3 IT Metrics to Pay Attention To

3 IT Metrics to Pay Attention To

Any business can benefit from data and use it to improve its operations. This is especially the case where information technology is involved. By collecting the right metrics, you can better evaluate your business IT’s performance and identify areas for improvement.

Let’s review what some of these metrics should be.

What are Metrics, and Why Should You Track Them?

There’s a difference between data and metrics. Data is raw information you collect or generate. Metrics are the practical application of this data, crafting a narrative that can be used to help inform your business decisions and elevate your success over time.

To do so, you need to make sure that your metrics meet some specific guidelines:

  • They should be focused on improving your business’ performance
  • They should use business terms to communicate the data they contain
  • They should reflect your business’ priorities and goals

That being said, let’s cover a few that very certainly apply to your business and its information technology.

Business IT Metrics to Keep Your Eye On

Return on Investment

To start, let’s go over the most familiar one to most. The return on investment your business sees effectively measures how worthwhile a given initiative turned out when all is said and done. Information technology, as valuable as it can be, tends to be a pretty expensive aspect of your business’ overall operations.

Therefore, you want to closely monitor your different IT investments to ensure they deliver enough value to justify them. If they don’t, it may be time to consider alternatives.

IT Spend vs. Plan

Your budget is important, as it largely dictates what your business is actually able to do over a fiscal year. Of course, this means it has to be maintained over the course of that fiscal year. This metric considers your planned investments and spending and tracks how well your actual investment and spending align with them.

By tracking this consistently, you can spot occurrences where more money is being spent than expected, allowing you to correct them and adhere to your intended budget more accurately.

Percentage of IT Investment by Initiative

Every business has its priorities, often for each department. Its IT department should be no exception. This is especially true when you consider how much your IT investments influence the other aspects of your business. 

Every year, you should consider if your planned IT investments functionally align with your overarching business priorities—Will they help us attract more clientele? Will they help us keep our clients engaged with us? Will they generally help us operate on a higher level? If not, consider revising them.

Don’t Lose Sight of the Forest for the Trees

All this being said, there are endless metrics that you could potentially track based on your business, its priorities, and its operations, so it is important to identify which ones are most applicable to your goals and objectives. Fortunately, you don’t have to do this alone.

White Mountain IT Services helps businesses around New Hampshire with optimizing their technology, improving it and maintaining it so the business leaders here can focus on what they do best: providing their goods and services. Interested in learning more about our services? Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 today.

White Mountain IT

Related Posts

You May Not Think You’re Popular, but Your Data Certainly Is

Data is extremely important in the way that most businesses conduct themselves. This results in other people wanting that information, too. Today’s blog will look at how seemingly everyone online is out for your data.  Businesses Want Your Data… Companies and hackers are both intensely interested in acquiring your personal data, albeit for vastly different reasons.  Companies collec...

All SMBs Need a Reliable VPN

Remote employees are in a conundrum when it comes to data security. While you might be able to protect data stored locally on your company’s in-house network, securing data in use by employees while out of the office is another matter entirely. How can you guarantee that your business is protecting its data and other sensitive resources from prying eyes? The answer is simple: a virtual private ...

The True Expense of Running Outdated Technology

There’s a lot of comfort to be found in familiarity. It’s why so many of us cling to the way we’ve always done things. It’s the root of the old adage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” In many contexts, this can be very good advice. One place it isn’t: your business’ technology. Neglecting to improve the technology your business relies on can itself incur significant inherent costs that aren’t i...

Can Artificial Intelligence Get Sick?

Artificial intelligence is all the rage these days. In fact, most businesses are using it for a multitude of things. With everyone all-aboard the AI train, it’s easy to confuse the computational power and speed AI offers to be infallible. Unfortunately, AI can get things going sideways if you aren’t careful. When it does go wrong, the consequences can be more than just an inconvenience. Here's a ...