Most strategic business plans include a growth goal. Whether your goal is to increase sales by 10 percent this year or to land two new accounts every month, technology is your go-to resource to achieving your goals.
Because technology is always evolving, it provides new relevant tools to apply toward innovative processes to save your business time and money. Using technology to do more and propel your business toward growth takes strategic planning and vision to ensure you stay on track without over- or underbuilding your IT.
Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late
If your organization isn’t updating and evaluating its IT resources on a regular basis, your processes are probably outdated to the point they are hindering business efficiency and growth.
Take, for instance, a central California oil company that found itself with 275 employees in the field all handwriting production notes, recording orders on four-part forms and filling out timesheets manually. From the job site, this information was brought into the office for yet more employees to manually input data into order fulfillment, payroll and other line-of-business software.
The company simply could not grow any further as it was restricted by its manual processes. DiamondIT stepped in to help them adopt the right technology to grow and contract with the ever-changing oil industry. After assessing the current IT environment and learning more to understand the oil company’s strategic growth goals, DiamondIT implemented a scalable cloud solution which provided immediate benefits for the current need to work remotely while allowing for future growth.
Tickets are now entered electronically in the field and go into the billing cycle immediately without any manual processes. Timesheets are recorded online as well. The elimination of handwritten information has resulted in faster, more accurate operations as well as increased efficiency in payroll processes including tax reporting. Current staff members now devote more time to producing than to data entry, giving them more time to serve more customers as the company grows and eliminating the need to hire more people.
When a company is chasing technology, its risk for losing customers and employees is high. Eventually, the entire business could even go under. DiamondIT’s interactive technology designs ensure your budget and growth agendas are both served by scalable IT solutions.
Why You Need an IT Growth Plan
From an IT standpoint, areas of growth involve increases in the number of end users, facility locations and transactions. Working with a managed service provider (MSP) who understands your business and growth objectives well enough to implement a solution that scales with your growth is key to making sure your technology fits with your current and future needs.
Here are the top 3 technology considerations when growing your business:
- Your Personnel
During business growth, the number of employees in an organization often increases, although adding more people is not always the answer to accommodate the additional business. When new employees are hired, they need workstations with a computer and phone ready to go on their first day. By working closely with human resources, DiamondIT assures that every employee has access to the systems needed to complete their job.
When your technology is current, you also can take advantage of a remote workforce – or even retain a valued employee who needs to relocate across the country.
- Cloud computing opportunities
The cloud gives companies the nimbleness needed when growing. Users can be added or removed quickly depending upon seasonal or industry trends. By moving computing to the cloud, businesses are not restricted by their current infrastructure environment which may require adding another server to accommodate additional employees and business transactions. And, employees can work remotely in the field or even at home.
- WiFi scalability
As with the cloud, your WiFi infrastructure should be scalable and secure to accommodate your business’ changing needs. When adding physical locations to your business, point-to-point connections can quickly connect buildings. Staying current with the best-available internet speed also allows faster, cheaper processing and streaming as well as larger downloads. This in turn allows you to take advantage of the latest app features. Of course, this typically means the use of more RAM and CPUs than older software.
As your company is growing, it’s easy to fall into the trap of adding more of the resources you already have whether it’s more employees or more equipment and infrastructure. Before going blindly in this direction, consider the areas of growth where technology can give you a cost-effective boost with an eye toward the future. It’s equally important to enlist the expertise of an IT provider with strategic growth planning and technology skills to help you. Our clients know their business is as important to us as our own.
“Sometimes in business, you come across true professionals in their field that make your job easier,” says Cary Evans of Bakersfield Pipe and Supply. “Rarely do you come across people who treat your business as if it were their own.” At DiamondIT, we share our passion for technology to maximize your business’ potential. Contact us at (877) 716-8324 or online to talk about growing your business.