6.1IT Strategy and Planning

Deciding how to use IT as the means to realize management strategy is the role of IT strategy. In the AP strategy domain, exams probe not just term definitions but the causal reasoning behind why a given sequence or framework is appropriate. The foundation is understanding the full chain from strategy to a blueprint for organization-wide optimization (EA), through reworking business processes when needed, to an actual systemization and procurement project—along with what evidence drives the judgment at each stage.

6.1.1IT strategy and EA

• IT strategy is the medium- to long-term policy for how information systems will be built and used to realize management and business strategy. It is not merely an IT department plan—it starts from alignment with management goals.
• Enterprise Architecture (EA) organizes an entire organization's business and systems into four layers: business, data, application, and technology, and maps a migration plan from the current state (As-Is) to the desired state (To-Be). Its aim is organization-wide optimization, preventing a proliferation of systems each optimized only for its own department (silos). The EA cycle proceeds: set direction in an architecture vision -> analyze the current state (As-Is) -> define the future state (To-Be) -> close the gap with a migration plan.

6.1.2BPR/BPM, business modeling, RPA, and DX

• BPR (Business Process Reengineering) is an effort to rethink existing business processes from zero and redesign them fundamentally—not a partial improvement but a radical transformation of organizational structure and workflow. BPM (Business Process Management) is a management approach that continuously visualizes, analyzes, and improves business processes (a PDCA-like cycle applied to processes). If BPR is "a one-time radical overhaul," BPM is "a mechanism that keeps improving."
• Business modeling visualizes workflows and information exchanges as diagrams (e.g., process flow diagrams, DFDs), used to grasp the current state, pinpoint what to improve, and feed into requirements definition. RPA (Robotic Process Automation) is a mechanism where software robots execute routine clerical work (data entry, transcription, report output, etc.) in place of humans, directly addressing labor shortages and human error—but automating with RPA without first reworking the process itself (BPR) risks merely automating an inefficient procedure as-is.
• DX (Digital Transformation) is establishing competitive advantage by using digital technology to transform products, services, and the business model itself, and even organizational culture. Its essence lies in going beyond digitizing existing work (digitization) or partial digitalization (digitalization) to actually transform the business model.

6.1.3System planning, requirements definition, and procurement

• System planning decides which systems, when, and in what priority order to develop, based on management strategy and IT strategy. Requirements definition is the process, following system planning, of clarifying what users and business departments want to achieve (business requirements, functional requirements, non-functional requirements). Because it underlies every later development phase, a misalignment here is the biggest cause of rework (errors upstream grow exponentially more expensive to fix downstream).
• RFI (Request For Information) is a document that asks candidate vendors to provide information (the goal is to grasp technology trends and track record). RFP (Request For Proposal) is a document that presents requirements and asks for a concrete proposal (system configuration, schedule, estimate). Exams test the ordering—RFI comes first, RFP comes after—and the difference in purpose: gathering information versus requesting a proposal. Competitive quotation means obtaining quotes from multiple vendors to compare price and proposal content; a level-3 point is that this should be a holistic evaluation of feasibility and track record, not price alone.
• Solution business is a business form that, rather than selling a single product, analyzes a customer's management issues and combines and delivers an optimal solution (systems, services, operations). In recent years this centers on proposing adoption of cloud (IaaS/PaaS/SaaS) and SaaS, with growing emphasis on judging whether to procure via a usage-based model instead of owning infrastructure outright.

Consider a consultation from mid-size manufacturer A, which wants to move away from paper slips and Excel spreadsheets scattered across departments, tracing the chain of judgment involved. Management first sets the management goal of "halving order-processing lead time within three years," and formulates the IT strategy to realize it. Discovering that current systems are siloed by department and not organization-wide optimal, the company uses EA to organize As-Is/To-Be across the four layers: business (the order process), data (customer/inventory masters), application (each department's individual systems), and technology (aging servers). Along the way, paper-based approval flow turns out to be the main cause of processing delays. A's IT department initially considers simply automating the approval work as-is with RPA, but business modeling with a DFD reveals the approval route contains two duplicated confirmation steps. Judging that automating an inefficient procedure with RPA as-is would just make the slow process run faster while the root cause remains, the company instead first undertakes BPR to digitize and simplify the approval process itself, and only then automates routine order-data entry with RPA—choosing the correct order. Freed staff are reassigned to higher-value customer engagement. That much is efficiency improvement of existing work, but A goes one step further and decides to launch a new business analyzing accumulated order data to offer demand-forecasting services to trading partners, positioning this as DX. For the actual systemization, system planning sets priorities (starting with overhauling the order system), and requirements definition, involving the business departments, pins down requirements such as "complete processing from order to shipment within three days." To outsource development, the company first sends an RFI to several vendors, then, based on responses, narrows the field and issues an RFP to a few finalists requesting proposals, further running a competitive quotation that weighs not just price but the feasibility of each proposal and track record on similar past projects, before deciding on a vendor. It also keeps adopting cloud SaaS on offer, rather than building new infrastructure of its own, as a candidate for holding down initial investment.

6.1.4Section summary

• IT strategy starts from alignment with management goals. EA maps As-Is to To-Be across four layers (business/data/application/technology) for organization-wide optimization
• Do BPR (radical one-time redesign) first, then apply RPA (routine automation)—the sound order. DX = transformation of the business model/culture (a goal)
• Requirements definition sits at the very upstream of development (a top source of rework). Procurement proceeds: RFI (information) -> RFP (proposal request) -> competitive quotation (holistic evaluation)