Your IT budget can cause you a lot of stress, but if you approach it right, it doesn’t have to. Like every other part of your business, you want to have a good idea where to invest your technology budget. Not that many people do. We recommend you build out an IT roadmap, and a strategy on how to keep downtime to a minimum; and a lot of that is getting experts to manage and maintain your business’ IT.
What an IT Roadmap Does for Your Business
It doesn’t serve your business well to implement solutions as they’re needed; they should be proactively addressed through an IT roadmap instead.
With an IT roadmap on your side, you can be prepared for expenses that might otherwise become problematic if they’re not budgeted for. You can prepare to replace aging solutions, for example, rather than waiting for them to fall apart over time. You’ll be ready when a server starts to fail or when a critical operating system reaches its end of life.
Your IT roadmap should include the next five, or even ten years, including any major hardware and software refreshes so you can be ready for these major costs.
How Downtime Can Sink Your Business’ Productivity
If you’re not careful, downtime can lead to unnecessary and unwelcome costs for your business.
You can define downtime as any situation where your business cannot function the way it’s supposed to. This can be caused by technology failure, a software license expiring, or an inconsistent Internet connection. You need to be ruthless and impartial when it comes to finding the causes of your downtime and systematically eliminating or addressing them.
A solid data backup and disaster recovery solution can work wonders for addressing downtime, as you’ll be ready in the event you face any major hardware failure. Still, you should look into any circumstances where your business cannot operate as it should. Ask your employees how you can best support their success, collect their feedback, and implement as you deem necessary.
How Outsourcing Can Change the Game of IT Management Forever
As it turns out, you can save a lot of money by hiring someone else to do good work for your business, and they don’t even have to be on payroll.
That’s right; you can outsource tasks to a specific provider to ensure your employees (and, notably, you) have more time to tackle more important revenue-driving tasks. You can know with confidence that your important IT tasks are being handled by proven professionals. Plus, you’re not worrying about a new salary getting added to your budget, which can make all the difference in keeping things in check.
If you’re curious how outsourcing certain tasks can expand your company’s IT budget, call Fusion IT today at (616) 828-5360 and learn more about outsourcing as a viable IT strategy.