Welcome to 2023! Most small businesses are excited about and looking forward to a new year. Turning the page on the calendar also serves as a great time to assess their business and preparation for the new year. When evaluating IT for the new year, what should you review? There are only 3 questions that need to be answered effectively about your business technology:
1. Does IT make my business better?
No aspect of technology is more appealing than its potential to improve a business. Whether it’s increasing your team’s functional capacity or completing operations at a higher level than manual can accomplish, technology should be a force multiplier for your business. If it isn’t, here are a few things to evaluate.
- Have you defined your business needs? What do you require from your technology to be a better business?
- Do you have the right applications and tools to satisfy those needs?
Software and hardware vendors are great at marketing the features of products and largely, the features being highlighted exist. However, those features are designed to solve general business problems- improving the specifics of your business requires adapting the products to your specific way of doing business.
2. Does IT create value for my business?
Businesses don’t generally buy technology just because it’s cool. There’s an expectation the investment will generate a return. Often overlooked is blending technology with process. Process is how you use the technology, which ultimately will define not only if technology is valuable but also to what degree.
A key aspect of this is technology isn’t used in a vacuum. Systems don’t only interact with users; they also interact with other systems. Deciding how that interaction occurs will determine if the technology limits or amplifies business results. This includes how well your team understands technology and how well your processes incorporate technology.
3. Can I effectively identify and manage the risks of my IT?
If there is only one area to consider, it’s this one. For any business, you want to take risks only when they’re gauged as acceptable. But can your organization identify which risks are acceptable? With the variability of modern technology, associated risks often appear or change more frequently than identified without a dedicated owner or process.
Security is probably the first (maybe only) aspect of technology that comes to mind when “risk” is mentioned. With good reason, security should be a primary risk consideration. However, technology can present other risks. Consider these questions:
- What happens if a system is unavailable? 3rd party outages, device failures can happen at any time
- Are all systems and data in use documented? Meaning, if the resource were compromised or failed, would you be able to quickly communicate the impact?
- How do you identify a system as not worth the investment? As discussed above, sometimes investments don’t deliver the rewards.
- Change management – Risk almost always increases when changes are being made (changes to people, assets, or processes).
- Are my assets appropriately secured? Security is not a pursuit without limits. Systems can be so secure they negatively impact operations, or the security simply costs more than the risk. Too many small businesses are under-secured, but it is possible to over-secure. Make sure you can find the balance.
Defining value can be challenging, particularly in IT, where there are so many hidden costs. If you can confidently and clearly answer these three questions heading into 2023, your business is in a great place to take advantage of technology. If you can’t, pursuing answers to these questions is a great foundation for planning activities in the new year!
-Marc Gibson, CEO/Founder of DThree Technologies