IT Planning and Strategy img

Mapping Out Your IT Progression

What’s your plan for technology for this year? For next year? For the next 3 years? The next ten years? Regardless of whether you have a mature business that’s been running for years or if you’re just starting out, if you don’t have a plan for your technology, the sad truth is that you’re going to waste a lot of time and money on technology that may not be as efficient as it could be or even do what you need it to. Plans are critical to everything a business does. You have a plan for sales, marketing, operations, and sales. You need a plan for IT, too.

If you’ve never drafted an IT strategy or plan before, Wooden Spoon can help you just as we have done for dozens of other companies. We will help you translate industry standards into practical actions, and will work with you on everything from your initial infrastructure, security, and maintenance plans to your scaling strategies. With our recommendations, you’ll be able to create a reliable and secure network in a cost-effective way.

We use the following no-nonsense planning process:

Evaluate your current network, including your security posture and disaster resilience

Create a prioritized IT Roadmap and budget

Review the roadmap with your leadership team and align it with your business objectives and budget

Create a timeline for implementation of selected Roadmap items

Implement selected Roadmap items

Rinse and repeat

The Benefits of Having an IT Plan

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When you work with Wooden Spoon to create an IT strategy, you avoid a number of different issues:

You make researched, well-informed decisions, saving you money.

You buy only the equipment and license only the software you know you need.

There is less risk of hardware conflicts because you’ve planned out your infrastructure.

You have a plan not only for the present but also for the future.

There’s no buyer’s remorse—you know you need what you purchased, and you know it will provide what you need.

You’re able to take a more proactive approach rather than a reactive one.

There’s less guesswork involved. You know where your IT infrastructure is and where it’s going, so you’re better able to plan and budget for your future needs.

How Wooden Spoon Helps You Plan for the Future

How Wooden Spoon Helps You Plan for the Future img

When you engage with Wooden Spoon, one of the first things we will do is audit your current IT infrastructure. We will take inventory of all the hardware, software, and 3rd-party hosted services you’re using. Once we’ve done this, we will work with you to analyze the inventory, determine if you need everything you’re using, if any items need to be updated, and if you’re missing anything you ought to have.

The Benefits of an Outside Point of View

Wooden Spoon brings an outside point of view to your planning, which can be very helpful. You may be too close to truly see some of the issues with your IT infrastructure. Often, businesses fall into the trap of thinking that, well, we’ve always done it this way, so it’s the right way. By bringing in someone who hasn’t spent any time with your network, you can avoid being blind to these types of issues.

What about new businesses?

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If you’re starting a new business, there may not be anything to audit yet. Instead, we will sit down with you and discuss your IT needs. From these discussions, we will create a proposed infrastructure that will meet your current needs and be scalable for future needs.

Plan for the future

Once we’ve brought your existing infrastructure in alignment with our proposed roadmap or created a new infrastructure for you, we can start creating an IT roadmap for the future. This will include any upgrades as well as potential changes to meet your anticipated needs. For example, if you plan on opening a remote office or having remote employees, we’ll make sure your current plan is designed to accommodate such changes, and we’ll help you budget for any expenses you’re likely to incur during such an expansion.
By having a roadmap for the next year and beyond, you’ll have a much better idea of what expenses are coming up so you can budget accordingly.

Plans can change

A vital part of your IT plan is that it’s not set in stone. While you don’t want to change it impulsively or often, no plan of any sort can truly account for everything. We will schedule regular IT roadmap reviews with your leadership team to ensure that the plan continues to meet your needs. If you had a disaster or were forced to pivot to new business objectives, your IT plan needs to be modified to address those events and changes.

We will do our best to incorporate everything you’ve already spent money on, but there are times when some things may have to be abandoned in order to build the strongest infrastructure possible. Our goal is to always provide you with the most secure and efficient system, though, and sometimes that does mean your current technology is no longer usable.

You Need More than One Plan

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While this initial roadmap will see that your IT infrastructure continues to evolve in the right ways, it’s not the only IT strategy you need. Here are several other plans Wooden Spoon will help you develop:

Security

Your security plan is designed to protect all of your systems and data from cyberattacks, malware, and even physical theft. We use and advise our clients to use one of the widely available, industry standard security frameworks to guide.

Because cyber security is an ever-evolving field, your security plan may need to be revised more often than your general IT infrastructure strategy. Any time a new vulnerability or security issue arises, it needs to be dealt with quickly. We will create a plan that is both proactive and responsive to deal with cyber threats.

Disaster and continuity plans

What will you do if you are hacked? How will you recover if your office is damaged in a storm? Disaster and continuity plans are essential if you want to restore operations as quickly as possible. You should—time is money, and every minute you can’t access your data is a minute you’re not making money.

Recovery plans should cover a wide range of potential disasters. They need to be as detailed as possible and outline who is responsible for what, what and where employees should go following the disaster, how customers and the press should be notified, and what you’ll do to restore your business.

In some cases, you’ll want to outline both temporary and permanent plans. For example, if your office is damaged in an earthquake, your temporary solution may be for employees to work from home, while your permanent plan may be to repair the building or move to a new location. Without any sort of plan like this, employees won’t know what to do, customers may switch to a competitor, and your company will lose money.

A maintenance schedule

You’ll want to create a maintenance plan that will ensure that the hardware and software you’re using continues to function as it should. We classify preventative maintenance as a separate service because it is very involved, but it’s also necessary to avoid unexpected downtime and expensive repairs. Visit our preventative maintenance page to learn more about it and how you can benefit from having a maintenance plan in place.

The Wooden Spoon Process

What can you expect from Wooden Spoon? Here’s a look at our process.

  • 1

    Consultation and Evaluation

When you first reach out to Wooden Spoon, we’ll go through a consultation phase. We want to learn all about you and your business. After we have a good idea about your needs and wants, we’ll talk strategy. You need a good plan before you can do anything. We want to know where you’ve been and where you want to go. We’ll go over your current technology infrastructure carefully to get an idea of what’s working and what you may need to change.

  • 2

    Planning

From there, we can outline the technology you’ll need to support your business, both now and in the future. We’ll design a plan to ensure that you have the resources necessary to be successful. Our goal is to build a solid foundation you can expand upon when needed.

We’ll also build out a security plan. Cyberattacks happen. We’re now at the point where it’s almost a given that someone will try to hack your business at least once. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, how big you are, or how much money you handle—everyone is a target. We’ll put together a plan to protect your data that will cover everything from firewalls to properly configured hardware and updated software. We’ll also regularly re-evaluate this plan and your infrastructure for new vulnerabilities and make recommendations as needed.

Finally, you’ll want to look at continuity plans. These plans cover more than a downed server or loss of internet. You want to consider what you’ll do if data is stolen or if an employee misplaces a laptop full of sensitive information. You need to even look into what you would do if a fire took out your entire physical location or an earthquake destroyed the cloud servers that house your data. We’ll help you plan for just about everything from misplaced flash drives to the AI apocalypse (we plan on welcoming our new robot overlords with open arms!).

  • 3

    Implementation

After we’ve helped you draw up plans for your IT infrastructure, it’s time to implement that plan. This can include a number of different things, such as the following:

  • Optimize the performance of your computers and network
  • Optimize your cloud-based services
  • Enable your staff to securely work remotely
  • Provide additional support to your internal IT team
  • Train end-users to spot cyberattacks, scams, and phishing attempts
  • Address any staff complaints and IT issues
  • Implement support for employees, customers, and other users
  • Provide a ticketing system
  • Install system management tools
  • Manage hardware inventory
  • Document hardware lifecycle and implement a preventative maintenance schedule
  • Formulate necessary IT policies, including security policies

We will keep you up to date with progress every step of the way, and you and your internal IT team will be as involved as you want to be.

  • 4

    Maintenance and Support

Once your new IT infrastructure is in place, we move into support mode. We will put together a lifecycle management and preventative maintenance plan to ensure that your hardware and software are retired before it can start causing issues. We assist you with putting out any fires that crop up, plus we will regularly evaluate your plans and make any changes needed to keep them in line with your overall business strategy. If you have to pivot due to sudden changes in your industry or the economy, we will work with you to revamp your IT plan.

  • 5

    Budget

Many people make the mistake of assuming that outsourcing their IT is going to be more expensive than hiring their own team. It’s typically not. Hiring individuals carries with it a number of indirect costs in addition to paying their salaries. You have to cover insurance, taxes, and other costs, first of all. You also need to have a space for them to work and equipment for them to use. You may even have to deal with higher utility costs.

Wooden Spoon provides you with a set, regular IT cost. You’ll know exactly what you’re paying each month, and that cost will not change unless you need to change the services we’re handling for you.