In our last blog, we discussed the nine primary elements of a technical IT assessment. A genuinely comprehensive information technology assessment, however, matches IT resources with software applications and the expectations of essential stakeholders in each department. The process allows you to strategically align IT capabilities to the overall business goals and objectives.
We can break down the benefits of a data-driven information technology assessment into three primary categories: staffing/personnel, processes, and technology.
Assessment: IT Department Personnel
- Distribute IT resources and service hours based on priority.
- Guarantee the technology department is appropriately designed, deployed, and overseen.
- Specify needed technology staff with justification
- Establish and name low-value vs. high-value activities to redirect wasted resources
- Identify the necessary educational and ongoing training requirements to ensure IT team members possess the right skills to optimize the use of available technology.
- Open lines of communication with IT staff regarding pain points and needed improvements, without creating intimidation or partiality.
- Increase company morale and confidence in your digital and technical capabilities.
Assessments: Core IT Processes
- Establish clear ownership for each of the core IT processes.
- Identify priority for essential IT processes and create a detailed plan for improvement.
- Draw up a stakeholder management program to effectively manage relationships and agreement on strategic direction.
- Prioritize IT communications to support the productivity of the staff.
- Identify redundancies, bottlenecks, data silos, and other systemic problems in governance, reporting, single sign-on and other relevant workflows.
- Evaluate operational strengths and weaknesses to invest IT resources more efficiently.
Assessments: Technology Resources
- Manage remaining technical debt, such as missed updates or patches.
- Seek out and eliminate vulnerabilities criminals may exploit to access your data or devices.
- Fortify integrations between your website/CMS, LMS, AMS/CRM, and other best-of-breed systems.
- Find a correlation between deficient technology and issues reported by staff, stakeholders, and customers.
- Identify applications that should be retired or replaced.
- Prioritize business processes that would benefit from entirely new hardware and software.
Comprehensive Technology Assessments: The Process
Comprehensive IT assessments utilize quantitative tools and qualitative personnel interviews to collect valuable individual insight and feedback. The results compel in-depth analysis to delineate root cause from symptoms and provide consensus-based results.
The findings gleaned from these efforts are then consolidated into an actionable “IT roadmap” for optimizing technology, process, and staff resources. The recommendations should be presented in clear, non-IT language to ensure that stakeholders from all departments and levels are on the same page and can make appropriate decisions that align with IT measures.
A comprehensive information technology assessment typically takes 8-10 weeks from initial steps to completion. The timeframe is largely dependent on the size of the company and how accessible relevant staff members may be.
Steps to conducting an information technology assessment may include:
- Identify and list challenges and pain points to address: Why isn’t your data or technology working for your organization?
- Conduct standardized surveys to get answer directly from the source: What do the relevant stakeholders (the ones who use and/or rely on your technology and data) have to say?
- Interview stakeholders using targeted questions that provide qualitative/descriptive feedback: What is the “why” behind the standardized survey results?
- Collect, categorize and analyze the findings: What does the breakdown of the assessment results reveal to you about recurring issues and opportunities across key service areas?
- Develop a roadmap to improvement: What are the strategic IT improvements needed to address the previously identified problem areas – and how do they align with your mission, business plan, and growth projections?
The Right Partner is the Key to Success
One of the most effective strategies for planning, implementing and profiting from a comprehensive IT assessment is to partner with professionals who are familiar with the process. At Alliance IT, we specialize in helping SMBs to optimize the resources they have and access the resources they need. Our team of IT experts is here to help you determine the best way to grow and thrive in a competitive market. Call today to set up an appointment and learn more about our assessment services.
