What’s involved in “acquiring information technology?”
It’s easy enough to define it as shopping for computers and peripherals. All you need to do is seek and find the vendor with the best price and delivery.
But then ask yourself, who is going to install those computers and peripherals? Who will teach your people how to use them? Answer their questions and solve their problems?
Beyond that, who is going to figure out how to get the most out of them? What to add next? Figure out how to improve upon them?
And what does “improve upon them” look like? Is it simply more, bigger, better, faster?
No. It’s not.
Acquiring IT is not the same as shopping for hardware and software. It’s about bringing your company new strategic advantages that turn into increased profits and growth.
The IT Acquisition Process
Almost every step of the process of acquiring new information technologies to improve your business has a cost.
Step 1 – Someone has an idea. A new way to automate production, or to improve marketing, or to enhance some other business function. So far so good! That didn’t cost anything. This is the one step that doesn’t…
Step 2 – You now know what you want to do, but you’re not exactly sure how you’re going to accomplish it. You instinctively know you’re going to need some new information technologies to enable it, but you’re not a technology specialist, so you’re not sure where to start. Literally everybody has advice for you, but you really have no way of knowing who’s right. You need advice from someone who you can have confidence knowing that they know what they’re talking about. That’s going to cost.
Step 3 – Okay, so now you know what you need and somebody is going to have to invest some time shopping for it. That’s going to cost, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll find the best possible price. Not only that, you only have a general sense of what you need. You need a technology expert to specify exactly what models and capacities you’re going to need to buy. That’s going to cost.
Step 4 – The equipment and the software arrive. You have people who think they can install all this themselves. More often than not, they are wrong.
Step 5 – You finally accept that your people are completely lost. That cost plenty. Now you have to go out and find someone who knows what they’re doing and can install it all for you. Yes, more cost.
The Secret Ingredient – Trust
That approach, all too often the one undertaken by companies, is not only inefficient, it’s costly and failure-prone. The better approach to IT acquisition only has one step:
Step 1 – Find experts you can trust.
Face the fact that neither you nor your well-meaning advisors are in the IT business. It’s simply not what you or they do for a living. As well-meaning as they may be, most armchair IT advisors only repeat what they’ve experienced, which is very likely limited and almost definitely not your best strategy.
The best way to reduce the cost of IT acquisition, and at the same time increase the return on your investment over the long term, is to start by identifying an expert IT resource you can trust and have them guide your entire process.
Trust: What to Look For
Begin by thinking long-term. Look for an IT expert company that you can be confident will be there to support you and what you purchase from them for years to come.
Thinking long-term goes both ways. Look back and examine their track record. How long have they been providing IT products and services? How many references can they provide from highly satisfied customers? How long has their average customer remained with them?
Examine the caliber of their professional staff. What are their certifications and education? How deep is their experience?
Find out if they are there to advise you regarding the most effective strategies, or if they are there to sell you on a specific vendor’s products. The best will be able to assist you in the actual procurement of hardware and software at highly competitive prices based on relationships they’ve developed over years. The very best will always demonstrate that they have your best interests at heart, and nobody else’s.
Synoptek
Focused on helping customers optimize the synergies between operations and technology, Synoptek has been providing expert consulting, engineering, management, training and support services for almost 25 years, and today serve 25 major markets around the country. Recognized by Talkin’ Cloud as one of the Top 100 Cloud Service Providers and also among the Top 15 Managed Service Providers according to MSPMentor, Synoptek bases its reputation on the recognition, confidence, and trust placed in us by thousands of satisfied clients.
Looking to reduce your cost of IT acquisition? Start by talking to a Synoptek representative.