Computers and IT services are becoming a bigger part of society every year, as technology advances in complexity and versatility. It also places a lot of pressure on organisations, even newer ones with less capital, to spend huge amounts of cash to get themselves up to speed. Having a conversation about your IT needs is going to be best done with IT professionals such as Rapid IT, but let’s get you thinking about the ideas with a few questions to ask yourself.
What business am I running?
Your business’ activities are going to directly correlate with the amount of IT you will need, and how complex that should be. For example, any business with a strong online component, such as a retail online store, is likely going to need more advanced technology than a purely in-person tailor. That’s not to say that the tailor will not benefit from having a potent online presence and technology mix in their organisation, but it is going to be different and less involved than an organisation working directly with an online environment.
How many employees?
Generally speaking, an organisation with more employees is going to need a more powerful IT setup. This is primarily because of internal networking being valuable, and that infrastructure needs to be scaled for the amount of employees that you have. An easy and simple example of this is your organisation’s setup of backup solutions. An organisation with 10 employees is going to need less storage space for backups than an organisation with 100 employees, and backups are of absolutely critical importance, so should not be skipped out on. To this end, ensuring that your solution scales to your organisation size is vital.
Should I have a uniform IT solution?
Having a uniform technology setup throughout your office can be beneficial for the purposes of getting IT helpdesk support. It will mean that if an issue is found, it will be equally found on all machines, but also have the same solution, making troubleshooting easy. However, do not feel compelled to keep 100% uniformity across the office, if a particular employee has specialised needs. To use an example, let’s say you have 10 employees. 9 of them just do word processing all day, but the last is your marketing person who does photo editing, video editing, and similar. In this scenario, having 9 weaker PCs and 1 stronger PC for the person doing things that need more computing power is entirely reasonable as a technology mix. Just because uniformity can provide benefits, doesn’t mean you need 10 powerful PCs and overspend, or 10 weaker PCs leaving the person who needs more power at a disadvantage!
Summary
Everyone’s technology needs are going to differ, and understanding those needs is essential. You should absolutely invest in a potent IT solution, but that doesn’t mean you need to spend too much, in a way that doesn’t meet your precise needs. This is why consulting a professionally managed service provider, like Rapid IT, who can understand your needs and meet them for you, is essential to avoid an overspend, as well as the opposite problem of not being able to optimally complete day to day activities. If you are considering changes to your IT solution, or have any other questions, get in touch with Rapid IT today at 1300 727 430.
