What Must Every Business Owner Know About Technology and Their IT Staff?
Many small to medium companies have someone on staff who manages your technology. This may be their entire duty or in other cases it is only part of their job. Perhaps they have an interest in technology or previous IT experience that has convinced you to delegate the IT tasks to them. In many cases someone raises their hand to take on technology to make themselves more valuable as an employee. They honorably wish to help and fit in. The question becomes how much do they really know? Are they making business technology decisions based on dated, old school trends that are no longer profitable for your business. Do they have an in depth understanding of your current software and hardware requirements? Do they have enough time and resources to be successful? Is your technology budget spent on prolonging obsolete technology?
Technology changes rapidly. Your competition may be highly advantaged over you because they are leveraging current technology in more efficient and less costly ways. They can easily be more profitable by using their savings elsewhere. If your technology staff was educated 5 years ago then they may be using 10 – 15 year old technology intelligence to guide your IT direction. In addition to older technology that may hinder your staff’s productivity you are also paying them in salary and benefits. They also may use their technology responsibilities as a crutch to justify poor performance in their other job duties.
What about the rest of your staff and their opinion of your company’s technology? Many times coworkers are frustrated with outdated and slow technology and they blame your in house technology person. If your staff has time to surf the web or check their phones, is it because your systems are running slow? Slow, outdated processors and insufficient RAM can train your employees to become sidetracked while they wait for your computer to catch up.
One recent example was a plastics company that grew rapidly. They had an inside sales person who was “voluntold” to help with IT after their well-meaning manager found out they were handy with fixing computers. After a year it became apparent that this person was in over their head and the company’s growth was clearly hindered by outdated technology. The coworkers were frustrated too because their systems ran slow and were unreliable. The employee and the manager were quite frustrated because this employee was also rather unsuccessful in the sales side of his job. He was often interrupted and priorities shifted all day long back and forth between technology and customer service.
The leadership team at the company realized that a new solution for technology management was overdue. They hired a cloud technology company and moved their systems completely to the cloud. They worked with their employee to redirect his focus to his inside sales job. Not only was the employee relieved but he was able to move forward and become a profitable contributor by greatly increasing his sales and customer service scores. He was no longer frustrated by feeling spread too thin.
The company was able to leverage current technology and continue their rapid pace of growth. It was a good thing they made the move when they did because they recently increased their sales volume and now are focusing on increasing their production to meet the demand. Perhaps it is time for you to consider moving your technology to the cloud and reassess how technology is managed at your company.
Contact sales support at NthaCloud.com today for a free assessment.
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