Do you have a tech plan for your business? At Unified Technology Solutions we are happy, make that eager, to assist growing companies, or startup companies or companies of any shape and size, to create a workable, scalable technology plan. If you have ever read our blog or taken a look at our Facebook page, you already know that we advocate for working with IT professionals to configure your network, phone system, servers before you spend thousands of dollars on systems that may not be right for your computing needs.
We also help companies with Cloud Migration, anti virus software, security and mail servers. I think you probably get the idea by now, but some of you may still be skeptical. To help convince you, I would like to share an article I came across:
David Rabin, guest writer for entrepreneur.com
“1. Make a plan and map your milestones.
Startups and SMBs celebrate the drama of the business plan but can turn a blind eye to its corollary, the technology plan. Every good business plan needs a tech plan, too.
The best way to plan office technology is around business milestones. What infrastructure will you need when you reach 10 employees, or 100? Ten million in revenues, or $100 million? Technology use tracks closely with headcount and revenue generation. Both of these indices are a starting point to help project your future tech needs….
2. Recognize the strategic value.
Startups and small businesses generally focus on investors, customers and cash flow, and can often treat office tech as an afterthought, or simply an expense.
That won’t cut it in today’s hiring environment. More than half of millennials say office technology is important in deciding where they’ll work, according to a recent PwC study. In their personal lives, they’re used to investing their own money on really good tech — the latest phone, tablet or TV — so understandably they expect the same from their employers.
Office tech is a key strategic investment. It goes beyond functionality, as important as that is, and increasingly reflects the caliber of your brand, the appeal of your workplace, and whether your business is truly future-facing.
3. Benchmark against your physical space.
Real estate is usually a company’s greatest expense. The kind of space you have and how your people interact with it is the biggest factor in how you’ll be using technology both this week and next year. Real estate is also more fluid today than ever, constantly transforming, with more variants than ever – everything from open floor plans, to telecommuting, to hoteling, which eliminates assigned seating and lets everyone just perch where they want.
Making a precise, in-depth inventory of your real estate needs is key. Does your floor plan have offices with doors? Is it mostly unassigned workstations? How many of your people telecommute? Whatever your footprint, you’ll need the right technology tools to deliver what your people actually use. Balancing real estate with IT is a tough trick, but the time spent cracking this part of the code will pay major dividends down the road.
4. Set some rules and follow them.
These days, most everyone is a technology expert, at least in terms of what they know and like. Every company has one person or more who can’t live without their personal laptop and expect the company’s network to configure around it. There’s a fine line, however, between flexibility and dysfunction.
Big companies have IT standards for a reason – it’s unmanageable without them. Small companies that delay implementing standards run the risk of becoming franken-techs. The monitors bought on eBay, the laptop on sale at Best Buy, may make sense at the time but can add up to compromised performance. When it’s time to scale, you’ll likely have to rip out the gear that once seemed such a good value and start over…”
Your Tech Guys
Vero Beach,
unified technology solutions
To read the rest of the post, head on over to https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/318641