Practical Steps to Align Your Business with Technology
Understanding the benefits your technology services can provide is the first step to creating a better IT solution for your business.
Articles published April 10, 2019 by Kai Johnson
Today, managing your organization’s technology is more than just making sure your wireless network is up and running, it’s also managing business applications, securing sensitive data, and ensuring your employees are able to access the information they need no matter where they are. IT services provide business-critical functions and how you approach those services can have a significant impact on your bottom line.
By identifying business goals and current technology pain points, you can bridge the gap between IT services and your employees and end users. You can also better align business initiatives that will lead to increased revenue and a greater competitive advantage. Make sure you are getting the maximum benefit from your company’s IT solutions by following the steps outlined below.
Identify Business Goals
The first step toward aligning your business and IT initiatives should be an easy one—identify your business goals. Take into consideration both internal and external environments, lay out where you are currently and where you want to go. What might not be so easy is identifying which technology services will help you get there. But with a better understanding of your business objectives, your IT team or service provider can map out your core processes and help provide the right solutions for your team.
Working with a technology company that can help you make data-driven decisions is key. It is invaluable to have experts take the time to understand your goals and then match those goals to the best tools to accomplish whatever it is your business needs to be successful.
Audit Existing IT Solutions
The second step in this process is to look at your current IT solutions. If it’s been a while since you’ve assessed those solutions, you may find there are pain points for employees or end users you weren’t aware of previously. With a fuller understanding of the capabilities and challenges of your current systems, you’ll be better equipped to discuss what you’re looking to get out of your IT services.
Some questions to think about as you evaluate your IT solutions:
- What system or systems are currently in place?
- How much are those systems costing?
- Who manages those systems?
- How well do business applications integrate with those systems?
- Where are there inefficiencies?
- Where are employees or end users getting frustrated?
- Are there any identifiable security risks?
Ultimately, you and your provider need to work together to eliminate your IT challenges by aligning your business applications with the hardware and software your employees or end users are using. This will allow for greater productivity and more efficient workstreams.
Assess Maturity Levels
The third step is to evaluate the maturity level of your business as well as the maturity level of your IT solutions—identifying where each of those falls on a spectrum between reactive and highly optimized and efficient. The success of one area depends greatly on the success of the other. IT services with a high maturity level are innovative, optimized for best practices, and integrated with business intelligence tools. Mature IT solutions help create cost efficiencies and can effortlessly scale with organizational growth. As a mature business, you can leverage mature technology to directly affect the employee and customer experience, meet your business goals, and gain a competitive advantage.
The Benefits of Managed Care Services
Managed care services take the responsibility of managing your business’s hardware, software, and network servers off your plate. This approach allows your internal resources more time to focus on running your core business. By consolidating services from multiple providers into one with an all-inclusive end-to-end solution, you can meet your business goals and help your bottom line. Cloud solutions, like Microsoft Office 365 and the Aureon Cloud Suite, are cost-saving, efficient, and scalable. With an all-inclusive end-to-end provider, you can easily adjust the scale and scope of your services as your organization grows.
Are your IT solutions moving your business forward?