Do you get value from your IT spend? A lot of people tend to avoid this question. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is the common phrase when things are going fine.
However sometimes fine is inferior to bad. When there's clear and noticeable problems, action is taken. When things are 'fine', people focus on other things, commonly leaving immense opportunity unrealised.
Do you dare to compare your situation to other possibilities?
Being fine doesn’t mean great. When you take the time to truly compare average to high performing, the results can be eye opening. Consider the average user has 1.5 to 2 issues with IT each month. Combine this with an industry average 2 hours interruption per incident. What does this mean?
What could your business do with an extra quarter of a million dollars each year? In comparison, high performing IT services slash this cost by 75-80%. In general, businesses that spend 20-30% more than average on well-resourced technology management, tend to see a 10x return on that additional investment.
Whilst “you get what you pay for” doesn’t always reign true, it is certainly a limiting factor for many businesses.
If you feel your IT is “fine”, you may be missing out on huge gains.
Oddly enough, businesses that tell us they spend a lot of money on IT, generally spend the least and have little to show for it. Fundamentally this comes down to perspective.
When done correctly, IT integrated into a business should have real and tangible effects that help the business be more efficient, effective, and profitable.
Further to productivity improvements, IT can automate processes, improve reporting & decision making, and provide enhanced customer experiences. We explored some of these concepts in this article.
Inversely, IT services that focus predominately on core infrastructure and user support fail to deliver anything of substantial value. When delivered in a reactive nature, costs vastly outweigh results.
If you feel you spend a lot on IT services, you may have a results problem.
Friendly service and account management can easily be confused for good insights and recommendations.
More often than not, ‘strategy’ delivered by IT providers is centred around fleet management and new products. When was the last time your IT provider provided a recommendation that wasn’t replacing old equipment or adding a new security tool?
The truth is that this kind of advice could be delivered by anyone with even a mild focus on technology.
True value is receiving advice as it pertains to your blind spots. Things that are not immediately obvious, and that are specifically related to your business, objectives, and risk profile.
If your IT recommendations aren’t tied to commercial upside, you might be paying for a ‘Caption Obvious’.
True value comes in many shapes and sizes. Almost all SMB's however could be better leveraging IT in their business. Success relies on curiosity, and a willingness to improve that which is not broken.
If you're brave enough to 'dare to compare', you can book in a 1 hour discovery meeting with us. This isn't a meeting to review your actual technology, but rather, the positive or negative impact technology has on your organisation.. like it should be.
