Is IT investment a top priority of your business? With the massive presence of digital evolution in our daily lives, the high competitiveness of the market and the growing demand for innovative solutions, it is increasingly necessary for companies to view costs in the sector as a strategic differential rather than as a mere expense.
On the other hand, it is clear that it is not enough to invest without planning that is consistent with the real needs and perspectives of the company. Often, without important guidance, entrepreneurs end up losing themselves in inconsistent and fruitless actions within information technology.
Is your company managing IT investments the right way? Read on to learn more!
What are the benefits of investing correctly in information technology?
First of all, it is important to highlight the various advantages that an appropriate IT investment can bring to your business. In general, the action, if well formulated, gives agility to the company’s routines and facilitates decision-making, representing a powerful competitive differential.
The investment, after all, is based on the analytical reasoning of all processes, focuses on innovation and, by promoting the optimization of daily tasks and a better business vision, collaborates to achieve goals and to increase the overall quality of services.
In an objective way, the key benefits of smart IT investment include:
- Unified business management (through integration systems), providing a global view of the company and more accurate decisions;
- Optimizing routine work processes, increasing team productivity and speed of delivery, and providing more time for tasks that contribute to business growth;
- Improvement of internal and customer communication, making it possible to hold meetings at a distance, synchronizing agendas and facilitating the exchange of messages among employees;
- More information security, protecting corporate data from possible digital attacks and hacker intrusions, and installing automatic backups to ensure information integrity in case of system crash/crash;
- Precise analysis of metrics and data, allowing to extract valuable insights for the development of the company.
IT investment: key challenges
The reasons for betting on innovative IT solutions are obvious, but it is common for business owners to face difficulties in managing these resources when it comes to investing.
In the not-so-distant past, for example, a frequent problem was the precarious infrastructure found in the smallest businesses. Lack of station security, outdated machines, poor network configuration, and unlicensed software were part of this scenario.
In addition, the culture of IT investment was not yet valued, there was a shortage of skilled labor in the sector, and high equipment prices discouraged the realization of projects in the area.
Over time, the evolution of technologies, the change of market mentality towards IT (especially small businesses) and fiscal incentives have transformed this reality, mainly in the acquisition of cutting edge equipment.
New times, however, have brought new challenges: If the infrastructure issue has been largely remedied, today, entrepreneurs are faced with more strategic difficulties. Inappropriate equipment choices, redundant parts, and system expenditures, and lack of planning, in general, are constant difficulties.
Another recurring mistake is to generate unnecessary expenses in the IT area only to follow a given market trend. This is the case, for example, of entrepreneurs who spend huge sums with big data technologies without knowing what they are and why.
After all, how to invest in IT intelligently?
Now that we have addressed the key challenges and challenges for entrepreneurs to invest in IT, the time has come to point the way to a smart and well-targeted investment in the business.
Next, check out valuable tips to get the most out of your strategy and see if your company is investing the right way:
Build an IT strategic planning
This is the phase that will ensure that your IT investment will indeed make perfect sense in the context of your business needs, aspirations, and quirks. It is imperative that the actions and goals intended with the adoption of new solutions are aligned with the growth objectives of the company.
In this sense, your strategic plan should include a detailed analysis of the existing IT structure, contrasting it with the benefits that future solutions can bring to your reality. In other words, it is a matter of drawing a diagnosis of the current situation and then thinking of a project that is consistent with the demands made.
Still, it is important that your planning includes a study of the main trends in technology in the market, a history of what has already been achieved with its current structure (with maturity analysis charts) and an investment projection.
Counterbalance spending and economics
At the stage of planning your IT investment, let us point one important point: not only consider the costs of the strategy but also what can be done to increase the revenue of the business.
We remember that corroborating the definition of an investment, spending on intelligent solutions at the first moment can represent a great economy in the medium and long term.
Search before investing
From identifying the specific demands of your company, you already have an investment projection and know which solutions to prioritize. The next step is to research the supply and availability of the same in the market.
There are, for example, options for open source systems that belong to the portfolio of solutions for cloud computing and big data, and have a more affordable price.
Remember that it is indispensable to have an understanding of how to reduce IT costs.
Stay tuned for market changes
Lastly, it is worth pointing out that one of the main guides to making intelligent investments in IT is the very dynamics of your business and the market in general. Today, we know how much the corporate world undergoes rapid and successive transformations, including putting into play consolidated business models.
In this context, it is common for companies of all sizes to reinvent themselves, eliminate old work routines, and even build a whole new management model to survive in their industry. Smart investment in information technology must naturally follow these updates.
After checking our guidelines for a correct IT investment, you are likely to have formulated a mental prognosis for your small business situation. Aligned with the strategic business plan and tuned to the dynamics of the market, optimizing that investment can make all the difference to the competitiveness and results of your venture.
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