Improving IT Maturity: 5 Questions Your Company Needs to Consider

Improving IT Maturity takes a concerted effort. You’ll need to consistently adapt and evolve your technology stack while ensuring that business leaders understand IT’s value and can competitively position it. But the best way to ensure long-term change is to have a plan. And in order to make that plan, you’ll need to determine how mature your company currently is, who should be involved in moving it forward, and what resources are available to help you grow. 

If you’re trying to improve your company’s IT Maturity, here are five questions you need to consider: 

How Mature is My Business Currently?  

In order to improve your IT Maturity, you must first understand just how advanced your company already is (or isn’t). After all, you can’t measure improvement without a baseline. There are several ways to determine your current IT Maturity, such as by taking an IT Maturity test or reading a book about the different maturity aspects. Once you have an understanding of where your company excels—and where it’s behind—you can better focus your resources on areas that need improvement.  

Which Elements of IT Maturity Do I Need to Prioritize First?   

When trying to improve, you’ll want to know which elements to prioritize. But because IT Maturity is a holistic concept, it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly what deserves your attention. If one part of your maturity isn’t up to snuff, you can’t really call yourself a mature organization. However, there are certainly aspects that should be prioritized, especially if they’re negatively affecting your goals.   

Data analytics can help you create a ranked scorecard to help determine which areas of your company need your attention first. These analytics can show ways in which your company is (or again, is not) fully leveraging its IT. It can also show you how poor maturity in one area (such as tech optimization) can harm another area (such as cybersecurity). Once you recognize areas in which your company is weak, you can start taking steps to improve. And once you’ve improved one aspect of your company’s IT practice, you’ll often find that other areas improve as well.  

Who Should be Involved in Decision-Making?  

Unfortunately, IT Maturity isn’t a one-person deal. It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes an entire company to improve that company. Of course, some key decision makers, including the entirety of your Boardroom table, should be part of the discussion. But you can’t ignore your other employees, who will all be tasked with helping your company improve. In other words, if you want to ensure long-lasting maturity, everyone needs to be on board.

What Outside Resources Can Help My Company Improve?  

If you’re looking for sustainable, long-term improvements, your company will want to work with an MSP, or Managed Service Provider. An MSP can suggest new technologies to improve your workplace while also ensuring that your current tech is up-to-speed. However, it’s integral that your MSP’s maturity level aligns with your company’s own. If the two don’t match, your MSP might outpace you. Worse, it might be unable to keep up with your growth.    

How Will I Know if I’m Improving?  

IT Maturity doesn’t have a universal means of measurement. For this reason, a grading scale won’t help you determine whether your maturity is improving. However, you can track changes in your maturity by applying the same test over subsequent periods consistently, such as by measuring uptime, # of tickets/incidents, and average response time to incidents. Additionally, if you’re constantly taking steps to improve your company’s maturity, the proof will be in your ROI, employee happiness, and positive customer feedback.   

Before you can even consider how IT can be a value driver, there are foundational items that MUST be there, such as basic security hardening, backups, identity management, and employee policies. And once those items are in place, you can actively start working toward improvement by answering the questions above. In a way, trying to answer these questions is already giving your IT Maturity a boost—by better understanding your business’s strengths, weaknesses, and available resources, you’ll have the tools you need to start making long-term, proactive changes that will help your company grow.