Ray Smyth of Swindon’s The IPstore says: “Choose the IT your business needs and don’t settle for a scruffy little compromise…”
If you can’t obtain the correct tool for the job, is the best available compromise acceptable? Well only if it provides you with a desirable business outcome, but don’t be too eager to trade down from what you really need.
In the early days of IT, chronologically not that long ago, the choice that businesses faced was between a poor compromise and bespoke development.
The former, available to everyone, was seldom anything more than experimental and the latter, restricted to a wealthy few, quite literally became a business distraction.
In a manner comparable to other more familiar technology battles – VHS vs Betamax, for example – TCP/IP has triumphed as the dominant network protocol giving rise to an enormous and diverse range of IP-enabled software and hardware with an awesome range of possibilities.
Proving to be a game changer, organisations that ‘get it’ are carving from a recession-ridden economy, a viable, dynamic and potentially wealthy future.
It is rare to find a business that functions without some IT, even if it’s just a laptop and email. But these and their larger counterparts are missing out; IP-connectivity has created a rich and comprehensive set of business-technology building blocks. Most well-crafted IP building blocks are easy to use, especially in isolation. But their real value resides in precisely how they are assembled, the manner and extent to which they are made secure, and how they are collectively managed.
Young agile organisations are well positioned to take advantage of this business grade, IP revolution. They are unburdened and consigning their dinosaur-like counterparts to history.
Organisations that can create a clear and effective business strategy will always be in a strong place – its basic business. Using this foundation, not the other way around, they can progressively and continually erect and evolve a technology structure that supports, delivers and expands that strategy to produce new efficiencies and unique, edgy advantage.
You can create an IP network without becoming an expert, but it’s much harder to translate a business strategy, an operational workflow, and the demands of ever increasing regulatory and legal compliance into IT. This does not make the case for expensive consultants who can provide a shopping list and the details of a traditional IT reseller offering the traditional and limited choice, all driven by their margin, not your requirements.
Defining, building and managing an IT network that is fit for purpose, your purpose, requires consultative, interactive and iterative mentoring that is continuous and persistent. It requires a new way of buying IT and a new kind of long-term partner to help you add value to your business.
A longer version of this article is available at http://www.theipstore.co.uk/news-store
