“You come into work in the morning with confidence that your backups ran last night, that your data is secure from hackers, hurricanes and hard-drive failures. You sit down at your computer. Your inbox is uncluttered, your browsing snappy and your business applications responsive. Your technology investment is reasonable and predictable, enhances your productivity and gives you a competitive edge.”
Is “IT Utopia” attainable? I just google’d utopia synonyms and came up with Shangri-la, bliss and pie in the sky, among others. So, frankly, no, IT utopia is, as you surmised, an oxymoron, akin to “government efficiency.” I also google’d utopia antonyms and came up with…hell. Is “IT Hell” attainable? You bet. I have multiple, sure-fire prescriptions, but will save them for another posting (I was thinking of calling it “Putting the Hell into Helpdesk,” but that’s just a working title). However, I would like to suggest that there are real-world, affordable, small-business strategies that can dramatically tip the balance away from “IT Hell” towards “IT Utopia.” So please join me as I begin a handful of posts in which I will attempt to succinctly spell out some practical steps towards maximizing your IT investment while minimizing your IT expenditure.
So feel free to hit me with questions, comments, suggested topics or “jargon alerts” if I drift off into techno-babble! Tune in next week for “Pay Now or Pay Later.” It’ll be cool…no seriously.