If you aren’t careful, your organization’s IT capabilities may fall behind your competitors. You may wonder what happened. Avoid being on the “bleeding edge” buying every technology as soon as it is released, but your IT advisors may be holding you back out of their own best interests.
Take charge of IT. Many IT departments, including outsourced IT support companies, by nature, are focused on keeping systems up and running, on avoiding problems, and keeping your existing technology running. When you need to upgrade your IT systems, they generally try to stretch your existing technology grow with your business.
They will often avoid changes that involve making big changes in the way your IT systems function. They are already “too busy” with other tasks taking care of your system the way it is; even if your system is terribly out of date.
Often, IT professionals are more focused on tactics than on strategy. This is exacerbated when you reward them after they “fix” what is “broken.”
For example, workstation virtualization technologies might help your business tremendously—or not. It is sure worth finding out, and you may need to bring in a workstation virtualization specialist for the implementation.
Guess what else: IT professionals, at least the ones confident about their abilities, appreciate your taking an active role in making strategic decisions. Take the reins.