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

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...

Three of the Biggest Security Solutions You Might Not Be Using

Your typical IT professional might suggest some common methods of network security like implementing better preventative measures, like firewalls and antivirus. However, there is more that goes into network security—far more. If you’re not careful, you could accidentally miss some of these three security solutions and expose your business to potential threats. But we’re not about to let that happe...

Don’t Let Extortion Destroy Your Business

Here’s a challenge; go to any cybersecurity news website and see how far you can go before seeing an article about some new type of ransomware attack. It’s everywhere, and it’s scary, but that doesn’t mean your business has to cower in fear. With the right tools and resources at your disposal, you too can fight back against ransomware. Here’s how you can protect your business from ransomware and t...

Opinion: AI Shouldn’t Replace Human Customer Support. Here’s Why

AI has revolutionized the way businesses operate, streamlining various tasks and changing how knowledge-based businesses function in record time. One of the ways that businesses are using AI is customer support, but how effective is it really? Is there any merit to maintaining the human element of your customer service, or said in a different way, what can human customer support offer that AI cann...