Is your IT Partner driving you forward?

Were you able to get employees working remotely? Could your people access the network from outside the building? Did you have the bandwidth – both network and resource – to troubleshoot and keep customers happy while keeping your employees safe?

For a surprising amount of businesses, that important organisational pivot only came through reactive work alongside incumbent IT partners. Even if plans were previously afoot for digitalisation and modernisation programmes, they were often not far enough along or yet to begin when Covid-19 hit the UK.

Legacy systems, an inability to work remotely, resistance to change, IT operations that had been patched together in-house – these challenges are very real for many businesses. And they become a real roadblock when those businesses start looking to modernise their organisation’s ways of working.

The true cost of outdated IT

Today, 80% of the world’s corporate data resides in mainframes running technology that is more than half a century old. The complexity of these outdated systems can account for as much as 25% of ongoing maintenance costs. SMEs face this same challenge too – they’re often locked into a cycle where they spend their precious IT budget maintaining legacy systems rather than enabling the organisation.

Many companies realize that updating their systems would make them more agile and help them grow, but they don’t know where to start or they face internal resistance to making progress. Due to several barriers, tech adoption becomes slow or nonexistent.

A lack of in-house technical leadership or an IT provider that’s purely transactional leads to stagnant IT systems and a build-up of technical debt, resulting in suboptimal systems. By focusing on the transaction rather than the organisation’s strategic aspirations, these IT providers are actually holding back their clients – the inevitable result is ongoing inefficiencies in both operations and budget.

So, is it time to reassess your strategic IT partner?

The power of IT as a managed service

A transactional IT provider will focus only on what you tell them you need. A true consultative partner in IT services, however, will identify the ways to amplify your business performance by improving your operational IT infrastructure to empower your people.

But, more than that, an IT partner should help you to create an IT strategy and drive its implementation, leading your business forward and ensuring its resilience in the face of uncertainty

By working with a partner for IT managed services, you get experts to help you plan your infrastructure, quickly address any issues, and deliver a phased implementation plan that maximises business value. This partner will collaborate with you to create an IT roadmap that aligns with your goals and improves your business performance over time.

These partnerships also provide valuable visibility into your organization. A strong partner is immersed in the industry and can identify new technologies that might benefit your business or find technologies that need to be retired early to prevent future IT debt. They work to understand your bigger picture, ensuring any short-term decisions are not going to hinder the long-term goal.

A proactive IT partner can help you find headroom

A consultative and proactive IT partner can help you reassess the value that technology can bring to your organisation. This can reduce costs and risks while enabling your people and business to be more effective.

To do this, it’s important to take some time to evaluate your current state and plan for the future. Ask yourself:

1. Are your IT systems and processes suitable for the current and future business environment?
2. What are the critical business processes, and how does technology support them? What could you not do without?
3. What do you believe is holding you back?
4. How will you bring people with you on your organisation’s technology journey?

An IT partner that puts you in the driver’s seat

If you’re working with the right partners and the right tools, your business can both survive and thrive through any uncertainty and beyond. At Thinc, we’ve helped hundreds of businesses across the country to be more effective and more resilient.