If your business has suffered as a result of the effects of the pandemic, but you’ve managed to make it through to the other side, the commercial landscape looks very different. You are likely to be looking to change work patterns, hire – or rehire – staff, or reduce your office space. Whatever your plans, in the short-term, you’re also likely to be looking at reducing costs in order to achieve profit as soon as possible.
In the past, for most organisations looking to cut costs, one of the first budgets to come under scrutiny is the IT budget. But rather than seeing IT as a cost centre, at SDT we believe that, with sensible spending in the right areas, IT investment can be a real business driver that helps you recover from the effects of lockdown quickly.
Supporting hybrid working
One of the unforeseen outcomes of the pandemic is that many employers and employees have adopted new, more flexible ways of working. Many people will be expecting opportunities to continue working from home and investing in an agile IT infrastructure will play a major role in adapting to this. Whilst you may need to reduce budgets across the business as you come out of this crisis, IT investment is one area that can have a positive role in supporting productivity, efficient business growth and the ability to attract the right talent to your business.
Identify the IT investment needed to support the business priorities
By assessing your business priorities and estimating the levels of investment you’ll need to make in your IT systems to meet them, you can make sure you’re spending in the right areas and prioritise the changes and any investments.
For some SMEs, identifying the IT to support the business can be challenging. Often, the leadership team are too close to the business to take an objective view of what IT investment might be needed as well as being less aware of all of the options available as it is not part of their day-to-day roles.
Spending wisely on IT investment
This is when talking to an independent external specialist can help. At SDT, we’re used to carrying out exhaustive IT audits for clients and advising on how they can make their systems more efficient. By giving an objective view of your IT capabilities based on your business needs and objectives, we’ll aim to find cost savings that will release funds that can support your evolving business priorities.
Interested in reviewing your IT in the ‘new norm’? Talk to us
As your organisation wrestles with the new challenges of the post-pandemic age, you don’t need to call a halt on spending to develop your IT infrastructure accordingly. Instead, by working with reliable partners like SDT, you’ll be able to plan how you can use your IT investment more intelligently so you can adapt to this new business reality.
If you would like to speak to us about any aspect of this article, contact Andrew Wayman at andrew.wayman@sdt.co.uk or call our office on +44 (0)1344 870062.