Ensuring your internal IT is ready for strategic growth

The butt of the joke in many a comedy sketch, IT shouldn’t be a neglected department on the outer fringes of your company. The team and the systems they manage are integral to your operations, promoting productivity and protecting sensitive information against cyberattacks. Beyond that, their expertise is essential if you want to take your business to the next level.

However, many internal IT teams find themselves stuck in a cycle of problem-solving, able only to be reactive rather than proactive. Here’s how to make them ready to play a key role in strategic growth.

1. Conduct an audit

First things first: find out exactly how your internal IT staff are currently spending their time. Ask the team to accurately track their time for a minimum of a month, categorising tasks between operational maintenance, like fixing servers and strategic projects such as cloud migrations or improving cybersecurity.

Having this visibility will show you whether urgent requests are getting in the way of ongoing projects and help you find opportunities to improve efficiency.

2. Align with business objectives

Once you’ve helped the team free up their time for broader business efforts, align the department with your short- and long-term objectives. Identify goals that depend on improved IT systems and ensure resources, whether money or time, are appropriately allocated.

This will require crystal-clear internal comms between senior staff, your IT team and other key departments. Utilise your internal IT’s expertise and allow them to lead the way on technical recommendations for your objectives, as well as project management between departments.

3. Support your team

Is your team currently swamped with operational tasks? Don’t rush to hire more people. This risks low job satisfaction in your existing team, increasing the chance of people leaving and exacerbating your resources issue. Instead, consider using a managed service provider to handle repetitive day-to-day tasks.

Having managed IT services for specialised, time-consuming tasks such as migrations and security testing means you can have confidence your operations are running smoothly while giving your internal team the opportunity to refocus their valuable skills on innovative projects to further company growth. Especially for larger companies, this can be a more affordable and efficient option than taking on new staff.

4. Encourage development

Finally, a company is only as good as its people, so investing in your internal IT team is vital if you’re going to build a successful strategy. Technology is constantly evolving, and at a rapid pace, so having a department at the top of its game is key to futureproofing your business.

Encourage your team to continuously develop their skills, giving them the time and resources to pursue advanced courses and qualifications and research the latest changes in the sector. Give the team free rein to experiment with new technologies such as AI chatbots and encourage them to present their recommendations for use to ensure consistency across the wider company.