Tips
1
Develop a Business IT strategy. Work out what your most important business areas are and look to support them with better systems and/or technology. Don't look at your IT from a “what's possible” point of view; come at it from “what do I need/want in my business”. Be creative and let your ideas come more naturally.
2
Almost anything is possible with IT, it comes down to time and cost, but it's better to focus your thinking on your needs and not the perceived limitations of your systems or what's available.
3
Get an IT partner you can trust offering advice about the use of IT in your business and about what's happening in the industry. It’s important they talk in plain English but can still help you interact with your IT people and/or other IT providers.
4
Take control of IT in your business; make sure it doesn't own you and that you get the most out of it. Learn some essential IT skills and make sure your staff do the same.
5
Look for inefficiencies in your business processes and establish whether an IT change or addition could help you with them. Perhaps focus on a different area of your business each month.
6
It’s easy to get excited about a new piece of technology and how it can help you but make sure you understand the risks. Watch out for IT people that push new technology all the time - just because it's the latest thing doesn't make it better.
7
Make sure you and your people know enough about testing, especially user acceptance testing. This allows you to make sure that a solution works for your business before it is implemented. Fixing issues later is much harder and, according to research, can cost up to 20 times more.
8
Look for areas where better integration between your systems and/or your processes could help your business. Every manual process is potentially an error waiting to happen.
9
Try to get computers doing what they are good at in your organisation - essentially number crunching and repetitive tasks, recording and analysing information. Those are the areas to computerise for maximum benefit.
10
Get your systems assessed regularly by someone you trust. Ask them questions about your areas of concern and where you are looking to improve.
11
Avoid complexity. The best systems are the simplest ones; the ones that make the job easier. For example, don’t get confused into thinking that just because a system has icons and uses a mouse that it is better than one that doesn't. The old 'horses for courses' analogy almost always applies - look at what's needed and useful and work from there.
12
Tried and trusted technology and methods are often more reliable because the kinks have been ironed out over time. It’s amazing how many bugs needs to be corrected in a major new piece of software during the first 12 months – do you want to be the one doing the trialling?
13
IT is complex but it doesn't have to be confusing. Anyone who makes it sound confusing is probably just trying to blind you with science. People may try to bamboozle you to make themselves sound good and to get you to spend more money than you need. Always get to the bottom of what they are talking about first and check it before spending anything.
14
IT systems capture a huge amount of data. It is always worth thinking about where it is going, who has access to it, what would happen if it got lost one day and what information can you get back out. Issues around data are probably the single most powerful part of any IT system. They could make or break your business so it's important to understand the risks and benefits.
15
Arguably, a system is only useful if you can get good reporting out of it so always think about that aspect and ask questions. How useful are the built in reports? How good is the report design tool? Can people in your business use it to create new reports without needing a PhD?
16
Never change anything relating to your IT, however tempting, without thoroughly testing it to make sure it works first. This doesn’t mean the testing that the provider should have done, or having a bit of a look at it or a play with. We mean rigid testing, done in a measurable and controlled way by you or your people.
17
Just like any service, developing a 'custom-built' approach to IT can often be more expensive but more valuable. Packaged software is fine but can't usually offer the flexibility of products written especially for you. There are usually areas where packaged software is ideal and others where the bespoke approach is better suited to. Again, ask your trusted IT partner for advice.