Article Review: Six Smart Ways to Grow Small Business IT

A very interesting and appropriate article from PC World talks about how to improve and develop good IT infrastructure in small businesses. I thought this subject matter is especially appropriate as we are in an entrepreneurial class simultaneously with our IS/IT class. The article focused on how as a company grows its IT must grow as well. An analogy to clothing on a child was drawn to a firm’s IT. Imagine a large adult in infants clothing, t simply would not work. This happens to larger companies and it can cause a lot of time, money, and energy to fix and upgrade IT that is needed.
The author suggests that your need to change IT will occur a lot sooner than most expect. He suggests making sure that your small business budget has enough space for IT. He suggests budgeting approximately 10%-15% of salary per employee for IT each year. This seems a bit high and I would have to believe this depends on the type of company we are referring to, yet I am not the expert.
Planning your IT future is emphasized by the author. Small businesses can end up with to many different types of systems. Another trend for small businesses is to replace systems with new ones as opposed to updating or modifying the current hardware’s. The next recommendation is to make IT part of management. This step helps ensure good timing and cost structure from the owner to the employees. Taking care of basics is another issues important to small business IT. A hierarchy of needs can be used here, with information security as one of the priorities.
Choosing vendors wisely is crucial to small businesses in the early stages. A key to success, vendors and suppliers must be efficient and reliable. Continue learning is essential to success of any business. Finally the author offers us that a combination of enterprise IT and small business advantages one can ensure that a growing business is prepared for success.
I think this article offers owners of small businesses a good path for beginning to think about their IT. In today’s business world, IT is becoming evermore crucial and part of daily operations. The transfer of information, protecting information, and communicating within various sites all need to be managed by good IT systems. By taking a proactive approach to ensuring IT stability and preparedness one can begin to mitigate some of the risks of issues associated with information systems and business operations.

Sources: Widman, Jake. (2009). Six Smart Ways to Grow Small Business IT. PC World.