Step 2: Assess Your Existing Resources
Defining the current state of your organization’s technology is the next step of the planning process. Start by benchmarking where you are versus where you would like to be.
An efficient way to determine the health of your technology is through an IT Assessment. It not only plays an integral role in providing a snapshot of your company’s computing system, but it also provides your organization perspective on the effectiveness of its system, staff, budget, vendors, procedures and company policies.
- Do you have a team, an individual, or no one monitoring it?
- Are things up to date?
- What is the current IT budget/investment?
- Is IT viewed as a ‘cost’ or as an ‘enabler’ of the business succeeding?
An IT assessment can help your organization improve technology ROI and align IT investments with your overall business strategy.
A comprehensive IT assessment and analysis will help you better understand your current state of technology and prepare your organization for future needs and growth. This includes all hardware and software currently in use throughout your organization. Once you understand your current state, it is much easier to define needs and goals (the next step of the process) and develop a technology plan that aligns with these and your budget.
- Assess your organization’s current internal policies and procedures in the areas of technology training, security and disaster recovery.
- Identify which of your staff members may need training, and discover who can act as resources within your organization.
- Identify immediate (critical) needs which are classified as situations that severely hamper or prevent the execution of activities key to your organization.
- Review hardware, software and data strategies for servers, mission-critical workstations, backups, anti-virus, etc.
All this may sound daunting you may not even realize there is a critical need until going through the process. It is incredibly important to know where your IT stands in order to plan and improve for the future.
Envision IT offers a complimentary IT Score that will let you know where your IT stands against industry standards. Contact us if we can be of help during this step of your planning process!
