A few weeks ago, I tuned in to watch the NFL Draft. For those of you who may not know, the NFL Draft is an annual event where college football stars sweat bullets waiting to find out if they’ll be chosen to play in the Big Time next fall.
Coaches, scouts, and team analysts spend countless hours reviewing their line-up, evaluating their team’s strengths and weaknesses and determining who would be a good fit to take their team to the next level. They know how much they can afford to spend and what they can expect to get for their money.
This got me thinking about how in the business world, owners and financial executives are in a constant state of team management. They’re reviewing their organization and looking for ways to decrease spending, make their team more efficient and provide more value to their clients. But one piece that is often neglected is Information Technology, even though it is vital to the organization’s operations.
When was the last time you reevaluated your IT situation and your IT team?
Here are some ways to determine if your IT resources, whether they’re in house or outsourced, are holding you back or helping take you to the next level:
1. Compare your technology results, what you spent and what you get, to the industry standard.
Companies frequently take a “that’s the way it is” approach to technology. They live with the high costs, ongoing problems and poor service because they don’t want to deal with it, they’re used to it or they don’t know it’s not normal. It’s easy to let this happen if you don’t compare with other companies of similar size and complexity.
2. Ask your IT team for an IT Business Review.
This will give you a high-level picture of your business’ technology. Looking at it this way will help uncover new ways to improve your operations, lower costs, increase efficiencies, resolve any problems that may be arising and help you plan and budget for the future. These IT Business Reviews should be held at least on a quarterly basis.
3. Review your technology reports.
Your team should be providing you with detailed reports that show you the overall health of your network and the updates to your antivirus, security and patches. It will also show other important network checks, such as hard drive space, backups, speed and performance, etc. These will tell you how your network is performing and how well your team is managing it.
4. Are projects being completed on time and on budget?
Many IT projects drag on for months and end up costing more than anticipated. This is usually the result of poor planning and project management, along with not having the right resources assigned to it.
If you need assistance reviewing your IT situation, consider talking it over with a trusted IT consultant. They deal with business technology all the time and can give you an objective perspective on whether your “normal” is the best it can be.
