To start, you need to understand how IT can help you when your business is scaling. IT is often the last thought you have when you are focused on generating new customers, revenue, or other business objectives. As a business owner you know that IT is essential for all parts of your business from day-to-day operations, productivity, and security. But as your business grows, so do your IT needs.
You might already have an internal resource of an employee who is “good at computers” but all the tech issues in the company takes them away from their day-to-day job which is what you employed them for and how they help you grow the business; They may also lack the knowledge to help take your businesses IT to the next level.
You may have also started using an external one-man band, they have been good for a while, but have found as your business grows, they aren’t able to deliver the same service due to the increase in quantity of work and you are starting to feel frustrated that your IT issues can’t just get fixed in time. If any of the above sounds like the situation you are in, it’s probably time to start taking your IT seriously.
What is IT scaling and should it be important to you?
To keep it simple, IT scaling is adjusting your IT resources and capabilities to meet the demands of your business. It can involve adding or removing hardware like physical servers, software, network, cloud services, outsourcing your IT support as well as optimising your IT process and workflows.
IT scaling is important because it helps you:
- Introduce new, more efficient technologies into your business, which helps with internal and external communication, productivity, and security, supporting you
rgrowth. - Give you the ability to increase workload demands and prevents bottlenecks.
- It can help reduce costs and risk across your business by overprovisioning or under provisioning IT, which can lead to wasted money, downtime, or security breaches.
- Enhance your flexibility and agility as a business by modernising your workplace
How to scale your IT as a business owner?
You might be thinking my business is different and I’m not sure that increasing the IT resources will benefit me. You are right, partially, all businesses are different and there is no one-size-fits-all cure when it comes to IT, but here are some steps you can follow to see if you can scale your IT effectively and efficiently:
- Assess your current IT situation, identify any pain points or gaps. For example, you may want to evaluate your IT performance, capacity, security, and reliability.
- Define your business objectives and see if there are areas that increasing your IT capabilities can support you, an example could be, how are you communicating with external customers and want to move to more of a proactive approach.
- Choose the best IT scaling option for your business based on your budget, timeline, and preferences. For example, you may want to consider outsourcing, cloud computing, or automation as possible ways to scale your IT.
- Implement and monitor your IT scaling plan and adjust as needed. For example, you may want to track your IT metrics and feedback and review your IT contracts and SLAs regularly.
Conclusion
Scaling your IT as a business owner can be challenging, but it can also bring many benefits for your business growth and success. By following the steps above, you can scale your IT effectively and efficiently, and enjoy improved performance, reduced costs, and enhanced flexibility. You are probably thinking now “I don’t have time to learn all about this new technology” or “This sounds like it will cost me a lot of money” that’s where a Managed Service Provider comes in.
If you want to discuss this in any further detail, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly.