How to Scale Your IT as a Small Business
As your business embarks on its journey of growth and expansion, think about the various challenges you've likely encountered as an entrepreneur. In today's fast-paced digital world, managing your IT effectively has become crucial for ensuring your company's long-term success.
In this article, we'll explore four key IT areas that are just as important now as they were when you first started your business. These insights are not just about helping your company thrive; they're about keeping you ahead of the curve and making sure you navigate the ever-changing landscape with confidence.
1. Appointing Your IT coordinator
In the process of growing your business, you've likely found yourself wearing many hats. However, when it comes to managing IT, it's common for this responsibility to fall on someone who isn't a tech expert. This often occurs due to budget constraints or the practical need to juggle various roles within your organization. Your financial controller or CFO, for instance, might take on this role because of their expertise in managing costs.
It's crucial to recognize that this "IT coordinator" may lack an IT background or a deep understanding of technical intricacies. Nevertheless, they play a pivotal role in ensuring that crucial IT elements align with your business goals. Their responsibilities encompass:
Developing a strategic IT plan that seamlessly aligns with your overall business objectives.
Crafting an annual IT budget based on the strategic plan, ensuring IT investments sync with your growth.
Efficiently managing relationships with third-party technology vendors, acting as a bridge between your company and external IT service providers.
Serving as the central gatekeeper for IT service requests, ensuring all IT-related needs are channeled effectively.
Conducting regular reviews with business leadership and IT vendors, maintaining alignment and adaptability of the IT strategy to evolving business needs.
Enforcing standardized IT practices, from selecting the right hardware to managing projects efficiently.
In the early stages of your company's growth, this IT point person is a valuable asset, helping you navigate IT challenges and maintain operational continuity. However, as your business expands and technology becomes increasingly integral, you'll inevitably reach a point where the complexities of IT demand specialized expertise.
At this juncture, IT partners, such as IT service providers, become crucial. Learn why you should outsource your IT services. These partners bridge the gap between your business's IT needs and the resources at your disposal. They bring specialized knowledge, experience, and resources to the table, allowing you to focus on growing your company.
As your business continues to thrive, there will come a time when the scope of IT management surpasses what an internal point person or even IT partners can handle efficiently. This is where trusted IT service providers like Robotnik Solutions come into play. By partnering with us, you can transition IT management entirely to experts dedicated to ensuring your IT infrastructure is not just functional but optimized to support your growth.
In essence, your journey to success involves a gradual evolution of your IT management, from an informal point person to strategic IT partnerships, and ultimately to a trusted IT service provider like Robotnik Solutions. This progression ensures that your IT capabilities always align with your company's ever-expanding horizons
2. Involve IT Early for Smoother Operations
A common pitfall we often observe is businesses neglecting to engage IT early in crucial decision-making. Numerous IT processes adhere to fixed timelines, no matter the urgency. This delay frequently leads to unmet business objectives that directly impact your company's performance.
Consider these real-life scenarios:
Example 1: The Impromptu Employee Onboarding: Imagine it's a Friday afternoon, and your office manager casually mentions a new employee starting the following Monday, requiring a complete setup. While it might seem like a straightforward task, onboarding involves several steps, such as ordering necessary equipment, obtaining additional software licenses, and configuring email and other systems.
The lead time for ordering a new workstation alone typically spans 2 to 4 weeks. Providing IT with at least two weeks’ notice ensures that the new employee will have the essential tools ready for a seamless start.
Example 2: The Hasty New Branch Opening Picture this scenario: It's Monday, February 5th, and you announce that your company is opening a new branch on March 1. The space is secured, furniture is scheduled for delivery, and preparations are in full swing. Ten new employees are set to join on March 1, all of whom will require access to your company's systems.
While you might anticipate the challenge of getting machines in on time, as highlighted in the first example, there's an even more significant hurdle – securing Internet service for the new office. This involves not only identifying available options but also the substantial lead time, typically 30 to 45 days, required to activate a business-class Internet solution.
With only three weeks' notice in this scenario, your company may find itself in a new office with no Internet for 1 to 2 weeks, posing significant productivity challenges.
Example 3: The Vendor Oversight: The marketing department decides to hire a new vendor to provide a customer relationship management (CRM) solution, with the vendor also developing custom capabilities. However, a crucial misstep occurs – IT is not part of the decision-making process. The result? The company discovers unfortunate surprises post-implementation, including the new solution's incompatibility with existing software, subpar vendor support, outdated technology, and non-compliance with essential requirements.
No one wants to find themselves saying, "I wish I had known about this six months ago."
The moral of these stories is crystal clear – involve IT as early as possible in your decision-making processes. While their expertise is invaluable, it's equally vital to recognize when their involvement may not be necessary for a particular decision. This proactive approach ensures smoother operations, avoids costly setbacks, and keeps your company on the path to success.
3. Avoid Consumer-Grade Anything
In the realm of IT, a clear distinction exists between business-grade solutions and their consumer-grade counterparts. Many companies shy away from business-grade options due to their higher price tags. However, what often goes unnoticed are the concealed costs associated with downtime due to equipment failures, increased support expenses needed to maintain and manage these consumer-grade devices, and the overall lack of essential features, functionality, and robust security measures.
When you tally up these hidden expenses, they consistently surpass the initial cost difference between business-grade and consumer-grade solutions.
A commonly encountered scenario involves businesses hastily procuring critical equipment from consumer-focused retailers like Best Buy or Staples. This equipment may include:
A Linksys network switch
A laptop for a new employee
A Cisco router
A Netgear wireless device
While these items may seem to fulfill basic needs, they lack the robust capabilities required by businesses. They are crafted with homeowners in mind, omitting the extra features necessary for seamless business operations.
The key takeaway here is to involve IT from the outset of your decision-making process. IT professionals can offer valuable insights and recommendations tailored to meet your specific business requirements, ensuring that the chosen solutions adhere to the stringent quality standards necessary for optimal features, security, and support. This proactive approach not only enhances efficiency but also safeguards your company against the hidden costs that often lurk behind consumer-grade choices.
4. Keep Support Agreements up to Date
In the world of IT, it's not uncommon for companies to take a "buy it and forget it" approach when it comes to their crucial equipment. However, this hands-off attitude can lead to serious consequences.
Ideally, every piece of technology a company acquires should come with a manufacturer's warranty and support agreement, usually lasting from 1 to 3 years. What often gets overlooked is that support agreements should never be allowed to lapse.
But why is this so crucial? It's not a matter of "if" but "when" technical issues arise. Let's imagine a scenario: your company has a critical server support contract in place. The renewal notice is sent to the office manager. After a year or two of usage, the office manager has no recollection of the device and ignores the email. Unbeknownst to them, the server support contract lapses.
Then, fate strikes, and the server experiences a breakdown. IT is called in to fix the issue, and they promptly reach out to the manufacturer for assistance. To their dismay, they receive the devastating news that no support is available for the unit due to the lapsed contract.
What should have been a simple 1- to 2-hour outage now turns into a week-long ordeal. Everyone is left scrambling to renew the support contract, causing a significant negative impact on your business.
While keeping track of all your IT assets, along with their support renewal dates, might seem like a tedious task, it's far from insurmountable. In reality, it's a straightforward process that yields substantial benefits. By keeping support agreements up to date, you can avoid painful and unnecessary outages, ensuring that your business operations remain uninterrupted and thriving.
Navigating Successful IT
In your pursuit of business success, think of IT as a crucial companion, guiding you through the intricacies of effective management. From choosing your IT coordinator to involving IT early in decisions, steering clear of consumer-grade solutions, and ensuring ongoing support agreements, you've explored four vital IT areas that can truly shape your journey.
Remember, just as your company grows, so do its IT needs. You'll shift from relying on an internal IT point person to forming valuable partnerships with IT experts who can navigate your technology decisions. Eventually, you might realize that entrusting a dedicated IT service provider is the key to unlocking your company's full potential.
With Robotnik Solutions as your companion, you gain a trustworthy partner dedicated to optimizing your IT infrastructure, making sure it seamlessly aligns with your growth ambitions. We're not just here to help you avoid IT pitfalls but also to empower you, providing the confidence to navigate the ever-evolving IT landscape.
Don't let IT challenges hinder your progress. Reach out to us today and set out on your journey towards IT excellence with Robotnik Solutions by your side. Your success awaits – let's navigate this path together.
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