IT has become a vital part of daily business operations. Businesses rely on them to communicate with clients, maintain financial orders, and store important data. This means that business owners shouldn’t overlook the importance of business technology planning.
According to Clutch, it is estimated that more than 50 percent of small businesses are expected to have mobile apps by 2017. Also, a 2015 study conducted by Virgin Media Business predicted that over 60 percent of office-based workers will regularly work from home by 2022. What do these statistics have in common? A high reliance on IT resources in the near future.
Knowing the right hardware and software for your business needs are imperative to remain competitive. On top of meticulous planning and organization, you must be able to implement a plan that maintains your tech environment, trains staff members, and supports all tech-using employees. Here are some tips to help get you with business technology planning:
Assess your company’s needs
You must gather requirements from every level of your business, and conduct focus groups or interview staff to find out what they need to do their jobs. Review workflow procedures to understand both user requirements and current business conditions. Identify constraints, such as budget, that may impact purchases. Set goals for your IT environment. It’s important not to rush this step because the findings will determine a plan of action that might cause positive or negative impacts.
Invest in scalable tech resources
Your business is constantly growing, so it’s key that whatever IT you decide to invest in has enough flexibility to support your needs at all times. How will stagnant tech resources adapt to the ever-changing realm of business technology? And what does that mean for your company? For example, by using Website Grader to score your site’s performance, mobile readiness, SEO and security -, you’ll know just how much you need to spend.
Need-specific product evaluation
Consider attending trade shows linked to your industry. Participating would allow you to contact vendors that provide industry-specific IT resources. You’d also be able to see live product demonstrations and talk with salespeople. This would ensure that purchases made were compatible with your current technology solution platform.
Develop backup disaster recovery plans
If a natural or man-made disaster was to strike, how sure can you be that your business would be able to bounce back from the rubble? As a business owner, the last thing you’d want to do, is to put all your hard work in danger. By failing to properly implement reliable backup and disaster recovery solutions, you’re as good as sitting ducks, waiting for the next hurricane or cyberattack to hit.
According to a Verizon report, small data breaches — those with under 100 files lost — cost anywhere between $18,120 and $35,730. Unless you can easily sustain these charges, it’s time to consider implementing a backup disaster plan. Because all your applications and sensitive data are safely stored in the cloud, you’ll be able to resume operations in no time.
Arrange for support services
During upgrades and maintenance, it’s important that vital departments such as accounting, sales, inventory or order shipment operate without a hitch. By establishing a robust security plan, not only will you be able to protect company data, but you can also provide employee training and support. This ensures seamless integration for any additions to your IT environment.
Adequate business technology planning helps create an IT infrastructure that will be able to grow alongside your company. With it, you can tackle any problem -- seen or unseen -- that businesses face on a daily basis. Let Complete Technology Services help you create and implement the right business technology plan that addresses all your needs. Feel free to give us a call or shoot us an email! We’re ready to assist you in any way we can.
