Organizational and department growth requires careful planning and a commitment to the future. While it can be easy for an enterprise to focus on business goals and strategies, failing to invest in enterprise IT modernization can have major consequences. Identify the importance of IT modernization before reviewing key steps to take to implement a plan in your organization. Discover how modernization can streamline your organization and help promote growth.
1. Define Enterprise IT Modernization
Updating IT infrastructure, strategies, and applications is a major strategy to help grow an enterprise and improve its efficiency. What is IT modernization? It’s a step-by-step process of improving the way your IT department operates. Here are some steps that make up the modernization process:
- Identify a new strategy to promote growth and organizational safety.
- Review IT systems to find legacy platforms and processes in need of updating.
- Allocate resources to IT structures and processes in a systematic, logical way.
- Continue to monitor the efficiency of IT systems.
IT doesn’t have to break or completely fail in order to be obsolete, inefficient, and in need of replacement. In a study of Chief Information Officers, Lenovo found that 57% would replace half of the technology at their company. This isn’t a decision IT leaders would make lightly. It highlights the importance of IT modernization to maintain a cutting edge.
2. Create a Modern IT Department Structure
Is your IT monitored and led by a single, centralized team? If it isn’t, then siloed IT resources and projects can cause miscommunication and inefficiencies throughout your organization. A key enterprise solution for modernizing IT structures is to centralize and organize all IT processes.
Restructure your organization to ensure all of your IT professionals have a clear mission, manager, and support network for fulfilling their goals. Enterprise IT modernization starts with a clear plan, so it’s important to stay on top of emerging changes in the optimal structure of your departments. Restructuring processes can understandably cause anxiety in some employees, so it’s important to communicate carefully and address any concerns during this step if restructuring is necessary to achieve your goals.
3. Synchronize Business and IT Strategies
As your various IT professionals, systems, and strategies are coming under the clear leadership and organization of a single IT department, review its overall strategy to ensure it aligns with your business strategy. This not only helps give your company a clear vision but can also highlight to stakeholders the importance of taking steps to modernize your IT infrastructure.
Is your enterprise IT modernization prioritizing the short- and long-term goals of your company? This can not only help you move forward with your goals but also see more clearly how investments in this department can add value to the rest of your organization.
4. Focus on Value-Adding Services
Innovation in your IT department has the ability to add value to your company. Depending on your organization and the products or services you provide, this value could be delivered in one or more of the following benefits:
- Improved network speed: Updated equipment, particularly optical networking equipment, can dramatically improve the speed of your network. While this is crucial for data centers and IT companies, any organization can benefit from rapid information transfer speeds.
- Increased IT safety: A modern network includes the latest safety features to avoid malware and other security breaches.
- Reduced cost: Improving the safety and efficiency of your process can reduce operational costs thanks to less time spent and reduced chances of data breaches.
- Enhanced product features: Modernizing your services to include cloud-based apps and other products can improve your interactions with your customers.
The specific benefits of your modernization process depend on your organization and your investment. Consult your aligned business and IT strategy at this stage to see where your time and investment is best spent in adding value to your organization and your customers.
5. Update Your Network
Enterprise IT modernization requires more than just a solid plan. In order to create a modern IT department structure, you must identify the areas of legacy technology that need to be updated to enjoy all the benefits of modernization. Unfortunately, a Forrester study of Chief Information Officers reported that only about 28% is spent on new projects in most organizations.
While you may not need to update all of the equipment in your network, your IT department should take careful stock of your cables, transceivers, and other equipment to determine the weak points in your network. Create a strategy for ongoing updates to continue to maintain quality equipment to power your network.
6. Streamline Applications
Cloud-based software-as-a-service is a critical component of enterprise IT modernization for most organizations. Perform a review of the applications and workflows in your company to see if you can harness the power of modern IT solutions to promote greater levels of efficiency.
Many IT applications can offer company-wide benefits. Adopting cloud-based SaaS solutions can reduce the time it takes to perform tasks in departments outside of IT. Some of these updates require an investment, but other solutions may only require cross-department communication to share the latest applications and workflows across your company.
7. Inspire Buy-in From Your Workforce
Modernization strategies and solutions will be difficult to implement if your workforce isn’t enthusiastic about these changes. While change in the workplace can be difficult, buy-in is essential for promoting the benefits of a modernized IT infrastructure. Here are some solutions for helping your employees take ownership of the process:
- Encourage ownership of new technologies
- Ask opinions about IT changes
- Address concerns about equipment updates and potential department restructuring
- Provide ample time for training
Modernize Your IT Department With Equal Optics
Whether taking the first small step toward enterprise IT modernization or investing in a significant overhaul, be sure you work with a reliable team to unleash the potential of your network. At Equal Optics, we offer full-service solutions tailored to enterprises looking to step into the future of IT. Contact us today to learn more about our comprehensive product line and personalized solutions for your enterprise.
Sources:
https://imaginovation.net/blog/what-is-digital-transformation-importance-for-businesses/
https://www.cio.com/article/228199/the-12-biggest-issues-it-faces-today.html
https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-106821
