The Tech Factor: Is Your IT Helping or Hindering?

Technology is the nucleus of the business – it touches everything and everyone. It’s critical to the client experience and the employee experience.

So it’s no surprise that no matter what engagement I take on with my clients there is inevitably a conversation about their IT infrastructure, application stack, support model or security position. In most cases, it’s all of the above. And in all cases, it’s not the primary issue that brought them to me.

Key issues I see over and over again:

-       “It doesn’t do that:” There is limited functionality as the business’ applications or infrastructure do not fully match their needs. On the infrastructure end, processes are being made to fit the environment, and on the application end, employees have to get creative to deliver on the needs of their job.

-       “They don’t talk to each other:” There are limited integration capabilities. Some applications integrate with others, some don’t. The result is a high reliance on manual processes which can be labour intensive, inefficient, error-prone, and often no one’s favourite kind of work.

-       “MacGyver-ing – a popsicles and tape approach:” Creative manual workarounds for technology that doesn’t meet the business’ needs. Often it means the default solution is adding people-power where a different tech solution would be more productive, and often more cost-effective.

-       “It’s too expensive:” IT consulting can be expensive and with most applications being subscription-based it can feel like a never-ending and ballooning cost centre. The reality is many businesses actually underspend in technology and overspend in other areas, resulting in downtime, performance issues and productivity loss. I can usually tell with a quick P&L review if that is the case, and too frequently, it is.

-       “What strategy?” Zooming out on the technology landscape it becomes clear that the patchwork in place is not aligned with business’ goals. Why is this important? If the goal is to grow and move towards a vision, there will be more changes, conversions, upgrades than if IT strategy had been considered alongside business strategy. Again resulting in additional cost, business interruption, and productivity loss.

-       “The devil we know is better than the angel we don’t:” Fear of making changes due to the inevitable learning curve of implementing something new, or simply put, inertia to change. Accepting the current state for what it is, because the alternative could be harder, worse, or more costly.

-       “It won’t happen to us:” IT security is non-negotiable, no matter the size of business. A founder’s efforts can be wiped out overnight without vigilance. Conventional thinking in the industry today is not whether an incident will happen to a business, but rather when. So small and medium enterprises need to be aware of compliance requirements, new threats and risks, as well as their own security position.

It can be hard to move the business forward when it feels like its infrastructure is simultaneously pulling it back.

The key is connecting the dots between business strategy, people and technology.

These are some strategic and operational questions I find help orient business owners on the path to optimizing IT within their business:

-       “Do we have the right partners?” If your business outsources IT, does the managed services provider understand your business? Do you have a single point of contact who is present and available to you? Could you benefit from someone who can ‘translate’ business and IT language and help make the relationship more productive?

-       “What is the source of key pain-points:” It can be tricky to decipher whether or not various operational pain points described by employees are the result of process gaps, training gaps, or technology gaps. Asking the right questions and getting to the source will allow the business to address issues productively.

-       “What is our IT strategy?” Businesses that think of IT as a key enabler of their business strategy, and invest accordingly to align it, reap huge benefits. There is less to unravel, fewer re-trainings, and less productivity loss.  

-       “Have we accepted IT as an enabler and not a cost-centre?” SME’s can be a grind. There is no shortage of costs and many are step-variable, meaning that there can be an up-front increase in a cost before the revenue catches up with the expenditure’s full benefit. Treating technology as an enabler helps keep the right mindset and will help lead to the best decisions for a business when the inevitable (and tough!) decisions have to be made around cost management.

-       “Are we at risk?” A surprising level of a business’ security position is rooted in common sense measures. From ensuring employee awareness of risks, physical safeguards, MFA, firewalls – most business owners experience various security measures in their roles as consumers, so it should follow that their business should be using the same or similar security precautions at a minimum. A good IT service provider will identify where gaps exist, especially in the more sophisticated technical elements, and how to remedy them in the most appropriate way for the business’ risk profile. 

What many of our clients find challenging is understanding technology in their business operations context, and translating IT concepts (which can often be abstract to non-IT professionals) into simple language.

That’s where we come in – helping our clients connect the dots between IT, strategy and operations, which then allow us to help our clients design the right roles for their people, the right processes for their business, and the right reporting to ensure they’re moving in the direction they want.

For more information on how we can help you or your clients optimize operations, ensure IT spending is productive, and connect the dots across the rest of the business, contact us.