IT strategy
Most of what you will spend on IT next year is already visible.
Hardware ages on a schedule. Licences renew on dates that were fixed the day they were signed. Support for the software you run ends on a day the vendor published years ago. A Technology Business Review is where we put all of it in front of you, work out what it costs, and decide together what happens and when.
- Scored Every area graded, not guessed
- Costed Quarter by quarter, years ahead
- Included In the standard agreement
Why it matters
None of it is unpredictable. It is just unplanned.
Almost nothing on an IT invoice arrives without warning. It arrives without anybody having been watching for it, which feels identical at the time and costs considerably more.
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The emergency purchase
A server gives up on a Tuesday and you buy whatever can be delivered this week, at whatever it costs, from whoever has stock. The same machine bought three months earlier would have been cheaper, better specified and installed on a weekend.
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The renewal nobody saw coming
Licences and support contracts renew on dates that were fixed the day they were signed. They only feel like a shock because nothing put them in front of you while there was still time to change them.
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Everything ages at once
Gear bought together reaches the end of its life together. A business that replaced twelve machines in one go three years ago is about to do it again, usually in the same quarter as something else.
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The plan is never written down
What needs doing is often known. It is just not written down, costed or ranked, so it competes with whatever is loudest that week and loses.
How it works
We do the homework. You make the call.
A review only works if both halves are in the room. We know what you are running and what it is doing. You know what the business is about to do, which is the half that decides everything else.
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01
We bring the technical picture
What you are running, how old it is, what is out of support, what has been failing quietly and what is coming to the end of its life. All of it comes from the monitoring and documentation you are already paying for, so it is a record rather than an opinion.
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02
You bring the business one
Hiring, a second site, a system you are thinking about, a quiet year where you would rather spend nothing. We cannot plan technology properly without knowing where the business is going, and you are the only one who knows that.
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03
We say no as often as yes
Sometimes the right recommendation is that a machine has another year in it, or that the thing you were sold last month is not worth renewing. Advice that only ever points at spending is not advice, and it is very easy to spot.
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04
You decide, and it is written down
You set the order and the timing. What comes out is a plan you agreed to rather than a proposal you were handed, and it is on paper so the next review starts from what we said last time.
The agenda
What we go through, every time.
The same six, in this order, every time. Results before recommendations, a score before an opinion, and the money after the reasoning rather than in front of it.
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01
Wins and successes
What has been delivered since we last sat down, and what it fixed. This is first, before anything at all is recommended, because a review that opens on what to buy next is a sales call wearing a different hat.
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02
The health score
Your environment scored, overall and area by area. A number either moved since last time or it did not, which is what makes the previous review something you can check rather than something you remember.
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03
The assessment
Every item across your environment, each one graded, with the risk it carries and the recommended fix on the same line as the problem. Anything out of support, and anything with a replacement date coming, surfaces here.
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04
The roadmap
The work laid out quarter by quarter across the years ahead, so you can see what lands when, what is already scheduled, and what is sitting there unscheduled waiting on a decision from you.
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05
The budget
The roadmap costed, month by month, with quarterly and annual totals. This is the part most businesses have never been handed, and it is the reason the roadmap is worth anything.
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06
Findings and the plan
What all of it adds up to, and what happens next: an agreed list, ranked, with owners and timing. The review is meant to produce decisions rather than notes, and this is the bit we get held to at the start of the next one.
What you leave with
Four things, on paper.
A meeting that produces nothing you can hold was a conversation. All four come out of every review, they are yours to keep, and they are what the next one gets measured against.
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01
A scored assessment
Every server, switch, firewall, drive and system graded, with its status, its risk and the fix. Ages, support status and replacement dates sit on the same rows.
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02
A roadmap by quarter
What changes and when, across the years ahead, including the items parked as unscheduled until you decide on them.
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03
A budget by month
The roadmap costed and spread across the calendar, with quarterly and annual totals, so technology becomes a line you planned rather than a number that arrived.
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04
The plan and actions
The findings, ranked, with what happens next and who is doing it. Yours to take away, question and argue with.
Every item gets a grade
Nothing in the assessment is described as fine or not fine. Each item is graded against a standard, and the grades are what the score and the ranking are built from.
Areas walked Servers · Network · Data and file storage · Backup and recovery · Security · Phone systems · Compliance and licensing · Spares and redundancy
- Healthy
- Up to standard. Nothing needed, and worth seeing in writing rather than assuming.
- Warning
- Not aligned with standard. A minor risk today and something to plan for before it becomes a bigger one.
- Risk
- An identified risk and a live liability. These are what the plan gets ranked around.
- Needs discovery
- Not enough known yet to grade it honestly, so it is left out of your score until it is. A number propped up by guesses is worth nothing.
Where it sits
In the agreement, not on top of it.
Technology Business Reviews are a line in the standard managed agreement, from $119 per user, per month excluding GST. Not a consulting engagement quoted separately, because a provider who bills by the hour to think about your business has every reason to keep the thinking brief.
How often
- Quarterly
- Six monthly
- Annual
Which one you are on is set by your plan. Most small and medium businesses do not need a quarterly review, and six monthly is the sweet spot: long enough for something to have actually changed, short enough that a replacement never arrives as a surprise.
Questions we get asked
What is a Technology Business Review?
A sit down away from the day to day tickets. We go through what has been delivered since last time, score your environment overall and area by area, walk the assessment item by item with the risk and the fix beside each one, then the roadmap quarter by quarter, the budget month by month, and the plan. You leave holding all of it in writing.
How often do they happen?
Quarterly, six monthly or annually, set by your plan and written into your agreement so you know before you sign rather than after. Most small and medium businesses do not need a quarterly review and six monthly is the sweet spot: long enough that something has actually changed since last time, short enough that a replacement never arrives as a surprise. If you are running a lot of infrastructure, or you are growing fast, quarterly earns its place.
Is it included, or does it cost extra?
Included. Technology Business Reviews are a line in the standard managed agreement at the published price, not a consulting engagement quoted on top. A provider who charges separately to think about your business has an incentive to keep the thinking short.
How is the health score worked out?
Every item in the assessment is graded against a standard: healthy, a warning, or an identified risk. Those grades roll up into a score for each area and a score for the environment as a whole. Anything we do not yet know enough about is marked as needing discovery and left out of the calculation entirely, rather than guessed at, because a score propped up by assumptions tells you nothing and quietly hides the gap.
Do we have to buy what you recommend?
No. It is your budget and your business, and you set the order and the timing. A recommendation to spend nothing this year is a genuine outcome and we give it when it is the right one. The value of the roadmap is that you can see what is coming and choose, rather than being told.
We already have someone internal. Is this still worth doing?
Usually more so. Somebody internal is generally flat out keeping things running, and planning is the first thing that gets pushed to next month. A review gives them a forum to put what they already know needs doing in front of the people who approve it, with the numbers attached and in writing.
What do you need from us?
An hour or so, and somebody in the room who knows where the business is going. You do not need to prepare anything technical, that side is ours and it is already documented. If you are hiring, opening somewhere, changing systems or having a deliberately quiet year, that is what we need to hear.
Start with the short version.
Thirty minutes, no obligation. We will go through what you are running, what is coming up behind it, and what a year of it is likely to cost. That conversation is free whether or not you ever become a client.
Or send us a message
Got it, thanks.
Somebody will read this properly and come back to you. We get back to you within one business hour, Mon to Fri, and if you have sent it in the evening or over the weekend it will be the next business morning.
If something is down right now, do not sit and wait on us. Ring 1300 025 110 and we will pick it up.
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