Does Your Business Have an IT Strategy

(Note: Reprint from our February 2003 Newsletter)

What is the most common IT problem across small businesses? Flakiness of Windows? Significant, but certainly not number one. The way small businesses tend to become locked in with vendors? Well, that is closer to the mark, but still not catching everything.

As you have probably guessed we think the most common problem with IT in small businesses is that there is no strategy. As a general rule small businesses IT systems have simply grown to meet whatever the current demands of the day are.

The problem is that in this environment people often don’t know what their computers do, and usually have even less idea about what they will need from them in the future. And it is because of this that we often see the number one symptom when there is no strategy: Poor procurement decisions. When there is no strategy procurement decisions are missing one of the most important pieces of information needed. That is, what are you going to want this system/ software/hardware to do in the future?

An IT strategy is simply a way of understanding what you will be expecting from your IT systems. Of course this can be difficult because small businesses usually have to react to innovations in the technology market place, but very rarely get to set the agenda. However, this does not make the task of predicting what future capabilities might be available impossible, particularly if you do this through consultation with an IT Systems specialist, such as Green Light IT. An IT Strategy doesn’t have to be complicated; it can often be expressed in few dots points. But they do need to be devised with your business in mind. So forget about where you want to go today. Think about where you want to be tomorrow, because that is what effects the decisions you make today.