6 Reasons your Business Demands an IT Strategy
If you are the owner of a business, then you know how important it is to be able to operate smoothly.
You depend on your IT systems for everything, from organising payroll to communicating with your team. When something goes wrong with the technology in the office, productivity grinds to a halt and costs go up!
An IT strategy can ensure this doesn’t happen to you.
It is a set of guidelines and principles that adapts with your business and dictates how to use technology for the best results.
If you don’t have an IT strategy, then this blog post will give you some of the advantages of having one.
Up-to-Date technology
A common problem businesses come across when they don’t have a proper IT strategy in place is keeping up with updated technology.
It can be extremely difficult to make sure your business is up to date when you have the likes of Microsoft constantly releasing new versions of Windows and software tools providing new automation solutions every week.
If you fall behind, you will quickly see a drop in productivity levels and a rise in the number of technical issues your team have to deal with.
Not to mention that outdated technology also offers hackers an easy target to attack.
An IT strategy gives you a complete understanding of your business’ current technology status, including; computers, servers, operating systems, backup policies, security solutions, etc.
With this information in front of you it’s straightforward to identify where there are security risks, if any of your IT needs upgraded, and what technology solutions can be used to help your business meet its objectives.
Technology can seem like a scary, complicated area of the business, but an IT strategy makes it easy for you to ensure everything is organised from the very beginning – no more worrying about whether or not your tech is up to scratch.
Improved productivity
Often when there is no IT strategy in place, team members end up having to work on different versions of software and older/newer operating systems.
This is not good for teams working together and makes collaboration difficult for employees.
An IT strategy makes certain that staff are operating on similar standard technology and using the most up-to-date software, allowing them to work together faster and more efficiently.
Identify risk
It is near impossible to be risk free as a business, everyone is going to carry some amount of risk.
One of the aims of an IT strategy is to identify areas of your current IT infrastructure that pose said risks to your business and does not support your goals.
This could be workstations that are out of date and don’t support modern applications, failed backups, faulty servers, or missing security measures.
It is crucial to understand what threats your business face so that you can fix them before any monetary damage is done.
Save time & money
A business with an IT strategy is able to identify any security risks their technology poses.
This means they can act on these potential issues before they arise, avoiding the costs of fixing damaged equipment, retrieving lost data, and suffering downtime.
Since an IT strategy can uncover old, outdated technology, you can use it to understand what areas of the business you have to upgrade.
Working on new and more reliable equipment results in less technical issues.
So rather than spending time and money having to resolve broken IT, your team can work efficiently with no interruptions.
With a better understanding of the technology in your business, it’s much easier to properly maintain, update, and scale so it breaks a lot less often.
An IT strategy informs you of the upgrades, maintenance, and capacity of your current systems today as well as in the future.
This allows you to make investments in technologies that have a measurable impact on the business rather than having to spend it just on fixing issues.
Implement change
Technology is forever changing, so it can be difficult to keep up with.
An IT strategy provides you with a clear picture of what technology changes you need to make to align IT with your business goals.
It provides valuable insight into why specific changes should be made.
For example, a cloud-based telecoms solution allows team members to connect their office phone to their mobile and take business calls on the go, a perfect solution for a remote working model.
Every business is different but planning for technology changes can provide your business with a competitive advantage.
You will know what expenses lie ahead and what improvements need to happen before making the change.
Increased knowledge in IT
The process of building an IT strategy will greatly increase you and your teams’ knowledge.
But even if you have a strong IT team in-house, it can still be beneficial to get an external perspective for your IT strategy.
When looking critically at your current IT, it is important to be objective, which is not always possible when you are looking at teams and systems that you deal with daily.
Outsourcing your IT ensures that your strategy will remain objective.
Working with an external provider who specialises in IT strategy also means that they will have the most up-to-date knowledge to pass onto you.
They will be able to advise not only on where your IT is now, but where it should be and how best to get you there.
If you’re interested in building a bespoke IT strategy with us, please give us a call on 0131 5100 100 or start a live chat with a member of our team today.
For more information on our IT strategy services, visit www.jerait.co.uk/services/it-strategy.