You occasionally hear about organizations adopting new approaches to business with the aid of technology, but this rarely happens without the aid of professionals with the expertise about information technology management. Professionals of this breed are mostly referred to as Information Technology Strategists.
To learn about the complexities of
what being an IT Strategist entails, we spoke with Adewale Otolorin, who is an independent IT consultant.
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What do you do as an IT Strategist?
First, this title seems so large and makes one feel like war strategist sort of, but on a regular day I’m just the person helping an organization determine best fit approach to technology investments, given a solid understanding of the organization’s current and future business goals: what technology roadmap to adopt and why.
This can be at as high as organizational level, or as low as at project level – so, thoughts of what particular technology framework/components are best-fit for a particular project an organization plans to embark upon.
What’s the most enjoyable part of your job role?
I’d say the conversations. Conversations reveal so much about an organization’s leadership and their thoughts. Bouncing ideas around and helping show why one direction is advised against another, helps show the fluidity in technology and people’s disposition to change/adopting new paradigms.
What kind of education and experience did you acquire?
Alongside a B.Sc & M.Sc, working in a dynamic financial industry where technology strategy (not technology infrastructure) was a competitive advantage has formed the crux of my experience so far.
Did you need any certifications to work in your current role?
TOGAF 9 – only to back up your experience really; as experience is really the vital thing in this space.
What do you actually spend the majority of your time doing?
On the job – vital is understanding an organization’s business objectives and thinking through how technology can help position strongly on the path to achieving same. Technical architecture work and comparative analysis of viable technologies for adoption. Creation solutions on best-fit technology components, creating frameworks for technical infrastructure security requirements and communication between components.
Off the job – reading business articles & blogs on technology innovation, tech disruption and how technology strategy gives competitive advantage.
What misconceptions do people often have about your job?
That you have all the answers; and that technology will do all the work while business follow the direction of technology.
Technology is only an enabler.The business goals/strategy is now no separate from technology strategy, but technology does not overtake business; instead, it helps business achieve its goals, faster, cheaper, and more efficiently.
What are your average work hours?
40 hours a week is where we start from; up to every other hour, the business/organization is up & needs to go-to-market on its transformation initiative.
What do you consider as the biggest milestone you’ve achieved as an IT Strategist?
Must be helping a financial organization shift its work orientation around collaboration from a distributed, multiple on-premise emailing structure to a consolidated cloud-based collaboration, presence and on-the-go mode. This is significant because the industry was highly regulated and convincing C-level executives to make this leap was a tough, and educative process. Seeing how many banks have followed this direction when we moved also helps with some confidence and gratification.
How does technology enable/enhance your work? What gadgets/tech equipment/ Apps/Software can’t you do without for work?
Basic office communication tools (MsOffice suite) as most work is done in Visio (diagramming/architecture) and presentations.
Ah! The internet, as one needs to know what technologies are available and its components – pricing, support system, long-term viability, and references (who’s using it and what has been achieved).
What are the challenges of your work and how do you deal with them?
Communication.
Whilst there’s a general paradigm shift from technology being a black-hole that just swallows up your organizational budget; convincing CIOs, and other C-level executives on the need to move from their legacy systems to a totally different technology roadmap is the juiciest, and most challenging part of the job. The key is showing the key benefits to C-level execs in non-technical ways around cost-benefits, go-to-market speed, and the deeply embedded competitive advantage ( and by extension perhaps a unique selling point) that the new approach brings to the organization in its industry, before it can be replicated by competition.
Data Gathering.
There’s always a need to conduct a current-state (as-is)/target state (to-be) analysis of the technology landscape/architecture of an organization. The former is too crucial to knowing the latter. Once data on the as-is is skewed and not properly documented, it could be misleading and thus not reflecting the extent of transformation needs.
Expectation Management.
People expect miracles to begin once a sign-off/approval on the proposed strategy is obtained. Depending on the implementation team, things can go jet-speed or otherwise. Most times, this is a separate team executing, but this challenge is properly managed through a clear communication of the dependencies and intricacies of implementation/rollout.
What’s an average starting salary in your line of work?
This is also tough considering that Nigeria has no “averages” when it comes to things like this. Two different people could be doing this jobs in two different organizations/industries and earn differently. It’s really fluid and negotiations differ.
What are the opportunities available in your field that young people in Nigeria can take on?
So many opportunities to pursue in this field, as one can go on to become a very technical (solutions architect) or business (enterprise architect) strategist. These paths can lead on to CTO (Chief Technical Officer) and CIO (Chief Information Officer) roles respectively.
Source: http://notofcode.com/my-job-description/2016/08/09/job-description-strategist/
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