Maximizing outsourced IT? Don’t fight human nature! Or at least, don’t kid yourself that waging such a fight will be effective to any extent. CRMs hold the promise of maximizing collaboration across an enterprise and putting the knowledge of the entire firm at the fingertips of each and every salesperson working there; they can be a key component of Monetizing IT…! Of course, there are critical responsibilities for IT staff and vendors in making a CRM launch successful… But to fully realize the vision and potential of a CRM, a company’s senior leadership must do its part to set the stage and nurture a culture in which the team will WANT to operate in a way that a CRM can empower.
A key part successful digital transformation is assessing the needs and opportunities of organizations to ensure that the chosen strategy is the optimal path. Executives are justified in concerns about change, but with the pace of innovation being what it is in today’s economy, doing nothing is often actually more risky in many industries. Concerns about information security are legitimate, of course, but those countermeasures are table stakes in their own right, and many approaches to Digitalization do not raise security risks. Find extra info on IT strategy insights for small business.
A thing any CEO should know about cybersecurity: Cyber-attacks and security breaches will occur and will negatively impact your business. Today, the average cost of the impact of a cyber breach is $4.9 million. It is vital that CEOs establish the appropriate cybersecurity “tone at the top” for their respective organization, regarding the importance of information security and how cybersecurity is everyone’s shared responsibility in a truly digital world. Establishing an organizational “culture of cybersecurity” has proven to be one of the best defenses against cyber adversaries. It is the people, not the technology, which can either be an organization’s greatest defense, or its weakest link against a cyber-attack.
Any business should want to have an IT consultant! IT consulting offers multiple benefits to both small and large organizations. Businesses benefit from their wealth of expertise and experience in handling technical tasks. Unfortunately, many business owners wait until they experience a crisis to hire experts. Such an approach may lead to irreversible damage, especially in the case of a security breach. The best approach is to hire consultants regularly to ensure that a business has the best systems in place. Explore even more details on fractional CIO.
The experts at Innovation Vista have brought our expertise together to collaborate on a unique approach to technology that we call Innovating Beyond Efficiency. Traditional IT strategies yield many efficiencies for organizations which invest time and effort into them. Processes are automated, systems are implemented to gather key organization data, and reports are standardized to analyze and communicate that data. These are valuable gains for an organization, and many of these capabilities have risen to the level of requirements for operating in the 21st century. Efficiency is nice.
Transitions can be among the most daunting and complex business events for leaders to navigate, and it is often the technology aspects of the change which lead to failure. For this reason, providing Transitional IT Leadership is one of Innovation Vista’s core service offerings. Our experienced consultants have been involved with multiple transitions of various kinds, and bring their expertise to bear on our clients’ challenges: Turnaround of failing companies or IT departments; Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A); Transition to new business models or markets; Change in exit strategy – private equity and IPO strategies; Interim IT leadership to coach successor or as preparatory to M&A. Transition events bring a unique set of challenges which not only add to, but significantly complicate, the ongoing workload involved with successfully operating an IT platform. Other organizations have an interest in unique longer-term IT leadership arrangements: Virtual CIOs – who fill the traditional CIO role as the “head of Information Technology” as a consultant, often part-time &/or remote; Fractional CIOs – who fill the role of CIO for 2 or more organizations at the same time. These structures don’t make sense for every organization, but they may offer a nice solution for some small and midsize companies seeking experienced leadership for lower compensation costs than they would have traditionally paid a full-time CIO. Find even more info on Innovation Vista.