The IT Strategy and Risk Assessment can align your business and IT goals and help grow your business.
Table of Contents
- Why IT Assessments Matter
- IT Strategy And Risk Assessment Origins
- What Is An IT Strategy And Risk Assessment
- The Start Of A Beautiful Relationship
- What’s Included In An IT Strategy And Risk Assessment
- Know Where Your Business Stands
- Have Your Infrastructure Assessed This Year
WHY IT ASSESSMENTS MATTER
Managing growth in an IT environment can become very complicated very quickly.
Advance2000 has seen organizations scramble to scale their IT systems to keep up with rapid growth. Eventually those businesses reach a point when their data is at risk but they don’t know how to proceed.
We’ve also seen firms experience executive turnover and new CIOs/IT managers inherit an infrastructure they know nothing about.
IT STRATEGY AND RISK ASSESSMENT ORIGINS
We’ve talked with countless numbers of stressed stakeholders searching for an IT firm to help assess their infrastructure. Advance2000’s VP of Sales, Jad Maouad, recalls how we repeatedly saw the need for an IT Assessment. This led to the creation of our own offering, Advance2000’s IT Strategy and Risk Assessment.
“In my 30 plus years in the IT field, I have come to realize how important it is for an organization to get an unbiased outside look on their internal IT operations.” Maouad said, “We created this IT Assessment to give owners, C level executives and IT managers a true picture of how their Information Technology compares with industry best practices: the good, the bad, and the ugly, so to speak.”
Advance2000 engineers developed a thorough vendor-agnostic evaluation that can be conducted in any industry. But we did not want a cut and dried IT evaluation like any other, rather, we include recommendations to align with the client’s business goals. The Advance2000 IT Strategy and Risk Assessment was created with the primary objectives to evaluate the customer’s IT systems’ capabilities, efficiency, security and overall design, and then make recommendations that align IT best practices with the business goals and objectives.
WHAT IS AN IT STRATEGY AND RISK ASSESSMENT?
Andrew Tamchyna, an Advance2000 Solution Architect, explains why our offering stands out among other IT Assessments in the industry. “Our IT Strategy and Risk Assessment encompasses the development of a report–and ultimately a presentation–that highlights all the findings for their environment and recommendations based on industry best practices.”
Our IT Assessment provides our clients a true unbiased outside evaluation, and our assessment does not include any brand specific solutions. We only report the actions that should be taken to achieve the best outcome for the client.
“The IT Assessment is not geared towards Advance2000 products or services,” Tamchyna continued, “It’s meant to be taken in any direction the customer chooses.” If a customer wants their own internal IT department to perform the tasks, the roadmap is theirs to keep and reference. If a customer even wants to shop around at other IT firms, they are welcome to do that. Our recommendations are vendor-agnostic to allow other IT professionals (internal or otherwise) or other vendors to see what actions need to be taken and quote their preferred solutions to address those needs.
THE START OF A BEAUTIFUL RELATIONSHIP
Our IT Strategy and Risk Assessment is a stand-alone service with no additional commitments. However, once a customer works with our team, we quickly develop a rapport. “We show our value and expertise during this assessment,” Tamchyna said, “and it gives us a perfect picture of who they are so we can ensure all of our subsequent proposals, quotes, and other future engagements are accurate and appropriate. We can do a better job quoting to that customer in the future because we know their system inside and out. Other vendors might throw proposals at them that they might not need or conflict with their environment because that vendor doesn’t know them, but we do.”
Often, our IT Strategy and Assessments lead to continued partnerships between a client and ourselves, either as their full time IT provider or to supplement their existing IT department. It’s not uncommon that we will host their servers, desktops, or phones to ease the burden on their IT departments. Our working relationships with internal IT teams provide expert support for specific projects that require short-term additional man-hours.
WHAT’S INCLUDED IN AN IT STRATEGY AND RISK ASSESSMENT
Our IT Strategy and Risk Assessment begins by meeting with the stakeholders: a business owner, CEO/CIO, or IT Director. During this initial interview, we identify any pain points which helps us design a custom fit assessment for each client. As previously mentioned, there are several reasons for an IT assessment; it’s important to understand the “why” in order to deliver on our clients’ needs.
Assuming we are conducting a full-scale assessment and not one tailored to specific needs, it will cover the following:
– Gather and analyze system configurations – Gather and analyze financial data from contracts, purchases, and services – Identify critical applications and vital data impacting the network – Measure and document network performance and functionality – Evaluate network availability, capacity and demand – Configuration and Change Management | – Assess Network Architecture – Interview IT and business managers – Create a network topology map – Generate an inventory of technology assets – Develop a comprehensive report on findings and make recommendations for improvement – Provide roadmap based on findings and recommendations – Present our findings and recommendations with the client |
Each IT Strategy and Risk Assessment includes a deliverable report. This bound report offers a detailed view of the network and includes individual hardware, software and network service inventories for every host on the network. The overall size of the report varies depending on the size of the network assessed.
The sections and appendixes included are:
KNOW WHERE YOUR BUSINESS STANDS
In 2019 we helped several organizations assess the health of their business IT infrastructure.
A roofing company grew faster than the single-IT Manager could keep up. They chose us to perform an IT Strategy and Risk Assessment to evaluate their rapidly expanding environment and verify it could scale with their business according to best practices. They chose us to implement the immediate assessment recommendations so their IT Manager could continue to manage the day to day operations. Once the infrastructure was redesigned to handle the business’s demands, the IT Manager stopped worrying about system vulnerabilities and was fully empowered to properly scale their network moving forward.
A healthcare services facility was planning a move to a new office and uncertain how to transition their equipment. They didn’t know if some older equipment was worth moving at all. The IT assessment evaluated their existing network and created a baseline “snapshot” of their current infrastructure. These findings enabled them to decommission outdated equipment, host their workstations and servers with Advance2000, and clean up their software and network services. We provided on-premise support for their new office to ensure their new infrastructure deployment was clean, organized and successful.
An engineering firm hired us for a complete assessment of their IT environment. The company assigned all recommended assessment tasks to their internal IT department, who collaborated seamlessly with Advance2000. We performed their cloud upgrades, migrated their employees to Office 365, and took over managing the firm’s network licenses. The division of the labor helped the engineering firm get their environment to a healthy place quickly and not lose employee productivity during the process.
HAVE YOUR INFRASTRUCTURE ASSESSED THIS YEAR
Don’t wait until something goes wrong with your computer, phones, or servers to contact us. Call us today about an IT assessment and give us the details of your situation. Every Advance2000 IT Strategy and Risk Assessment is designed based on the needs and size of your organization. We’ll tailor an IT assessment for you and put you on the path to a healthy business environment.
