IT Assessment: What it is and How it Can Help Your Business?

Technology plays an influential role in the success of any business today. Even, organizations with minimum IT infrastructure environments utilize multiple systems for routine operations today. Integrating such systems with processes and people is vital for the smooth running of the business. 47% of the business leaders also feel their current business goals are not aligned with their IT strategy.

This also requires consistent monitoring, management, and maintenance of IT systems. If you haven’t performed an IT audit recently chances are high your organization has lost its growth path and you don’t even know, That’s why performing thorough technology assessment, taking assistance from a professional IT service provider offering  IT assessment services is crucial for you - no matter what your business size or capacity is.

Before we shed light on reasons to use IT assessment services, lets first cover the basics first: 

What is IT Assessment Exactly?   

An effective IT assessment looks at your organization’s current technology environment to identify strengths, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities, as well as suggest methods to reach an improved state. In order to fully monitor and analyze in-house systems with higher complexity, outside specialists or third-party IT consultants are recommended who are experienced in this field. 

The ultimate goal of IT assessment is to help companies get back to their best practices by optimizing their critical systems like ERP, CRM, and more. This, in turn, helps companies perform better while reducing risks related to compliance, security, and governance. 

The Pitfalls of Poor IT Practices 

As businesses taste success and growth, they tend to create their own IT processes and culture - which is not sustainable in the long run. When leaders lose their attention from forming solid business processes - the business ends up with suboptimal IT. This is definitely not a situation you want to be in as a technology leader. 

Some of the risks of poor IT practices in businesses are as follows: 

Poor security protocols 

Without the right IT policies or guidelines, employees tend to take shortcuts at work. These shortcuts ultimately result in technology security loopholes in business. Due to employee freeway behavior issues like poor password management, data breaches, unauthorized access, etc. arise - which threatens the entire organization IT security. 

Productivity Downgrade Due to Old Hardware/Software 

This is the most common issue across enterprises. Employees dealing with old software/hardware are unable to deliver their best at work, which hampers their overall productivity, despite of working hard, desired productivity levels are not met. Hence, proper IT audits on frequent intervals are a must. 

Service Flow Disruption 

As discussed, the usage of outdated systems often leads to disruption in critical business processes, which, in turn, increases security and privacy concerns. System crashes and data losses are common when lackluster technology is in place and/or systems are not updated. Over the period, these systems become riskier for the entire company in terms of security. 

Over Reliance on Self-service IT 

When employees constantly fail to deliver their tasks, they start switching towards their own IT systems or apps for work. This is not an ideal situation for businesses as the usage of unauthorized systems/apps increases security risks. Team collaboration, communication, and training also get affected when enterprise software or apps are not used by employees. 

Loss of Market Position

The risk of falling behind market competition is always there when you don’t upgrade your technology infrastructure. The best way to identify the need for an IT refresh is by performing continuous technology audits. To do it better than competitors, team up with IT consulting services experts who provide technology assessment facilities too.

How IT Assessment Services Can Help You

A good IT assessment will:

Detect Hardware/Software Risks: An IT assessment services company will work with you to craft a comprehensive checklist to identify potential system threats or issues, starting from security challenges to productivity issues. 

Perform Priority-based Risk Analysis and Resolution: An IT consulting expert always tracks technology vulnerabilities or risks on a priority basis. It helps you identify critical areas requiring immediate attention for continuing business operations.

Create Long-term Strategy for IT Improvement: A short term plan or quick adjustments never provide satisfactory results in the long run. It’s important to map down a long-term IT strategy that aligns with broader business objectives while keeping the technology skeleton is the ideal shape without any operational disruption. 

Build Effective Disaster Recovery Plan: Setting up an IT disaster recovery plan is important from a business continuity perspective. You don’t want to lose important business data due to ill-prepared IT systems. Learn the best practices for business continuity planning (BCP). An effective BCP should cover recovery time objectives (RCV), role assignments, remote work, communication, and more. 

Appy Robust Data Security Measures: You can identify the data security vulnerabilities through an IT assessment in your business. Poor password policies, unauthorized access permissions, old communication protocols, vulnerable systems, etc. can be tracked and improved upon immediately.

Unlock Growth Opportunities: A business-aligned technology assessment can help you identify how to utilize your existing technology architecture and can support your employees, clients, and partners. Controlling risks and costs is also possible by undertaking IT check-up as it helps you find ways to improve customer experiences, business processes, and support employee growth.

Identify Opportunities for Cost Optimization: IT consulting services providers can assist you in evaluating your current IT spends and the areas incurring maximum cost to you. Things like budgeting, allocation, revenue generation, and industry benchmarking are all analyzed to help you control IT financial costs. 

Scenarios When You Should Undertake IT Assessment   

The four most common scenarios that highlight the need for an IT assessment in your business are given below: 

• When your business is looking to transition from just an “IT company” to a value-focused, customer-oriented brand. 
• When your business is looking to acquire some crucial IT assets from outside. 
• When your business is experiencing rapid growth or you feel like you’re outperforming your current service levels. 
• When you feel the need to carry out a high-level, bottom-up IT review with the help of a trusted, third-party source.  

Activities to be Performed Under IT Assessment 

An effective IT strategy should align with our overall organization’s mission and goals and should be one that’s easy to understand for everyone, including employees, senior leaders, and IT staff. 

Assessment should be conducted in a fair and transparent manner, as well as provide in-depth insights into the current IT environment. It should focus on three key areas: 

• People - roles and organizational structure
• Process - key services and operational processes
• Technology - IT infrastructure, systems, and operations

The following should be a part of your IT assessment strategy: 

• Set assessment objectives and expectations.
• Create a project charter along with the third-party vendor
• Analyze current IT environment through interviews, surveys, and workshops 
• Perform benchmarking analysis against industry peers
• Conduct a gap analysis 
• Identify and prioritize critical gaps in current performance and develop recommendations 
• Develop a roadmap and action plan to create a clear pathway forward for IT

Ready to Undertake an IT Assessment for Your Business? 

In a nutshell, it can be said that businesses undertaking IT assessments are well-placed to analyze their current technology environment and make sure that IT is moving their business in the right direction. If you are also looking to analyze your current IT environment for identifying growth and cost optimization opportunities, connect with us here at A3logics. 

We have 10+ years of experience in offering reliable IT assessment services for businesses of all sizes across industries. Our IT consultants craft a personalized assessment strategy for you after analyzing your IT environment against 100+ best practices. The end result is a roadmap for your future IT success. 

Drop us a line to know more about our IT assessment services.