IT Spending Strategy: How To Invest In Digital Transformation

IT Spending Strategy: How To Invest In Digital Transformation

Every successful application of IT services has one thing in common: IT strategy.

If you’re going to invest in the right solutions and seek out the right expertise, you need to think ahead as to how you spend your IT dollars. This is especially important in terms of digital transformation — harnessing new technology for the good of your business won’t happen by accident.

Businesses Are Bad At Technology Planning

Despite the fact that 93% of surveyed businesses recognize that IT is strategically and operationally critical (Wakefield Research), very few are doing anything to properly plan their IT:

• 66% find that the amount they’re budgeting towards IT isn’t enough to keep up with what they need from it.
• 77% of those with less than 100 employees have found that their investments in IT are too limited
• A third of those surveyed said that less than 10% of their strategic planning was about IT

Don’t Put Off Your IT Budget

With IT shifting from just another piece of equipment in the office to the core of operations and a key aspect of how you defend your business, you should designate it as a central part of your budget.

This also means that you must assess and clearly define how IT aligns with your business objectives to decide what you’ll need for the coming year(s).

Proper IT budgeting will help you lay a foundation for success in the future. Using the right IT solutions can help you:

• Accelerate your business growth
• Increase your operational effectiveness
• Ensure optimal productivity from your employees
• Overcome operational challenges
• Increase collaboration and communication

5 Ways To Invest In Digital Transformation

In order to bring your business forward with technology, you need to set a few key priorities for the way your IT staff or outsourced IT company develops your infrastructure and processes:

• Personalize Your Systems: Don’t settle for a one-size-fits-all build. Your IT company should be able to deliver a customized build that promotes self-service among your staff (automated support, self-enrollment of mobile devices, etc.).
• Encourage Mobility: Implement Mobile Device Management and Bring Your Own Device policies that allow employees to use their own devices in combination with the business’ – be sure to equally prioritize the convenience of access with security. And don’t limit yourself to desktops, laptops, and phones – there’s more out there for you to take advantage of. Have you considered what the Internet of Things and wearable devices can do for workplace efficiency? Now’s the time to get on board – 40 billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices online by 2027.
• Harness The Cloud: Increase collaboration and simplify management by hosting your data and applications through the cloud – again, prioritizing security in line with the access given to staff members. It shouldn’t have to be said at this point, but just in case you’re still in the past – get rid of your on-site hardware. Before the cloud, onsite servers were a must for any business that wanted to succeed, but no longer. Today, you don’t need to purchase, install and maintain onsite servers- with the cloud, you outsource it all to a data center instead. By choosing a cloud solution instead of conventional infrastructure, you will enjoy all the benefits of an up-to-date and optimized IT infrastructure, without having to pay more than your monthly service fee. This is so basic in today’s modern business world that to continue purchasing and maintaining costly onsite hardware is essentially fiscal negligence.
• Use Data To Your Advantage: With the right information, each choice you make can have attainable and expected positive results for your business; without that information, you may as well be gambling with the future of your company.

Business intelligence is the collection and analysis of data collected such as department productivity, overall growth, sales trends, and customer behavior. Applications of this data can range from something as simple as Spreadsheets for the organization, and storage of data to Online Analytical Processing or Reporting and Querying software. Each has a specific use and offers various benefits to your small business.

Reporting and querying software extracts, sorts, summarizes, and presents selected data. This data could range from sales reports of specific items to a measurement of the efficiency of marketing plans.

Automate And Evolve Your Cybersecurity

These advanced types of cybersecurity software (firewalls, antivirus, antimalware) use artificial intelligence to better predict, identify and eliminate harmful malware.

Security based on advanced algorithms that can adapt and learn creates a system that can become familiar with the normal patterns associated with each user and device, detecting anomalies in those patterns quickly. Essentially, something known as a neural net can be used in cybersecurity efforts. Based on a robust algorithm, the neural net can “learn” to spot patterns of data associated with previously identified and classified spear-phishing emails.

By incorporating this technology into an email client’s spam filter, the filter will be able to spot fraudulent incoming emails and eliminate them before they reach the recipient.

One of the best parts about neural nets is that they continue to learn and improve the more that they are used. With increasingly more data to draw from, this Artificial Intelligence will become more and more accurate in doing its job.

OneSource Technology Will Help You Plan For Digital Transformation

IT planning doesn’t have to be a frustrating process.

Our team will develop a strategic plan specifically for your company to make sure you’re investing in the right solutions to truly help you meet your overall objectives and exceed your goals, in order to reach new heights within your business. Effective IT planning should result in a wide range of benefits for any operation in any industry.

Keep in mind, IT strategy isn’t a one-time thing. We can work alongside your team to provide ongoing guidance, support, and services. Get in touch with the OneSource Technology team to get started.