Salman Shahid, CEO OXO packaging.
The undeniable importance of a well-designed IT infrastructure in business growth has led many organizations to increase their spending on technology. Many businesses spend a lot of money on IT but find it difficult to streamline their operations and grow exponentially due to poor IT infrastructure.
Therefore, business development (BD) leaders must pay close attention to building a reliable IT infrastructure for their organizations.
It’s not always all about investing. Like marketing and sales, technology management requires a strategic approach. Let’s take a look at five IT infrastructure management strategies that every BD leader should understand.
1. Create a multi-tier architecture to suit your business needs.
A poorly-architected IT infrastructure can hinder the smooth running of your business. If you want to establish a scalable, secure, and reliable technology environment, create a multi-tier architecture that meets your business needs.
Two-tier, three-tier, and N-tier (three or more tier) architectures are gaining popularity. Among these architectures, three tiers are considered better for most businesses. This architecture comes with a presentation layer (user interface or view layer), an application layer (data processing layer), and a data access layer (data storage and management layer).
A three-tier architecture allows each tier to run on a separate server platform that can be developed and extended independently.
A multi-tiered architecture also helps provide a better customer experience. For example, you can use this architecture to develop iOS apps and applications for other operating systems.
2. Collect and maintain data to improve customer experience.
As a BD leader, you need to stay up-to-date on the changing trends and innovative needs of your target audience. To do this, you can create a database management system (DBMS) that collects and maintains all your customer data and data about your business operations. You can also use third-party DBMSs such as Microsoft SQL, Oracle, etc.
By analyzing prospect preferences and patterns, you can redefine your business goals and improve your services. We also leverage data mining and machine learning to expertly analyze customer experiences. Finally, maintaining data also helps with security management.
3. Choose reliable hardware to improve performance.
When building your company’s IT infrastructure, choosing the right hardware is paramount. Hardware performance determines how efficiently your business operates.
First, understand your business needs to select your hardware. Laptops, desktops, servers, and routers are required in almost every business. Some peripherals, such as monitors, webcams, and printers, are also typically required hardware.
When purchasing hardware, pay attention to its features, cost, performance, storage, and compatibility. No matter how heavy your workload is, your hardware needs to keep your business operations running smoothly. Choose hardware with the right ratios to reduce maintenance requirements while maintaining performance.
4. Streamline operations with automation and virtualization.
Automation and virtualization of business operations can be a game-changer.
First, define the operations you want to automate. Some of the most common business operations that can be automated include entering lead information into a CRM, scheduling social media posts, and scheduling emails.
During this process, remember that business process automation is always experimental and it’s important to fail fast. If your technology infrastructure doesn’t cause you to fail quickly, it’s time to redesign your IT infrastructure.
5. Centralize IT management for convenience.
Centralizing IT frees BD leaders in multi-location organizations from the hassle of planning separate IT infrastructure management. Managing IT from a single platform simplifies the administrative process.
Centralization also provides a single view of IT resource usage, allowing BD readers to monitor performance and detect security issues. Additionally, it can be centralized to reduce the cost of procuring expensive hardware.
There are several reliable tools available to centralize IT management, including software such as Jira, TOPdesk, and Zluri.
conclusion
These five strategies are about building an IT infrastructure that helps your business grow. By making smart decisions when investing in technology, you can enhance other aspects of business development as your company scales.
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