What's your IT strategy?

A clear IT strategy has the power to change everything in your business, this article outlines what needs to be considered. In March 2020, an awful lot changed for everyone all over the world and as a result our infrastructures have needed to adapt and evolve quickly.

Technology areas to focus on for your IT Strategy

Defend?is safeguarding your business from cyber criminals. The amount of cyber security crime is?continually increasing , to levels that have never seen before.

Invest?is ensuring that technology is motoring your business forward and not holding it back

More business tasks have become totally dependent on reliable IT and great IT support and so you will need to ensure you have a committed and proactive IT support partner that genuinely partners with you. It is also essential that you put your IT strategy and Technology Roadmap, which includes data security, front and central for your long-term business planning.

IT Strategy/Technology Roadmap

You have probably made various changes to your business and IT Strategy over the past couple of years, to take Covid into consideration. Your IT Strategy can be your best ally, it’s the foundations to growing your business. Having a great IT strategy that enables your business processes, can be the difference between enduring a time of uncertainty or thriving through it.

I’m obviously a little biased about this, but in my opinion a well thought out IT Strategy is important for any sized business. Your IT strategy should be part of your business plan, documenting your aims for how technology will accelerate progress towards your objectives and goals. It should consider short, medium, and long term aims and leave room for change where required if you quickly need to adapt.

A good element to include in your IT Strategy is a vision statement where you clearly lay out in business wording your overall vision. Alongside the logical steps you are going to take to achieve this and the business impact.

And while it’s called an IT strategy, it’s not actually about your IT. Of Course, you will have a plan for the technology and devices that you utilise but in real terms, the strategy is about your business, and how your technology can assist you to accomplish all the things you’d like to, in the simplest way possible.

So where do you start? A great starting point is to take a look at your current IT infrastructure. Consider what doesn’t work well, what are your pain points and what would you like to improve? As your business expands, will your technology develop with you, or will you need to look at new phone systems, applications, and even new networks?

Consider having a conversation with the people that work in your business day to day.??What would they change if they could, what works well, what stops them being as efficient as they can be? Are there parts of your infrastructure that impede what you’re doing? Could you potentially save time if you switched over to different software, or if your applications could talk to each other?

When you’re working with an IT support partner such as Ipswich based Corbel Solutions Limited, they will be able to work with you to help you identify the right solutions. They will make suggestions based on the way you work, and the ways you want to work looking forward.

A?technology roadmap ?as a component of your IT strategy will help you to budget. It will prevent those unexpected costs and invoices from appearing that were not in your budget. It can seem a little overwhelming to do this yourself, but if you’re working with an IT support partner, they should be getting involved in this as well. It’s now more than ever that our budgets need to be fully justified. Each investment needs to work hard, we all want the best value for money.

You could consider creating a range of metrics that help you keep track how well your infrastructure is working for you. It’s good that your team like the way a particular system works. However, if it’s not delivering a return on your investment then it’s not working as well as you imagined.

Your IT support partner should also get involved with regular account meetings/ strategic reviews. It is your decision how often you would like to do these, but I would recommend at least every 6 months you should look at what’s going well and what’s taking longer than you’d like it to. A few amendments may be all it needs to get you back on track towards hitting your goals and aims. This is why I keep talking about an IT support partner. Not an IT support provider. Not an IT support company. A partner.

Imagine a traditional office environment. It has a cleaner who comes in twice per week and cleans up the mess that people make.?That’s how lots of IT support companies operate. They just clean up the mess. Ipswich based Corbel Solutions Limited work as a facilities manager. The main difference is a facilities manager is always thinking and planning. They organise what maintenance the offices need. They are working proactively?to stop the offices falling into disrepair. There is of course an element of managing the cleaners and making sure they’ve completed their job. But if they are any good, they are proactive enough to stop nearly all the disruptive issues happening.

That’s what a trusted IT support partner does. We take a proactive approach. We do as much as we can in the background to stop things from going wrong in the first place. Occasionally things will still go wrong, that’s inevitable unfortunately when it comes to data and technology. However, all of that proactive work means that we need to clean up a lot less than an IT support company that doesn’t work proactively.

A roadmap also gives clarity on what can be delayed (if there’s an issue); what investments are critical; and equally, if you’re ahead of things financially, what can be brought forward.

In the main, it’s a proactive partnership that allows this in-depth planning to take place. We get to know your business as if it’s our own. We’re constantly working with you on your business and learning more about you, your team, and your processes.

This commitment makes it so easier for us to help you because we know (just as well as you do) where the business is going.

If you would like some help with your IT Strategy and would like a clear technology roadmap for your business, please give us a?call ?on 01473 241515 and have a no obligation chat with someone from the team.

Action points in summary

Define your business goals and objectives

Engage your key stakeholders

Review your existing infrastructure

Create a technology roadmap that aligns with your business goals

Define metrics

Ipswich based Corbel Solutions Limited, work with businesses as an?IT Support ?partner in Ipswich, Felixstowe, Stowmarket, and the surrounding Suffolk areas in a proactive way, covering?cyber security ,?cloud telephony ?and?disaster recovery planning .