As technology rapidly advances, it’s not uncommon for the average business to be stuck playing catch-up. It’s not necessary to have all of the latest technology, but an outdated IT environment can seriously hamper productivity and even become a security flaw. Here’s a highly-simplified IT modernization roadmap strategy for businesses in 2020.
7 Steps to Building an IT Modernization Roadmap
1. Alignment
Before actually detailing any sort of palpable IT modernization roadmap, the key players in your company, such as executives and other stakeholders, must be aligned around the goal of modernization.
“To become more modern” isn’t exactly a clear goal. Instead, develop your goal using one (or, more likely, a combination) of the following:
- Cost reduction
- Improved productivity
- Tighter cyber security
Specific goals like these will allow your IT team to come up with realistic solutions.
2. Budgeting
Based on your goal, consider how much of a budget your company can allocate to IT modernization. This may seem obvious, but budget is often the main hindrance to most IT upgrades.
Setting a realistic budget beforehand will help your IT company map out feasible software and hardware for your project.
3. Assessment
Along with your IT company and any other necessary stakeholders, conduct a detailed assessment of your current IT systems. This will help you to determine the most important areas to improve, and which ones don’t need to be upgraded just yet.
4. Solutions
With all of the above in place, your IT provider can identify specific solutions that will help your organization attain its IT modernization goals without breaking the budget.
5. Timeline
Even with a clear roadmap in place, it’s often not possible to implement every new solution overnight. Instead, your IT provider will help you develop a timeline to modernize your company incrementally, without unnecessary downtime.
6. Implementation
Now, over the course of the timeline you’ve identified, your IT provider can begin implementing exciting, new solutions. Once again, the goal is to implement in increments to minimize downtime for your employees.
7. Re-Evaluation
After it’s been completed, it’s important to re-evaluate the impact that your IT modernization project has had on your organization.
Has it generally improved employee productivity? Has it made a measurable improvement to your company’s profitability? Does anything appear to be missing? Questions like this can help identify opportunities for improvement in future projects.
Your actual IT modernization roadmap should be unique to your company, but we hope these seven tips can help you strategize an effective one.
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