We put our IT projects on hold during the GFC and now we need to ramp them up – but where do we start?

Have I mentioned productivity lately? I’m pretty sure I have and I’m about to again.

Your priority with IT should be to build productivity first and foremost, but it is time I expanded on that and outlined three key functions of IT:

• Access to data.
• Security of data.
• Recoverability of data.

Applications help us manage and access information in a meaningful way, but just for a moment let’s look at project priority from a simplistic view because it serves a purpose in setting priorities in a sensible fashion.

In Australia, more than in many places in the world, we worry about access to data over the other two priorities – security and recoverability. The articles here and here are prime examples.

As you set priorities for IT projects you need to balance your budget and resources across each of the three areas of IT management.

On the topic of access you’ll need to consider these factors:

• Local networks.
• Wide area networks.
• Infrastructure (storage and processors).
• Applications (these will vary across all functions of business activity from communication to design, finance and so on).

On security you’ll need to consider:

• Perimeter defence of your data (stopping the public from accessing private systems).
• Internal protection from your own staff (reducing inappropriate leaks of internal information).
• Removing threats from spam, scripts and hackers.

On recoverability you’ll need to consider:

• Maintenance and storage of multiple versions of your previous data.
• Recovery platforms and methodologies.
• Recovery timeframes and their business impact.

As you consider those components you will discover multiple constraining factors, including resources to manage and run the projects, and finances.

With the skills shortage we’re now encountering money alone will not solve the problem, because large organisations running large IT projects are drawing IT skills out of the SME market.

Solving one part of the problem without addressing the other two will not drive the required benefit without significantly increasing risk.

If we bring it back to productivity we need to identify the key impediments to growth and then design robust, secure, redundant and recoverable systems to fill the gaps that will drive productivity the hardest.

Let me elaborate on that using an example from my own business.

We had a good team and were winning awards for our service delivery, innovation and business growth – but we needed to be more profitable.

For us the key to profitability was productivity and scalability, so we invested in a job management system to get the scalability.

Then we set up the software and captured large amounts of data and finally we put in place robust security systems and a state-of-the-art online backup tool. Problem solved.

After that investment we were ready for a lot more work so we looked at our sales and marketing systems and improved the way we went to market and the use of our CRM system. It was already cloud-based so we didn’t need to worry about security or recoverability because it was already built in.

Sales and marketing started driving increased demand and then we had a delivery problem.To deal with that we modified our job-handling systems, split our help desk strategically and introduced account management staff and systems.

All that business development hinged on managing data and changing business processes, but in each case priorities were set according to the gap in the business, after careful analysis of the gap.

So where are your gaps now and how will you remove them AND address risk reduction at the same time?

David Markus is the founder of Combo - the IT services company that ensures IT is never an impediment to growth.