As a company executive or small business owner, planning is a way of life. But teaching all of your employees to plan ahead and make decisions based on the future can be difficult – after all, putting out daily fires often takes all of their time. Engineers and IT tech often have a more challenging time thinking in terms of strategy and planning. If a machine is broken, it gets fixed or replaced. A ticket is opened, it gets resolved, and then closed. Needs are typically immediate, and planning for a strategic plan for next year is not as top of mind as executives might like. Although tech innovation might be needed, there may not be the time in the day to tackle it.
But business owners must look down the road. They need to understand where they are headed and how they will get there – and that includes budgeting for innovation in technology. A business owner cannot simply state they want to be successful, gain market share, and beat the competition – they need to plan accordingly.
This requires creating a plan, putting policies and a budget in place to support the plan, and periodically reviewing the plan to see how it is going. The only way to successfully hit milestones is to have employee buying and collaboration, with everyone pulling toward the same goal. There are few places where this is more important and problematic than in tech innovation. There is often a serious disconnect between the executive level and those in IT, and it is typically tied to resources. That is, the techies understand the upgrades and innovations that need to take place in order to stay ahead of the competition. Still, the C-level often cannot wrap their heads around the level of commitment that takes – most especially, the hiring of new employees to be able to handle the workload. If IT technicians are in react mode most of the time, there is no bandwidth to look ahead, even if they understand the need. But the budget required to hire these new employees, especially in the cyber security space, is often prohibitive for the organization.
So what is a forward-thinking company owner or executive to do? Technology and the need for tech innovation are no longer a luxury, and the need for cybersecurity is even more pressing. Without an adequate workforce, the planning stage rarely happens. Excess money is spent when an emergency (such as a technical malfunction or malware attack) occurs, and the company is ill-prepared for it. The downtime and lost goodwill is damaging enough, but then money must be spent on recovery.
In 2022, the answer lies in hybrid solutions to staffing dilemmas. Managed service models provide the expertise forward-thinking companies need while allowing for economies of scale and budget savings. By allowing many small companies to share the cost of tech innovation, cyber monitoring, and constant ongoing education, all are afforded cutting-edge expertise they couldn’t otherwise afford.
Not only that, but the managed services company can meet with owners and executives (along with their IT team) to plan out an effective strategy for growth, using the outsourced professionals to implement the long-term strategy while onsite IT employees continue with their day-to-day activities. Managed services allow companies to protect their companies, grow strategically, and relieve their employees’ workload without breaking their budget – making IT planning and implementation productive and affordable.
Ready to learn more? Call Alliance IT today.
