Top Tips for an IT Audit
Keeping a modern business working at optimal levels can be a difficult task in the ever-shifting technological landscape. So, ensuring that you keep track of your current IT usage and the projected IT usage that your business will eventually reach is important to the continued success of your business. Working at levels far below your technological need can be a costly mistake. So, IT audits can be a great way to assess your current IT level against your future needs.
There are plenty of benefits of conducting an IT audit and it should be a priority for any business with significant computer use, especially if you are in the process of creating either a new IT or business strategy. Here are some handy tips that will allow you to get the most out of your IT audit!
What is an IT Audit?
Firstly you should consider what an IT audit is and what you want to achieve from it. IT audits enable you to assess the capabilities and limitations of the existing systems within your business. But, they are also able to assess the effectiveness of the people and processes which implement IT throughout your business. This ultimately allows you to see the effectiveness of the interaction between IT and other departments in your business.
Most importantly an audit allows you to better understand how aligned your IT and business strategies are and if they are working together to benefit your business.
When Should You Consider One?
You should consider an IT audit if your current budget is out of line with current economic or budget conditions. But, there is no formula that can automatically assess this. It is instead the decision of key business executives to evaluate your current situation and adjust the business plan to match. It is important to keep a close eye on IT expenditure to ensure that it is needed, especially if there is a noticeable cut in other departments or overall reduction without any noticeable benefit from an overinflated IT budget.
It is also essential to implement an audit if you are finding that your IT projects continually do not meet the expectations or standards that your business requires.
There may be an unneeded system, insufficient members of staff to implement IT solutions or just not enough computing power to successfully match your business needs. Without an IT audit this is impossible to assess and so an audit could be key to your company’s continued success and growth.
The Bottom Line?
An audit can help determine whether or not an IT strategy is sustainable alongside current business requirements. A company that is well-placed in their sector can afford to increase their IT budget in a recession in order to increase their competitiveness, but this is simply not possible for a large number of companies. So, an audit can be the deciding factor to help try and improve sales with updated IT solutions or to concentrate funds more on day-to-day costs.
Make it External
Conducting an external IT audit can have many long-term benefits. Most importantly it determines IT weaknesses internally from an outside, non-biased, perspective that should give you a clear overview of your technological uses. It also lends credibility to the decisive action taken after the audit. The expert recommendations that an external audit can provide are much less likely to be ignored or overlooked in favour of cost saving, it should result in more decisive action and IT solutions for your business needs.
Need an IT audit to discover the computing capabilities and downfalls of your business? Contact us on 01524 581690 to discuss your options with our friendly team here at Q2Q-IT, or you can email us at [email protected]
