Decision-making can involve tough calls and, no matter how hard you apply yourself, there’s almost always an element of chance. Business often includes some trial and error and nobody gets every business decision right all of the time. We’d like to run through some of the decisions involved when purchasing and deploying technology for your business.
Making Good Decisions about IT Solutions
There are many dimensions to making the right decisions about your business technology, but the bottom line is ‘What do we do?’ It may seem like an obvious question, but you need to be clear about what you do and how you envisage business technology matching up to your operations and needs. When you’re making decisions about acquiring business technology you’ll probably have to deal with technical specialists who don’t fully understand your requirements, and salespeople who are very good at speaking your language, at least on the surface. There’s no manual to help you match specific IT solutions to your business and you can’t do it all on your own – you’ll have to depend also on other people to make IT decisions.
At Quikteks we appreciate that there’s a balance that needs to be found when making those difficult IT decisions and choices. On the one hand, you’re weighing cost and complexity. On the other you’re looking at how effective business technology will be to help you meet your goals. Whatever the situation, here are some tips to help you move forward.
1. Security First
Security breaches and the fallout they cause can destroy a business. Every IT decision you make should put security at the front. Anything you purchase or deploy should have to pass through a security clearance. If you don’t have the tools to ensure that your security will still be fully functioning after changes to your systems then you could be heading for trouble.
2. Be Prepared
You wouldn’t invest in IT without hoping it will help you improve your business and your profits. That’s why your IT investment plan should be carefully targeted at problem-solving. However, it doesn’t stop there. In fact, you might need to take a step back before moving forward.
One of the most important things any business can do is ensure that it has a dedicated backup and recovery platform. If you don’t, we recommend that you make this a priority, and put one in place before you spend another cent. The best solution is a backup system that builds data redundancy and includes cloud-hosting. Our BDR (backup and disaster recovery) service does exactly that. It uses network-attached backup and additionally backs up your data so a copy is stored offsite. With a high quality BDR solution you are well prepared to deal with problems that could stall your business.
3. Create a Knowledge Base
When contemplating IT investments, it’s essential to understand what you’re buying into before you spend your money. You will have to try to assess whether your decision to acquire the IT solutions you’re considering is being made for the right reasons and will actually solve the problem you want it to address. The more knowledge you have, the better placed you will be to make the right decision and ask vendors the right questions.
Many of the problems that businesses face really can be solved with technology. The professionals at Quikteks can help you make the best possible IT decisions. We can advise you on the IT you should target, implementing and integrating it with your existing systems and making appropriate calls on retiring older technology. For professional advice, give us a call today at (973) 882-4644.