IT Strategies for Small Business
by Conosco on Jun 15, 2017
Running a business without a business plan is like trying to steer a ship without a rudder. It is unimaginable to operate a company (or a large seaborne vessel!) without a plan in place. The same is true of your IT. Small businesses can use IT to manage costs and stay ahead of the competition.
Here are some useful steps for Small Businesses and their IT strategies:
- Identify your company’s strategic goals and then align your IT objectives to achieving these goals. Ensure you have executive sponsorship for your objectives, and list mandatory activities such as adhering to legal mandates.
- Find opportunities to recycle information and reduce redundancy. For example, standardize business operations to implement a data warehouse that allows applications to share data, such as a customer’s address. Use this information to improve customer support, target marketing campaigns and analyze customer buying trends.
- Prioritise your business investments before finalising your IT strategy. Although upgrading your current IT installations may seem expensive, strategically-planned upgrades and optimisations will do wonders for your small business in the long run.
- Evaluate your IT strategy on an annual basis. Validate data accuracy, acceptable levels of customer satisfaction, and cost and time savings incurred by newly implemented processes. Adjust your investments if success criteria are not met.
IT supports the fundamental functions of a business; it can also be used as an agent for change, helping businesses gain a competitive advantage within their industries. When IT fails, the cost implications are devastating and therefore need to be avoided through clear strategic planning.
Many organisations choose to hire specialist IT consultants to create their technology strategy. Not only do they have dedicated resources and expertise to create a plan efficiently, but they also bring the objectivity needed to provide a solution that will work across the entire business. The advantage of this is the outsourcing of expert, in-depth insight while businesses focus solely on their day-to-day while still benefiting from strategic IT systems and strategy and added support.
To download the full guide, ‘How to Create an IT Strategy for your Business’, visit: https://www.conosco.com/itstrategyguide/
January 13, 2022
Conosco and Bridgeway Announce Merger to Provide an Innovative Portfolio to Meet Customers’ Evolving IT Needs
By Keely Brooks
July 12, 2021
Ashcroft Appoints Conosco as its IT Partner
By Paige Hensman
June 17, 2021
Best Microsoft 365 Apps You’re Probably Not Using (But Should)?
By Conosco
You May Also Like
These Related Stories
Data Silos: What Are They and How Do You Fix Them?
How to save business costs in a rapidly changing world
2020 has been a year of rapid change, with almost every business regardless of sector, confronted by new challenges and …
Top 7 CIO Concerns for 2021
Written by Amit Dattani, Director of Technology at Conosco At the end of each year, technology leaders look to assess ho …