How’s the status quo working for you?

If your enterprise has changed much in recent years – and what company hasn’t? – your IT infrastructure could be suffering from growing pains or just lagging behind your desire to grow. That may be merely frustrating right now, but you can bet it will blossom into a significant problem, left unchecked. An IT infrastructure assessment could prevent your company from becoming sidelined just when economic times are finally looking up.

You know you can’t make any sound decision without comprehensive information. You wouldn’t embark on a new initiative or authorize a major expense without being certain it’s what you need or without realistic expectations regarding how it will facilitate or support your overall business goals.

So consider these possible scenarios:

• If you’re thinking about any change to your IT arrangements, no matter how small it may seem, conducting an IT infrastructure assessment before you move forward can confirm you’re making the right move.

• If you’ve already undergone significant corporate change in recent times, whether deliberately put in place or the natural result of corporate expansion, an IT infrastructure assessment will show whether your IT systems and procedures have kept up with those changes. And if they’re future-capable, too.

• Perhaps you’re curious about new technology options. It’s a whole new IT world out there, and you want to investigate to be sure you aren’t falling behind or missing out on valuable opportunities to streamline and save money. You can’t afford to allow your competition to outsmart you behind the scenes.

• Or, if you’re like a growing number of large global enterprises, things aren’t going as smoothly as they used to in the IT department. Your legacy systems don’t accommodate the latest technologies or the huge growth in data and its sources and usage patterns. Key staff members are aging out, too, and less experienced replacements don’t understand your older systems. You know you need change. But what? An IT infrastructure assessment will show you the way.

• Your company is poised for a major redirection in strategic focus. You need to know the IT implications and opportunities associated with transformational change.

You can’t expect your company to meet short- or long-term goals without knowing where you stand now. Analyzing the current situation is the first step in any decision-making or planning process.

When was the last time you conducted a thorough IT infrastructure assessment?

Possibly never. Even if you have attempted to analyze your IT systems in the past, you probably looked at it in terms of what-we-have vs. what-we-need – primarily tangibles like hardware and software, maybe physical space or labor if you’ve been growing rapidly or expanding markets. And you probably compared costs of purchasing various products.

But did you really look at all your costs? It’s surprisingly easy to overlook indirect expenses that can have a substantial impact on your true total cost of ownership. An IT infrastructure assessment draws a complete picture.

Because the IT landscape has changed so dramatically in recent years, it’s more important than ever to re-assess and re-evaluate your company’s capabilities. If you haven’t considered outsourcing before, you’ll want to do that now, too, because the options are many and they can lead to greater productivity and more manageable costs.

The bottom line is this: every enterprise could use a detailed IT infrastructure assessment – to ensure you’re handling everything as efficiently as possible now and that you’re strongly positioned for a dynamic future.

Photo credit: mathplourde via Flickr