Normal business pressures make it hard for small to medium
sized enterprises (SMEs) like yours to stand back and investigate
how you view and use information and communications technology
(ICT). It’s almost certainly harder to find out how your peers and
competitors make similar use of ICT.
The good news for
you is that Computer Weekly (CW), in association with BT, knows
precisely what the ICT issues are in companies such as yours,
thanks to an exclusive audit of the UK’s SME community carried out
in October. From the audit, some findings were very apparent: most
companies like yours have very clear ideas about what ICT can do
for your businesses, but a significant number do not have any
formal strategy with which to realise these plans. A fundamental
requirement is that ICT has to be aligned to your business needs to
be successful. Thus your company has to be aware of the business
management issues that relate to ICT.
Any effective ICT
implementation will place an extra burden on your existing network
infrastructure and so there will be significant network management
issues that you need to face up to so that you get the best from
your ICT investment. Be assured that there exists a number of
technologies that will help you in this area.
Yet you and your
business need also to face up to your financial responsibilities.
By virtue of your company’s size, you will most likely not be in
the position to recover quickly from ostentatious expenditure. It
is imperative that you quantify the cost of ICT, looking at the
total cost of ownership. It is also incumbent on you to calculate a
well-defined return on investment path.
In calculating
these issues you must factor in the cost of supporting a robust and
reliable infrastructure. This means being aware of, and investing
in, the latest security technology that can protect your business
from internal and external threats. It also means, in a growing
number of cases, the ability to protect your revenue streams. A
good example is to support transactional online offerings in an
effective and secure manner.
Then there’s the
thorny issue of how you are going to make sure that your staff are
capable of realising the benefits of ICT. You should have a clear
idea of what strategies you can adopt with regard to training,
understanding who in your company decides on training and where
training resources are employed with respect to your overall
strategy.
Regulatory issues
will also affect your ICT requirements. The government’s flexible
working initiative will theoretically change the way in which all
firms practise their trade. What ramifications will there be from
this legislation for companies like yours? What will it mean for
your ICT department to support home working? More important are the
legal and regulatory issues that could seriously affect the basic
running of your company. You should know about the ramifications of
the Data Protection Act, both in terms of process and technology.
You should know the penalties for misuse of the internet and email,
and you should be aware of what a failure to audit your ICT
resources could lead to.
This supplement
will look in depth at all of these issues. We will offer you
knowledge of the essential business management practices that will
enable you to make best use of your current ICT and we will also
predict what will be available in the near to mid future, looking
at what ICT is about to arrive and what its relevance is to your
company. In short, we will give you the intelligence to better run
your company, address the needs of your customers and stay ahead of
your competitors.
Click here for SME supplement homepage Part Three >>
Click here for SME supplement homepage Part Two >>
Click here for SME supplement homepage Part One >>
Click here for Part Three of the SME supplement
>>
BT SME Month >>