What technology do you need to run your business? How will you budget for IT? How will it be implemented? What proactive services will keep it running?
These are questions that help solve business problems. If you own or manage a business that uses computers and mobile devices, or you have a business that you’d like to automate, you need an IT professional to help find solutions to these basic questions.
However, many businesses tend to call on their IT company when things are broken – and usually in a panic. This is what we call a break-fix approach.
Here are three steps IT professionals should be taking when they are true partners helping you run your business:
What Technology Do You Need?
Information technology can help your business reach more potential customers, provide better customer service to your customers, streamline operations and cut costs.
Additionally, it can also improve efficiency, maximize profit, minimize waste and keep your staff focused on your business. But before IT can do all of that, you have to find out how much it’s going to cost and if you can justify those costs in your business.
How Will You Budget for IT?
An experienced IT professional will show you how the costs and benefits of your technology investment will impact your business. The process should outline:
- Initial investments which include hardware, software and training
- Ongoing costs of maintaining systems which include licenses for proprietary software, hosting and support
- The cost of upgrading systems over their lifespans
- The value proposition which will help you to decide how much employee time the system will save and how much new business it can generate
- The risks of a particular system including how much it would cost to mitigate those risks
Where Should you Spend the Majority of your IT budget?
Should you spend it on infrastructure such as computers, networking equipment or storage? A full evaluation of your staff, your optimal business model, growth or reduction plans and revenue projections should all be taken into consideration. An experienced IT professional can also tell you how quickly to implement a new system so that learning how to use it doesn’t become a time-consuming job for your staff.
No matter what your business is, if you use computers and telecommunication equipment, it can benefit from the services of an outsourced IT provider – someone outside your business who can look at all aspects objectively and proactively. Don’t wait until something is broken – that will cost even more in the long run.
At Wright Business Technologies, we can offer you the assistance of an IT professional who will help you develop and maintain an information technology system that will grow with you as your business succeeds. For a free consultation regarding your business’ IT needs, contact us now.
