Insurance premiums.
• Inventory cost.

5. Make Financial Projections

Prepare financial projections based on the size of your target market and your expected market share. Include the expansion strategy in your projections. Keep your projections reasonable and make sure you cover three to five years of operations.

6. Define Your Business Structure

Define the organizational structure of your business. Having a clear hierarchy of power removes unnecessary doubt and debates over jobs and reporting positions. However, avoid adding too many layers in your business structure since that may create confusion and make the communication inefficient.

7. Prepare a Marketing Plan

A well-balanced marketing plan should include a strategy for customer acquisition in line with your target market, budget, and financial projections.

Some of the basic ideas for a marketing plan include the following:

• Launching a website.
• Being active on social media.
• Building a subscribers' list.
• Setting up loyalty programs.

8. Keep It Short and Simple

Although your business plan should be detailed and thorough, make it a point to keep it short and simple. Write it professionally and avoid using jargon. Proofread the plan for grammar, readability, and confusion.

If you need help with IT company business plan, you can post your legal need on UpCounsel's marketplace. UpCounsel accepts only the top 5 percent of lawyers to its site. Lawyers on UpCounsel come from law schools such as Harvard Law and Yale Law and average 14 years of legal experience, including work with or on behalf of companies like Google, Menlo Ventures, and Airbnb.

Hire the top business lawyers and save up to 60% on legal fees

Content Approved by UpCounsel

• Creating a Business Plan
• Sample of a Good Business Plan
• Service Business Plan
• Business Plan for Existing Company
• Business Plan for New Company
• Do I Need a Business Plan
• Parts of Business Plan and Definition
• LLC Business Plan Template
• Business Plan Contents Page
• Business Description Outline

Free Download

Information Technology Business Plan Template

Download this free information technology business plan template, with pre-filled examples, to create your own plan..

Or plan with professional support in LivePlan. Save 50% today

Available formats:

What you get with this template

A complete business plan.

Text and financials are already filled out and ready for you to update.

• SBA-lender approved format

Your plan is formatted the way lenders and investors expect.

Edit to your needs

Download as a Word document and edit your business plan right away.

• Detailed instructions

Features clear and simple instructions from expert business plan writers.

All 100% free. We're here to help you succeed in business, no strings attached.

Get the most out of your business plan example

Follow these tips to quickly develop a working business plan from this sample.

1. Don't worry about finding an exact match

We have over 550 sample business plan templates . So, make sure the plan is a close match, but don't get hung up on the details.

Your business is unique and will differ from any example or template you come across. So, use this example as a starting point and customize it to your needs.

2. Remember it's just an example

Our sample business plans are examples of what one business owner did. That doesn't make them perfect or require you to cram your business idea to fit the plan structure.

Use the information, financials, and formatting for inspiration. It will speed up and guide the plan writing process.

3. Know why you're writing a business plan

To create a plan that fits your needs , you need to know what you intend to do with it.

Are you planning to use your plan to apply for a loan or pitch to investors? Then it's worth following the format from your chosen sample plan to ensure you cover all necessary information.

But, if you don't plan to share your plan with anyone outside of your business—you likely don't need everything.

More business planning resources

How to Create a Business Plan Presentation

Simple Business Plan Outline

How to Write a Business Plan for Investors

How to Start a Business With No Money

Business Plan Template

How to Write a Business Plan

10 Qualities of a Good Business Plan

Industry Business Planning Guides

Download your template now

Need to validate your idea, secure funding, or grow your business this template is for you..

• Fill-in-the-blank simplicity
• Expert tips & tricks

We care about your privacy. See our privacy policy .

Not ready to download right now? We'll email you the link so you can download it whenever you're ready.

Download as Docx

Download as PDF

Finish your business plan with confidence

Step-by-step guidance and world-class support from the #1 business planning software

The quickest way to turn a business idea into a business plan

Fill-in-the-blanks and automatic financials make it easy.

No thanks, I prefer writing 40-page documents.

Discover the world’s #1 plan building software

ZenBusinessPlans

Home » Sample Business Plans » Technology

How to Write an IT Tech Startup Business Plan [Sample Template]

Are you about starting an IT tech startup? If YES, here is a detailed sample IT tech startup business plan template & feasibility report you can use for FREE . If you are a software developer or you have a background in the ICT industry and you are looking for An IT business to start, then you need to look far because there are loads of businesses in the industry and one of them is software as a service (or SaaS) company.

Software as a service (or SaaS) is an emerging paradigm business that enables software to be delivered as a service. This is an arrangement that enables companies to expand their network capacity, and run applications directly on a vendor’s network, offer a host of advantages with the most primary being radically lowering IT costs.

The lower budgetary requirements and commitments allow even smaller companies to piece together an IT project without spending on purchasing legacy server, and storage systems. However, due to the technical nature of this business, it would be wise to consult with a business consultant before starting off.

If your business concept is a great one, the business consultant would offer you tips and suggestions on the way forward. Below is a sample IT tech startup company business plan template that can help you successfully write your own with little or no stress.

A Sample IT Tech Startup Business Plan Template

1. industry overview.

An IT technology company (often tech company) is a type of business entity that focuses on the development and manufacturing of technology products, or providing technology as a service. “Technology”, in this context, has come to mean electronics-based technology. This can include businesses relating to digital electronics, software, and internet-related services, such as e-commerce.

For the purpose of this business plan, we will be looking at software development as a service. Software as a service (or SaaS) is part of the Business Analytics and Enterprise Software Publishing industry and players in this industry consist of companies that are into ERP software, bi software, crm software, scm software and other software development and they may decide to strictly adopt the Software as a services (SaaS) Business model.

A recent report published by IBISWorld shows that the Business Analytics and Enterprise Software Publishing industry has grown steadily due to favorable demand conditions caused by high corporate profit and investment. Over the five years to 2018, industry revenue rose at an annualized rate of 7.1 percent, driven by businesses’ increased technological complexity and the eagerness to adopt efficiency-enhancing software.

The report also shows that many industry products, such as customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning software systems, have become basic tools in the management of large companies. In 2018, industry revenue is expected to rise 2.6 percent to $55.4 billion. The world’s largest software companies have spent the past five years acquiring high-performing enterprise software vendors, cloud companies and data.

The report further states that over the past five years, the Business Analytics & Enterprise Software Publishing in the US industry has grown by 7.1 percent to reach revenue of $55bn in 2018. In the same timeframe, the number of businesses has grown by 10.0 percent and the number of employees has grown by 10.2 percent.

The Business Analytics and Enterprise Software Publishing industry is indeed a growing industry and is gaining ground in most countries of the world. Statistics has it that in the united states of America alone, there are about 2,869 registered and licensed business analytics and enterprise software publishing companies (Software as a services (SaaS) business model inclusive) responsible for employing about 139,347 people and the industry rakes $55 billion annually.

The industry is projected to grow at 7.1 percent annual growth within 2013 and 2018. The companies holding the largest market share in the Business Analytics & Enterprise Software Publishing in the US industry include SAP SE, International Business Machines Corporation, Salesforce.com Inc. and Oracle Corporation.

Some of the factors that encourage entrepreneurs to start their own Software as a service (SaaS) business could be the growing recognition of economic and operational benefits and the efficiency of this business model. As companies ease out gradually from the economic uncertainties and financial shackles, widespread adoption of Software as a service is in the offing.

The successful adoption of this technology concept will pave the way for mass enterprise adoption of Software as a service in the upcoming years. The transition of enterprises from virtual machines to the cloud will additionally extend the impetus required for strong growth of Software as a service (SaaS).

Poised to score the maximum gains will be end-to end cloud-computing solutions that offer complete functionalities ranging from integration of internal and external clouds, automation of business-critical tasks, and streamlining of business processes and workflow, among others.

Over and above, starting a software as a services (SaaS) company requires professionalism and good grasp of how the ICT industry works. Besides, you would need to get the required certifications and license and also meet the standard security expected for players in the industry in the United States.

2. Executive Summary

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. is an IT tech startup that will specialize in offering software as a service (SaaS). The business will be based in Overland Park – Kansas and we were able to secure a well – positioned and standard office facility.

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. is a client – focused and result driven IT tech startup company that is into ERP software, bi software, crm software, scm software and other software development. We will provide broad – based software development services at an affordable fee that won’t in any way put a hole in the pocket of our clients. We will offer standard and professional services to all to our clients.

At Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc., our client’s best interest would always come first, and everything we do is guided by our values and professional ethics. We will ensure that we hire professionals who are experienced in the business analytics and enterprise software publishing industry in general.

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. will at all times demonstrate her commitment to sustainability, both individually and as a firm, by actively participating in our communities and integrating sustainable business practices wherever possible. We will ensure that we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards by meeting our client’s needs precisely and completely.

Our plan is to position the business to become the leading brand in software as a service (SaaS) business in the whole of Overland Park – Kansas, and also to be amongst the top 10 IT tech startup companies in the United States of America within the first 10 years of operation. This might look too tall a dream but we are optimistic that this will surely be realized.

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. will be owned and managed by Joel Rogers. He has a Bachelor of Technology. He is a certified SOC 2 – Trust (SOC 2 is designed specifically for SaaS operations) and has over 10 years’ experience working in related industry as a senior software engineer prior to starting Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc.

3. Our Products and Services

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. is going to offer varieties of services within the scope of the business analytics and enterprise software publishing industry in the United States of America. We are well prepared to make profits from the industry and we will do all that is permitted by the law in the United States to achieve our business goals, aim and ambition.

Our business offerings are listed below;

• ERP software development
• BI software development
• CRM software development
• SCM software development
• Other software development

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

• Our vision is to build an IT tech startup company that will be among the forerunners when it comes to offering software as a service (SaaS) in the world.
• Our mission is as an IT tech startup with bias in software as a services (SaaS) is to help a wide range of clients develop customized software that will help them simplify their businesses and operations.

Our Business Structure

Ordinarily we would have settled for two or three staff members, but as part of our plan to build a standard IT tech startup company in Overland Park – Kansas, we have perfected plans to get it right from the beginning which is why we are going to ensure that we have competent, honest and hardworking employees to occupy all the available positions in our firm.

The kind of IT tech startup company we intend building and the business goals we want to achieve is what informed the amount we are ready to pay for the best hands available in and around Overland Park – Kansas as long as they are willing and ready to work with us.

Below is the business structure that we will build Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. on;

• Chief Executive Officer
• Programmers and Software Developers

Admin and HR Manager

• Digital Marketers (Marketing and Sales Executive)
• Customer Care Executive / Front Desk Officer

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

Chief Executive Office:

• Increases management’s effectiveness by recruiting, selecting, orienting, training, coaching, counseling, and disciplining managers; communicating values, strategies, and objectives; assigning accountabilities; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results
• Creating, communicating, and implementing the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
• Responsible for fixing prices and signing business deals
• Responsible for providing direction for the business
• Responsible for signing checks and documents on behalf of the company
• Evaluates the success of the organization

Programmers and Software Developer

• Responsible for designing, installing, testing and maintenance of software systems for the organization
• Identifying areas for modification in existing programs and subsequently developing these modifications
• Writing and implementing efficient code
• Determining operational practicality
• Developing quality assurance procedures
• Training users
• Working closely with other developers, UX designers, business and systems analysts
• Presenting ideas for system improvements, including cost proposals
• Working closely with analysts, designers and staff
• Producing detailed specifications and writing the programme codes
• Maintaining and upgrading existing systems once they are up and running
• Responsible for overseeing the smooth running of HR and administrative tasks for the organization
• Regularly hold meetings with key stakeholders to review the effectiveness of HR Policies, Procedures and Processes
• Maintains office supplies by checking stocks; placing and expediting orders; evaluating new products.
• Ensures operation of equipment by completing preventive maintenance requirements; calling for repairs.
• Defining job positions for recruitment and managing interviewing process
• Carrying out induction for new team members
• Responsible for training, evaluation and assessment of employees
• Responsible for arranging travel, meetings and appointments
• Oversee the smooth running of the daily office activities.

Marketing and Sales Executive

• Identify, prioritize, and reach out to new partners, and business opportunities et al
• Identifies development opportunities; follows up on development leads and contacts
• Writing winning proposal documents, negotiate fees and rates in line with company policy
• Responsible for handling business research, marker surveys and feasibility studies for clients
• Responsible for supervising implementation, advocate for the customer’s needs, and communicate with clients
• Document all customer contact and information
• Represent the company in strategic meetings
• Help increase sales and growth for the company
• Responsible for preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
• create reports from the information concerning the financial transactions as recorded
• Prepare the income statement and balance sheet using the trial balance and ledgers
• Provides managements with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports
• Responsible for financial forecasting and risks analysis.
• Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting for one or more properties.
• Responsible for developing and managing financial systems and policies
• Responsible for administering payrolls
• Ensuring compliance with taxation legislation
• Handles all financial transactions for the company
• Serves as internal auditor for the company

Technical Help Desk Officer

• Provide technical assistance and support for incoming queries and issues related to our software
• Identifies problems and issues by performing relevant research using the appropriate tools and by following established procedures.
• Through interaction with clients on the phone, uses every opportunity to build client’s interest in the company’s services
• Consistently stays abreast of any new information on the company’s promotional campaigns etc. to ensure accurate and helpful information is supplied to clients

6. SWOT Analysis

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. engaged the services of a professional in the area of business consulting and structuring to assist the firm in building a well – structured IT tech startup company that can favorably compete in the highly competitive business analytics and enterprise software publishing industry.

Part of what the business consultant did was to work with the management of our organization in conducting a SWOT analysis for Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. Here is a summary from the result of the SWOT analysis that was conducted on behalf of Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc.;

We can boast of a competent technical team that has analytical and critical thinking skills that can help them find creative solutions for our clients. Aside from the synergy that exists in our carefully selected workforce, we have a very strong online presence and we are well positioned to attract loads of clients from the first day we open our doors for business.

One of the weaknesses that is obvious to us is the lack of capacity and inability to compete with big players in the industry especially as it relates to economy of scales.

• Opportunities:

The opportunities in the business analytics and enterprise software publishing industry is massive considering the fact that the world is going the way of technology, and software as a service (SaaS) is indispensable in the value chain of the info tech industry.

Some of the threats that we are likely going to face as an IT tech startup business operating in the United States are hosting issues, installation or upkeep troubles, piracy, unfavorable government policies , and global economic downturn which usually affects purchasing/spending power.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

• Market Trends

The advancement we are enjoying in our world today can be attributed to the advancement of technology. Technology has indeed given leverage to all aspects of human endeavor. To start with, it is the advancement of technology that landed man in the moon.

It is the advancement of technology that made communication either via the telephone or computer easier and faster. It is the advancement of technology that made transportation faster and perhaps cheaper. It is the advancement of technology that made the manufacturing of goods faster and cheaper, etc.

The technology industry is so wide and vibrant and there is still room large enough for those who are interested in the industry to come in and create their own impact. One thing is certain, the world will always celebrate any inventor who is able to invent machines or devices that can ease the process of doing things.

8. Our Target Market

We are aware that the nature of our business is geared to words serving B2B clients, hence Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. will initially serve small to medium sized business, from new ventures to well established businesses and individual clients, but that does not in any way stop us from growing to compete with the leading IT tech startup companies that offer software as a services (SaaS) in the United States.

As a standard and licensed IT tech startup company that offers software as a service (SaaS), Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. will develop software apps for the following clients;

• Financial services providers
• Insurance companies
• Businesses in the health sector
• Supply chain businesses
• Other related businesses that may need software as a services (SaaS) technology

Our competitive advantage

The level of competition in the business analytics and enterprise software publishing industry does not in any way depend on the location of the business since most companies that offer software as a service (SaaS), can operate from any part of the world and still effectively compete in the industry.

We are quite aware that to be highly competitive in the business analytics and enterprise software publishing industry means that we should be able to develop software apps that will help simplify business and operation process for clients.

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. might be a new entrant into the industry in the United States of America, but the management staff are considered gurus. They are highly qualified software programmers and developers in the United States. These are part of what will count as a competitive advantage for us.

Lastly, our employees will be well taken care of, and their welfare package will be among the best within our category in the industry meaning that they will be more than willing to build the business with us and help deliver our set goals and achieve all our aims and objectives.

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

We are mindful of the fact that there is fast – growing competition amongst IT tech startup companies and other players in the business analytics and enterprise software publishing industry in the United States of America and around the globe; hence we have been able to hire some of the best business developer cum digital marketers to handle our sales and marketing.

Our sales and marketing team will be recruited base on their vast experience in the industry and they will be trained on a regular basis so as to be well equipped to meet their targets and the overall goal of the organization. We will also ensure that our excellent job deliveries speak for us in the market place; we want to build a standard IT tech startup company that offer software as a services (SaaS), that will leverage on word of mouth advertisement from satisfied clients.

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. is set to make use of the following marketing and sales strategies to attract clients;

• Introduce our business by sending introductory letters alongside our brochure to all the companies, institutions and organizations within and outside the United States
• Promptness in bidding for software as a service (SaaS) contracts from companies, and organizations within and outside the United States
• Advertise our business in relevant programming magazines, radio and TV stations
• List our business on local directories/yellow pages
• Attend international software as a services (SaaS) developers related, seminars, and business fairs et al
• Create different packages for different category of clients in order to work with their budgets
• Leverage on the internet to promote our business
• Join related associations around us with the main aim of networking and marketing our services; we are likely going to get referrals from such networks.

Sources of Income

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. is established with the aim of maximizing profits in the business analytics and enterprise software publishing industry and we are going to ensure that we do all it takes to attract clients on a regular basis.

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. will generate income by offering the following services and products

10. Sales Forecast

We are well positioned to take on the available market in Overland Park – Kansas and in the cyberspace and we are quite optimistic that we will meet our set target of generating enough income / profits from the first six months of operation and grow the business and our clientele base beyond Overland Park to other cities in the United States of America and in the cyberspace.

We have been able to examine the business analytics and enterprise software publishing market, we have analyzed our chances in the industry and we have been able to come up with the following sales forecast. Below are the sales projections for Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc., it is based on the location of our business and the services we will be offering;

• First Fiscal Year (FY1):  $300,000
• Second Fiscal Year (FY2):  $550,000
• Third Fiscal Year (FY3):  $1.5 million

N.B : This projection was done based on what is obtainable in the industry and with the assumption that there won’t be any major economic meltdown and internet shutdown within the period stated above. Please note that the above projection might be lower and at the same time it might be higher.

11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

We have been able to work with our brand and publicity consultants to help us map out publicity and advertising strategies that will help us walk our way into the heart of our target market. We are set to take the software as a services (SaaS) industry by storm which is why we have made provisions for effective publicity and advertisement of our IT tech startup company.

Below are the platforms we intend to leverage on to promote and advertise Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc.;

• Place adverts on both print (community – based newspapers and magazines) and electronic media platforms
• Sponsor relevant community – based events/programs
• Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook, twitter, YouTube, Google + et al to promote our brand
• Install our billboards in strategic locations all around Overland Park
• Ensure that all our workers wear our branded shirts and all our vehicles are well branded with our company’s logo et al.

12. Our Pricing Strategy

At Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. we will keep our product and service fees a little bit below the average market rate by keeping our overhead low and by collecting payment in advance. In addition, we will also offer special discounted rates to startups, nonprofits, cooperatives, and small social enterprises who want to develop software apps for their business.

• Payment Options

The payment policy adopted by Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. is all inclusive because we are quite aware that different customers prefer different payment options as it suits them but at the same time, we will ensure that we abide by the financial rules and regulation of the United States of America.

Here are the payment options that Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. will make available to her clients;

• Payment via bank transfer
• Payment with cash
• Payment via online bank transfer
• Payment via mobile money
• Payment via Point of Sales Machines (POS Machines)
• Payment via check

In view of the above, we have chosen banking platforms that will enable our client make payment without any stress on their part.

13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

These are the areas we are looking towards spending our startup capital on;

• The total fee for incorporating the Business in the United States of America – $750.
• Legal expenses for obtaining licenses and permits as well as the accounting services P.O.S machines – $3,300.
• The total cost for payment of insurance policy covers (general liability, workers’ compensation and property casualty) coverage at a total premium – $9,400.
• The amount needed to acquire a suitable Office facility in a business district for 6 months (Re – Construction of the facility inclusive) – $40,000.
• Marketing expenses for the grand opening of Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. in the amount of $3,500 and as well as flyer printing (2,000 flyers at $0.04 per copy) for the total amount of $3,580.
• The total cost for hiring Business Consultant – $2,500
• The cost for equipping the office (computers, software apps and hardware such as Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) machines, internet server, printers, fax machines, furniture, telephones, filing cabins, safety gadgets and electronics et al) – $25,000
• The cost of launching our official website – $800
• Budget for paying at least two employees for 3 months and utility bills – $75,000
• Additional expenditure (Business cards, Signage, Adverts and Promotions et al) – $2,500
• Miscellaneous – $10,000

Going by the report from the research and feasibility studies, we will need about Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand US Dollars ($250,000) to set up a small scale but standard IT tech startup company in the United States of America.

Generating Funds/Startup Capital for Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc.

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. is owned and managed by Joel Rogers. He may likely welcome partners later which is why he has decided to restrict the sourcing of the startup capital for the business to just three major sources.

• Generate part of the startup capital from personal savings
• Source for soft loans from family members and friends
• Apply for loan from the bank

N.B: We have been able to generate about $50,000 (Personal savings $40,000 and soft loan from family members $10,000) and we are at the final stages of obtaining a loan facility of $200,000 from our bank. All the papers and documents have been duly signed and submitted, the loan has been approved and any moment from now our account will be credited.

14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

The future of a business lies in the number of loyal customers that they have, the capacity and competence of their employees, their investment strategy and the business structure. If all of these factors are missing from a business (company), then it won’t be too long before the business closes shop.

One of our major goals of starting Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. is to build a business that will survive off its own cash flow without injecting finance from external sources once the business is officially running. We know that one of the ways of gaining approval and winning customers over is to offer our software as a services (SaaS) a little bit cheaper than what is obtainable in the market and we are prepared to survive on lower profit margin for a while.

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. will make sure that the right foundation, structures and processes are put in place to ensure that our staff welfare are well taken of. Our company’s corporate culture is designed to drive our business to greater heights and training and retraining of our workforce is at the top burner of our business strategy.

As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of three years or more as determined by the board of the organization. We know that if that is put in place, we will be able to successfully hire and retain the best hands we can get in the industry; they will be more committed to help us build the business of our dreams.

Check List/Milestone

• Business Name Availability Check : Completed
• Business Incorporation: Completed
• Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts: Completed
• Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
• Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
• Application for business license and permit: Completed
• Purchase of Insurance for the Business: Completed
• Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
• Leasing a standard and well positioned office facility in the heart of Overland Park – Kansas: Completed
• Generating part of the start up capital from the founder: Completed
• Applications for Loan from our Bankers: In Progress
• Writing of Business Plan: Completed
• Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
• Drafting of Contract Documents: In Progress
• Design of The Company’s Logo: Completed
• Printing of Promotional Materials: Completed
• Recruitment of employees: In Progress
• Purchase of the needed software applications, internet server, furniture, office equipment, electronic appliances and facility facelift: In progress
• Creating Official Website for the Company: In Progress
• Creating Awareness for the business (Business PR): In Progress
• Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement: In Progress
• Establishing business relationship with vendors and key players in the industry: In Progress.

More on Technology

MassChallenge

• Accelerators Close Accelerators Open Accelerators Early Stage Founder-focused & industry agnostic Challenge Programs Industry-specific for mid-to-late stage startups Additional Programs A variety of mentorship & industry focuses for all stages Bridge to MC Driving innovation & startup ecosystem development

Innovation Blog

7 steps to create a technology startup business plan.

• Published on: April 26, 2022
• Author: masschallenge

Many entrepreneurs still overlook the importance of a technology startup business plan. In a space as competitive as the tech industry, a lack of preparation will surely pave the way to disappointment.

Instead of diving in without any concrete strategy, a plan provides a foundation for sustainable business growth.

In this article, we’ll explore the essential elements of a tech startup business plan, and provide the insights you need to create a plan for success.

What Is A Business Plan?

A tech startup business plan is a document that details the premise of your technology business, summarizing vital financial objectives and operational goals, as well as details on how you will accomplish these goals.

Put simply:

It’s a road map that describes what you intend to do, and how you intend to do it.

A typical business plan will comprise the following seven elements:

• Executive Summary
• Company Description

Market Research

• Description of Products and/or Services
• Management & Operational Structure
• Marketing Plan
• Financial Plan

3 Reasons You Need a Business Plan

Before we dive into the individual aspects of a startup business plan, let’s first consider why you need one.

Just what are the benefits of a business plan?

1. It Offers Greater Clarity

Having a business plan will give you a much better understanding of your business and the objectives you are trying to achieve. Even the most basic technology startup business plan example will seek to define your goals in more objective terms.

For example, you can set specific targets for website traffic, sales volumes, or profit margins. This makes it easier to track and measure success and aligns your decision-making with sales and marketing initiatives.

2. It Increases the Chances of Success

A report from the Harvard Business Review found that companies with a business plan are 16% more likely to succeed.

Furthermore, companies that have a business plan also enjoy higher growth rates than companies without a plan.

3. You Are More Likely to Get Investment

Angel investors and venture capitalists aren’t in the habit of making bad bets. When they part with large sums of money, it’s a carefully considered decision they base on the likelihood of earning a positive return on investment (ROI). When you have a business plan, you give your startup strategic focus, which helps you create an identity that is built to succeed. This makes for a more attractive prospect in the eyes of investors, so it’s easier to raise capital for your startup when you have a plan.

How to Write a Business Plan for Your Tech Startup (7-Steps)

So, now that you understand the motivation behind creating a tech startup business plan, it’s time to see how it’s done. By including the seven elements below, you’ll have a plan that gives your company a much stronger footing.

1. Executive Summary

The executive summary is, without a doubt, the most critical element of your tech startup business plan. Despite this, a lot of plans fail here because the summary doesn’t captivate readers. If you can’t hook prospective investors, partners, or employees with your executive summary, they may never read the rest of your business plan.

Source: The Balance

This section should be compelling yet concise, giving people enough to understand what makes your startup unique, and how it will be able to offer solutions in an existing, competitive market.

While you want to keep it brief, there is a lot to pack into this opening section of your business plan. Here are the crucial components of an executive summary:

• Business Model – What is your product or service? How will you make money?
• Target Market – Who will benefit from this product or service?
• Business Opportunity – Why do consumers need your product or service?
• Marketing Strategy – How will these consumers learn more about your product or service?
• Competition – What other companies are competing for market share?
• Goals – How will your startup transform the marketplace with this product or service?

As the executive summary is such a vital aspect, it’s a smart move to write it last. By waiting until you have finished the rest of the business plan, you can draw from the other sections to craft an excellent executive summary.

2. Company Summary

The company summary essentially boils down to a single sentence, otherwise known as a headline statement.  When it’s done right, this summary can be the perfect elevator pitch to capture the imagination of would-be financial backers or partners, and it will serve as a natural lead-in to your more detailed business plan.

Source: Gusto (credit: LivePlan)

The company summary or headline statement should do the following:

• Give people a brief overview of what your company does.
• Communicate the value you offer.
• Highlight the opportunity in the market.

Here is a good template to create your company summary:

<Your company> is a <type of business> who sells <product or service> to <target customer> , who needs <solution> , but doesn’t get it from <competition> .

Don’t worry if you can’t create the perfect summary now. When you develop your business plan, you will get a better understanding of what this headline statement should be, and then you can refine it to reflect your vision and value proposition.

We’re sure you have a great idea, but that’s no guarantee that everyone is going to love it as much as you do. No matter how good you think your startup may be, you still need to conduct proper market research to learn more about your ideal customers and competitors.

Identify your Target Market

Without a viable market for your product or service, your business is doomed.

Many startups have failed quickly because the owners were so obsessed with their own product that they were effectively blind to the fact that nobody else cared about it.

Source: CB Insights Image: Cleveroad

Initially, you can adopt a broad scope to get a sense of your total addressable market (TAM), which is the potential revenue opportunity your new product or service could generate. Of course, with the competition, and changing consumer interests, it’s unlikely you will dominate the entire TAM.

Once you have this broad idea, you can hone your sights to go more niche. While this presents a smaller audience, it is more effective. By narrowing your targeting, you can market to a more engaged audience that will be more receptive and likely to purchase your product or service.

Consider the following factors when segmenting your audience:

• Demographic – What age group? What gender?
• Geographic – In what country or city do your prospects live?
• Behavior – What websites/blogs/news sources do they use? What are their purchasing habits? What retail sites or brands do they buy from?

With in-depth data analysis and evaluation of your prospective customers, you can create detailed buyer personas that help you refine your marketing strategies.

Perform Competitor Analysis

During the market research stage of your tech startup business plan, you should also carry out a thorough competitor analysis.

This will help you determine the key differentiators between your company and the competition.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Why should people choose my product or service?
• How can I improve on the existing solutions in the market?
• Why do people not already buy the products in the market?

By thinking about current trends or flaws in existing products, you can identify opportunities for innovation so that your business can connect with customers on a deeper level.

Knowing your audience is crucial, and therefore, your business plan must demonstrate a deep understanding of your target market, and your competitors.

3. Description of Products and/or Services

Here, you must highlight the link between what you are offering, and what people need, so you can prove that people are ready and willing to pay for your product or service.

Research Problems in Market

It helps to conduct some face-to-face research, asking potential customers about the problems they have. Don’t try to usher the conversation in any direction or shoehorn their answers to fit your product – instead, look to learn from their honest responses about the solutions they need.

You should do this research before creating the product. After all, it makes more sense to create a product for an existing problem, instead of trying to find a problem for your product.

Source: ProductTribe

Tailor Product to Problems

After doing your research on the existing problems in the market, trim your list to focus on a few of the most important issues. Describe how your product or service will be the ultimate solution to these problems.

For instance, if people believe the existing solutions are too expensive, you can offer a product with a more attractive price point.

By matching up consumer problems with specific solutions, you can develop a product or service that has a more significant value proposition.

4. Management & Operational Structure

The next stage of the traditional technology startup business plan template delves into the people that make up your company. You must highlight the strengths and experience of your existing team, as new partners effectively invest their money in the team as much as the business idea.

Ideally, your team will consist of several experts whose respective skill-sets complement one another. For example, your tech startup may have a coder, a graphic designer, an inbound marketing expert, and a sales professional. Discuss the merits of each team member to convey the value they add to the business.

You can also speculate about prospective new hires and the key attributes you will seek in future team members. If you haven’t already got a chief financial officer (CFO), it’s a smart move to mention adding one soon. This will add backbone to your business plan by reassuring people that you have good financial sense.

Organizational Chart

Here, your plan should clearly define the organizational structure of your startup. For now, it may just be you and a couple of business partners.

However, by including a graphic that visualizes the structure you intend to build, people will get a clear understanding of the distribution of power and chain of command.

For example, it may look something like this:

Having a hierarchy prepared before starting helps prevent any debates about who is in charge of each department, and makes it easier to understand who reports to who.

5. Marketing and Sales plan

No tech startup business plan would be complete without mentioning the marketing and sales strategies you intend to use.

Sales channels

To clarify the difference, marketing channels are used to promote your business, and its products or services, whereas sales channels are the mediums that enable people to purchase those products or services.

You may only have one direct sales channel to begin with, such as an online e-commerce store. Make sure you explain it in your business plan.

Marketing activities

In this section, you must detail how you will acquire leads and customers.

At the base level, you should do the following:

• Launch a company website
• Develop strategy to get organic traffic (i.e. visitors from search engines like Google)
• Develop a PPC strategy to get immediate online exposure for your most important product/service keywords
• Develop channel partnerships
• Build an email subscriber list

Over time, you can use marketing to nurture stronger customer relationships, which in turn, help you build an audience of loyal followers that will, hopefully, become customers.

The marketing section of your business plan will need to account for several factors, including your goals, risks in the market, and your budget. Which brings us to the final aspect of your tech startup business plan.

6. Financial Plan

Lastly, any good business plan must include pertinent details about your company budget and sales goals.

This can be daunting for many new entrepreneurs and is all the more challenging when you have no balance sheets, cash flow reports, or even any stable income on which to base your projections.

That being said, it’s still possible to make educated projections – so long as you have done solid market research.

When it comes to financial matters, your business plan should include details about:

• Revenue streams – how will the company generate income?
• Major expenses – What high costs do you anticipate in the year ahead?
• Salary demands – Are you still bootstrapping or are you and the partners taking a salary? If so, how much?
• Financial milestones – Detail your expansion strategy by considering future hires or store openings that will impact the books.

Many startups aren’t profitable in the first year. Your financial projections should maintain a long-term view for success, keeping ambitions realistic and honest. That way, you’ll be able to produce a more accurate break-even analysis .

With these long-term projections, you must consider the financial impact of expanding. You may be making more money in Year 3, but opening a new store will set you back.

Keep everything in perspective and make sure you don’t set yourself or your investors up for any nasty shocks down the road.

5 Tech Startup Business Plan Templates

When you have all the elements above in place, your business plan will be in good shape. However, presentation matters. If you want to make the best first impression, getting creative with your technology startup business plan template can make a big difference.

Not only will your research and expertise shine through, but you will have a visually stunning presentation that catches the eye of investors.

Here are five tech business plan examples to inspire you.

Business Plan Infographic PowerPoint

This plan allows you to present in-depth market analysis, statistics, and projections in a professional visual infographic. With several hundred editable slide options, it’s well worth the $16 fee for the license.

Source: Medium

Emaze Business Planning With Analytics

This is more than the average technology startup business plan template. Emaze has a diverse array of creative collaboration tools, making it easy and enjoyable for teams to create unique plans together from any of the built-in templates. Furthermore, you can incorporate analytics, which is perfect for impressing investors. That said, $19 per month for the premium version may seem a little steep for some small businesses.

Source: Emaze

Lean Canvas 1-Page Business Plan

A tech startup business plan doesn’t need to take weeks to create. In fact, with this template, you can have a basic – yet brilliant – business plan all together on a single page in just 20 minutes.

Source: Lean Stack

StartUp Pitch

For $15, you can access the full array of colorful slides in this presentation, which are all customizable to your needs. This template includes many ready-made aspects of the typical business plan, such as SWOT analysis, competitor analysis, and project timelines.

Source: Envato

This is another user-friendly tool for creating short business plans. You enter the information, and then LivePlan will generate a one-page plan in an infographic style.

Source: LivePlan

Make Your Tech Startup Business Plan a Priority

It’s not enough to have a great startup idea.

If you want to stand out from the pack, secure investment, and build a successful company that can earn real profits, growth, and customer loyalty, then you absolutely must have a solid tech startup business plan.

It’s time to create yours.

New to MassChallenge?

Visit the join section of our site to learn more about the organization and how you may benefit by getting involved., upcoming events, autodesk startup showcase.

• September 12, 2024
• 10 Fan Pier Blvd, Boston, MA

MC | INNOVATE

• September 25, 2024
• 3000 Pegasus Park
• September 24, 2024

Having a great business idea and having the willingness and ability to jump into the entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial journey are the stepping stones to a successful journey. Next, you will develop expertise on how to write a business plan for a tech startup step by step.

You may like to start a business venture on your own or start a new business initiative within the firm that you work for. Whatever the case may be; you need to start your journey by writing a tech startup business plan proposal.

Like they say, a job well begun is half done. So, knowing how to write a well thought out business plan wins half the battle for you.

You also need to follow the “Keep it Simple, Silly” doctrine and come up with a simple business plan. Following a step-by-step business plan template, in this case, helps.

Sounds interesting? Let’s start the journey.

How do you begin a tech startup business plan?

To begin a tech startup business plan, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

“What to do?” “How to do it?” “When to do it?” and ” Who will do it?”

These questions will help in starting to plan how to take your business idea to executable action. Planning will help you bridge the gap between where you are right now and where you want to reach, concerning your business idea.

What are the 5 elements of a tech startup business plan?

There is no sacrosanct format of a good business plan or a business plan pdf, and also the ingredients of a business plan proposal would depend on your experience in business and knowledge in that particular field. 

However, a good startup business plan consists of the following:

1. Your background 

In case you have partners, their background too

2. Description of the business idea

It should consist of Utility of the Product / Service and the Unique Selling Proposition, i.e., USP 

3. Production plan 

In case of a product, how would you produce the product, in case of a service, how will you deliver the service

4. Operational plan

How would you smoothly coordinate the day to day work, how would you ensure the desired quality, where would you set up your factory/office, at what price will you sell

5. Organizational plan

This contains details of how many people you will employ to produce or deliver the service, what your marketing set up will be, who will manage your accounting and liaison with the various stakeholders and authorities

6. Financial plan

Now we come to an essential part of your business plan, where you need to spend considerable time and effort. It is the Financial Plan .

Your financial plan should spell out the investment required for the business. Where would the funds come from, and when are the funds needed? How much cash is needed to carry on day to day operations?

This section would also describe the economic feasibility of the business. This would include the revenue forecast for the next year, or three years or even further. 

How do you write a one-page business plan for a tech startup?

You need an elaborate plan to be successful in your business. However, at the same time, you also need to keep in mind that the business plan is needed for the potential investor to consider investing in your business. 

Given the lack of time the potential investor has, you need to make a one-page business plan which has a concise description of your plans but gives details on why she/he should invest in your business. It should motivate the potential investor to spend time and read a more elaborate business plan.

The one-page business plan is also your means of communication with the external stakeholders like the government, the public at large when you need to do any statutory filing of information of the company or present in various conferences. 

You may also like to term this one-page plan as a written “elevator pitch.”

  You may like to start a business venture on your own or start a new business initiative within the firm that you work for. Whatever the case may be; you need to start your journey by writing a tech startup business plan proposal.

  Like they say, a job well begun is half done. So, knowing how to write a well thought out business plan wins half the battle for you.

  You also need to follow the “Keep it Simple, Silly” doctrine and come up with a simple business plan. Following a step-by-step business plan template, in this case, helps.

What does a tech startup business plan consist of?

A startup business plan consists of an internal roadmap elaborating on the most important aspects of your business (i.e., the background, the production, operational, organizational, and financial aspects). 

At the same time, it consists of the purpose, and the financial returns your business will generate, which acts as a written marketing document for external stakeholders.  

However, given the uncertainties in modern times, business plans are increasingly focusing on the risks, and the fall back plans that would be in place if the original plan fails.  

A significant point that gives confidence to the investor about the long term viability of the business plan is the interest that the target market will show in the product or service. So, it is worthwhile to add as a Business plan annexure pdf, any primary research done by a reputed marketing agency of the market potential of the product or service.

When the business plan involves a new product or service, it is effortless to fall into the trap of looking at the product from your point of view and taking the market for granted. What is required at this stage is to focus exclusively on how you conceptualized the idea and how you are planning to bring the concept to execution.

Researchers from MIT suggested successful business plan examples where users were invited to pre-test the products or services. Their feedback is of interest to the investor and needs to be included in your startup business plan.

8 Steps to Create a Business Plan for Your Tech Startup

Step 1: executive summary.

The first step in writing a startup business plan for your new tech business is to create an executive summary.

The executive summary doesn’t need to be lengthy and tedious; around two to three pages should suffice.

Although a short document, the executive summary one of the most important elements of your business plan.

Your executive summary should be concise and clear as it should be successful in communicating everything about your business.

Some investors might  only  ask for your executive summary — so be sure to craft it well and pepper it with all the right bits of information. you’ll want to ensure it can stand on its own.

Stick to the following:

1. Mission Statement:  In one crisp paragraph, explain the mission of your business and what you want to accomplish.

2. General Company Information:  Next, include general information like when your business was formed, the name of the other founders, their roles, the number of employees, office locations, and so on.

3. Visual Highlights:  Include graphs and charts pertaining to any key milestones of the business or any growth you’ve seen since starting the business.

4. Products and Services:  Without getting overly passionate or verbose, briefly describe your product, the technology that powers it, and your target customer base.

5. Financial Information:  If you’re looking for  startup fundraising , include your funding goals. You can also include any information on previous loans or about banks or lenders you’ve worked with before.

6. Future plans:  Don’t forget to include where you plan on taking your business in the future.

Pro tip: Write your executive summary after you’ve completed creating your business plan.

This way you’ll have all your facts in place and all your information and details sorted so you will be better equipped to summarize them.

Step 2: Company Overview

Many entrepreneurs confuse the company overview with the executive summary. However, there is a stark difference between the two.

The company overview is a more detailed top-level view of the structure of your tech business and what you do.

Here’s how you can go about drafting your startup overview:

1. Begin your company overview section by describing what your business specializes in and the technology behind it. This part of the company overview is intended to give readers and investors a general idea of your business.

2. Next, proceed to explain the nature of the industry and marketplace.

3. Lay out the legal structure of your business and provide the ownership structure.

Step 3: Market Analysis

The next step along the process of creating your startup business plan is to perform in-depth research and analysis of your niche, target market, and primary competitors.

This is the first part of your startup business plan where you dive into the details.

Your market analysis will give readers and investors enough proof about the level of understanding you have about the dynamics of your industry.

Your market analysis should include the following sections:

1. Industry Description:  Start by including a detailed view of your industry. How big is it? How much has it grown in the past few years? What are its growth predictions from industry experts? Who are your competitors? How have they performed? And so on.

2. Target Market Details:  Dive into the details of your target market . And include your target market’s characteristics and target market size and growth.

3. Your Market Share Potential:  Chart out what your market share could look like along with how much market share you expect to gain.

4. Market Pricing:  Include an estimated cost of your products and how you will distribute them.

5. Challenges:  Don’t shy away from including any challenges that you may across. This could be legal issues to shifting technologies to capital issues to lack of talented or skilled human resources.

6. Competitor Research:  Study your competitors by analyzing their strengths, market share, weaknesses, challenges they pose to you, and so on.

Step 4: Business Organization

This next section of your startup business plan provides insights and information on your tech business’s management structure clearly defining and explaining what everyone does.

You will also have to go a step further to include everyone’s business background and past experiences.

Here’s what you need to break down:

1. Organizational Structure: Start this section by creating an organizational chart that depicts how your business is structured.

2. Ownership Structure:  Although you’ll repeat this information in your company overview, you have the liberty to go in-depth allowing you to talk about the ownership structure of your company, who owns how much, and so on.

3. Background of Owners:  Categorically explain the background of your team. This includes information on directors, senior management members, and managers.

4. Talent Requirement:  Clearly make a list of all hiring needs.

Step 5: Products and Services

This section of your startup business plan is all about laying out the details and plans for positioning your product, the utility it provides, the technology behind it, and so on.

For instance, if you are offering Internet of Things (IoT) based solutions or Artificial Intelligence-powered services, then give details about how these products work and how you wish to promote and sell it.

Here’s exactly what this section should include:

1. General Description:  Highlight the USP of your product or service and the value it provides to potential customers.

2. Status of products:  Paint an honest picture of the status of your product. Is your product in the idea stage? Is it already selling? Or is it ready to go to market?

3. Product goals:  If you are still in the ideation phase, map out a journey that talks about how you plan to launch the product and bring it to life. Include details on the research and development activities required. You can also include new versions or new products or any new features you wish to include in the future.

4. Intellectual property:  As a tech business, it is imperative to have proprietary intellectual property . Make mention of this and any other patent or trademark that you own or are in the process of owning.

5. Sourcing and fulfillment:  If you are dependent on third-party vendors to fulfill or your product or service creation, mention it here.

This section is crucial for your startup business plan as it defines everything about your products and services.

It will work as a bible for product managers and for you in the development stages and go to market phase.

Step 6: Marketing and Sales Plan

Once you’ve explained everything about your product, it’s time to delve into explaining how you are going to go about marketing and selling your product or service.

When it comes to marketing, this is what this section should look like:

1. Positioning:  This first part of your marketing plan should talk about how you’re positioning your business and products. What price bracket are you targeting? Are you offering any free service? What guarantees and warranties are you offering? Answering these questions and more will help you determine where you are positioning your products and services.

2. Promotion:  This part involves explaining marketing channels and plans you have for advertising your product, PR strategies, SEO plans, content marketing practices, social media marketing, etc.

Next, your sales plan:

1. Salesforce:  How do you plan to sell your product? Do you need a sales force? How big a team do you need? Who will train your sales team? These parameters need to be addressed in your sales plan.

2. Selling strategy:  Give an overview of how you will sell your product or service. Define the process you will follow as a technology business. Will you start with cold-calling potential customers? Or attending events? Or appointing channel partners? Clearly describe what your sales funnel should look like.

Step 7: Financial Plan and Projections

This is a supremely important section of your business plan.

Investors and VCs will want to look at your financial plans and projections before parting with their money.

Ideally, this section uses financial data from past performances or forecasts.

Include the following as part of your financial plan:

1. Income statements

2. Cash flow statements

3. Balance sheets

Additionally, if applicable, include the accounts of receivable statements, accounts of payable statements, and details or documents of debts.

Ideally, your financial projections should be supported either by past performances or future projections and estimations.

Include statements of projected income, cash flow forecasts, forecasted balance statements, capital expenditure budgets, and miscellaneous expenses.

Your startup business plan should include projections for the first year of business but should include a vision for the coming 3 to 5 years.

Step 8: Appendix

The appendix should be included towards the end of your business plan. This section includes all additional information that you didn’t include in the sections above of your business plan.

Any data, statistics, strategic points, charts, footnotes, or further explanations that you think are necessary to be included as part of your startup business plan but has been skipped should be included here.

As an entrepreneur or founder, you can also consider including your own resume and resumes of other founders or senior management team members.

Ideally, the appendix should begin with a table of contents that categorically breaks down your business plan into relevant, followed by the additional information that corresponds to each section.

199 Resources for Startup Business Plan Templates, Business Plan Examples, and Business Plan Samples

Final Thoughts

Although creating a startup business plan seems daunting and arduous, when you break it down into a step by step process, it gets easy to create one.

And with these 8 steps, you can create a killer tech business plan for your tech startup that will help you catapult to success and leave investors mesmerized.

Starting a tech business? Build it on a .tech domain! 

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Technology Business Plan Templates

But to achieve success in the technology industry, you need a business plan.

Each technology business plan template below is crafted to guide you through every essential section of your business plan: the Executive Summary, Company Overview, Industry Analysis, Customer Analysis, Competitive Analysis, Marketing Plan, Operations Plan, Management Team, and Financial Plan. We understand the unique challenges and opportunities in the technology industry, and our templates are tailored to help you navigate these with ease, ensuring a comprehensive and professional approach to launching and growing your business in this exciting sector.  

Technology Business Plan Examples

eLearning Business Plan Template

Biodiesel Business Plan Template

Clean Tech Business Plan Template

Edtech Business Plan Template

Green Energy Business Plan Template

Live Streaming Business Plan Template

Search Engine Business Plan Template

Tech Support Business Plan Template    

• go to walkme.com

Creating an IT Strategic Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide for CIOs and IT Leaders

According to a McKinsey survey, the proliferation of disruptive technologies emerging as a response to the pandemic “ speeded the adoption of digital technologies by several years—and many of these changes could be here for the long haul .” 

From shifting to remote work to implementing safety protocols, the pandemic has disrupted how businesses operate and interact with their customers at every level. The rise of virtual events, contactless payments, and online shopping has challenged traditional business models and forced companies to innovate.

Despite being a few years removed from the unprecedented events of COVID-19, major industries worldwide are still figuring out how to adapt and transform to the new normal. 

63% of firms are still experiencing revenue levels below what they were before the pandemic, while 76% of firms have either reduced their workforce or put a hold on hiring, according to the Federal Reserves SCBS 2022 survey.

As such, enterprises must rapidly accelerate digital transformation efforts to become future-ready and remain viable in their respective markets. CIOs must avoid deploying short-sighted IT strategies and solutions that only remedy immediate needs and instead align with those that facilitate overall organizational development.

Siloed tech investments that barely scratch the surface of true transformation are no longer enough.

CIOs and IT leaders need to deploy an IT strategic plan that provides a holistic view of the entire IT ecosystem, and that aligns with the ITIL framework – along with the provision of change management efforts that expedite this process.

This article discusses creating an IT strategic plan and provides a step-by-step guide for CIOs and IT leaders. We define an IT strategic plan, who’s responsible for developing it, and the benefits of having one. We cover the essential pillars of a successful IT strategic plan and provide practical examples from various industries. By the end of this guide, we’ll have equipped readers with the tools and knowledge necessary to help create a comprehensive IT strategic plan.

What is an IT Strategic Plan?

An IT strategic plan (Information Technology strategic plan) is a comprehensive roadmap that outlines an organization’s approach to using technology to achieve long-term goals and objectives. It provides a framework for aligning technology investments with business goals and helps guide decision-making around IT initiatives and projects.

SWZD states that “ adoption plans have grown significantly YoY for newer technologies such as 5G, edge computing, serverless computing, 3D printing, VR, and blockchain .” 

A well-crafted plan considers an organization’s current and future technology needs, as well as its budget, resources, and constraints. It identifies critical systems and applications that support business operations and outlines strategies for managing those systems over time, including upgrades, maintenance, and security measures.

An effective IT strategic plan also includes a clear vision for how technology can drive innovation and growth for the organization.

It explores emerging technologies and trends and assesses their potential impact on the business. It also includes a plan for training and developing IT staff and ensuring they have the skills and knowledge to effectively manage and support technology systems.

Companies that invest in Information Technology (IT) tend to experience higher productivity levels than those that don’t.

Overall, an IT Strategic Plan is a crucial tool for organizations that wish to leverage technology to stay competitive and achieve their goals. It provides a roadmap for aligning technology investments with business objectives and helps ensure that technology initiatives are properly managed and executed to achieve optimal results.

Who’s Responsible for Developing an IT Strategic Plan?

Developing an IT strategic plan is a complex process that requires careful planning and execution. 

As such, organizations must assign responsibility to a capable team or individual who can deliver a comprehensive plan that aligns with the company’s goals.

Generally speaking, the responsibility of developing an IT strategic plan falls on senior management or IT leaders, such as a Chief Information Officer (CIO) or Chief Technology Officer (CTO). This is because creating an IT strategic plan involves technical expertise and a keen understanding of business objectives and budget constraints.

A new study from CIO found that IT leaders spent most of their time on practical and transformational work this year, similar to the previous year of 2022.

The IT strategic planning process also requires input from different departments of an organization, including finance, marketing, and operations. IT leaders can collaborate with these teams to gather relevant information, identify gaps and opportunities, and create a prioritized roadmap.

It’s also important for IT leaders to engage with the broader organization and stakeholders to ensure that the strategic plan aligns with the company’s overall mission and vision. This helps to ensure that the IT strategic plan is not isolated and contributes to the organization’s success.

The Benefits of an IT Strategic Plan

An IT strategic plan offers a multitude of benefits to an organization. At its core, such a plan provides a roadmap for successful and sustainable IT operations; it aligns IT initiatives and resources with business strategy, identifying opportunities for innovation, growth, and improvement across the enterprise.

Consequently, a sound strategic plan can enhance operational efficiency, reduce costs, and improve IT performance, thereby improving overall business performance. 

By laying out clear goals, timelines, budgets, and performance metrics, an IT strategic plan can help a company prioritize and allocate resources more effectively; this leads to greater operational agility and responsiveness, increased innovation, and a more competitive market position in the long run.

Moreover, an IT strategic plan supports organizational decision-making and governance while enhancing risk management and security practices. By identifying potential risks and establishing mitigation strategies, a strategic plan anticipates and addresses potential cybersecurity threats, disaster recovery, competitive pressures, and changing market conditions.

Ultimately, implementing and executing a well-designed IT strategic plan can lead to long-term benefits such as increased growth, profitability, and customer satisfaction, while also enhancing organizational agility and competitiveness. 

According to Gartner’s forecast, IT spending is expected to increase in all regions worldwide despite global economic turbulence. The report estimates that by 2023, worldwide IT spending will reach $4.6 trillion in total value, representing a 5.5% increase from the previous year.

5 Vital Steps of the IT Strategic Planning Process

Developing a strategic IT plan is fundamental to the success of any modern business. Effective planning and execution require a methodical, well-structured approach. 

By following these five key steps, CIOs and IT leaders can develop a comprehensive strategy designed to meet your organization’s current and future needs and help achieve your business objectives.

Step 1: Identify Your Strategic Objectives

The first step in developing your IT strategy involves identifying your goals and desired outcomes. 

To accomplish this, you must understand your organization’s current state and what you hope to achieve through your IT strategy. This clarity will help you determine what success looks like, allowing you to measure your progress over time.

Step 2: Craft a Vision Statement

Once you have identified your strategic objectives, the next step is to create a vision statement that reflects your IT strategy’s aspirations. 

This statement should outline the purpose of your IT plan and explain how it will achieve your organization’s goals. By aligning your IT leaders and team members to your cause, your vision statement will inspire them to work towards a common set of objectives.

Step 3: Assess Your Current IT Resources and Capabilities

In order to create an effective IT strategy, you must assess your current IT resources and capabilities. This includes evaluating your existing technology to identify any gaps or opportunities for improvement. 

By understanding your IT department’s strengths and weaknesses, you can identify specific areas for improvement and ensure that your IT strategy is designed to address your organization’s unique needs.

Step 4: Create an Actionable Plan

In this penultimate step, you must create an actionable plan to achieve your IT strategy’s goals. This involves creating an IT roadmap that outlines the tasks, resources, and timelines required to achieve your desired outcomes. 

By focusing on specific initiatives and tracking progress over time, you can adjust your IT strategy as necessary to ensure it remains aligned with your organization’s evolving needs.

Step 5: Implement the Strategy and Measure Results

Implementing your IT strategy involves setting up the necessary systems and processes to execute your plan effectively. 

You’ll need to allocate resources, manage projects, and maintain governance. After implementation, regularly monitor progress, measure results against KPIs, and adjust your approach accordingly. Change management tools can help you gain insights into the effectiveness of your IT strategy and identify opportunities for further technology investment.

IT Strategic Plan Examples

Strategic IT planning is a critical activity that ensures the effective use of technology to achieve a company’s goals and objectives. However, given that companies have varying objectives, strategic IT plans can take on many forms. 

Depending on an organization’s nature, scope, and size, the format of strategic IT plans can differ significantly. For instance, a small business might have a basic plan that outlines its technology requirements. At the same time, a larger conglomerate may require a more comprehensive plan that covers various departments and business units.

To provide a clearer picture of the variations that exist among strategic IT plans, here are four examples for your consideration:

Harvard University IT Strategic Plan Template:

Resolute Technology Solutions IT Strategic Plan Template:

Gartner’s IT Strategic Plan Example Template:

City of Cambridge’s 180-day IT Strategic Plan:

The Best Piece of Strategic Planning Advice We Can Offer

Kirk Reickhoff , Senior Partner at McKinsey, states that a great leader provides a rough outline for the team to figure out the rest. An IT strategic plan is the foundation of your IT transformation journey, guiding your progress and ensuring continuity. It is an iterative process that requires regular updates to stay up-to-date.

However, your employees are the driving force behind your success. They are the meat and muscle of your IT organization, pushing you forward and keeping you going. An IT strategic plan can guide you, but it’s ultimately up to your team to execute it successfully.

For an IT strategic plan to be effective, it must align with and reinforce the overall business vision. It is critical to avoid siloed thinking and ensure that all technology-related investments and initiatives are fully integrated and help advance the organization’s broader mission and objectives. 

Every dollar spent on IT must be fully accounted for and justified based on its contribution to achieving the company’s overall goals. 

McKinsey reports that as CIOs face budgets of $500 million or more, they’re increasingly seeking IT providers to help support and strengthen their internal talent’s ability to innovate and drive the company’s digital strategy. This is partly due to a desire to sustain innovation in critical business areas and those that interact directly with customers. 

As a CIO or IT leader, it is imperative to clearly understand the business goals and how IT can aid in achieving them. By following the steps in this article, CIOs and IT leaders can begin to create a strategic plan that cultivates a collaborative process between IT and business leaders, focusing on aligning IT initiatives with the company’s overall objectives.

Like what you are reading?

Sign up for our weekly digest of the latest digital trends and insights delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking the button, you agree to the Terms and Conditions . Click Here to Read WalkMe's Privacy Policy

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thanks for subscribing to WalkMe’s newsletter!

How to Write a Software Startup Business Plan in 2024 [With Templates]

Updated 28 Aug 2023

16359 Views

Business analyst

Every company is rooted in a unique business concept. However, having ideas isn’t enough for a company's prosperity and success. Many startups fail due to faulty training in their first year. An IT startup business plan is the first thing that can be corrected by organizing your thoughts and even finding the right people to work with, turning your idea into a prosperous project.

We'll cover how to write a startup business plan, thoroughly covering each part, give some advice, section templates, and more.

Why Does Your Startup Need a Business Plan

Before we go into precise statistics and data, let’s have a closer look at the notion of a business plan. It will assist you in better navigating the subject. The tech startup business plan is a document that summarizes strategies and ideas for the new company launch, support, and even an exit.

Now, we’ll look at stats to understand why a business plan is required. Startups fall due to a bunch of reasons: among the most widespread ones, CBInsights mentions running out of funds (for 38% of startups), absence of market need (for 35%), etc. A business plan can raise startup success chances.

Such a document serves companies for different purposes. The most common of them are:

• Attracting investments
• Building a development strategy
• Predicting your upcoming financial expenses and needs

How can the IT startup business plan assist business owners in implementing these purposes into life? It’s possible due to the following benefits such a document brings:

A technology business plan benefits

Remember that to gain these benefits, you must adhere to a specific structure when drafting your startup business plan. It must contain the following parts:

• Executive summary
• Company description
• Marketing plan
• Financial projections
• Team structure

“How to write a startup business plan” is a common question, and many entrepreneurs are looking for an answer. We’ll discuss it in detail, looking closely at each section.

Executive Summary of Technology Company Business Plan

This section serves as an introduction to the entire document. A well-written executive summary grabs readers' attention and instantly illustrates what your technology business plan is all about.

It typically includes the following parts:

Business overview

Introduce your startup to readers, tell them about your plans and offers. This section should be short - about 1-3 sentences.

Target market

Define the target market for your startup company. To make the section more useful and demonstrate your future startup value, provide a detailed market overview and client issues you would solve with your product.

Competition

Portray your possible competitors as well as the attributes that will set your company apart. Describe how you will compete in pricing, quality, or service structure in this part of the executive summary in your software startup business plan.

Emphasize your company's goals and particular milestones, illustrating the said with charts (including profit, sales, and ROI) for greater clarity of prospective investors. Think about financial estimates for different periods.

Briefly describe your team composition or tell about the lack of particular specialists and your possible ways to find them. Portray the existing staff members along with their experience, and don’t forget to mention software development partnership .

The final section tells potential investors how much money you'll need to bring your idea to life. Tell this aspect to stakeholders beforehand, including the appropriate data to the executive summary.

Sometimes even the perfect technology company business plan is not enough for the stakeholders to pay attention to your project. They’ve reviewed piles of such documents, so one more, looking like the previous, may not interest them a lot. But you can change the situation by preparing a presentation of your business plan, where you can mark the vital concepts you’d like to share (e.g., company overview, problems you’d like to solve, startup team composition, etc.).

6 Tips to Create an A+ Executive Summary

We've compiled a list of recommendations to help you create an excellent executive summary of the whole technology startup business plan.

Tip #1. Write it last

Executive summaries should be written last as they summarize the entire business plan. That's why you should complete your research for all areas of your startup business plan and then write the executive summary.

Tip #2. Capture readers’ attention

An executive summary's main objective is to emphasize critical information about the tech company business plan. But, it's vital not to overload the summary with unnecessary details regarding the concept. It should grab people's interest and make them want to learn more.

Tip #3. Keep it structured

A well-defined structure of summary will convey your ideas. Consider including an introduction, main body, and conclusion that are short but informative. The important takeaways from your tech business plan would be provided by this structure.

Tip #4. Mention exit strategy

An exit strategy is an essential part for stakeholders. It can be an acquisition by another company after running technical due diligence , share selling, or employee buyout.

Tip #5. Use facts

Your primary goal is to persuade people to invest in your company. If your startup's goals, experience, and market perspectives are based on facts, they will have more impact. For instance, you may give information about market valuation and your expected market share.

Tip #6. Avoid cliches

There are a few hazards to avoid if you want your executive summary to succeed. For example, don’t mention the team’s passion and enthusiasm. Investors already know it. They’ve seen hundreds of passionate startups before. Instead, provide decision-makers with facts and let them say that for you.

Order a business consultation

Book a call, and get all the answers about business planning from our Business Development Experts!

Company Description

The company description section of a technical business plan exposes its history, aims, team structure, etc. However, it is frequently the shortest part of the business plan.

Company history

This part is based on your company's current stage. If you're an established organization looking for money for a new project, it's a good idea to provide investors with some company background. In case you are a startup business without a rich history, you may tell who is behind the company and how the founders came up with the idea.

Give a brief description of your company's location, including a physical address, or inform investors about your prospective location coordinates. Whether you'll buy or rent an office, as well as how long you'll be using it as a company location. If you have a home office, also indicate this aspect.

Type of business

This section provides information about your industry. It should be brief but not excessively so. Don't write something like, "We're going to sell things." Indicate your domain: travel, healthcare industry, etc. Finish this section off with a domain description.

Management and employees

This is a chance for investors to get acquainted with your team. Mention all staff members and management personnel, defining their duties, abilities, experience, and accomplishments. Also, don't forget to include information about yourself as an opening. Describe any gaps in the team (if you have ones) and explain how you plan to fill them.

Legal structure and ownership

This data is critical for investors because taxation varies based on the legal structure. Specify if you're an LLC, a C-Corp, an S-Corp, a Sole proprietor, or in a partnership. Specify who runs the enterprise and what technical co-founder equity they have.

Company’s mission and principles

Write this part in a creative manner. Come up with one or two lines that precisely define the aims and ideals of your business.

Critical parts of Company description

You can also include the following parts in this section of a tech business plan:

Business scaling strategies

Scaling a business equates to laying the groundwork for your company's future development. So, writing this section of the business plan for technology company, think about appropriate systems, personnel, procedures, technology, or funding — everything you need to scale.

Business opportunities

Prospective investors want to understand why your company’s considered to be profitable. Tell them about your business opportunities, offering information about factors of your future success, specialists you’ve consulted about your business, and their thoughts about it, reasons for selling the certain articles/services, and profit they may bring, etc.

Marketing Plan

It outlines the company's competitive advantage as well as its marketing objectives. This part of the business plan for startup also aids in the particular domain identification and the development of a viable business strategy.

Moreover, you can define and put down such important data as a qualitative concept description and strategies for attracting clients to show stakeholders how to differentiate your startup activity from your competitors’ and ways you may engage the users to cooperate.

This part of the business plan for a tech startup is typically divided into three sections:

Marketing plan components in a nutshell

Target Audience Analysis

Customers are vital to every company. So, you must determine to whom you will offer your services. Begin with easy tasks and work your way up to more complicated ones.

Let's say your firm is an online car parts store that you want to open on the West Coast of the USA. Your potential core audience may look like this after brainstorming:

• Gender (Males)
• Age (16 - 60)
• Location (Los Angeles, CA)
• Education (Secondary)
• Income ($60,000 - $75,000)
• Ethnicity (drivers, service stations workers)

After determining general characteristics, it is time to dive deeper into the analysis. It can be done in a variety of ways in every sample business plan for tech startup.

Conduct surveys

According to your audience assumptions, you may collect focus groups and conduct surveys. It is possible to complete them both online and personally for technology business plans. Surveys can help you learn more about your consumers to provide better service.

Analyze competitor’s audience

Competitors already meet consumers’ needs, and your task is to identify their audience and understand what makes them use their product or service.

Examine your rivals' marketing channels to see how they do it. Visit their websites, follow them on social media, and sign up for their newsletter. These procedures will assist you in identifying the pain areas of your clients.

Create a buyer persona

The final stage in the target audience study is to create a buyer persona based on the research findings from prior steps of every tech business plan example. Let's take a closer look at it.

A buyer persona is an ideal consumer description, including how they use their leisure time, the obstacles they face, and their decisions. Such a description may be created using various methods. For example, HubSpot's Make My Persona product works perfectly for it.

Learn more about how to define target audience in our article!

Competitor Analysis

Competitor research is critical to the company's success. It allows you to have a deeper understanding of your target market, as well as identify competitors, their tactics, and offerings, among other things.

You should follow three phases while conducting a competitive analysis for a business plan for tech startup.

Step #1. Find competitors

Start by searching for basic requests in Google. Make a list of your rivals in the same business as you and have similar ideas. After that, do some in-depth research, analyzing their social media posts, news reports, or consumer reviews.

Step #2. Examine them

It’s time to dig deeper. But keep in mind that you may need special tools like Ahrefs or SimilarWeb. Carefully examine the following criteria essential for every tech business plan sample:

Pricing. Analyze the charges for their services. It will assist you in determining the pricing boundaries for your goods. However, bear in mind that you are not obligated to value your product lower than your competitors in order to win the competition.

Organic traffic. Determine how many visits they receive due to a Google search. These metrics will display the popularity of your competitors. To handle them, you can use tools like Ahrefs, SimilarWeb, and Alexa.

Social media mentions. It's another way to look into your opponents' activities and see what consumers say about them. With tools like Followerwonk, Social Searcher, and Sprout Social, you can monitor engagement rates, keywords chosen, or social shares and mark them in your business plan.

Time on the market. You must determine the time on the market to see if you will compete with a major company or a start-up. The WHOis.net service may be used to examine the domain name registration date, server stats, and contact information.

Step #3. Categorize them

Even having learnt everything about your competition, you still need to watch your rivals and follow their movements. The next step would be to split competitors into three categories based on their “danger level”:

Primary competitors

These are the main ones oriented to the same core audience as you.

Secondary competitors

They can provide high or low-level versions of your services to a different target audience than yours.

Tertiary competitors

They are indirectly related to your company.

SWOT Analysis

It’s the final step of the section in every tech startup business plan example.

SWOT is an abbreviation of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats:

• Strengths contain your strengths, killing features, and those able to help stand out from the competition.
• Weaknesses mean your weak sides and flaws that may slow you down in a competitive race.
• Opportunities are the levers that’ll help you in business development.
• Threats are external threats that may impact your startup yet don’t depend on your decisions.

The SWOT matrix is a tool used by businesses to compile all their data into one page. To simplify this process, we recommend using the below technology business plan template (namely, one for SWOT analysis).

SWOT analysis template

Financial Plan

A financial plan is a projection of future income and costs for your business. It's an important aspect of strategic planning that can turn vague objectives into concrete milestones.

Complete the following parts in your business plan tech startup example or create them yourself:

Balance sheet

This part illustrates your present financial situation. A balance sheet is a wonderful method to forecast your future financial condition and design your growth objectives if you're searching for finances.

Expense projections

You must plan your future expenses classified into fixed and recurring costs to make your concept clearer to stakeholders. In general, estimate how much money will be spent on your idea implementation and how frequent these expenses would be.

Income projections

This part of the business plan tech startup needs summarizes the project's future earnings and sales. To begin with, you must predict your product's sales. After that, forecast the possible revenue for your startup using the sales projection.

Cash flow projections

The cash flow estimates are the last element of the financial plan. In a nutshell, it's a summary of all the money going in and out of the company. It shows your company's financial health at all stages of development, including the company's income and expenses. Depending on it, the remaining cash balance is calculated for a given time.

Monetization strategies

A company establishment and a beginning of the product development flow are only half of the way to market launch, impossible without a proper monetization strategy — a method of future profit gaining. For example, if your upcoming product is a fitness mobile application, you can implement advertisements, in-app purchases, freemium strategy, and others.

For successfully hitting your aims, you should know your destination, as well as the tools and methods you need to achieve established objectives. All this information can be included in your sales plan.

Though it’s considered to be a separate document looking like the business plan, the essential difference is that the business plan contains your objectives, and the sales plan mentions how to achieve them.

You can also include a sales plan as a section in a startup business plan, containing your situation assessment, financial forecasting, resources, revenue targets, etc. Document templates (for example, one from 150 Startups below) will help you understand which direction to choose.

Financial plan section

Tips to Make a Financial Plan

Preparing a financial strategy for a starting firm might be difficult, but it is essential for any business plan. To make the process easier, we've compiled four helpful hints answering how to write a business plan for a tech startup, namely this section.

Keep your financial plan in line with the business plan

The statistics in your financial predictions should back up all of your verbal goals outlined in earlier parts. For example, if you want to launch your product in the third quarter of 2022, you'll need to budget for marketing, shipping, and other expenses during that time.

Your financial assumptions must be clear

Even if the precision in figures of a financial plan is critical, most investors care about your projections comprehension. Demonstrate your understanding to them, providing enough material to back up your financial assumptions: annual financial statements, market/competitor analysis data, etc.

Be optimistic yet realistic

Even a significant financial plan requires a healthy dose of optimism. But don't go too far with it, or you'll come out as a dreamer to the investors. It's critical to balance the accuracy of the facts and the need to show a financially viable project to stakeholders.

Use templates

Many business owners have no clue where to start when creating a financial strategy or how to present it. If so, use pre-made templates with all of the essential sheets and columns.

Get a startup plan: explained!

Entrust to Cleveroad experts your business planning for software development project

Team Structure

This is the final section of the business plan, informing investors about your startup's organizational structure. It may contain the following parts:

Management Team

Team composition is essential for a proper startup functioning, as well as for its future growth. If you’re going to launch a software development company, at the beginning of the startup’s existence, your project team formed may include:

• Chief Executive Officer (CEO) — an expert responsible for company management, supervising, human resources running, communication with CTO, etc.
• Chief Technology Officer (CTO) — a team member competent in development and technology areas, UI/UX design, back-end, or QA team supervising
• Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) — a specialist responsible for the clients’ perception of your service or product offered
• Chief Sales Officer (CSO) — an expert running all activities connected with business development

The software development team composition should contain the following specialists as UI/UX designers, front-end and back-end developers, QA engineers, and others essential for the product’s appropriate development.

How to build a software development team — revealed! Check our recent guide to know more!

So, list and briefly characterize each key management person in your business. Try to tie their expertise to your company's current responsibilities, using the business plan template tech startup requires, or write this part on your own.

For instance, if your VP of Sales has previously worked for an organization that increased sales from $5 million to $10 million, it would be a wonderful addition to demonstrate their knowledge and value on the team. You'll also demonstrate to investors that you've assembled a strong team they can trust with their funds.

Management Team Gaps

This is common when a company lacks some management team members while developing a business plan. If it's your case, you should make a list of any absent personnel and the particular skills for future candidates, such as experience in the needed sector, duties, etc.

For example, if you want to find a CTO for a startup , you can say that the perfect candidate must have 10+ years of experience, top-class knowledge of modern technologies, and extensive skills to effectively manage the team and develop the product.

Board Members

The Board of Directors is a hired group of individuals that assist you in running your business properly. Even if a Board of Directors is uncommon for startups, you may spot one in the team structure and care about these gaps to be filled.

Supplementary Sections For Your Business Plan

If you need to provide stakeholders and other readers of your business plan with additional information about your startup company, you may give it in a supplementary appendix section to your business plan example tech startup needs (or one created by yourself). It isn’t essential; however, your possible investors may need some more data about you and your business (a credit history, for instance).

So, the appendix should be prepared beforehand to save time in the future. You can include in it:

• Charts, tables, and other illustrations absent in the central parts
• Trademark/patent documentation
• Market researches in details
• Credit history
• Supportive papers (contracts, agreements, etc.)

You may also add here:

A production plan: it is your helper during production activity setting tasks that should be completed for aims achievement, every employee function in such a completion, and so on.

An operations plan: it may identify your startup’s primary business needs, such as equipment, requirements to inventory, office building, or location.

Preparing an appendix, care about its simplicity in reading and comfort in use. If it’s too long or contains too many documents to read, make a supplementary table of contents for more straightforward navigation of your plan readers. Disclosing confidential data, please monitor users having access to it and remind them about the necessity of maintaining confidentiality.

On top of that, the readers can skip the supplementary section as it’s the last part of your business plan; your prepared plan should be understandable and self-reliant. Otherwise, it will need reworking.

The Famous Startups Succeeded Due to Planning

A way to success and prosperity isn’t a bed of roses. World-famous companies began their way from startups one day, thoroughly planning every step on the road to fame. For you to inspire, we’ve prepared a shortlist of such startups’ success stories.

Samples of startups successful due to accurate planning

In the beginning, Pinterest was an invitation-only service. To go further on their development path, the company planned every business step, thinking about a proper UX for their product: Ben Silbermann even gave users his personal phone number to contact him about the site at any time of day or night. This perseverance paid off. Now Pinterest is a unique platform with $633 million revenue.

Canva is one of the leading graphic design platforms designers love to use for everything. This successful Australian business has raised over $US 1 billion of revenue. Due to proper scheduling policy and belief in workforce empowering, Canva CEO Melanie Perkins could make her company successful, having an audience of more than 10 million customers.

The well-known messenger allowing people to communicate worldwide was invented in a gym. When Jan Koum and his co-founder Brian Acton were annoyed with missing calls while at the gym, they created WhatsApp, which allows users to update their "status" to indicate when they are ready to accept calls. They only wanted to make a good product for customers, which approximately turned into more than $5.5 billion of revenue.

Netflix, which started its way as a rent-by-mail DVD service that required users to pay for each rental, is now worth more than $30 billion. It's a brilliant illustration of how pivoting a business model can significantly affect a company's direction. Netflix was able to further establish itself as the go-to media company by pivoting from DVD by mail to developing award-winning programming and gaining revenue of more than $US 7.5 billion .

Creating Your Own Business Plan

Strict planning of business steps was one of the essential things all the above companies had in common to grow and become more successful. We can personally propose a tech startup business plan template from Shopify that most nearly meets the points discussed above.

Shopify tech company business plan template

But remember that such a document will properly work if its critical blocks are created with the help of qualified experts. Cleveroad, a skilled IT consulting company and software solution provider from Ukraine, Eastern Europe, is ready to help you with initial project development phases and further ones. Since 2011, we've been assisting startups and organizations of all kinds in acquiring cutting-edge technologies.

During the collaboration with us, you’ll obtain a wide range of services, containing (but not limited to):

• Proven in-depth software development experience in a variety of sectors
• Working with high-qualified, certified, and agile-oriented Business Analysts, Solution Architects, and other tech specialists able to help you solve business issues
• Consultations from our Business Analysts and tech experts about your project
• Initial project estimates from our Sales Managers for free, with no hidden costs
• Honesty with our clients and partners as a critical component of developing outstanding products

You can also apply to us if you have problems with business plan creation. We’ll help you solve them quickly and efficiently build a software product for your business.

Order a consultation on a project

Book a call, and our Business Analysts will give you a full understanding of your software solution

Wrapping Up

Developing an information technology startup business plan is a complicated and time-consuming process that practically every company should undertake. You can adapt pre-made templates, but no one-size-fits-all template will work for every company. That’s why you may make your job easier, applying to specialists competent in software development.

A business plan can help you organize your thoughts, ideas, and even find the right people to work with. Even though making a business plan (or completing a technology startup business plan example) is a long and complex process, almost every startup should go through it.

Your startup business must have these sections:

• Executive summary. This section sums up the entire business plan and works as an introduction.
• Company description. This part reveals history, goals, team structure, and other details about your company.
• Marketing plan. A marketing plan is a representation of the startup’s competitive advantage and marketing goals.
• Financial projections. In plain language, it’s a forecast of the future revenue and expenses of your startup.
• Team structure. This section serves to familiarize investors with the hierarchy of your startup team.
• Step 1. First of all find a flexible template to jot down your business plan.
• Step 2. Write company description.
• Step 3. Define your goals, make a market research and jot down it's results in marketing plan.
• Step 4. Write financial plan.
• Step 5. Write your management team structure.
• Step 6. Sum previous section in executive summary.

Evgeniy Altynpara is a CTO and member of the Forbes Councils’ community of tech professionals. He is an expert in software development and technological entrepreneurship and has 10+years of experience in digital transformation consulting in Healthcare, FinTech, Supply Chain and Logistics

Give us your impressions about this article

Very useful article.

Thank you for helping

Thanks for the article! I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been stuck in this business plan stage. It's hard for newcomers to gather all their thoughts in one plan. But you've explained it perfectly!

Great job, very useful!

Good article. Found it interesting.

Nice piece of information. You've nailed its explanation. Besides, these templates that you've attached are really great. I think that they will suit perfectly for new startups.

Jul 26, 2024

May 01, 2024

Oct 05, 2023

Technology Business Plans

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Position your technology venture at the forefront of innovation with our comprehensive selection of technology industry business plan examples. This invaluable resource is engineered for entrepreneurs, startup founders, and IT leaders seeking to navigate business planning in the fast-paced tech landscape. The plans presented provide a professional framework for addressing key components such as product development, market penetration, intellectual property strategy, funding mechanisms, and scaling operations. 

Technology Business Plan Templates

Mobile App Business Plan Template

SaaS Business Plan Template

Software Business Plan Template

Technology Business Plan Template

YouTube Business Plan Template

Internet Cafe Business Plan Template

Network Marketing Business Plan Template

Social Media Marketing Business Plan Template

Cybersecurity Business Plan Template

Information Technology Business Plan Sample

This Information Technology business plan sample is focused on the growing IT sector in Houston, Texas .  We hope this sample provides you with a brief foundation for starting your own IT company.  Our Information Technology business plan writers crafted this sample for your review.

Executive Summary

JKY IT International Corp. (herein also referred to as “JKY IT International America” and “the company”) was incorporated in the State of Texas on January 5, 2022 by Founder and Director, Mr. Patrick Olevin. The company aims to offer Digital Transformation Services, including Digital Network Architecture, Software Development, and Hardware Sales.

JKY IT International America will be based in the City of Houston, and increase the competitiveness of the State of Texas in the Information Technology (IT) sector.  With twenty years of international managerial and operational experience in the IT space, Mr. Olevin plans to create high-earning American jobs, increase American tech exports, and grow the competitiveness of the information technology industry within the state.

Texas is ideally suited to meet the needs of the IT industry across North America due to its affordable cost of living, central time zone, excellent Internet accessibility, and highly skilled talent pool. This is why many companies across North America are looking to Texas to manage their data centers and information technology systems. Also, the Government of Texas has recently announced several changes to accelerate the growth of the technology and research sectors in the State through ‘Innovation Texas’ , hence the decision by Mr. Olevin to set up operations in Texas. 

Founder, Mr. Olevin is a strong candidate for the Texas Immigration Nominee Program. Mr. Olevin has been a technology entrepreneur since 2010, with a strong background in the IT services industry as an innovative Digital Transformation services provider. “JKY IT International Co., Ltd.” the existing company in Germany, which Mr. Olevin owns and operates, has provided him ample experience in managing large teams, as well as providing managerial oversight for sales, operations, finance and budgeting to ensure profitability. Mr. Olevin is now looking to take his successful insight into the IT landscape to launch JKY IT International America in the State of Texas by entering the American market, and stimulating the local economy with jobs, investment, and community involvement.

Business Overview

JKY IT International Corp. is a new Information and Communication technology (IT) services company based in Texas, founded by Mr. Olevin, a highly experienced business owner and entrepreneur. With a strong background in the IT services industry, Mr. Olevin will lead JKY IT International America to provide the following services: 

• Digital Network Transformation

Software Development

• Network Hardware Sales 

Through the Texas Immigration Nominee Program, Mr. Olevin will bring with him an extensive set of industry knowledge, entrepreneurial experience and business acumen, to launch and grow JKY IT International America in the State of Texas, a region with a flourishing information technology (IT) and Telecommunication (Telecom) industry. The company will provide highly innovative solutions to various corporate entities, government bodies and small businesses, to transform their digital network infrastructure at an affordable price.

JKY IT International America will also be involved in the sales of Network Architecture and Cybersecurity Hardware, as well as providing various customisable software packages such as ERP tools, Fullstack technologies and Mobile Application development.

Mr. Olevin will initially invest up to $500,000 into the Texas economy through leasehold purchases, software and equipment installation, as well as create a number of full-time jobs.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to transform the unique IT demand of clients across multiple industries for the digital age.

Today, organizations face complex IT challenges because of critical business needs and obsoletion of legacy technologies. We promise to deliver customized business solutions that tackle their unique challenges.

Vision Statement 

Our vision is an IT ecosystem where organizations are equipped with the latest network infrastructure and cybersecurity systems.

Core Values

All business activities and decisions are guided by the following core values:

• Support the local economy and community.
• Challenge the status quo in the IT industry.
• Innovate and develop unique IT solutions.
• Build an innate culture of success and high performance.
• Consistently deliver a high quality customer experience.
• Advance the digital network ecosystem of Texas.

Goals and Objectives

JKY IT International 

Mr. Olevin’s existing business is named “JKY IT International Co., Ltd.” This section will review recent financial performance, the business address, personnel summary and existing clientele:

Personnel Summary

Market Analysis

JKY IT International America will operate in the Telecom and IT services industries, as a top-notch provider of Digital Transformation services, offering customisable solutions to solve unique business challenges of organizations. When combined, the IT industry and the Telecom industry currently employ over 717,600 Americans. The IT industry contributed US$ 32.8BN, while the Telecom industry contributed US$ 74.9BN to the American economy during 2021, and are together responsible for 5.3 % of America’s GDP. 

America encompasses a vast territory with a low population density, so by force of geography is a networked nation. Americans have been early adopters of all forms of modern communication and have always been at, or near the top globally in the use of advanced broadband networks. The network infrastructure sector that serves America – citizens, businesses, governments – is a significant part of the nation’s economy, but of broader importance is its role in underpinning the IT industry as a whole as the key driver of productivity in a modern economy.

America’s network infrastructure companies work hard to ensure that Americans are provided with the world-leading networks they need and demand. The scale of their investment is astounding: in total, US$ 10BN annually of capital expenditures, and another US$ 1BN in Research and Development expenditures annually.

Government Regulations

There are numerous regulatory authorities at the federal and State level relevant to businesses in America. Some of the major federal regulatory authorities are listed below.

Also, with the Federal and State governments in America each having their own, and sometimes competing set of regulations, the risk of non-compliance for businesses is a possibility. This is further complicated by the differing regulatory requirements that occur by industry, product, service offering, and even the type of legal entity under which a business operates.

Hence, the key to compliance will be expert planning. The reality is that business requirements and regulations in America are not abating, but are rather becoming increasingly prescriptive and complex.  This goes on to create a significant challenge for businesses which are earnestly attempting to comply. The following compliances will be adhered to while JKY IT International America is set up in Texas, America:

• Employment and Labor Laws
• Environmental Laws
• Data and Privacy Laws
• Health and Safety Laws

Federal Laws and Guidelines

Organizations covered by PIPEDA must generally obtain an individual’s consent when they collect, use or disclose that individual’s personal information. People have the right to access their personal information held by an organization. They also have the right to challenge its accuracy. Personal information can only be used for the purposes for which it was collected. If an organization is going to use it for another purpose, they must obtain consent again. Personal information must be protected by appropriate safeguards.

PIPEDA applies to private-sector organizations across America that collect, use or disclose personal information in the course of a commercial activity. The law defines a commercial activity as any particular transaction, act, or conduct, or any regular course of conduct that is of a commercial character. All businesses that operate in America and handle personal information that crosses State or national borders in the course of commercial activities are subject to PIPEDA, regardless of the State or territory in which they are based.

State Laws and Regulations

In Texas, public sector organizations are subject to specific privacy statutes administered by a State independent body of the Legislative Assembly of Texas (‘the Legislative Assembly’). In addition, private-sector organizations engaging in commercial activities are subject to federal privacy legislation administered by an independent federal body. Below is an overview of Texas’s data protection landscape including the applicable laws, their scope, existing regulatory authority, key definitions, available legal basis, principles, obligations on organizations, rights of individuals, and penalties for non-compliance.

The Office of the Texas Information and Privacy Commissioner oversees three Texas privacy statutes, including:

• the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, SS 1990-91, c F-22.01 (‘FOIP’) and its associated regulations regulate and govern personal information held by government institutions;
• the Local Authority Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, SS 1990-91, c. L-27.1 (‘LAFOIP’) and its associated regulations regulate and govern personal information held by local authorities; and 
• the Health Information Protection Act, SS 1999, c H-0.021 (‘HIPA’) and its associated regulations regulate and govern personal health information in the custody and control of trustees.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of America  administers the two federal privacy statutes applicable in Texas:

• the Privacy Act, RSC 1985, c P-21 (‘the Federal Privacy Act’) and
• the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, SC 2000, c 5 (‘PIPEDA’).

The Federal Privacy Act and its associated regulations apply to a person’s right to access and correct personal information held by the Government of America.

In Texas, since there is no substantially similar private-sector privacy legislation, PIPEDA applies to personal information held by private-sector organizations and federally-regulated organizations (banks, airlines, telecommunications, etc.). PIPEDA also applies to employee personal information held by federally-regulated organizations. While PIPEDA does not apply to employee personal information held by other private-sector organizations, the Texas Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner has recommended that private-sector organizations adhere to PIPEDA when it comes to employee personal information on a best practices basis.

The following section will review current market trends in the IT and IT services industries:

In a recent report commissioned by the American Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates America’s telecommunications sector contributed US$74.9B to the national GDP in 2021, and supported over 650,000 American jobs, helping spur growth in other economic sectors as Americans adjusted to new social and economic norms amidst the ongoing global pandemic.

America’s telecom sector also invested more than US$21B in capital investment and spectrum licenses in 2021, the report says, including US$12.3B to expand and enhance network infrastructure and US$8.9B to acquire new spectrum licenses needed to support the country’s 5G networks. American operators’ continued investments in network technologies have played a key role in the expansion of the country’s digital economy, the report adds, and have the potential to contribute up to US$97B to America’s GDP by 2035 while supporting the delivery of a wide range of social and environmental benefits.

The global IT market in America was valued at US$70.2B in 2021, and will grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.8% to reach a value of US$102.25B by 2026. The cumulative revenue generation opportunities for the IT market in America is estimated at US$440 .43B between 2022 to 2026. The Insurance sector is the major contributor to the growth of the IT market in America.

IT Services Market

The IT Services industry in America provides various services to client companies such as coding, testing and supporting custom software; planning and designing integrated hardware, software and communication infrastructure; as well as on-site management of computers and data processing facilities. The market is divided into four segments: IT Consulting & Implementation, Business Process Outsourcing, IT Outsourcing, and Other IT Services. The IT services in this market are created for an exclusively professional environment and the market focuses on IT-related revenues.

Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations have recognized the need for digital adoption in their business activities (e.g., remote work support, software support, and cyber security). In order to embrace new technological solutions in a fast, modern, and innovative way, more companies are likely to use external support. There has been a steady increase in demand for IT services that ensure business continuity and strengthen business resilience to weather future disruption. This is the reason why the growth rate of IT services has been on a growth trajectory since 2021. 

Revenue in the IT Services market is projected to reach US$ 27.9B in 2023. Revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2023-2027) of 7.22%, resulting in a potential market volume of up to US$ 36.8B by 2027.

Key Competitors

The top four competitors that JKY IT International America will compete with, are as follows:

Have Questions? Looking To Get Started?

• Your Name *
• Email Address *
• Phone Number

Products and Services

JKY IT International America will focus on providing three foundational services: Digital Transformation, Software Development and Hardware Reselling:

Digital Transformation

JKY IT International America will analyze a company’s tech and network infrastructure, processes, and structures to both strengthen the organization’s short-term performance and maintain sustainable long-term improvement in terms of cybersecurity and digital networks. Under this category, JKY IT International America will provide the following services:

• Networking infrastructure design
• Building Network infrastructure
• Network infrastructure maintenance
• Troubleshooting and diagnostics
• Quality analysis and reporting

JKY IT International America will provide design, development, maintenance, implementation, support, testing, and documentation services, as well as other services as may be required by a client organization to create, enhance, improve, modify, update, or upgrade their software applications used for business operations. Under this category, JKY IT International America will provide the following services:

• Software architecture design according to business need
• UI/UX design and Development based on technology stack
• Data repository design and Development based on SQL and NoSQL
• Integration design and Development with 3rd party systems
• API design and Development to provide interoperate channels
• AI Ops, Big Data Analytics, and Cloud Application Development

Hardware Reselling

JKY IT International America will also be involved in Reselling of Digital Network Hardware, acting as a channel partner and intermediary for hardware manufacturing companies. This will add a consistent stream of income for JKY IT International America during the initial 2-3 years of operations, when they are trying to gain a significant market share in the IT industry. Under this category, JKY IT International America will provide the following (but not limited to) products, along with after-sales repair and maintenance services :

• Cybersecurity devices, such as Firewall, Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), Zero-day protection solutions.  Network Access Control system, Network Management system.  
•  Routers, Carrier grade high performance backbone routers, Edge routers,  
• Switches, 1G/2.5G/5G/10G/25G/40G/100G campus and Data Center Ethernet switches,  8G/16G/32G/64G SAN FC switches.  
• DWDM Transmission system, Long distance 10G/100G/200G/400G transmission equipment. 
• Access Networks, Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) and 10 Gigabit Passive Optical Network (10GPON), Optical Line Terminals (OLT), Optical Network Network Unit (ONU) for business user and home user high speed internet access products.  
• Enterprise WiFi, Indoor and Outdoor latest WiFi-6 products.  
• Servers and storages,  high performance computing server and data storage products.  
• Network Management Systems.

Pricing Model

The following table outlines JKY IT International America’s products and services, along with their relevant prices.

Competitive Advantage

JKY IT International America will operate with four primary competitive advantages:

Founder’s Specialized Knowledge: Mr. Patrick Olevin has operated an IT business for over 12 years in Europe. He has successfully managed and operated JKY IT International Company Limited in Germany and is now ready to enter the American market, bringing with him experience in managing the new company’s business development, marketing, staffing, finance and operations. 

Diversity of Service Offerings: As Mr. Patrick Olevin’s existing company JKY IT International is involved in 5 different industry verticals, they have a very diverse set of service offerings, thus fulfilling many gaps in the existing Digital Network ecosystem. This diversity of services portfolio will help JKY IT International America in entering multiple markets, and simultaneously ensuring that there are multiple streams of revenue.

Hiring of Top Industry Talent: Mr. Olevin is an astute leader of professionals, and is highly experienced in identifying top talent, who are eager to serve customers and offer high-value in terms of return on investment on Human Capital. This could prove to be a winning characteristic for JKY IT International America, as they will hire the best available employee, while also generating employment for Americans in Texas.

International Experience: The fact that Mr. Olevin brings competitive international experience to the State is a competitive advantage in itself, having worked with clientele spread across Europe. 

Key Success Factors

The following key success factors will be imperative to receiving wide scale adoption throughout Texas’ business community for JKY IT International America:

Experienced Leadership: Mr. Olevin is an experienced IT business owner with over twelve years of experience managing and scaling JKY IT International Company in Germany. Now, through the TINP program, Mr. Olevin will transfer his successful business acumen to this new opportunity, delivering high quality Digital Transformation services in a welcoming and booming industry.

Booming IT sector in America: In FY-2021, America’s IT sector generated revenues worth  $400B, registering an increase of 5% compared to the revenues recorded in FY-2020. This industry has shown tremendous resilience and growth despite the onslaught of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. America’s IT sector outperformed the overall American economy in not only output, but also employment and innovation growth.

Innovative and Affordable IT Solutions: In today’s highly competitive business climate, organizations are facing complex IT challenges because of unique business needs and obsoletion of technologies, software applications, and hardware equipment. JKY IT International America will possess the expertise, experience and technological know-how to deliver tailor-made business solutions that tackle their unique challenges, while being cost-effective in nature.

Rise in adoption of Digital Transformation: As the world becomes increasingly digital, small businesses are feeling the pressure to adopt new technologies. The COVID-19 pandemic has also had a large influence on the digitalization trends of SMEs. With the growing demand for digitalized businesses, the American government recently launched the America Digital Adoption Program, thus investing $7 billion in plans to help companies boost their digital capabilities.

Sales and Marketing Plan

To facilitate the success of JKY IT International America, the following sales and marketing plan has been developed. High-value and focused marketing activities will drive sales and generate long-term profitability. JKY IT International America has carefully identified its target customers and channels to ensure sustained business success. The company has also established key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success, which will guide Mr. Olevin and his team in achieving the company’s goals.

Target Customers and Channels

JKY IT International America has identified the following target customers, and their relevant channels:

Small and Medium Business Enterprises

In America, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for the largest proportion of the labour force. Statistics America considers a small enterprise as one with fewer than 100 employees, including those that do not report any employment, while medium-sized enterprises have 100 to 499 employees. Small and medium sized businesses made up nearly all (98.1%) businesses in America in 2021.

The highest proportion of SMEs in one industry was in construction (16.3%), followed by professional, scientific and technical services (14.6%), retail trade (11%), accommodation and food services (7.8%), and transportation and warehousing (7.1%). Over one-fifth (20.6%) of SMEs were in a broader category of multiple industries such as real estate, waste management and remediation services, health care and social assistance, and arts, entertainment and recreation. A lower share of SMEs (6.8 %) were among service industries for repair and maintenance, personal and laundry, religious, grant-making, civic and other services. Another 5.8% of SMEs were in the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining and oil and gas extraction industry. Meanwhile, 5.3% of SMEs were in manufacturing, 4.8% of SMEs were in wholesale trade.

In addition, small businesses employed 10.3 million individuals in America – almost two-thirds (63.8%) of the total labour force. By comparison, medium-sized businesses employed 3.4 million individuals (21.1% of the labour force). As such, small and medium businesses play an important role in employing Americans and are a significant driver towards economic recovery.

Factories and Manufacturing Units

Manufacturing is a cornerstone of America’s economy. Accounting for approximately $174B of America’s GDP, manufacturing represents more than 10% of America’s total GDP. America’s manufacturing industry has huge potential for America’s economic future. The world is changing, and new technologies are not just opening new markets for American goods, they are changing the ways these goods are produced. For manufacturing in America to remain a vibrant, innovative and competitive contributor to our economy, business and government will need to work together. A vibrant manufacturing community encourages industrial clusters that develop skills, knowledge and technology.

Also, manufacturing continues to remain an important industrial sector for economic growth and diversification in Texas. The manufacturing sector contributed $5.1B to Texas’s total 2021 real GDP of $77.4B. This represents about 6.6% of Texas’s GDP and 2.7% of total American manufacturing GDP ($174B). Texas had at least 1,892 manufacturing units in  2021 and most (94.1%) of them were small businesses (0-49 employees). The fabricated metal products sector had the highest number of manufacturing establishments (341), followed by food (287), and machinery (229).

Universities and Educational Institutions

Around the world, innovative digital technologies are transforming organizations. Digital innovations present boundless opportunities, helping organizations improve upon their effectiveness, efficiency, creativity and service delivery. Higher education is profoundly affected by these transformations and America’s universities are actively exploring the powerful possibilities of our shared digital future. Complacency in the digital era will be dangerous for companies and universities alike. The companies that survive today are either buying up disruptors or developing their own innovations. But digital innovation is not limited to the private sector, it has been recently highlighted by key innovators in the American higher education space.

The current digital research infrastructure ecosystem in America is complex and fragmented. During Budget 2015, new goals were set out to develop a Digital Research Infrastructure Strategy that included new policies on research data management and storage and a coordinated long-term approach to the funding and provision of networking, high performance computing, and software tools. The federal government started carrying out consultations to develop a new DRI strategy and Universities America began providing input in this process. 

Emerging trends in digital research and scholarship:

• Every field of scholarship is being transformed by analytics and open access, which is making data and research results more widely available.
• The world’s most pressing problems are now being addressed through very large online collaborations involving researchers, students and other professionals from America and around the world. 
• Large companies like Google and Microsoft are carrying out research with resources on a scale not available at universities. They are recruiting some of the best talent and collaborating with university researchers.
• 40% of American universities have a specific strategy to guide the institutional adoption of digital technologies while another 40% are in the process of developing a digital strategy.

Opportunities abound and American university leaders recognize that they must adapt in order to stay relevant in the digital era. Many universities aim to be leaders in distance learning or data management, for example, and are ahead of other institutions, funders and policy makers in these areas. These leaders will continue to leverage technologies to foster innovations and institutional change, some of which will be disruptive and some incremental. 

Given these trends and the creative ways in which digital technologies can be used to support universities’ teaching and learning, research enterprise and administration, American universities are presented with a range of opportunities and ways to innovate. Universities will continue to incorporate digital technologies to attract more students, support their success, engage students in new ways, cater to their learning styles and needs, and better prepare them for their future careers. They will also use digital technologies to support a robust research environment involving online collaboration and access to increasingly large data sets and high-performance computing networks. And they will use technologies to offer a more secure, effective and efficient administrative environment, including improved student services.

International Businesses

Based on his twenty years of experience in the IT services industry, and having managed a business which caters to the requirements of an international clientele, Mr. Olevin has developed a wide network of industry professionals, who make purchase decisions regarding upgradation of IT systems in their organizations. JKY IT International America already has access to a large pool of private businesses, manufacturing companies, government bodies, and educational institutions across Europe, which we plan to tap into, in order to expand the American business, while scaling up our operations.

At the moment when it comes to the mentioned region, the digital transformation of Europe is opening a range of opportunities for its organizations, especially for startups and SMEs. Many European countries are even in the lead globally in certain sectors of digitalization. For example, Russia and United Kingdom have become the top two countries in e-commerce retail growth, increasing by 25% and 23% per year, respectively.

Digitalising the agriculture sector is a prominent opportunity across Europe. In Germany, for example, where 33% of the population is employed in agriculture, only 21% of farmers have ever used any ICT-based solutions in their business. Besides agriculture, the digitalisation of SMEs in the other sectors such as retail will play an important role in achieving inclusive digital transformation. 

Another important sector that should be targeted by government and private sector solution providers is tourism, a key contributor to the GDP in several European countries. In the region, the level of digitalisation of accommodation for small businesses (1-15 people), which make over 80% of total tourism businesses, is low. Challenges related to affordability of digital products and services and digital skills prevent these MSMEs from deploying even basic tools like online travel agents (OTAs) and CRM systems.

Key Performance Indicators

SWOT Analysis

Let's Get Started!

Operational plan.

JKY IT International America’s operational plan outlines the company’s hours of operation, criteria for establishing the business, personnel acquisition plan, and risk mitigation strategy.

Hours of Operation

Criteria for Establishing the Business

The following steps will be required to launch JKY IT International America in the State of Texas, in addition to all other information outlined in this business plan:

• Business Number Registration
• Corporate income tax
• Import/export account

Business License 

All businesses operating from commercial and industrial zoned properties in Houston require a City of Houston Commercial Business License.

Zoning regulations vary across the city and affect the type of business you are permitted to operate within a specific zoning district. Whether you are building a new structure or moving into an existing one, contact Planning & Development to determine if your proposed location is zoned for the type of business you want to establish.  If you are solely operating a business from your residential home in Houston, please refer to the Home Based Business category.

If you have more than one business location in Houston, you will need to complete a separate business license application for each location.

Application

The easiest way to apply for a commercial business license is through Business License Online. 

Applications can also be submitted by mail. Complete the commercial business license application and gather any applicable supporting documents that apply to your business. 

All commercial business license applications are reviewed for compliance with land use and building code regulations.

If structural alterations are planned or a change of use or occupancy to the building will occur, a building permit is required. A building permit from Building Standards is required prior to the start of construction. A business license will not be issued until the appropriate building permits have been taken out.

If your application is approved, you will receive written confirmation by mail, along with your business license, in approximately 10 to 15 business days. A business license is valid for one year from the date it is issued, unless otherwise stated on the license.

Business Name Registration 

A business name registration refers to a registration under the Business Names Act. It expires after 5

years and must be renewed.

Federal Business Incorporation

There is a need to file an application to incorporate if you want to create or maintain a federal corporation.

IT Services Provider

Every business in Houston requires a business license.  The type of business license one needs depends on the business operation and its location. This allows us to apply appropriate regulations to businesses where there is a potential for negative impacts on the community.

Aside from the business license, there are often additional requirements that must be met so it is important that we are aware of all applicable regulations.

Business licenses are location-specific and a separate license for each location from which we will operate is required. Some exceptions may apply. 

License Categories:

All businesses operating from commercial and industrial zoned properties in Houston require a City of a Houston Commercial Business License.

The standards for home based businesses are intended to seek a balance between supporting a quiet, safe, and aesthetic residential environment while supporting the aspirations of home based entrepreneurs.

• Non-resident Businesses

Health & Safety

The Occupational Health & Safety Division is the Texas government body that supervises health and safety in the workplace. They deal with physical hazards, such as handling toxic material, as well as employees’ rights to work in a harassment-free environment.

The three rights of workers

Workplace safety is everyone’s responsibility. It is important to know one’s rights. The Texas Employment Act gives workers three important rights:

Right to Know

You have the right to know about any hazards, or potential hazards, which may be found in your place of employment. It is also your right to receive instruction, information, training and supervision necessary for you to do your job safely. Other examples of information you have a right to know include:

• safe work practices and procedures;
• emergency procedures (such as evacuations or first aid);
• policies that exist in your workplace (such as violence or harassment policies);
• how to safely use and handle chemicals and other substances found in your workplace; and
• how to raise a safety concern.

Right to Participate

You have the right to participate in workplace health and safety. Every Texas workplace with 10 or more workers must have an occupational health committee (OHC). At least half of the committee members must represent workers who are not management. Members representing workers need to be elected by the workers they represent or selected by their union. Members representing the employer are designated by the employer.

Right to Refuse

You have the right to refuse to perform any specific job or task which you have reasonable grounds to believe is unusually dangerous. The danger may be to you or to any other person at your workplace. An unusual danger could include:

• a danger that is not normal for the job (e.g., repairing a roof in dangerous winds);
• a danger that would normally stop work (e.g., operating a forklift with a flat tire); or
• a situation for which you are not properly trained, equipped, or experienced to do the work assigned (e.g., cleaning windows on a tall building with no fall protection equipment or training).

Roles and responsibilities

The Employer: The employer, typically represented by senior management, has the greatest responsibility with respect to health and safety in the workplace. He or she is responsible for taking every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker. The employer is responsible for ensuring that the IRS is established, promoted, and that it functions successfully. A strong IRS is an important element of a strong health and safety culture in a workplace. A strong health and safety culture shows respect for the people in the workplace.

Supervisors: Supervisors are responsible for making workers fully aware of the hazards that may be encountered in the workplace. Supervisors must monitor workers and work conditions, ensuring that employers are working safely, responding to any of the hazards brought to their attention, and taking every precaution reasonable to ensure the protection of a worker.

Workers: Worker responsibilities include: reporting hazards in the workplace; working safely and following safe work practices; using the required personal protective equipment for the job at hand; participating in health and safety programs established for the workplace.

Health and safety representatives/joint health and safety committees: The health and safety representative, or the joint health and safety committee (JHSC), contributes to workplace health and safety. More information on the roles of the joint health and safety committee and the health and safety representative can be found in the Guide for joint health and safety committees and health and safety representatives in the workplace.

External Parties: Parties and organizations external to the workplace also contribute to workplace health and safety. These include the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (MLITSD), the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), and the health and safety system partners. The MLITSD’s primary role is to set, communicate, and enforce workplace occupational health and safety standards while encouraging greater workplace self-reliance.

Inventory for Sale

All inventory is purchased upon receiving a purchase order; therefore, no initial inventory will be acquired.  This will take place upon receiving an order, when the company will purchase from a company vendor.

JKY IT International America will be based in the City of Houston, for its location, affordable cost of living, central time zone, excellent internet accessibility, highly skilled talent pool, and economic opportunities.

Risk Analysis

Mr. Olevin has reviewed relevant risks and established appropriate mitigation strategies:

Personnel Plan

JKY IT International America will be led by Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Olevin. Operationally, the company will have two segments: Hardware, run by hardware technicians, and Software, run by  software engineers. They will be led and managed by a Project Manager, who will be further supported by a Systems engineer.

Organizational Structure

The following organizational structure outlines JKY IT International America’s coordination system:

Management Team

Mr. Patrick Olevin 

Owner/Founder, Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Patrick Olevin is the Founder and CEO of JKY IT International America. Mr. Olevin has more than twenty years of management experience, responsible for the daily operations of an IT services business in Germany. Mr. Olevin has twelve years of entrepreneurial experience as a business owner, including ownership of JKY IT International Co. Ltd. in Germany. With an English proficiency level of IELTS band 5, Mr. Olevin can comfortably handle client negotiations and employee engagements.

The success of JKY IT International in Germany is justified validation of his business competence, and his ability to launch a successful American version of the previously established business in Germany. Being directly responsible for establishing business roots in America, Mr. Olevin will recruit key personnel, manage the company’s finances, and deal with operational responsibilities. As CEO, Mr. Olevin will ensure the profitability of the business, and work closely with key stakeholders to ensure sound operations. Running an IT company has developed Mr. Olevin’s keen business acumen. By streamlining his business operations through cultivating a forward-thinking attitude and developing a performance-driven business culture, Mr. Olevin has always strived to be ahead of his competitors by creatively designing various marketing campaigns based on product quality and customer feedback.

Growing the American business financially is Mr. Olevin’s ultimate goal, and he will do so by taking the initiative in mentoring his staff on IT services  management, sharing the best industry practices and putting value in strong customer service and high quality software development, and strong network architecture design. Mr. Olevin believes in the importance of equipping teams with the right set of skills through training and mentoring, and is committed to building a strong core team. Mr. Olevin is fully confident that JKY IT International America will not only fill a critical market gap, but also play an integral role in the IT ecosystem of Texas’s economy.

The following personnel plan outlines each position the company will hire and average wage per year. Year 2 is the first time all positions will be engaged; therefore, the following wages will be based upon the aforementioned time period.

Project Manager

Project Managers take charge of technical teams. While their duties vary depending on the industry, they typically ensure the smooth functioning of technical operations, monitor and evaluate staff progress, assist with training and recruitment, set goals, and ensure overall client satisfaction.

Hourly Wage: $42.00 

Annual Wage: $87,360 

Systems Engineer

A Systems Engineer’s job is to determine problems within specific systems. They provide solutions for issues they find in the process, including designing new systems, upgrading hardware and maintaining an existing system.

Hourly Wage: $55.38

Annual Wage: $115,190

Software Engineer

A Software Engineer’s job is to design, develop and maintain computer applications at an IT company. They use their creativity and technical skills and apply the principles of software engineering to help solve new and ongoing problems for an organization.

Hourly Wage: $49.38

Annual Wage: $102,710

Hardware Technician

A Hardware Technician’s job it to support and maintain computer systems and peripherals by installing, configuring, testing, troubleshooting, and repairing hardware. They also do repair and maintenance of technological equipment (e.g. routers) or network components. 

Hourly Wage: $22.85

Annual Wage: $60,008

Business Development Executive

Business development executives are responsible for driving company sales by sourcing new clients, and by convincing existing clients to purchase added offerings by cross-selling. As such, business development executives play an integral role in companies’ longevity and sustainability.

Hourly Wage: $40.38

Annual Wage: $83,990

An Accountant helps businesses make critical financial decisions by collecting, tracking, and correcting the company’s finances. They are responsible for financial audits, reconciling bank statements, and ensuring financial records are accurate throughout the year.

Hourly Wage: $38.46

Annual Wage: $79,996

Community Impact

JKY IT International America will create a positive impact to Texas’s communities through a variety of programs and charitable activities.

Local Job Creation

The following chart outlines the plan for local jobs for American Citizens and Permanent Residents over the first 5 years of operation:

Financial Plan

Pro Forma Income Statement

Pro Forma Cash Flow Statement

Pro Forma Balance Sheet

How can we help you?

Get in touch with us or visit our office

IT Strategic Plan: A 5-Step Planning Process (With Template)

Looking for a way to execute key IT and digital initiatives faster to support business growth? Sounds like you need a strong and well-thought-out IT strategic plan.

On paper, it sounds easy to do, right— “a well-crafted IT strategy should set a clear path on how you’re planning to enhance the business’s performance with technology.”

But developing and executing one isn’t a simple task. According to Gartner’s CIO survey , only 29% of CIOs consider their organization effective at IT strategy and planning. It’s a complex, time-consuming, bang-your-head-against-wall process (if you don’t have the right approach). 

Not to worry—that's why we're here. In this article, we’ll cover the key elements of an IT strategy plan and share a practical step-by-step process with examples to help you create and execute your own. 

Oh, did we mention you get a free IT strategic plan template ?

Ready? Discover how to create an actionable and execution-ready IT strategic plan the Cascade way!

In this article, you’ll discover: 

• What Is an IT Strategic Plan?
• The Benefits of IT Strategic Planning
• Key Components of an Execution-Ready IT Strategic Plan
• The 5 Steps of a Highly Effective Strategic IT Planning Process
• IT Strategic Plan Example + Template

Take Control of Your IT Strategic Planning with Cascade 🚀

What Is An IT Strategic Plan?

An IT strategic plan is a roadmap that outlines an organization's goals and objectives for using technology to achieve its business objectives. It provides a framework for making technology-related decisions and investments that align with the organization's overall strategy .

The Benefits Of IT Strategic Planning For CIOs

In today's fast-paced and competitive environment, CIOs use IT strategic planning process to:

• Set and align IT priorities with business objectives and goals. 
• Prove the value and impact of IT within the organization to increase credibility and influence.
• Assess potential risks and vulnerabilities, and develop proactive measures to prevent financial losses and reputational damage.
• Improve communication and collaboration by breaking down silos, ensuring everyone is on the same page, and rowing in the same direction. 
• Focus on IT projects with the greatest potential for impact and ROI, maximizing the value of IT investments and ensuring efficient use of resources.
• Help organizations stay ahead of digital transformation , technology trends and adapt to changing business needs, keeping technology aligned with organizational needs.

Key Components Of An Execution-Ready IT Strategic Plan

An execution-ready IT strategic plan is more than words on paper. It’s an action plan to improve your company’s technological capabilities and deliver business value. 

If you want to inspire alignment and drive ownership for successful strategy execution, your IT strategic plan should include these elements:

🔎 Focus areas : Where should your team focus the attention and efforts? What area of IT will have the most impact on the business strategy?

📌 Goals and objectives: What do you want to achieve exactly? Your goals and objectives are the outcomes you’re aiming for. 

💰 Budget: What resources do you have to achieve your goals and objectives? Are your plans realistic?

😎 Owners: Who is in charge of projects and accountable for their success? Your IT strategic plan needs individuals or teams to ensure it is executed.

📆 Due dates: When do specific actions, initiatives, and projects need to happen? Your IT strategic plan needs timeframes and deadlines to be enforced and acted upon.

📤 Actions: What specific initiatives, deliverables, or projects need to happen within your focus areas? Your IT strategic plan should provide clear and actionable steps for teams to reach goals.

📈 Measures: How will you track progress as your teams execute? Which are the most important IT KPIs your team should track and report upon? A solid IT strategic plan will have an element of progress tracking that promotes consistency and accountability .

👉 Click here to get your free IT strategic plan template (P.S.: The template has all the key elements described above and is pre-filled with examples so you can start working on it right away.)

The 5 Steps Of A Highly Effective Strategic IT Planning Process

So, now that you know which elements you need to include in your IT strategic plan , let's explore how to get there.

Here are five steps to achieve effective IT strategic planning and execution:

1. The alignment phase: IT strategy is part of your business strategy

While IT strategic planning focuses on medium-term goals, CIOs must consider the realm beyond their IT environment (i.e., your company goals).

In the HBR survey , 77% of respondents said the disconnect between IT and business strategies is resulting in significant costs. 

This is a vital consideration for IT leaders. You must be aware of the dangers of misaligned or isolated strategic planning. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking your IT planning process is separate from other business processes or goals. 

To top it off, a study from Workday found that one-third (31%) of companies are rarely aligned on their digital finance transformation goals, with CFOs citing this as a top barrier to successful digital transformation initiatives. 

Focus less on technology talk and more on business strategy outcomes. 

Schedule a strategic planning workshop and kick it off with a recap and discussion about goals that the company is pursuing to understand how technology can help achieve those goals. 

👉Here’s how Cascade can help you:  

Use the Alignment View to get a visual overview of strategic alignment between your IT plan and business strategy. You can also use it to check how your existing IT initiatives contribute to the success of the business strategy.

2. The analysis phase: What should your IT strategy focus on

According to Gartner 's 2023 CIO and Technology Executive Survey, 95% of organizations struggle to develop a vision for digital change, often due to competing stakeholder expectations.

Sure, the squeaky wheel usually gets the most grease, but don’t use this as your base to identify strategic priorities. This approach won’t move the needle for the organization. Instead, focus on what will have the highest impact on the organization in the future and prioritize those initiatives .

As a strategic leader and changemaker, you’ve got to ask yourself: 

• How should the business approach these challenges? 
• What projects should we prioritize for maximum impact in the future? 
• If everyone’s investing in automation, cybersecurity/information security, and data centers, should we be doing the same? 
• Do we have enough resources to support our current strategy, or do we need to develop new resources? 

Researching IT priorities for your organization based on market impact is a good start, and you can do this with reports, industry research, and other data.

But, Gartner also suggests that you should also look to others within your organization to provide insights and different perspectives on priorities and challenges, for example:

• Leadership signals. 
• Stakeholders in the business who share your vision (Ideal Partners).

💡 Top tip: Your people and teams are valuable assets for identifying areas of IT investment. Bring key stakeholders into your strategic planning process to level up your strategic analysis and research.

3. The goal-setting phase: Who is responsible for what?

Next, decide how your IT strategic plan will filter into actionable projects for different teams to execute.

To drive outcomes, goals need to have owners who will manage their initiatives to completion. These initiatives also need to be aligned with your high-level planning as well as the organization’s broader strategic objectives .

Sound like a difficult balancing act? Not if you take a systematic approach. 

A simple way to get started with goal-setting in a strategy-aligned way is to use a three-column table.  

• Jot down business objectives and problems in column A.
• See how your IT strategy can support or improve them in column B.
• Assign project owners to each initiative in column C.

For example:

Column A: What are our business goals or problems? 

• Improve customer experience

Column B: How can our IT strategy support it?

• Optimize our data analytics capabilities and IT infrastructure.
• Implement new CRM software.
• Develop and deploy new digital solutions to improve customer experience.

Column C: Who is responsible for achieving this?

• Optimize our data analytics capabilities and IT infrastructure → Data Analytics Manager & Data Team.
• Implement new CRM software → Customer Support Team & IT Team.
• Develop and deploy new digital solutions to improve customer experience → Customer Experience Manager & IT Team.

Setting your IT goals this way will ensure that actions consistently align with your company’s strategic objectives. You’ll also be able to see if your strategic goals are realistic and within your budget. Plus, you'll ensure each goal has an owner rather than lacking clarity over accountability and realizing this in your next review. 

Once you’re done, go through your table and look for overlapping imperatives, opportunities to streamline execution, and how to prioritize goals. 

Additionally, share them with other key internal and external stakeholders, get feedback, and make changes based on their perspectives. 

👉Here’s how Cascade can help you:

With Cascade's Strategy Planner, you can easily set IT goals and align them with business objectives in a centralized platform. During setup, you'll be able to add a goal's owner, collaborators, due dates, and measure of success. Doing so can keep everyone on the same page and accountable for progress. 

Here’s an example of IT objectives and goals in Cascade:

4. The execution phase: How to get it right

The way you approach strategy execution can make or break the work you’ve put into your strategic planning. 

A successful and fast execution phase has two equally important parts:

• Building a clear and actionable execution plan with key elements developed in the previous steps. 
• Communicating this plan to your stakeholders. Not just to your IT department, but to everyone who will be involved or affected by the execution of your plan. 

To execute your IT strategic plan successfully, ensure that your stakeholders understand the IT strategy's goals, importance, and potential impact. Clarify IT governance, functions, and responsibilities, and establish communication channels to support transparency and cross-collaboration. 

Clarity and strong execution are critical to achieving your IT goals and delivering real value.

Here are two things you can do to get it right:

• Use visual tools: Create strategic roadmaps to communicate plans and timelines.
• Get the wheel spinning early in the process: Hold a workshop or meeting to officially kick off your execution phase. Use this opportunity to explain the strategic direction, who will be involved in the execution, and why you are doing it. 

👉Here’s how Cascade can help you: 

Simplify how you view your planning and execution: Cascade’s Timeline (Roadmap) view lets you visualize IT goals, plans, and progress in an easy-to-read Gantt-chart-style interface. Use it to plan and monitor your IT strategic plan in one place.

5. The monitoring and adaption phase: Stay on your toes

According to Gartner’s survey of 2,387 CIOs and technology executives, more than half of digital transformation initiatives take too long to execute and more than 50% take too long to realize value.  

Strategy execution isn’t a matter of set-and-forget or one-then-done. 

Plans must be acted on, projects must move forward, and expectations must be met. If you're not actively monitoring strategic initiatives, how do you know if you’ll be able to deliver the promised business value of IT? 

Progress reporting and monitoring should be a top priority for CIOs after a strategy kickoff, especially since only 18% of team members review progress on weekly basis. This means enforcing KPIs (key performance indicators), using the right tools to monitor performance, and regular check-ins with IT project owners. 

Sure,  it’s easier said than done at scale, but here are some tips to get it right:

• Use a performance management system: Use it to get an accurate picture of milestones, top performers, and address execution issues proactively.
• Be ready to adapt and optimize:  Any solid strategic plan will include long-term initiatives that can take three or five years to implement. A great one will be ready to pivot and change in the face of new technology, information, and approaches. Being flexible and open to new opportunities is essential to stay ahead in today's constantly evolving landscape.
• Stop wasting time with manual reporting: The old way of PPT presentations, Word docs, and PDF reports won’t cut it in today’s pace of business. Think about it—every second used to type, send, and read those reports could be channeled into achieving better business outcomes. 

👉Here’s how Cascade can help you: Leverage data sources from anywhere: Cascade's thousands of integrations allow you to consolidate disconnected business tools in one place, reducing context switching and helping to create a single source of truth.

Monitor progress with live dashboards: Use a powerful Dashboards feature to streamline insights into performance, monitor critical metrics, and promote data-driven decision-making.

Keep everyone in the loop: With Cascade’s Strategy Reports , you can instantly visualize data, contextualize any breakthrough or setback, and share updates with your teams in engaging ways.

Example of a report in Cascade.

📌Remember that successful IT strategies depend on:

• Proper research and planning.
• Involving different stakeholders in the strategic planning process.
• Setting realistic goals.
• Communicating the strategic plan effectively to a wider audience.
• Monitoring progress and adjusting as teams execute.

IT Strategic Plan Example + Template 

Get a headstart on your IT strategic planning with our IT Strategic Plan Template . 

What do I get?  This information technology strategic plan comes prefilled with IT KPIs, Projects, Goals, and Focus Areas to help you hit the ground running. 

What if I want to customize it? While it’s pre-filled with examples, you can easily adjust, modify, and customize input to meet your needs. 

Is it right for me? It’s perfect for CIOs, IT departments, and digital transformation leaders who need to create a strategic plan for their departments and show the ROI of IT initiatives to the leadership team. 

👉What are you waiting for? Start developing your IT Strategic Plan today. Click the link here and get your free template. 

✨ This template doesn’t match your needs? You can explore our strategy template library with over 1000 templates, including: 

• Digital Transformation Plan Template
• Technology Roadmap Plan Template 
• Digital Adoption Strategy Template

A well-thought-out IT strategic plan is critical for IT leaders who want their organization to stay relevant in a rapidly changing world.

But it’s not enough to maintain a competitive edge and grow your business. Companies with growth-focused mindsets need a platform that makes strategic execution central to how they do business.

With Cascade, you can turn your IT vision into a future-proof strategic plan your teams can work towards and deliver business results. 

Start today with a free forever plan or book a 1:1 product tour with Cascade's in-house strategy expert.

Popular articles

11 Best Strategic Frameworks For Your Organization + Free eBook

Strategic Analysis Complete Guide: Definition, Tools & Examples

6 Steps To Successful Strategy Execution & Best Practices

How To Create A Culture Of Strategy Execution

Your toolkit for strategy success.

Information Technology Strategy Examples: Creating a Comprehensive IT Plan

• Mekhala Roy

An IT strategic plan is a document that details the comprehensive technology-enabled business management processes an organization uses to guide operations. It serves as a guide to IT-related decision-making, with IT tasks prioritized and implemented using the plan as a framework .

The plan also helps guide an organization as it formulates its overall IT strategy . While an IT strategy focuses on how IT will help the business succeed, an IT strategic plan is a roadmap to help the business implement those strategies.

Why an IT strategic plan is useful

The plan outlines areas where IT can contribute business value and where an organization can gain competitive advantage by making the best use of technology resources.

The objectives outlined in an organization's IT strategic plan should align with the organization's goals and mission but accommodate new business priorities and technologies that could drive business growth.

It's also important for an organization's IT team to know its priorities and identify the IT projects that the business should invest in.

According to Gartner , the plan outlines what has to be done in what priority and how the plan's success will be measured.

Components of an IT strategic plan

The IT strategic plan should outline a mission statement that states what it plans to achieve and how the IT strategy relates to the organization's overall business objectives.

Often the first step to creating an effective IT strategic plan is to start with reviewing the organization's strategic plan , which identifies areas where technology use can improve operations.

The IT strategic plan should include a SWOT analysis of its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to identify both internal and external factors that can affect IT's ability to contribute to an organization's success.

This process will also help organizations analyze where the IT department currently is in achieving its goals and what it must do to achieve them. The department can then identify the barriers and the resources needed for this process.

The SWOT analysis also helps organizations identify any existing technological assets that might be obscuring a previously unknown competitive advantage and that the organization should consider investing in to capitalize on the benefit.

Finally, the IT strategic plan must be clear about its goals, including a list of technology investments that the IT department deems a priority to contribute to the organization's success.

However, the plan should also include evaluations of the company's current IT budget and allocate project-specific resources and responsibilities within the IT department to meet these objectives.

Continue Reading About IT strategic plan (information technology strategic plan)

• Free IT strategic planning templates for IT leaders
• What is IT-business alignment and why is it important?
• Steps to recalibrate a strategic IT roadmap
• Types of information technology cultures explained
• CIOs: Geopolitics impacts your IT strategy

Related Terms

Dig deeper on cio strategy.

strategic management

strategic planning

RM outlines strategic growth plan

strategic leadership

Cloud-native applications have become ubiquitous in IT environments. Review key principles, patterns and developmental factors to...

FinOps tools help organizations optimize cloud spending and use. Review the different native and third-party options to find the ...

AI is bringing previously unimagined capabilities in automation, optimization and predictive analytics to cloud management while ...

With the right software, almost any mobile device can be a payment terminal. Learn about the mobile point-of-sale options beyond ...

To keep corporate and user data safe, IT must continuously ensure mobile app security. Mobile application security audits are a ...

Dell continues to cut its workforce to become 'leaner,' as it repositions for changes in the enterprise PC market that are ...

Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux are new distributions created after Red Hat announced the discontinuation of CentOS. These ...

The Broadcom CEO says public cloud migration trauma can be cured by private cloud services like those from VMware, but VMware ...

New capabilities for VMware VCF can import and manage existing VMware services through a single console interface for a private ...

ESG metrics measure performance on environmental, social and governance issues. Here's how they can benefit companies, plus tips ...

Various software tools are available to help manage ESG and sustainability initiatives. Here's a look at 18 sustainability ...

ESG initiatives can help boost business success. This guide takes an in-depth look at creating and managing an ESG strategy to ...

How To Write A Business Plan (2024 Guide)

Updated: Apr 17, 2024, 11:59am

Table of Contents

Brainstorm an executive summary, create a company description, brainstorm your business goals, describe your services or products, conduct market research, create financial plans, bottom line, frequently asked questions.

Every business starts with a vision, which is distilled and communicated through a business plan. In addition to your high-level hopes and dreams, a strong business plan outlines short-term and long-term goals, budget and whatever else you might need to get started. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to write a business plan that you can stick to and help guide your operations as you get started.

Featured Partners

ZenBusiness

$0 + State Fees

Varies By State & Package

On ZenBusiness' Website

Northwest Registered Agent

$39 + State Fees

On Northwest Registered Agent's Website

Tailor Brands

$0 + state fee + up to $50 Amazon gift card

Varies by State & Package

On Tailor Brands' Website

$0 + State Fee

On Formations' Website

Drafting the Summary

An executive summary is an extremely important first step in your business. You have to be able to put the basic facts of your business in an elevator pitch-style sentence to grab investors’ attention and keep their interest. This should communicate your business’s name, what the products or services you’re selling are and what marketplace you’re entering.

Ask for Help

When drafting the executive summary, you should have a few different options. Enlist a few thought partners to review your executive summary possibilities to determine which one is best.

After you have the executive summary in place, you can work on the company description, which contains more specific information. In the description, you’ll need to include your business’s registered name , your business address and any key employees involved in the business. 

The business description should also include the structure of your business, such as sole proprietorship , limited liability company (LLC) , partnership or corporation. This is the time to specify how much of an ownership stake everyone has in the company. Finally, include a section that outlines the history of the company and how it has evolved over time.

Wherever you are on the business journey, you return to your goals and assess where you are in meeting your in-progress targets and setting new goals to work toward.

Numbers-based Goals

Goals can cover a variety of sections of your business. Financial and profit goals are a given for when you’re establishing your business, but there are other goals to take into account as well with regard to brand awareness and growth. For example, you might want to hit a certain number of followers across social channels or raise your engagement rates.

Another goal could be to attract new investors or find grants if you’re a nonprofit business. If you’re looking to grow, you’ll want to set revenue targets to make that happen as well.

Intangible Goals

Goals unrelated to traceable numbers are important as well. These can include seeing your business’s advertisement reach the general public or receiving a terrific client review. These goals are important for the direction you take your business and the direction you want it to go in the future.

The business plan should have a section that explains the services or products that you’re offering. This is the part where you can also describe how they fit in the current market or are providing something necessary or entirely new. If you have any patents or trademarks, this is where you can include those too.

If you have any visual aids, they should be included here as well. This would also be a good place to include pricing strategy and explain your materials.

This is the part of the business plan where you can explain your expertise and different approach in greater depth. Show how what you’re offering is vital to the market and fills an important gap.

You can also situate your business in your industry and compare it to other ones and how you have a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Other than financial goals, you want to have a budget and set your planned weekly, monthly and annual spending. There are several different costs to consider, such as operational costs.

Business Operations Costs

Rent for your business is the first big cost to factor into your budget. If your business is remote, the cost that replaces rent will be the software that maintains your virtual operations.

Marketing and sales costs should be next on your list. Devoting money to making sure people know about your business is as important as making sure it functions.

Other Costs

Although you can’t anticipate disasters, there are likely to be unanticipated costs that come up at some point in your business’s existence. It’s important to factor these possible costs into your financial plans so you’re not caught totally unaware.

Business plans are important for businesses of all sizes so that you can define where your business is and where you want it to go. Growing your business requires a vision, and giving yourself a roadmap in the form of a business plan will set you up for success.

How do I write a simple business plan?

When you’re working on a business plan, make sure you have as much information as possible so that you can simplify it to the most relevant information. A simple business plan still needs all of the parts included in this article, but you can be very clear and direct.

What are some common mistakes in a business plan?

The most common mistakes in a business plan are common writing issues like grammar errors or misspellings. It’s important to be clear in your sentence structure and proofread your business plan before sending it to any investors or partners.

What basic items should be included in a business plan?

When writing out a business plan, you want to make sure that you cover everything related to your concept for the business,  an analysis of the industry―including potential customers and an overview of the market for your goods or services―how you plan to execute your vision for the business, how you plan to grow the business if it becomes successful and all financial data around the business, including current cash on hand, potential investors and budget plans for the next few years.

• Best VPN Services
• Best Project Management Software
• Best Web Hosting Services
• Best Antivirus Software
• Best LLC Services
• Best POS Systems
• Best Business VOIP Services
• Best Credit Card Processing Companies
• Best CRM Software for Small Business
• Best Fleet Management Software
• Best Business Credit Cards
• Best Business Loans
• Best Business Software
• Best Business Apps
• Best Free Software For Business
• How to Start a Business
• How To Make A Small Business Website
• How To Trademark A Name
• What Is An LLC?
• How To Set Up An LLC In 7 Steps
• What is Project Management?
• How To Write An Effective Business Proposal

What Is SNMP? Simple Network Management Protocol Explained

What Is A Single-Member LLC? Definition, Pros And Cons

What Is Penetration Testing? Definition & Best Practices

What Is Network Access Control (NAC)?

What Is Network Segmentation?

How To Start A Business In Louisiana (2024 Guide)

Julia is a writer in New York and started covering tech and business during the pandemic. She also covers books and the publishing industry.

Home > Insights > IT Strategy

• IT Strategy

By: Ciopages Staff Writer

Updated on: Feb 25, 2023

The Definitive Guide to Developing an IT Strategy and Roadmap

Today every company is a technology business or at least a technology-enabled enterprise.  The pervasiveness of IT across all facets of business makes it a strategic imperative for creating an effective IT Strategy (Information Technology Strategy) and Roadmap for an enterprise.

Given the criticality, creating an IT Strategy and building an IT Roadmap should be a focus area for every CIO (Chief Information Officer) and senior technology leadership.

In this definitive guide to developing an IT Strategy and Transformation Roadmap , we will dive deep into all facets of creating the IT strategy document including why an IT strategy is necessary, what an IT strategy document is, how to develop an enterprise IT strategy, and more importantly how to execute on the plan and measure success.

In most large companies, creating an IT Strategy and Roadmap is an annual ritual, and several teams and individuals allocate a significant amount of time creating pretty IT Strategy PowerPoint documents.  In fact, in our experience of working with several firms in drafting IT strategy and Roadmaps, what we feel is many of the IT Strategy documents are an aspirational exercise full of highfaluting goals and strategies, most of which don’t see the light of the day. So, how do you craft an IT strategy (or technology strategy or IT Strategic Plan), in a way that is not only cohesive and compelling but also actionable? Please read on.

The Definitive Guide to Developing an IT Strategy and Implementation Roadmap – Topic Outline

What is it strategy.

How to Create an IT Strategy: The Strategy Development Process

Components of the IT Strategy

Best Practices for building an IT Strategic Plan

A definition of what IT Strategy means in the enterprise context.

IT Strategy (or IT Strategic Plan or IT Transformation Strategy and Roadmap) is a comprehensive blueprint of a) how an enterprise IT team supports the business objectives and operations with optimal technology solutions and b) an operating model outlining how IT departments run its own business.

It is essential to understand the nuance of CIOPages.com definition of IT Strategy as it drives the components and contents of the IT strategic planning exercise.

For obvious reasons, information technology is an enabling force that powers how an enterprise conducts its business operations.  In this role, the technology strategy is primarily an outline of how IT intends to support business goals and strategy.

The second facet of an effective IT strategy and roadmap is how the IT department operates and minds its business.  For example, what type of SDLC process to use, what is the structure of the IT organization, how does enterprise architecture play a role in defining and enforcing standards, and how the IT department hires, trains, develops and manages its workforce.

In most companies developing an IT, the strategy is an annual exercise, and it consumes significant time and poses a burden on operating teams.  Instead, we suggest a five year IT strategy blueprint in conjunction with an annual refresh.  While five years is a long horizon in the evolution of specific technologies and their obsolescence, the IT strategy itself should have a sufficient time horizon for stability and continuity.  For example, rearchitecting and re-platforming the backend transactions processing engine may be a multi-year endeavor.  Or a plan to upskills IT workforce is typically not a one-year exercise.

How to Create an IT Strategy and Roadmap?

The steps and process of developing an it strategy and execution plan..

When companies develop IT strategic plans without a transparent process, they tend to be more of an exercise in razzle-dazzle rather than a reflection of the reality and ways to bridge the gap between current and target state.  We suggest a simple but effective process to define an IT strategy and document the plan.

The IT Strategy Development Process:

Brief Summary of the Components of the IT Strategy Development Process:

• Assemble a cross-functional team: The actual strategy must be the responsibility of the CIO’s office. However, while executive involvement and leadership are essential to developing an effective information technology plan, several perspectives must be a part of the process.

The strategy development team must have representation from or at least perspectives of the following areas:

Technology Leadership : A senior IT executive who can provide the leadership viewpoint.

Enterprise Architecture : An enterprise or business architecture leader to add a structural lens to the strategy.

Data and Information : Today, data is the lifeblood of any organization, and hence, a key leader from the CDO (Chief Data Officer) organization is critical to the drafting of any technology strategy.

Application Development and Integration : Leaders in the core coding, testing, and release areas should be a part of the team to add color from the trenches.

IT Program and Project Management :  Thoughts from the folks who herd the cats and keep everyone in line.

IT Methods and Practices : Whether it is DevOps, or Agile, or some other SDLC practice, the teams that work on tools, rules, best practices, and methods will add tools and a methodology perspective.

Business Stakeholders: Business stakeholders can represent the other side – the receiving side – of the equation and having their participation will help not only make the strategic plan better but enhances the buy-in.

Understand the future Business Strategy

Needless to add, IT exists to serve business (and of course, sometimes the business itself is IT), and hence technology strategy should dovetail into business goals and strategy.

Ideally, the technology teams must have representation and voice in the development of business/corporate strategy.

Irrespective, for building an actionable IT strategy, it is imperative to understand the nuances of the business strategy over the next several years.   The essential elements are what are the business goals and objectives, what does the product/service portfolio look like, growth strategy and market focus, and the strategies to power the business vision and realize the goals.  Ideally, a business target operating model, if one exists, will provide the breadth and depth of details necessary for the technology teams to draft the IT strategy.

Assess the current state of IT

Taking stock of the state of affairs in the technology realm is a critical step in the IT Strategic planning process.  Whether it is an in-depth assessment or a cursory review will depend on the maturity of the IT department. A comprehensive evaluation may be necessary if the enterprise is embarking on a significant transformation. In a steady state, a simple review will suffice.

The common areas to address in a current state IT assessment:

• Capabilities and level of technology enablement : Ideally, if your company has defined an enterprise business capabilities map, you can leverage Level 2 or 3 to create a heatmap of the level of technology support for each capability.
• The maturity of IT processes : Here we are not discussing the business processes, but the IT processes – whether it is IT service definition, case management, and issue resolution, the SDLC (Software development lifecycle), and application portfolio rationalization.  You may use a standard CMM maturity model or a derivative.
• Portfolio Analysis (Systems, Services, Platforms, and Applications) : What are the state of the IT landscape and the application portfolio? An application portfolio analysis is evaluating the applications/platforms/systems on a variety of dimensions such as business value, architecture compatibility, technical health, the cost to maintain, and factors such as stability, scalability, extensibility, and interoperability.
• Methods, practices, systems, and tools : What types of tools do the IT department use? What are the methods, practices, and policies are in place? Are they impeding the intended goal? An objective analysis will reveal the chinks in the IT armor.
• Structure and IT Operating Model : The departmental structure and the operating model (which is a more extensive global set of how IT works) are a crucial enabler or disabler – depending on the impact. Is the technical team structured to meet the business objectives? Are the teams organized around a construct of “IT Product Model” or “Capability-centric” model or is it purely application/functional oriented?
• Talent and Skills : At the end of the day, it is all about people and their caliber, capacity, and commitment. A competency and skill analysis will reveal gaps, particularly as they relate to the future state.
• Infrastructure : How far along is the enterprise with regards to the march to the cloud, adoption of concepts like SAAS, PAAS, and IAAS?
• Security, Stability, and Performance : The PQRS (Performance, Quality, Reliability, Scalability) are fundamental to operating smoothly and without a solid foundation, talk about highfalutin concepts and breakthrough technologies will not resonate with the business audience.
• Governance : Governance is a delicate balancing act. Too much of it stifles progress.  Too little of governance will result in compromises and shortcuts, which will come to haunt the IT team in the long-term.

Scan external factors and technology trends

What is happening in the external world has tremendous implications for any company’s technology strategy and implementation efforts.

What technologies are showing promise, beyond the initial hype cycle?  For example, is RPA (robotic process automation) the right way to automate processes? Are there use cases where machine learning can add value?  Does Blockchain have relevance and resonance? Are VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality) appropriate for your industry?

What are the competitors doing in terms of their technology investments?  In addition to any specific competitive intelligence, you may also rely on analyst reports on top agenda items on the CIOs docket and the budget allocation to various solution areas and technologies.

How are vendor products (both the horizontal and vertical solutions) evolving? Today, vendors, including the many startups, are developing innovative concepts and technologies in various facets of B2B (Business to Business) space.  Keeping abreast of the vendor landscape is critical to allow the enterprise to make, buy, build, acquire type decisions.

What is the resource availability which will impact location strategy and sourcing strategy?

Today information technology workforce is younger, mobile, and global.  Depending on the types of technologies, and level of expertise, enterprises need to come up location strategies that go beyond a large campus in the headquarters location.

All these external trends information is valuable in influencing and shaping the enterprise technology strategy.

Envision Future State of IT

A full-fledged future state envisioning may not be essential for an annual refresh but is a foundational endeavor for a 3-year or 5-year technology strategy blueprint.

Remember, a target state is not a linear progression from the current state. While the sequencing and progress may be incremental, the envisioning exercise needs to rethink and re-imagine the art of the possible.

To honestly think from a blue sky perspective, it is essential to unencumber our thinking and feeling to the current state.  The moment we are mired in the problems of today, going beyond the myopic view of the immediate and envision a new target state is awkward.  Hence, anyone who participates in the future state envisioning needs to be open-minded and imagine the future on a clean slate.

Companies conduct “Future State Envisioning Workshops” to facilitate the collective brainstorming and development of ideas. Here are a few best practices for conducting an envisioning workshop.

Future State Envisioning Workshops: Best Practices

Do’s                                                                                                   Don’ts

Conduct a Gap Analysis

The gap analysis between the target state and the current state or the gap between the point of departure and the point of arrival provides the magnitude of the task ahead of an enterprise to achieve the goals and objectives.

The gap analysis needs to be on multiple dimensions – people, process, technology, data, and governance – to address the shortcomings holistically.

Since we are crafting an overall IT Strategy and Roadmap, the level of gap level is more at a conceptual level, rather than at a feature/function level.

A typical gap analysis is multidimensional and allows for teams to leverage the findings in the future for a deep dive.

Analyze Scenarios and Strategic Options

Of course, legacy enterprises cannot easily erase the past and start anew. So, as a part of the gap analysis, one can evaluate the strategic alternatives and solution options within the cost, complexity, and value equation will help temper the sci-fi fantasies and be pragmatic in the implementation roadmap.

It is crucial to evaluate the strategic options objectively.  For example, a technique like Scenario Analysis may help visualize different scenarios and plan for various alternatives.  Royal Dutch Schell pioneered the scenario analysis technique and is useful for understanding the multiple situations and implications of decisions.

Each company will need to determine the composition of its portfolio of initiatives.   A classic McKinsey framework, the Portfolio of Initiatives allows you to position your efforts on a spectrum of risk and time horizon.

McKinsey Portfolio of Initiatives Framework :

“To apply the portfolio-of-initiatives approach, companies must take three steps: undertake a disciplined search for several initiatives that provide high rewards for the risks taken; monitor the resulting portfolio rigorously, reinvesting in successes and terminating failures; and take a flexible, evolutionary approach that allows for midcourse corrections. The resulting strategy, like a conscious form of natural selection, identifies the strongest initiatives and sheds the rest. The increasing uncertainty of today’s business environment and the importance of balancing risks with rewards make the portfolio-of-initiatives framework more relevant than ever.”

Craft IT Strategy Blueprint (preferably for 5-years)

After the gap analysis and the exploration of the strategic alternative, the team formulating the technology strategy and future game plan will be in a position to draft the IT strategy pillars. These are typically 4-7 things that an enterprise IT team may embark on to achieve the set objectives and reach the point of arrival in the future.

While seven is not a magic number per se, anything more, particularly in double digits, will make it unwieldy and seem like a laundry list.  It will dissipate the focus and attention.

The strategy pillars typically span the following areas. However, each company is unique in the state they are in and the quantum of transformation necessary to get to the next level.

Typical IT Strategy Pillars encompass:

• Any change in vision or mission (or definition of a new purpose)
• Embracing any emerging technologies to shift the paradigm
• A perspective of future state IT operating model
• Adoption of new Methods, Tools and Frameworks
• Re-engineering of IT Services and Processes
• Structure, Staffing strategy and skills, and competency improvements
• Vendor Strategy and Build/Buy/Outsource preferences
• Governance matters

Define IT Operating Model

Target operating model (TOM) is a blueprint of a future vision which aligns strategic priorities and the operating components.  An IT operating model is a subset of an overall target operating model. The IT model defines how the information technology department will harness and support the business objectives as well as how IT runs its own “business.”

In today’s digital and cognitive world, it has become a strategic imperative to redefine what’s next and then organize to meet the needs of the target state with a sound IT operating model.

IT Operating Model: A Conceptual View

Analyze IT initiatives and Prioritize based on Value, Cost, and Complexity

At this stage of the IT Strategy, strategy meets execution, and hence, this is an important step.   From an understanding of the business goals, one derives a set of IT priorities, which in turn culminate into a set of strategies and an operating model.

Now is the time to define and analyze the IT initiatives that support the path toward achieving the business and technology goals.

Each initiative should have a direct impact on each of the strategic objectives and have a measurable outcome.

It is a best practice to decompose each initiative into an IOP (Initiative on a Page).  A typical initiative one-pagers includes information such as the following:

Initiative on a Page Content Outline:

• Initiative Goals and Objectives
• Key Projects and Programs
• Impact Areas
• Summary of Business Benefits
• Risks, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies
• Key Performance Indicators

Detail out Implementation Roadmap

The implementation roadmap or strategy realization roadmap is fundamentally a way to sequence high-level initiatives to support the strategic game plan.

At this stage, these are not detailed project plans, but a path toward the North Star.   A typical implementation or strategy realization roadmap comprises of initiative names, high-level cost numbers, tentative timelines, and a sequence to balance the cost, capacity, immediacy, and business value.

Socialize and secure buy-in from stakeholders

This portion of the IT Strategic Plan is all about ensuring buy-in. Typically, IT executives do roadshows to critical stakeholders and present them the game plan.  After incorporating the feedback, a typical IT strategy and Implementation Roadmap is finalized.

Assign Success Metrics

So, after spending all that money, time, and effort, what does it buy us? Assigning key performance indicators and success metrics to the technology strategy will help provide accountability and transparency.

The standard metrics may span qualitative and quantitative depending on the areas.  For example, if lowering attrition is a goal, then IT execs assign a percentage on how much reduction they are aspiring.

The metrics span operational, delivery, strategic, and support areas.

Monitor, Measure and Refine IT Strategy on an annual basis

Assuming you are creating a 5-year or a 3-year IT strategy, then a yearly refresh or a rolling 3-year plan will be a great way to course correct.  As economy changes, technology revolution accelerates, enterprise IT Strategy cannot remain static.

Hence, a periodic refresh that accounts for changes in both external factors and internal matters is a critical success factor.

Best Practices for developing an IT Strategy and Realization Roadmap:

• Involve critical stakeholders, particularly from the business.
• Craft an IT Strategic Plan that is actionable.
• Avoid using language and terms that are not common lingua franca in the company.
• Even if you hire a consultant or consulting firm, ensure the IT strategy does not fall victim to “Not Invented Here” syndrome.
• While details may be filled out by various teams, the core strategy development must be led by CIO or his/her designees.
• Every strategy pillar must support organizational goals.
• While blue sky envisioning is necessary for future state envisioning, the implementation plan should reflect current realities and constraints.

There you have it. Now, go ahead and create your enterprise technology strategy and implementation plan. If you need help in building a compelling IT Strategy and Roadmap, please contact CIOPages.com consulting services. 

Please also review the IT Strategy in the Digital Age for a conceptual overview.

Onward and Upward.

Recent Insights

• Top Ten Signs Your Outsourcing and Offshoring may not be on Track
• Physicians time with patients
• Strategy Execution Engine
• Enterprise Architecture and Cloud Computing
• Data Mesh Architecture

Popular Insights

• Top Ten Change Management Models
• Capability Model
• The Definitive Guide to Enterprise Digital Transformation
• Marketing Transformation: The ultimate guide to transforming marketing

Recent Products

Scalable system design, roi measurement for architectural projects, process improvement through architecture, staying ahead with emerging technologies, solution evaluation and analysis, popular products, finance transformation toolkit, private equity business architecture toolkit, blockchain for data integrity best practices, payments company value streams, energy industry business architecture toolkit, recent videos, transforming cities with technology | the economist, digitalization: people, technology and services, digital transformation | what is digital transformation | digital transformation 2021 | simplilearn, what is digital transformation here is everything you need to know, licensing options:, we keep the licensing options – clean and straightforward..

Individual License: Where we offer an individual license, you can use the deliverable for personal use. You pay only once for using the deliverable forever. You are entitled any new updates within 12 months.

Enterprise License: If you are representing a company, irrespective of size, and intend to use the deliverables as a part of your enterprise transformation, the enterprise license is applicable in your situation. You pay only once for using the deliverable forever. You are entitled any new updates within 12 months.

Consultancy License: A consulting or professional services or IT services company that intends to use the deliverables for their client work need to pay the consultancy license fee. You pay only once for using the deliverable forever. You are entitled any new updates within 12 months.

Product FAQs:

Can i see a sample deliverable.

We are sorry, but we cannot send or show sample deliverables. There are two reasons: A) The deliverables are our intellectual property, and we cannot share the same. B) While you may be a genuine buyer, our experience in the past has not been great with too many browsers and not many buyers. We believe the depth of the information in the product description and the snippets we provide are sufficient to understand the scope and quality of our products.

When can I access my deliverables?

We process each transaction manually and hence, processing a deliverable may take anywhere from a few minutes to up to a day. The reason is to ensure appropriate licensing and also validating the deliverables.

Where can I access my deliverables?

Your best bet is to log in to the portal and download the products from the included links. The links do not expire.

Are there any restrictions on Downloads?

Yes. You can only download the products three times. We believe that is sufficient for any genuine usage situation. Of course, once you download, you can save electronic copies to your computer or a cloud drive.

Can I share or sell the deliverables with anyone?

You can share the deliverables within a company for proper use. You cannot share the deliverables outside your company. Selling or giving away free is prohibited, as well.

Can we talk to you on the phone?

Not generally. Compared to our professional services fee, the price of our products is a fraction of what we charge for custom work. Hence, our business model does not support pre-sales support.

Do you offer orientation or support to understand and use your deliverables?

Yes, for a separate fee. You can hire our consultants for remote help and in some cases for onsite assistance. Please Contact Us .

Finish your demo booking

Looks like you haven't picked a time for your personalized demo. Pick a time now.

• Product overview
• Security & compliance
• Document generation
• CPQ configure price quote
• Smart content
• Automations
• Approval workflow
• Tracking & analytics
• All features
• vs DocuSign
• vs Dropbox Sign
• vs Adobe Sign
• vs Proposify
• eSignatures
• All use cases
• Software & technology
• Professional services
• Construction
• All industries
• Customer success
• Signature certificate
• Two-factor authentication
• GDPR compliance
• HIPAA compliance
• Salesforce CPQ
• Authorize.net
• QuickBooks Payments
• Google Workspace
• Microsoft Word
• All integrations
• Customer stories
• Learning academy
• Help center
• Onboarding services
• Premium support
• Document embedding
• Documentation

Information technology proposal templates

Use information technology templates as a starting point for developing your own technology business. Completely customize any proposal, contract, quotes and other templates. Focus on strengths and values that will help to increase your sales effectiveness.

Cybersecurity Proposal Template

Deploy a Cybersecurity Proposal Template when presenting a detailed plan to enhance or establish robust cybersecurity measures within an organization.

Big Data Project Proposal

Leverage a Big Data Project Proposal template when outlining a detailed plan for implementing a significant data-driven initiative within an organization.

Cloud Computing Project Proposal

With our cloud computing project proposal template you can impress your clients right from the start.

Get unlimited eSignatures

Create, manage, and eSign documents for only $19 per month.

No credit card required

Big Data Startup Business Plan Template

Create a professional Big Data Startup business plan with our customizable Startup Business Plan Template.

Software Development Agreement Template

This software development agreement is essential for any development or web design contractor or small business looking to grow.

Outsourcing Services Contract Template

IT Services Proposal Template

Technical Proposal Template

Service Contract Template

Statement of Work Template

Software Maintenance Agreement Template

This software maintenance agreement template provides everything you need to enter into a legally binding agreement for software maintenance services.

Telecommuting Agreement Template

This telecommuting agreement can be used by a company that allows employees to work from home or other remote locations. It outlines the conditions of an employee being allowed to work remotely, including working hours, job duties, and compensation.

Information Technology Proposals

In the age of across-the-board digitalization, the IT industry has become the powerhouse of technological progress and the locomotive of high-tech transformations that penetrate an ever-growing number of domains. The spike in demand for software products has caused the appearance of thousands of developing companies that offer their services to the global pool of customers. Given the vast number of competitors in the IT realm, vendors face the major challenge of reaching out to their clientele. How can they address it?

There are dozens of factors that can help developers to find their customers and cinch the deal. They hire vetted professionals in the niche, keep abreast of the new technologies cropping up constantly, trim their portfolios, increase the scope of services they render, and leverage testimonials from previous clients. However, the first and oftentimes tipping impression about your company that a consumer of digital services gets comes from an IT services proposal you send them.

Must-Have Elements of a Solid IT Business Proposal

The overarching goal of a business proposal in any sphere is to convince the customer that your company is the best candidate to opt for if they want to obtain a high-quality product or service at an affordable price. You can reach this goal if your information technology proposal example contains the following items. 

• Summary and objectives. Here you define the main purpose of the proposal, the expected deliverables, as well as the stakeholders who will benefit from the project’s results.
• Project description. This is the core of an IT solution proposal template that covers the project background, the identification of the problem, and the strategy for dealing with it.
• Costs. The section gives the total cost of the future project with the budget breakdown according to the stages the project will go through. 
• Methodologies. It is the operational part of the tech proposal sample, where you outline the techniques you are going to utilize and justify the employment of each one.
• Project plan. Here you offer a step-by-step roadmap where key activities, milestones, and dates are mentioned, and outcome measurement metrics are enumerated.
• Timeframe. This is not only about determining the kick-off and the finishing dates. A good technical proposal example also contains the expected dates when every milestone is due.
• Project management and resources. In this section, you list the resources that should be allocated to see the project through and specify tools and communication channels (together with collaboration details) that the organization of the project implementation will rely on.
• Risk assessment. The customer must be aware of risks related to the endeavor, especially if you are pitching a project of your own and looking for investments.

As you see, composing a compelling proposal is a no-nonsense task that requires time and skill. If you lack either of them (or both), it is wise to make use of the free tech business proposal templates our company offers. 

Enjoy IT Technology Proposal Templates by PandaDoc

At our site, you can find a great roster of proposal templates and other forms for different use cases in the IT sphere.

• IT Services Proposal Template. Leveraging it, you can offer various IT services to potential clients and showcase the perks of your cooperation with them.
• Statement of Work Template. In this customizable form, parties stipulate activities, deliverables, and timetables of IT projects they undertake to complete. 
• Software Development Agreement Template. This document deals with a more specific kind of job in the IT sector – building a software product, where the responsibilities and warranties of an IT vendor are listed.
• Software Maintenance Agreement Template. It is a kind of IT support contract two parties sign when one of them provides maintenance services to the other.
• Outsourcing Services Contract Template and Service Contract Template. They contain samples of a typical agreement to be signed between an IT service provider and the consumer of outsourced services.
• Technical Proposal Template. It comes into play when a company has a concept of an IT product and is seeking investors to finance its implementation.
• Telecommuting Agreement Template. If an IT specialist prefers to work remotely (which in our post-COVID next normal is getting significant traction), this document will help them to formalize their relationships with the employer.

Why Use IT Proposal Templates by PandaDoc?

In our fast-paced world, people can waste no time on simple repetitive tasks which abound in the realm of paperwork handling. By visiting our site and making use of ready-made templates available here, you will automate the red tape routine and obtain workmanlike document samples. They can be tailored to fit your particular needs and then downloaded and printed out to be signed at your convenience. 

Streamline the presentation of your business quotes and agreement signing with IT document templates offered by PandaDoc!

FAQ: IT Proposals

How do you write a business proposal for an it company using pandadoc.

Thanks to us, you don’t have to rack your brains over either the structure of an IT proposal or its content. Competently devised templates available on our site contain the necessary information an IT vendor needs to present its services to the customer in an explicit and understandable way, showcase its edge over rivals, and finally cinch the deal.

What is an ICT proposal?

When an organization posts a job in the realm of information and communications technology (ICT), software vendors take part in this auction of a kind by sending their proposals to potential customers. Its major purpose is to convince the client that they are the best fit for the task. In the proposal, IT companies outline the way to reach the goal as well as estimate the time and budget needed for the implementation of the project.

What are the four parts of a proposal?

A business proposal in the IT sphere must be devised in such a way that will make the potential customer opt for your company over other candidates for a job. To do this, the proposal must contain:

• A short introduction
• The summary of the problem the employer faces
• The description of the way you plan to solve it, where the cost and the timeframe of the project are mentioned
• Information about your organization with credentials from the previous clients.

Get started with PandaDoc today

Strategic Plan

Our strategic priorities and initiatives.

Our North Star

The Harvard Business School (HBS) IT three-year strategic plan (FY24–FY26) is organized around HBS IT’s five strategic priorities, as well as the IT mission and vision, which together support the HBS mission to educate leaders who make a difference in the world. Underpinning our mission, vision, and priorities is a set of strategic initiatives that will help us ensure a cutting-edge digital and technology landscape.

The strategic plan was developed in close partnership with members of our community to ensure alignment with our school and departmental business aspirations. The plan addresses current IT challenges facing higher education while also embracing the unique needs of the HBS community.

Given the nature of technology, we expect the strategic plan to evolve over time as HBS’s needs change and as technology advances. We’re excited to share progress and developments on the plan with the HBS community.

Developing the Plan

Hear from Beth Clark, CIO, and Rachel Noiseux, Senior Director, Strategy, Planning and Governance on the Building of the IT Strategic Plan

Strategic Plan, FY24–FY26

Following broad engagement across the HBS community, we present HBS IT’s Strategic Plan for FY24 through FY26. The HBS IT Strategic Plan includes a mission, vision, and five strategic priorities that serve to directly support HBS’s mission. The five strategic priorities encompass 28 IT initiatives, and our values provide a foundation for this and all work that HBS IT undertakes on behalf of the HBS Community. View plan details through this report.

Our Mission & Purpose

IT partners with our community to craft, deliver, and support pioneering technology solutions that help educate leaders who make a difference in the world.

IT is a nimble, innovative, and strategic partner, helping to distinguish HBS as the world‘s leader in business education.

Strategic Priorities

1. excel in service delivery.

We strike a balance across accessibility, quality, velocity, and cost to better enable the HBS community to make a difference in teaching, learning, research, administration, and engagement.

2. Design Sustainable Technology Architecture

We ensure that the right approach is applied for selecting or developing applications and services that best support HBS’s activities, now and into the future.

3. Modernize Foundational Technology for Digital Transformation

We modernize and enhance our strategically critical enterprise systems to ensure the business of the School can be done efficiently and in a manner that engages our constituents.

4. Protect HBS Information & Technology Assets

We establish a security-first mindset across HBS to proactively identify, assess, and remediate vulnerabilities. We also ensure compliance with privacy standards and regulations while establishing balanced security policies that address cyber-risks in partnership with HUIT.

5. Enablers: Build Organizational Health

We seek to ensure that the people and processes that support our work come together effectively and efficiently so we can do our best work and meet the community’s needs.

Strategic Initiatives

HBS IT has identified 28 initiatives related to the five HBS IT strategic priorities. HBS IT’s initiatives are where we execute the important tactical work necessary to achieve the goals set out in this plan. We have made great strides toward these strategic priorities over the last several years, but our work is not complete. Moving forward, these initiatives, combined with our day-to-day work, will contribute to our success in supporting the HBS community and achieving our mission and vision.

1.01: Faculty Consultation & Engagement Staffing

1.02: IT Project Execution

1.03: IT Rebrand & Public Site Launch

1.04: Problem Management

1.05: Service Delivery Improvement Plan

2.01: Baker Architecture Modernization Program

2.02: Cloud Program

2.03: Configuration Management Database (CMDB) Build for HBS IT

2.04: Data Architecture

2.05: Enterprise Architecture

2.06: Federated Identity & Access Management (IAM) Program

2.07: GenAI Exploration and Enablement

3.01: Alumni Engagement Program

3.02: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) & Marketing Automation Program

3.03: Digital Case Writing (completed)

3.04: ExEd / HBSO – Alignment & Expansion of Core Business System

3.05: HBS Live Online Classrooms 2.0

3.06: Learning Experience Platform Integration with MBA & ExEd

3.07: Research Administration Program

3.08: Student Information & Experience Program (MBA & Doctoral)

3.09: Web Content Management System (CMS) Program

3.10: Research Computing Platform (formerly CloudJump)

4.01: Data Loss Prevention

4.02: Managed Security Service Program (completed)

4.03: Security Remediation

5. (Enablers) Build Organizational Health

5.01: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) (completed)

5.02: IT Governance

5.03: IT Management & Leadership Capabilities

More about each initiative (login required)