Technology Assessment & Planning

A PRO OnCall comprehensive Technology Assessment will help you better understand your company’s current technology relative to your current and future needs. Specifically, our engineers and consultants will conduct a comprehensive analysis your organization’s technology infrastructure, as compared to your current and future business needs and goals. Once we perform this analysis – which will identify any “gaps” between what you have now and what you need now and will need in the future – we will then develop a technology plan that aligns your needs with your budget.

A well-designed technology plan can enable your organization achieve its business goals. Our effective and systematic approach will:

• Help you envision your technology goals and how they support your business goals
• Determine your current technology realities
• Create your technology plan, and
• Prioritize and implement the changes necessary to reach your goals …

… all while reducing your organization’s technology costs and improving its efficiency!

The Elements of Your Technology Plan

Your technology plan will be a detailed, written document, containing the following elements:

• Organization Mission and Goals Overview
  It is critical to begin any planning activity with a brief review of your company’s overall Mission and specific Business Goals. They form the backbone of for your Technology Plan.
• Current Technology Assessment
  We develop a complete picture of your company’s current technology inventory, including all hardware and software currently in use.
• Internal Practices Assessments
  We will assess your organization’s current internal policies and procedures in areas such as technology training, security, and disaster recovery.
• Staff Skills Survey
  We will identify which of your staff members may need training and who in your organization can act as training resources for those individuals.
• Immediate and Critical Needs List
  Your technology plan will present your company’s immediate technology needs by priority and criticality. “Critical” needs are defined as situations that currently severely hamper or prevent the execution of key activities within your organization.
• Hardware Fault-Tolerance Strategy (Servers and Mission-Critical Workstations and Devices)
  Insuring that all of your servers and other mission-critical appliances are hardware fault-tolerant can significantly minimize downtime and reduce remediation costs when a failure occurs. For example, when properly implemented, server hard disk fault-tolerance can allow the resumption of normal server operation within a matter of minutes, should a hard disk fail. We will review your current Hardware Fault-Tolerance Strategy and make recommendations to insure the integrity of your hardware and enable rapid and efficient restoration in the event of a failure.
• Data Fault-Tolerance Strategy (Backup, Anti-Virus/Anti-Spam, Anti-Spyware, Critical Updates, Power Conditioning)
  Viruses, spyware, and other unforeseen causes – such as unstable or “dirty” power conditions – have all been shown to corrupt systems and critical data. We will review your current Data Fault-Tolerance Strategy and make recommendations to insure your data’s integrity and your ability to restore data in the event of corruptions or disasters.
• Efficiency Improvements/Cost-Reducing Strategies
  We will suggest cost-saving strategies and recommended changes to your current infrastructure to improve efficiencies.
• End-Of-Life Equipment Upgrade/Replacement Plans
  In many cases, replacing aging equipment will actually help reduce your costs overall. For example, it is more economical to replace aging workstations than to continue upgrading or maintaining them, when actual physical labor costs and the cost of replacement parts are taken into account. We will do these analyses and develop an End-Of-Life Equipment Upgrade/Replacement Plan accordingly.
• Scheduled Maintenance Program
  At a minimum, regular maintenance performed properly will insure that your hardware and data fault-tolerance procedures are being followed and your company benefits accordingly. Your Scheduled Maintenance Program will include: software service pack levels and updates, critical updates on all equipment, remote network monitoring, which will provide you economical, real-time analyses of all of your critical devices and services.
• Disaster Recovery Plan
  We will help you develop a comprehensive disaster recovery plan that you can implement immediately, to get your organization up and running as quickly as possible, in the event of disaster, service interruption or catastrophic failure.
• Phased Technology Improvement Plan
  We will develop a schedule for implementing your technology plan into phases – tailored to meet your organization’s business and budget requirements – with emphasis on the highest priority and ROI steps first.

In addition to developing and helping implement your technology plan, we can also revisit it with you periodically, to update it to meet the changing needs of your business.