The Best IT Goals Include Both Long-Term and Short-Term Planning

For your organization’s technology infrastructure, you often have to make choices that are difficult. How do you resolve immediate problems, and how will your choice affect your IT down the line? Choosing between short-term IT (like break fix repairs) and long-term IT (like managed IT) isn’t a new one, but the differences between the two can often be lost to each other. In fact, we might argue that the two are meant for entirely different things!

A recent study performed by Tech Pro Research suggests that short-term IT is more agile than long-term IT, but doesn’t suggest that either are superior over the other. According to the study, 60 percent of respondents feel that short-term IT can be beneficial to their business strategy, but only 47 percent are currently taking advantage of short-term IT solutions. We think that it’s entirely possible to suggest that short-term IT and long-term IT are meant to accomplish different goals, and are both capable of furthering your business’s potential.

Benefits of Short-Term IT
Short-term IT is often labeled as “impulsive,” as it can be carried out over a short amount of time and is often a reactive solution that’s designed to help with an immediate issue. 81 percent of Tech Pro Research’s survey respondents claimed that short-term IT made it much easier to deploy; hence, the term “agile IT.” It’s much faster and easier to implement new solutions. Other benefits include the ability to leverage IT staff more effectively, and better alignment with business objectives. These solutions are often much more in line with what a business needs, as they are implemented on an as-needed basis. There is no guesswork as to whether or not they will benefit your IT infrastructure down the road.

Contrary to short-term IT, long-term IT concentrates on maximizing the return on investment of a particular solution over a given period of time. It’s designed to be proactive against potential issues, and reduce overall expenses by preventing them altogether. Long-term IT demands a certain foresight that’s not necessary with short-term IT.

Shortcomings of Short-Term IT
With any good solution, like short-term IT investment, there will always be some minor shortcomings that need to be addressed before committing to them. Many respondents (35 percent) cite an increase in costs as one of the major drawbacks of short-term IT deployment while another 33 percent cite weaker problem detection as a major concern. These drawbacks are results of planning in short-term waves rather than for a long-term investment, which is much better for risk management and detection purposes than short-term IT.

Therefore, while both short-term IT and long-term IT have their advantages and shortcomings, it’s crucial that you take advantage of both of these types of investments in order to meet the needs of your business. Short-term IT allows for quick decision-making and spur-of-the-moment deployment, which is helpful in some cases, but more often than not you’ll find more value in knowing that you’ve taken measures to maximize the return-on-investment for your business’s technology.

All in all, depending on what kind of challenges your business is facing, it’s recommended to combine short-term agility with long-term proactive thinking. In the end, it comes down to whether or not you want your business to react to potential issues, or to prevent them in the first place. Naturally, it’s more economical to do the latter. To fully leverage your business’s technology, give Computerware a call at (703) 821-8200.