You Might NEED New IT if…

You Might NEED New IT if…
As seen in Chambering™ Magazine, December 2011
Written by Managing Partner Randy Kellum

In today’s world of   rapid change, people are constantly interacting with cell phones, messaging,  e-mailing, tweeting, checking Facebook and other social networks. Yet, companies tend to stay with IT and IT systems, without much if any change, for years and years. The leadership in these companies is the same folks who must have the latest phones, tablets, and other social technology toys. Why would  companies take a different approach to IT versus other aspects of their business and business relationships?

Companies have a  different level of expectation of IT than other groups in the corporate
organization. “Keep the computers running,” is what is expected from IT. The value that IT brings, or more importantly, should bring to the organization, is  unclear and often unexpected. IT can, should, and MUST bring greater value to every organization. Technology, where demanded by individuals on a personal  level, is not always demanded, at least strategically, at the corporate level.  Simply put, IT isn’t required to provide that push and support that improves business processes and fundamentally makes a person’s job easier and more enjoyable. Often, we suffer through a tired old technology.

How do you know that you might need a new IT?  First, and foremost, you might need a new IT if your IT group cannot lead, develop strategy and direction, both business and
technology, to bolster your company’s position within the global economy.  You might need new IT if your servers are extremely slow, crash often, have viruses and have loss of data. If the system is down then you cannot do your job.  Figure out the cost of a person sitting idle for one hour of the day. Multiply that times the number of people in a department or an entire organization. This can be quite expensive. What is the cost of data loss?  Do you have to re-enter the data?  What if it is some weeks or even months before you realize some data is missing. Can you recover?  Again, this can be very expensive on a company’s bottom line.

Just the other day I was having coffee with a sales executive from the Information Technology industry. I said to him that IT can improve a company’s top line.  He looked at me like I was from another planet. IT can provide sales and marketing with the analytics for product movement, by regions and zones, high volume product, slow moving product, excess inventory, industry specific product sales, high volume and low volume customers.  Providing this information sooner than later, allows an organization to make strategically sound decisions on future sales and marketing initiatives.  Companies can target areas of the business that are doing well and give focus to those areas needing improvement or even replacing of product. All go to improving the top line.  This CAN and SHOULD be provided by IT and enabled by IT tools. You might need new IT if you rely upon spreadsheets to track your company sales and all the critical information surrounding those sales.  If you cannot get to the data or if the data is non-existent in your organization, then you might need new IT.

Effective technology is essential for small businesses looking to increase the productivity of their people and improving overall business performance.  You might need new IT if
these items cannot be provided by your IT organization.  Check out your personal technology.  Are you giving your business the same priority?  What’s it costing
you?