Building an IT Strategy

Building an IT strategy roadmap is a necessity for every company. Without it, you’re taking unnecessary risks that could impede your growth and/or leave your business open to cyberthreats with the potential to close your doors permanently. Reduce your risk by building an effective IT strategy for your business.

Here’s the basics of what you’ll need to consider when building your IT strategy:

1. Create a Flexible IT Roadmap
2. Ensure Technology Alignment with Your Business Goals
3. Support Optimal Business Performance Through IT Strategy
4. Partner with a Managed IT Provider
   

Sure, big corporations often have a large staff of IT professionals, but what’s a small to medium-sized business (SMB) to do? Contact Elevity and we’ll walk you through the IT strategy building process. We’ve got the expertise you’ll need to cover your current needs and grow with you, into the future.

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Create a Flexible IT Roadmap

First, you’ll need to do a thorough assessment to examine all aspects of your network. Since every business is different, this process can be a bit fluid. However, some examples of things to evaluate include: servers, firewalls, switches, cybersecurity practices, wiring, operating systems, application software, mobile devices, network storage, power protection, backup & recovery and your Internet Service Provider (ISP). The analysis of this data will identify risks and any vulnerabilities or opportunities for improvement.

Next, you should compare your network components to industry best practices. This will point you in the right direction to identify the areas that you should concentrate on first and start creating some next steps to take.

The above gives a general idea to get you started in constructing your IT roadmap. However, an easier method is to contact Elevity, your expert Managed IT provider. We’ll guide you through the process, analyze the data, offer suggestions on how to construct your IT roadmap and meet regularly with you to discuss any modifications that need to be made.

Ensure Technology Alignment with Your Business Goals

Traditionally, organizations used to update their IT planning documents annually. But modern technology is changing rapidly. That’s why the days of the annual IT plan are in the past.

To stay on top of technological evolution and stay current with your business goals, you’ll need an IT roadmap with flexibility to pivot your direction when necessary. Because real life doesn’t always go according to plan. But it is best to be prepared for multiple situations.

In addition, we suggest that this roadmap be reviewed and updated quarterly or even monthly, to ensure that your IT strategy stays on track. Frequent reviews will transform a static IT strategy into a dynamic one that can be used as a framework for your business’s IT operations.

Support Optimal Business Performance Through IT Strategy

Your documented, reviewed, and regularly optimized IT strategy supports your business outside of the direct application of technology in the workplace. It ensures your budget is used to create value, both in your technology spend and in ensuring that spending supports the rest of your business to perform at its best.

Your IT strategy, when documented, reviewed, and regularly optimized, supports your business beyond just technology use in the workplace. It ensures your budget creates value, both in technology spending and in supporting your business to perform at its best.

It also keeps your team accountable for implementing technology systems that drive your long-term goals, growth, and success. That's why forward-thinking companies are ditching outdated planning processes for continuous, issue-focused, data-driven decision-making. This approach uses technology to enhance internal communication and collaboration.

By changing the timing and focus of your strategic planning, you'll provide your senior executives with the data they need to carefully consider every major decision and its impact on the company's performance and value. Instead of rigid road mapping, flexibility and co-innovation will naturally evolve as the future unfolds.

Partner With a Managed IT Provider

For SMBs looking to build an effective IT strategy, leveraging the services of a Managed IT provider may be your best bet.

Elevity’s experts are ready to partner with you by providing an entire team of technology management advisors. This team is continually doing research on cybersecurity protocols, software, hardware, networking topologies, cloud services, backup solutions and more.

We’ve worked with many SMB clients in a variety of industries to construct a new or refresh an old IT strategy – and continue working with them as the organization thrives and grows. This ongoing process has been found to be especially beneficial for smaller organizations who are not large enough to have an entire IT team in-house.

If you’re looking for a Managed IT partner positioned to be your strategic resource, contact us or learn more by downloading your free copy of our infographic showing a side-by-side comparison of Traditional IT vs. Technology Management.