Regardless of the size of your organization, you have certain reliance on technology in order to be productive and to an extent successful. No one seems to leave their home or office without their phone. We all use e-mail for communicating to the rest of the world. But that’s just the starting point. Suppose your company gets a bit of success and you start growing, which means adding employees. Next up is adding office space for you and your employees, which means creating an office network. Now you’re faced with more questions, wired or wireless? Should you get everyone a desktop, a laptop, or a tablet? Do I really need a firewall and anti-virus?
Managing technology to meet your business’ needs doesn’t need to be overly complicated, but how do you pick where to spend your technology dollars? How do you ensure you’re focusing on what’s important and what’s (perhaps) frivolous? Then once selected and in use, there’s more to it than just making sure power stays on.
Every business owner must decide where to allocate funds, and it can be difficult to reconcile spending a huge amount on technology without seeing immediate returns. But technology is an integral part of your organization, and can offer widespread and lasting benefits. Technology should be viewed as both a cost of doing business, and an opportunity to do more.
Plus, don’t forget about cyber security, hackers, and data breaches.
The next SBAB luncheon will provide some insights on these points and even more. Our panel (Al BeVier with Helix Business Service and Tim Elemes with Huber Advisors) will provide some insight on technology, and provide some key points to take away that will help guide you through your technology planning.
