Do you feel that your IT team and infrastructure supports your business goals or is an impediment to reaching them? With a little effort, you can ensure that 2015 is the year that IT supports your business goals. Here’s how:
1) Translate business goals into IT goals
Once you have developed business goals for 2015, look at how they can be supported by IT. This involves looking at your plans, for example 30% revenue growth, and assessing whether your current infrastructure can support it. Or, do you need to upgrade your network, phone systems, etc.? If you don’t have the skills in-house, you may want to consider CIO services, where an outside expert comes in to help.
2) Match IT investments with business goals
Make sure your IT team understands your business goals and hold them accountable for matching any IT investments with those goals. For example, when looking at a backup system, don’t let your IT team simply look at the latest and greatest with 0% downtime option, it might not be necessary for your business. Your business may be fine with an option that would have you back online in less than 30 minutes and costs one-fourth the price of the “bullet-proof” option. The key is to have your IT team develop solutions appropriate for your situation.
3) Ensure you have the right technical skills
IT does not require a single skill set. Just because your IT guy is good at providing helpdesk support does not mean he is the right person to upgrade your network. The costs of errors and downtime can easily justify the cost of bringing in an outside expert with the specific skills you need for a project.
4) Insist on responsiveness
Downtime is expensive. With more and more things moving online, downtime means that employees cannot get work done. So, it is important to make it clear to your IT team that they must be responsive to the needs of users. This can require a change in mindset, but it is critical to keeping your whole team productive.
With a little planning, and possibly some outside help, you can ensure that your IT infrastructure supports your business goals in 2015.
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