Are you worried about your businesses ability to grow? You have all of the required tools for success, a strong product, a highly qualified staff, and an extensive marketing plan. Yet, the rapid growth of your business will put a strain on your technological capabilities. You do not have the background of an information technology professional and you are worried about your ability to keep up with necessary IT aspects of the business. The following information technology factors should be considered when planning to grow a business.
Security and confidentiality
Confidentiality is an extremely important aspect of any business. It does not matter if you are in the real estate business, restaurant industry, or even credit card processing services. Customers expect their information to remain confidential, despite the type of business they work with. Cloud hosting provides businesses with dedicated cloud servers for increased security and confidentiality. The best dedicated server hosting can protect various important documents, including customer credit card information, customer records, and even Email of both customers and the staff.
Increased storage needs
As you grow your business, you will also be tasked with the storage of many more important documents. Security and confidentiality is only one aspect of this storage system. Your IT storage database also has to have the ability to store this much information. If you rapidly increase in size, it may be difficult to keep up with the storage needs. Do not let a simple problem like storage hinder your ability for business growth.
The cloud can be an extremely effective storage method. There is unlimited space available and you will find that it also meets your security and confidentiality needs. If given the choice of only being able to move one application to the cloud, 25% of respondents would choose storage. However, if possible the cloud should be used for all forms of IT needs, including Email, storage of documents, and security and confidentiality of all records.
Internet service capability
As your business grows, you will find an increased need for internet usage. You will likely hire additional staff and these staff will be equipped with computers and internet capable devices. Your staff will need the internet to place orders, create digital marketing campaigns, and utilize communication modes like Email and social media forms. If you do not properly prepare for this growth, it is possible that your current internet servers are unable to keep up.
You will find that your employees have difficulty connecting to internet based devices. Your customers may have trouble with placing orders or with slow internet speeds when visiting your website. There may even be time outs when customers are attempting to place an online order or schedule a service time with your company. Failing to keep up with internet usage and speed needs can directly impact the success of your business growth, by losing large numbers of customers.
Keeping up with SEO
Expanding your business also means that you are opening up your competition. Smaller businesses may only compete with local businesses, but as you grow, your competition base also becomes nation wide businesses. With a larger competition base, you also need to increase your SEO marketing plan. This may include an increase in SEO content, keyword placement, or Email marketing plans. Your current Email marketing may need to be shifted to include audiences across the world, rather than just local. With 59% of marketers planning to increase their email marketing budgets for 2015, it is important that your email marketing is just as strong.
Growing a business is a goal and dream of many small business owners. However, many business owners plan and attempt to implement growth before they are ready. One of the most commonly overlooked areas of growth are that of the IT needs. Your IT requirements need to be updated and prepared for along with all other growth aspects of the business. Currently, there are about 4.49 billion webpages on the internet. If you do not plan accordingly for things like security, confidentiality, storage, spacing needs, and SEO needs, you will find it very difficult to find growth success overall.
