Whether you sell organic pet food, custom-made jewelry, or anything else, there’s one thing your company can’t do without: a solid, comprehensive IT strategy. Yes, even if you are a small business.
What is an IT strategy, though, and why exactly should your business implement one? Keep reading our blog as we give you the lowdown on this all-important topic.
Before delving into the reasons why your business should set up a comprehensive IT strategy, let’s briefly look at what, exactly, such a strategy should include.
To begin with, your IT strategy should always feature a thorough audit of your current IT environment. This includes all your hardware and software products, and has the aim of identifying strengths, weaknesses, and any needs in terms of technology.
Next, you’re going to have to figure out what your goals and requirements are in terms of your IT infrastructure. Are you looking to strengthen security? Onboard new staff with specific competencies? Move some business-critical systems to the cloud? Try to make as comprehensive a list as possible.
This includes both your current staff and any future recruits, and both your in-house teams and any external consultants. Review and assess everybody’s skills and work out if there are any gaps that you might need to fill by hiring new talent.
For a strategy to be worth your time and effort, it needs to be regularly monitored and assessed. Skipping this essential step might result in your business experiencing all sorts of issues – from missed security threats to the failed implementation of some groundbreaking new technology that could support your mission-critical operations.
Now that you have your IT strategy all outlined, let’s delve deeper into the benefits of a well-thought-out (and implemented) IT strategy for your business.
Arguably, one of the most vital aspects of running a successful business – especially if you deal with large volumes of confidential information – is ensuring top security. With cyber threats morphing and evolving on an almost daily basis, you’ll need to always be one step ahead of cybercriminals.
Luckily, an IT strategy can help you with that. Through this, you can identify and implement the best security measures for your business, which in turn will enable you to mitigate risk, take a proactive approach to potential threats, and ultimately safeguard your data in the long term.
Some of the things you’ll want to consider are encryption, tokenization, firewalls, and frequent security audits – but don’t underestimate the importance of training your employees on cyber security, too.
Right now, you might be running a small business. But tomorrow? What if you manage to break into a different market, win a new customer segment, or launch a product that will skyrocket your sales and growth?
In all these – and many more – cases, the right IT backbone is absolutely essential, as it can allow your company to grow seamlessly in an agile and flexible way. And – you guessed it – a comprehensive IT strategy can help you achieve exactly this, allowing you to spot the best and most scalable IT solutions for your needs.
Imagine you’re running a successful online clothes store, and Christmas is approaching. Like every year, you’re expecting that your website will drive more traffic and that your payment gateways will need to handle a massively increased number of transactions.
In this scenario, what would happen if your website continually crashed, or if the sheer amount of queries slowed it down? You guessed it: customer frustration would be high. To avoid this, a comprehensive IT strategy can not only allow you to pick the best disaster recovery solutions, but it will also enable you to implement customer-facing tools such as online portals and customized communication channels that, together, greatly boost the customer experience.
If you operate in a highly regulated industry, you’ll need to abide by specific laws and regulations. Every business, though, regardless of its sector, still needs to ensure compliance in matters of data privacy, for example.
The bottom line? You’ll have to find a way to make sure you’re never falling on the wrong side of the law. With an IT strategy, you can plan for specific measures that ensure this compliance, thus dramatically minimizing risks such as complaints, fines, and more.
Viewing your IT strategy as something that purely affects the technology side of your company is a very short-sighted way of thinking about this important aspect of your business. For an IT strategy to realize its full potential, in fact, you’ll want it to align with your broader business goals, strategies, and initiatives.
When developing your IT strategy, then, make sure it matches your vision and needs as a business, and look at how your IT environment can support them.
Last, but certainly not least, with an IT strategy you can boost the speed, accuracy, and performance of your operations. This translates into better operational efficiency, which in turn means streamlined tasks, enhanced workflows, and a profitable business.
For this reason, you may want to look into tools such as a customer relationship management (CRM) system, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) tool, communication and collaboration platforms, and project management solutions.
As we have seen in this article, an IT strategy is much more than picking the best or most popular tech tool currently on the market. It involves full alignment with your broader business objectives, and it needs to be seen as a way to pursue those objectives through technology.
Not quite sure where to start when building your IT strategy? Get in touch with us today, and we’ll be happy to support you all the way through!
