A business continuity plan is the blueprint you need during an emergency to keep your business running smoothly. If you don’t already have one, here are 3 key reasons why you should focus on creating one ASAP.

Dependable outcomes prove a productive business. Whether productivity derives from acquiring new customers, streamlining business processes or maintaining an organisational workflow, a proper business plan provides a welcomed resource for progress in all areas concerned. Designing and adhering to a plan however can unearth difficulties that must be addressed. Optimising a business plan through a focus on technology will not only discover problems, but it will also allow management to comb finely through each business process and sort out incongruities that cause delay, waste and frustration. It will further provide support to expose any unsuspected or unknown risks that might deter future growth. By committing to act through a technological objective, businesses can expect to see real, tangible returns.

If vested interests try to sabotage the IT strategy – it’s working An IT strategy is probably the most important document that a Chief Information Officer (CIO) produces – and the most difficult to get right. Done well, by someone who has a broad overview of both business goals and the emerging IT landscape, it provides the IT roadmap for the business to forge ahead in the next five to ten years. Done poorly, done too late, or not done at all – a commoner state of affairs than one might think – it dooms the organisation to underperformance and poor productivity.

Have you entered The Internet of Things (IoT) yet?

Risk plays a critical role in almost every business decision with business executives having to balance risk and reward if they want to be successful. IT is often overlooked with other risks being valued with more importance; IT vulnerability isn’t even considered a board level problem in many cases. Failure to identify, assess and mitigate IT risk sets your business up for security breaches and financial losses down the line.

There is a common belief among business professionals that technology is a key part of the future for successful companies and industries. Productivity and employee engagement are also vital to any company’s success, and emerging technologies are capitalising on these industry needs.

Here are the four key IT challenges that businesses need to meet in terms of their IT provision, if they are going to increase productivity and decrease costs.

A recent report by Dell Technologies surveyed 4,600 business leaders from around the globe to analyse their organisation's transformation efforts. The report found that 1 in 3 fear they’ll be left behind by digital transformation. To remedy this 91% plan to invest in powerful technologies within the next three years. Unfortunately, the same number of business leaders say they are facing major hurdles to transformation. It’s little surprise then that many business leaders intend to work closely with their Chief Information Officer (CIOs) to stay in control of the digital transformation agenda. Let’s look at why this is?

Harnessing the expertise of a team of IT professionals has so many advantages for your company. Streamlining the way that you do business, enhancing you and your colleagues' productivity, and keeping all of your company's vital information secure are some of the key benefits that you can enjoy with professionally managed services for your IT infrastructure.

Everyone knows what role in a company CEO stands for - but what about the CIO?