Maximizing ROI: Unlocking Potential in Mid-Market Technology

Maximizing ROI and Unlocking Potential from Technology Services

At the core of IT service management lies your customer-focused service delivery; each offering must bring value to them while helping them meet specific objectives.

Defining an IT service is often challenging when the IT department and customer have divergent perspectives of expectations from one another, leading them to misinterpret what each expects of each other.

Perspective can often play an integral role when discussing IT service delivery needs.

IT providers tend to view services in terms of infrastructure and applications; customers focus on outcomes and usage patterns of services provided.

To assist companies with meeting customers goals more successfully, IT employees and clients must work in concert in defining the services available from IT.


What Exactly Is An IT Service?

What Exactly Is An IT Service?

Customers purchase or utilize IT services with the intention of fulfilling specific goals or attaining desired outcomes.

According to ITIL4, services should facilitate value co-creation by helping achieve outcomes desired by customers without placing unnecessary burden on them to manage risks or costs associated with specific IT solutions.

Lets use a hospital as an example to explore this definition further. Hospitals might invest in systems to better track patients throughout their entire journey - from arriving at reception through triage and meeting nurses and doctors for appointments; to receiving medication or treatments.

Theres plenty to keep an eye on here!

  1. Hospitals do not invest in technology just to use it; rather, these solutions exist so as to enhance patient services and support.
  2. Staff in hospitals tend not to focus on technical details like coding and APIs as much as on gathering specific patient-centric data such as risks and costs for treatment.
  3. Hospitals create value through satisfying patients, engaging workers and improving financials - these three components work hand-in-hand to produce maximum value creation for society as a whole.

Co-creation can only occur with IT or system providers involved, which requires mutual understanding about requirements as well as escalated issues that come up during this process.
This definition of service provides the four components needed to evaluate any service offered or consumed, both from providers and from consumers alike.


IT Services: Defining The Types

IT Services: Defining The Types

Lets examine the different ways that IT services can be defined.


Customers-Focused Service

Customer-centricity is one way of describing IT services. Most customers remain unaware of all that goes on behind-the-scenes when using or deploying services; typically this does not present any issues; however as technology transforms workplace environments further still, customers increasingly use IT services in novel ways that they werent used before.

Dion Hinchcliffe asserts that businesses must radically reassess how they approach delivery channels for all business units - operations, marketing, sales and customer service.

All areas should be reconceptualized within a digital environment since that is how businesses function; all products and services should also be delivered digitally.

Note that service can be defined based on both how customers access it - typically digital - as well as accessing features within an IT service, including customer-facing options as well as those provided internally to run it.

This definition is applicable to the previous example, a patient management system in a hospital:

  1. Digital is the primary channel used by the hospital. This could be a web-based portal, mobile-based portal or both.
  2. The digital portal is the primary application that the hospital uses. It provides access to various functionalities which support the overall outcome of patient management.

Service Packages And Offerings

Services may also be defined in terms of what services they actually perform for consumers, through packages designed to address individual consumer groups needs.

IT service providers, for example, can communicate with their client to understand their goals and needs better and then deploy relevant services accordingly to create tailored offerings specifically targeted towards this customer - these may include services like:

  1. Physical products or goods
  2. Access to resources such as a subscription to timed usage, based on certain conditions
  3. Service actions include maintenance, processing or support activities

If we break down the hospitals system of patient management into service offerings, it would include:

  1. The CRM is a patient registration system
  2. The workflow engine allows you to move along the chain of handlers
  3. A pharmacy inventory system
  4. The 24/7 Silver Support Package provides an immediate response to any issue.

The service offering will be created in accordance with customer expectations. This alignment is important for both IT and customers in terms of expectations, as well as the components that are necessary to make the service function.

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Common IT Services And How They Grow Your Business

Common IT Services And How They Grow Your Business

1. Help Desk Support

Most IT service providers provide help desk support as a basic service, giving users access to professionals who can assist in solving problems and correcting errors.

Support can typically be offered over phone or remotely controlling a computer - however in-person visits may also be considered appropriate in certain instances.

Help desk solutions that ensure fast response times include having an established system in place that tracks issues through tickets, escalates more complex ones when necessary and never allows problems to go undetected or unnoticed - these measures ensure problems are always solved quickly and promptly without being missed entirely or forgotten about.

Benefit/Business Case: Time is money. By employing the help desk, your end users will remain productive with fewer delays for IT-related problems; network issues could even slow productivity across your entire company! These issues will be quickly dealt with by the help desk so your business saves both money and confidence that any problems it encounters will be overcome successfully; otherwise when IT problems emerge they might put a halt to all work without such assistance being available to it.

Gartner estimates the average IT downtime costs at $5600/minute for small businesses, although most will remain unaffected.

But even for businesses not directly affected, its effects can still have serious ramifications; one 50K salary employee accounts for an hourly burden to their employer of $31.25, when they cannot perform their roles, plus problems that affect servers or networks multiply throughout a workday affecting everyone involved and cost an average SMB $12,500 just from labor costs alone; that does not account for lost sales revenue, reputation damage or any other costs or considerations involved with staff absence from performing duties that prevent their duties - most SMBs employ IT support services understand its significance!


2. Network Monitoring and Alerting

Monitor your network to detect any problems that might emerge and set alerts that trigger when certain performance thresholds are exceeded, for instance when your servers disk space reaches 90% this alert will trigger, creating a ticket with IT that IT can investigate further.

Organizations and individuals alike can utilize monitoring for various purposes. Monitoring can alert when servers or network equipment go offline, CPU usage and hard drive capacity usage as well as memory consumption - as well as more general system usage like CPU memory usage and hard drive space usage - or it can monitor services individually by looking into each services health if one stops working - this might indicate an application no longer accessible! Monitoring can also serve to confirm backups have taken place successfully while alerting any problems as they arise.

Business Case/Benefits: Preventing problems before they arise is always preferable to trying to fix them later, saving both time and money by keeping your systems from becoming offline or encountering issues in advance.

Monitoring solutions provide early warning of impending trouble so your IT team can act early before an issue adversely affects operations - this is particularly crucial with critical workloads which might hinder productivity while offline, or prevent customers from doing business with you; monitoring solutions also provide peace-of-mind if disaster strikes so your backup solution can remain monitored should anything arises!


3. Backup and Disaster Recovery

This service equips businesses with an emergency plan designed to maintain business continuity even in case of hardware malfunction, ransomware attacks or any other issue which deems their operations inoperable.

BDR solutions typically feature both local and remote backups to provide rapid restoration in case of disaster, providing your entire server infrastructure the ability to be revived quickly in case something catastrophic strikes.

"Managed" solutions refers to backup services provided by third-party providers which oversee every element of backups from start to finish, including testing their effectiveness or taking necessary measures should any failover fail.

As part of their service offering they may also conduct disaster recovery tests as required.

Understanding your RTO (Recovery Time Object) and RPO(Recovery Point Object) values are critical elements to an effective disaster recovery planning effort.

They let us determine how long it will take us to recover, as well as the retention period (data retention).

Business Case/Benefits: With cyber attacks becoming ever more frequent and widespread over the past years, disaster recovery plans and backup strategies have never been more essential to ensure business survival and continuity.

96% of companies experienced some kind of failure within three years - when combined with 40-60% small businesses closing following data losses it becomes clear why one must exist!

Backup and recovery solutions must work. In the event of a major disaster, many businesses would likely close. Furthermore, many industries mandate disaster recovery as compliance requirement while many insurance carriers wont cover businesses without disaster recovery strategies in place.

Solid Disaster Recovery solutions protect your organization against risk, providing peace of mind that its data will remain safe in case of a catastrophe or emergency situation.

They could save your company significant financial losses should one occur.

Read More: Best Practices For Implementing Technology Services In Mid-Market Companies


What Is Return On Investment (ROI)?

What Is Return On Investment (ROI)?

Return on Investment or ROI measures the return from initial investments and is calculated based on calculations that assess their worthiness.

Achieving optimal ROI requires developing software which produces greater income than it costs to implement it.

Gain of Investment (or ROI) refers to the net profit a company realizes from implementing custom software. Retail businesses usually see their gains manifested as increased sales while other industries can experience theirs through more efficient processes or reduced losses.

Initial and additional installation costs must also be factored in for new software systems, including license fees and technical support as well as staff training on any new programs.


What Software Types Influence How You Measure ROI

What Software Types Influence How You Measure ROI

Your software choice will play a large part in how to calculate return on investment (ROI). For accurate ROI calculations, consider these four elements carefully when measuring it: SaaS (Software as a Service) and business process management software are two distinct forms.

These software projects are meant to optimize internal business processes by streamlining workflow and increasing efficiency.

To determine your return on investment (ROI), all costs associated with implementation, maintenance and staff training need to be included as expenses in your calculation of success; success can include time saved due to an efficient system or increased sales opportunities with decreased problems arising as results of this investment.

Measuring ROI in SaaS businesses (software as a services) depends on several variables. Length of time in operation plays a big part, since newer businesses need additional funds for startup expenses and operations costs.

When measuring annualized ROI for subscription-based SaaS providers such as advanced project management software development companies can use subscription profits in relation to costs for software development, implementation and client search as an indicator.


What To Consider When Calculating ROI For App And Software Development

What To Consider When Calculating ROI For App And Software Development

ROI calculations should be objective in nature; however, their exact calculations can differ depending on the nature and scope of a software development project.

Each business faces unique processes and obstacles which must be identified accurately to ascertain an accurate ROI calculation.

An accurate understanding of these factors will allow you to accurately calculate the costs associated with software projects and their ROI calculations.

When considering ROI of customized software projects its essential that businesses consider:

  1. Hardware Costs- When developing new software that requires updated hardware, including these costs is imperative.
  2. Software Implementation Costs - There can be various reasons for software implementation to be expensive for businesses, including data migrations, processing limitations and mass switching of systems to new versions.
  3. Any new software investment typically incurs training expenses; without proper education on its use and functions, any possible return could be wasted.
  4. Support Costs - Software maintenance and support fees often comprise 20-25% of initial development expenses, which directly impacts net revenue annually; accordingly, average ROI calculations must take this factor into consideration.

How to Improve ROI

How to Improve ROI

Enhance The Technology Selection Process

ROI can be enhanced during the technology selection stage, where organizations will have more success reaping returns from their technology investments by making sound purchasing decisions.

Businesses should follow several steps when selecting better technologies solutions.

  1. Determine Business Impacts: Businesses should select new technologies based on specific business requirements. Before initiating their search for solutions, an organization should clearly articulate what issue this technology will solve before narrowing their options down further based on specific features only available from certain vendors.
  2. Before selecting any solution: first assess how it will fit into the IT strategy of your company. For example, when purchasing storage capacity it would be wiser to opt for on-premise equipment or professional CSP services? Now may be an opportune moment if the goal of your organization is cloud computing; be sure that whatever solutions are chosen meet both current and long term business requirements.
  3. Create Meaningful Metrics: Measuring the success of solutions requires collecting relevant metrics. Teams must be able to assess how technology investments have an effect on productivity and system availability as well as compare past to current performance using metrics which provide valuable data points.

Take A Look At The Big Picture

For maximum technology ROI, it is vitally important that a balance is struck between meeting current business needs and planning future development projects.

Failing to plan can result in expensive hardware purchases which become outdated before being delivered; failing to communicate results in solutions which do not satisfy all organizational members.

Companies should keep ITs big picture in mind while prioritizing technical solutions that address immediate problems.

When selecting products or solutions, those which will benefit the largest group will yield higher return.


Prioritize Flexibility And Scalability

Dynamic business environments and changing consumer trends necessitate agility and adaptability among companies in order to thrive in todays business landscape.

Successful firms need the ability to swiftly change directions when necessary in order to meet customers demands quickly, as well as scale up or down when business improves or declines.

Modern business environments present companies with challenges when achieving flexibility and scalability for staying ahead.

Data volumes continue to expand at an impressive rate, which can overwhelm computing resources such as computing storage. Traditional data processing techniques lack agility needed for meeting business goals effectively.


Look At The Cloud

Cloud computing has brought significant disruption and change. No longer limited to software and hardware solutions installed within data centers, its reach now spans across every corner of society and every industry imaginable.

Certain investments today do not necessitate tangible purchases; rather, cloud vendors services and virtualization abilities could provide companies with an effective means of solving business issues.

Partnering with CSPs could save capital costs while offering higher return than conventional data centers would.


Train The Trainers

Training is key for organizations looking to maximize the advantages of new technologies, so companies must make sure all those needing or wanting training have access to it.

Not only can training increase ROI of tech investments but it can also strengthen employee morale - meaning an efficient staff will utilize both new and legacy technology efficiently resulting in maximum return for any organization.

Training should be ongoing and tailored to the ever-evolving needs of both employees and employers, possibly including an intensive course to maximize technological solutions benefits.


Leverage Expert Knowledge

Utilize the expertise of subject matter specialists (SMEs) when selecting technical solutions with the highest return-on-investment.

Involve SMEs who possess firsthand knowledge about your problem to offer input in selecting an optimal solution; use internal experts or consult third-party consultants and business partners if available.

Managed IT service providers offer valuable expertise that can assist organizations in both controlling costs and optimizing investments in cloud technologies.

By tapping their knowledge, organizations can avoid expensive mistakes while expediting the path toward reaching an acceptable return-on-investment for cloud computing investments.


Seven Ways To Maximize Technology ROI

Seven Ways To Maximize Technology ROI

Nothing gives business owners greater pleasure than investing in technology solutions with a high return on investment (ROI).

Effective technology solutions can increase productivity, profits and customer satisfaction while streamlining employee workflows and providing necessary technological infrastructure for future expansion.

Unfortunately though, when these promises dont materialize there can be serious ramifications on profits, productivity, growth potential relationships between carriers/customers as well as employee morale if investments dont deliver as planned.

Browse these seven tips to boost the ROI of technology investments.


1. Choose a Technology Partner Wisely

Technology plays an integral part of modern transportation industry businesses and their interactions with their customers and carriers, both internal and external.

When selecting technology-based products or providers as partners, be sure to inquire about their long-term roadmap; one whose focus should be building customer relationships while continuously improving.


2. Scalable Technology

Scalability technology can also maximize ROI. When businesses expand, their revenue generally rises with additional resources added into operations - yet scaling allows you to quickly add revenue without increasing resources at the same rate! Scaling is not only about short-term gains in revenues; long term expansion should not be neglected either!


3. Transparency And Training Are Important

Explaining the advantages of technology to those responsible for daily work at your organization is of utmost importance.

Being transparent with regards to goals is also vitally important; training should provide new employees and existing teams alike with all of the information and support necessary for its successful implementation.


4. Focus On Efficiency

Technology that adds real value will enhance the operational efficiencies of any business, increasing operational efficiencies by employing automation, process algorithm development, artificial intelligence and systems integration techniques to streamline internal processes while eliminating manual work.

A technologys ability to reduce inefficiencies and boost productivity has an immediate positive effect on ROI because higher productivity often equates with greater profit margins.


5. Use Best Practices

Your technology partner should provide you with the guidelines that can maximize the return on investment from technology.

They based these best practices off what other customers have accomplished with it as well as customer approaches for implementation, processes and education/training.


6. Get Free Support

Some companies provide free support. Utilizing this free assistance from your tech provider is key for optimizing ROI of technology investments; with ongoing assistance available 24/7 to address any problems as soon as they arise and ensure high returns.


7. Ask For Feedback From Stakeholders

Asking customers, internal teams and carriers for feedback on a technologys performance can help ensure you maintain high returns on your investments.

Consider asking whether it makes their lives simpler while fulfilling its intended role; use their responses as the foundation of future changes or use this feedback in discussions with support staff for your technology partner.

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The Conclusion Of The Article Is:

Expert knowledge can assist businesses with optimizing the return on technology investments.

No matter if a company decides to migrate towards cloud or continues using traditional datacenter models - every business needs expert insight in order to get maximum value out of technology investments.


References

  1. 🔗 Google scholar
  2. 🔗 Wikipedia
  3. 🔗 NyTimes