With winter upon us and 2020 around the corner, it’s the time of year when many businesses start to plan their annual budget. While there are numerous factors to consider in setting a budget, cybersecurity and technology should be top-of-list considerations in your planning. The pre-budget process, in general, is a great time to examine your IT environment and expenses. It’s also an opportune moment to ensure that your business has the right tools and technologies in place to encourage employee productivity and ensure that your business is safe and secure. An IT assessment is one proven pathway to an informed budget that emphasizes both cybersecurity and scalability in 2020 and beyond. 

What are the top trends in tech budgets?

We can discern a few trends in how businesses plan to spend their tech budgets in 2020. Spiceworks, for example, recently surveyed and mapped more than 1,000 tech buyers in companies across North America and Europe. According to Spiceworks’ 2020 State of IT Report, 44% of businesses plan to increase their tech spend next year. But perhaps a more important discussion than how much is why. The survey reports that one in four businesses are spending more in 2020 due to a recent security incident. 

It’s unfortunately not a surprise – cybercrime has been identified as today’s “fastest growing form of criminal activity.” Looking just at small business, over half experienced a breach in the last year. It also costs businesses of all sizes a lot in both time and money. It can take nearly 200 days, on average, to identify a breach and incidents carry an average price tag of $3.86 million for a U.S. company. Perhaps this makes those extra line items in your 2020 tech budget start to sound like a very smart idea. You’re not alone – only 14% of small businesses reported feeling prepared to defend themselves against an attack. 

Grow Your Business, Grow Your Security

To shift to a more positive note, 2020 looks good for U.S. businesses, in general. The State of IT report anticipates that most businesses will experience top-line revenue growth next year. In fact, 88% of firms expect their IT budgets to grow or stay steady next year, often in conjunction with this revenue growth.

Employee growth is the third biggest driver for an increased IT budget, second only to outdated infrastructure and security concerns, according to the Spiceworks survey. So, even if you feel that your business is not at risk (spoiler alert: it probably is), any growth or expansion you’re anticipating in 2020 is reason enough to invest in smart spending on your technology and tools.

OK. But how do I know what to invest in?

An IT assessment is an effective exercise to enhance your pre-budget planning process. An IT assessment is a service typically performed by third-party experts, like our team here at N8 Solutions, to examine your current IT infrastructure. Experts will analyze your systems to uncover security vulnerabilities, review back-ups, and identify any network issues that may result in slow systems and costly downtime. 

The insights discovered through the assessment will help your business develop strategies and plans for 2020 that are scalable to match your anticipated growth yet offer the necessary security to prevent new points of entry into your organization and operations. In short, an IT assessment will ensure that your business is ready to take on not only the latest security threats but also productivity and scalability challenges in 2020.

Gaze into the Mirror and the Crystal Ball

To make the most of your IT assessment, be prepared to think about or ask a few key questions, including: Where are we at now? Where will we be next year? And what do we need to do to get there?

Where are we at currently? 

To begin, a robust IT assessment will help you document exactly what technologies and tools are currently in use at your business locations. It might sound like a basic exercise, but many businesses lack the time, staff, resources, or awareness to keep such a list. Often, technologies and tools are added or changed in a one-off, as-needed manner, resulting in a working yet cobbled-together environment that may make your business even more vulnerable to attack. Another step is to identify those technologies or tools that would benefit from an upgrade or replacement.

If for nothing else, an IT assessment is a great opportunity to document and create a baseline IT “library” of your technologies and tools. This knowledge is a great first step to help shape your 2020 budget.

Where do we anticipate we’ll be next year? 

Are you planning to expand in 2020, perhaps in staff size, location, client or customer roster, or an increase in inventory and products? An IT assessment will take this anticipated growth into account to help you determine how –and why – technology will play a critical role in your safe and scalable growth. 

For example, the assessment might determine that you need to invest in new hardware like additional work stations or shared equipment. Or perhaps you’ll need to update your infrastructure by migrating some software services to the cloud. This exercise will help you identify the necessary tech investments to support your anticipated growth.

What capabilities do we need to add to get there? 

Lastly, an IT assessment will uncover cybersecurity vulnerabilities and identify areas for improvement for securing your business infrastructure and operations.  This information will help you identify the upgrades you’ll need to make to be more secure and to recover quicker in the event an attack does occur. This information will help you round out your technology budget planning.

What to Expect When You’re Expecting (an IT Assessment)

At a minimum, your business should expect a full and customized inspection of your unique technology infrastructure. A trusted partner will conduct a full audit and robust assessment of your IT environment to uncover security vulnerabilities and pinpoint both network and desktop issues that may open your operations to attack from threats like malware, viruses, ransomware, and phishing, among others (and new threat vectors emerge all the time). Some firms will charge a fee for an IT assessment, others may offer it at no cost and with no commitment. 

At N8 Solutions, for example, we offer a free network and security risk assessment and audit to make sure your business is ready to take on the latest security threats, including productivity and scalability challenges. At a minimum, we’ll lead a discovery session, complete a tech setup review, and assess your network security and backup data processes. In addition, we’ll review your software and configurations and deliver a complete audit report with clear recommendations and next steps. Combined, the results will help you answer a few key questions to shape your 2020 IT budget: Where are we at, where do we expect to be, and how do we get there?

Just remember, budget reasons aside, performing an IT assessment at any time of year is smart – doing so today presents your best opportunity to make the changes and improvements that will protect your business tomorrow. Please get in touch with us anytime to make sure your business is ready for 2020 and beyond.