A technology roadmap (or IT roadmap) encompasses the planning, development, and support of applications, hardware, and infrastructure. Information technology roadmaps answer the question of where your organization is headed, what it will take to get there, and how you will pay for it. They are an essential tool that aligns business goals with the IT strategy needed to meet those goals. If you are responsible for designing an IT roadmap for your business or company – or working with someone like a managed service provider (MSP) who is designing it for you – this article will prove helpful in understanding what a technology roadmap actually is.
What Is Reviewed During A Technology Roadmap Meeting?
Every year, we meet with our clients and provide them with a comprehensive status report of their IT infrastructure. Here are the main talking points for a typical roadmap meeting with Shartega IT.
Hardware Status/Replacement Timeline
- Hardware assessment includes local servers, switches, workstations, firewalls, access points, uninterruptible power supply (UPS)
- Status of hardware and when it should be replaced based on age
- Status of licenses and when they are due to expire
- End-of-support/end-of-life dates for hardware
- Explain the hidden costs of aging hardware
Security Risk Assessment
The goal of the security assessment is to identify your security strengths and weaknesses and to provide advice as to the improvements you should be considering relative to your security posture.
The assessment and the results are aligned to the National Institute of Standards and Technology Cybersecurity Framework v1.1 (NIST CSF), considered to be a best practice for businesses to follow.
The assessment spans the five core areas of the framework (identify, protect, detect, respond, recover) and the report will show your results against the framework, as well as how your business aligns to other firms with respect to size, location, and industry.
Suggest Security Actions To Implement
We have a few tools that we believe are essential to cybersecurity that we recommend to our clients if they aren’t using them already. These tools include:
- Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
- SonicWall Capture Client (endpoint detection and response)
- Webroot Antivirus
- Perch Security (breach detection)
- Acronis Cyber Protect (automatic cloud backups and recovery)
- Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) for Microsoft or Google accounts
- Dark web monitoring
- Security awareness training for employees
- LastPass for secure password management
IT Support App
We want to make it as easy as possible for our clients to get in contact with us and submit IT Support tickets, so we introduced our IT Support Panel app for easy communication. We automatically install it on your company’s devices and it is compatible with PCs and Macs.
With our new app, clients are able to easily submit and respond to tickets, view open and historical tickets, and leave feedback for our team. It is our commitment to continuously improve customer experience and we feel this app is a major step in that direction. This new app is our preferred method for entering support tickets and communicating updates.
Internet Service Provider (ISP)/Communications
We will also review your internet service provider (ISP) and determine if you should make a switch to another provider or if a faster connection is needed for your organization.
Most of our clients are using RingCentral for their phones, messaging, and video within their company. Other tools we recommend for communication are a Microsoft 365 Business subscription, which includes company email with a custom domain, Microsoft Teams for messaging and video meetings, and the suite of Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook).
Step Up Your IT Game.
If you’re trying to run a business but you don’t want to deal with the IT part, that’s where we come in! Shartega IT is a managed IT service provider (MSP) that can provide you with the IT essentials you need from day one at a flat-rate monthly subscription price. Our services include a 24/7 help desk team, network monitoring, hardware and software procurement, breach detection, cloud backups, and more. To learn more or schedule a meeting with us, click below.
