The 5 KPI's For ROI From IT
How to ensure your business's spend on IT is an investment, and never an expense
In the years we’ve been looking after businesses, we’ve noticed there are two different ways that owners and managers buy IT and technology.
We choose NOT to work with the first group. It never ends well!
Don’t get us wrong; all businesses have moments where every last penny counts. That’s fine in the short-term. The problem is when that becomes the long-term driver of the business, and all spending decisions are made by asking “what’s the cheapest way to do this?” We’d rather deal with the second group of people. Our existing clients fit into this category. This second group recognizes that IT is their infrastructure; the backbone to their business. And they don’t want to take any risks on the quality. No matter what kind of business you run, technology sits at the heart of it today. And it’s going to become more and more important in the future. Big thinkers see IT as a long-term investment.
They understand the link between the short-term impact to cash flow, and the enormous long-term benefits of business growth, increased productivity and highly satisfied staff and customers. If you’re nodding your head and agree with what we’ve just written, we really should talk – our businesses sound like a good fit. However, before you pick up the phone, here’s something else to think about. Just because our clients are big thinkers and are willing to invest doesn’t mean we don’t focus very hard on giving them an excellent ROI – Return On Investment. It’s a big thing for us when doing our technology planning and regular strategic reviews with clients. You've heard the saying, “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”.
So here are 5 technology KPIs – Key Performance Indicators - that you could use to ensure you’re getting your return...
It’s possible to forecast the costs of technology, and reduce the chances of “urgent, emergency spend”.
You have to do this over the long-term. Accurate forecasts come from investing in quality infrastructure that’s designed to accelerate growth and never hold it back. This is why you need a technology partner who’s deeply involved with your business and its long-term planning. If someone doesn’t understand where you’re going and why, how can they accurately advise on your technology?
This is an easy KPI to both understand and measure.
By tracking this, you encourage your IT partner to make realistic estimates about the length and cost of projects. Experienced IT professionals will not find it difficult to build in extra time and cost to account for foreseeable problems
It’s a common question most IT support companies get while talking to prospective new clients: How long will it take to solve problems?
The answer is “it depends”. We mean, it depends on the problem and the impact of it. All IT companies run a form of triage for problems that come in, just as emergency room doctors do in hospitals.You wouldn’t expect a broken arm to get the same amount of urgency and attention as a heart attack, because resources aren’t unlimited. It’s the same with technology issues. What’s important is your IT partner understanding which of your systems are critical to normal operations, and what’s just “annoying” when it doesn’t work properly for a short while. These boundaries should be established during onboarding with your new IT partner.
Downtime is when systems and devices are not available for your team to do their usual work.
There are two types of downtime – planned and unexpected.
Here’s what they mean in non-tech jargon.
They're both about the backing up of your data. Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is used to determine how often your data needs to be backed up. This will depend on how often it changes and how critical the data is. For example, if you were a bank, you’d want an RPO of 0 minutes. If a bank's system crashes, they need to be able to recover every single transaction that happened right up to the point of the crash. But let’s say you ran an architects’ office. Your staff might only save a few files a day. So, an RPO of 2 hours might be acceptable. It means in the event of a big crash, the worst amount of data that can be lost is 2 hours’ worth.
Setting an RPO is always a trade-off between cost and convenience. There are always clever solutions a good IT partner can create for you – for example backing everything up in real time within your office, then only sending it to a secure data center away from your office twice a day. Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is the length of downtime your business can tolerate until data recovery. Put another way, it’s how long you realistically have to restore full operations. Again, your critical systems will have a lower RTO than other systems. This is an important conversation to have with your IT partner.
Of course, there are other KPIs that you could measure to look even more deeply into your IT systems. But these are the ones we recommend starting with. Not only will they give you insight into how well your current infrastructure is working for you, but they will also tell you a lot about how well your IT provider is performing.
Would you like help figuring out the right technology KPIs for your business and how to measure them? We can help, Let's talk.
Some of Our Capabilities
About Us
Systems X provides IT solutions and strategic IT guidance with a human touch. Our purpose is to empower you to make better decisions with high-quality data and world-class service. Our creative thinking and purpose-driven solutions are the fundamental gears to guide the strategy that will connect your business with what’s next!!
COMPANY INFO
50801 E. Russell Schmidt Blvd
Chesterfield, MI 48051
Sales: (844) 448-1081
Service Desk: (586) 991-1050
DUNS No.: 79-009-7088
CAGE Code: 8YVR5
NAICS Codes: 541511, 541512, 541513, 541519, 517911, 611420
RESOURCES
© 2024 Systems X Corporation