Despite the worsening economic outlook, a message seems to have gotten through to major enterprises regarding IT. That message is that investing in IT is a good means of ensuring agility and efficiency in harder times.
This message has taken a while, but it seems to have got through. It is borne out by several surveys that indicate that budgets and spending intentions, when examined, are actually not that bad compared to last year.
Now, there are also ample indications that the fight for that business is going to be very hard indeed, but there needs are there, particularly around security, desktop refreshes and in a few other key areas.
What I have not seen, is evidence that this message has gotten through to smaller businesses, despite the fact that it is equally valid for them. Ensuring that your IT infrastructure is solid and up to date now, will ensure that disaster is less likely to strike, in the form of failures or inadequacies, in those tough times when it is vital to keep the lights on and the doors open. This applies to automation as well. It may be more important than ever, over the next year to 18 months, to be able to sell online where 24/7 availability means more sales with less effort, and consequently, less cost.
Not every business can sell online, but almost all businesses can benefit from constantly available, well formatted and explained information about the company. Can your site handle sales and general information queries? Does it provide all information whose provision could otherwise tie up the time of an employee?
When times are tough, it pays to be able to have all of your efforts directed toward income generation, rather than administration or support. If your IT systems can allow this as much as possible, in support of your business needs, then you may be ahead of rivals who might still be distracted by such things. Automation does not necessarily mean mechatronics, it may just mean allowing a machine to provide something or respond to something that may not be the most efficient use of an employee’s time.
It might be worth considering what your employees do in this respect to see what can be more efficiently handled elsewhere. With a focus, and the time to spend, on increasing revenue and efficiency, it might make the difference between thriving and merely surviving in the tough times ahead.
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