Guide · Running your technology
Signs your business has outgrown its IT setup
Ten signs we see again and again, a quick way to score yourself, and what to do about it.
Nobody sits down and designs a small business's IT. It grows.
A laptop here, a subscription there, a website someone's nephew built, a server bought when there were six of you. It works fine, right up until the business is three times the size and the setup isn't.
Here are the signs we see most often in businesses that have outgrown theirs. Count how many sound familiar.
Ten signs you've outgrown your IT
1. One person knows how it all works
Often it's not even an IT person. It's the office manager, the finance director, or a founder who was "good with computers". When they're on holiday, nobody touches anything. When they leave, the knowledge leaves with them.
2. You pay for things that overlap
Dropbox and OneDrive. Two project tools. A CRM half the team uses and a spreadsheet the other half prefers. Nobody has a list of every subscription, so nobody can cancel the duplicates.
3. The same data gets typed in more than once
An order comes in on the website, someone types it into the stock system, then into the accounts. Every time a person copies data between systems, you pay for their time and you get mistakes. That's usually a sign the systems need joining up properly.
4. A spreadsheet runs the business
Every business has one: the file that holds the pricing, the schedule or the customer list, that everyone depends on and only one person really understands. It has no history, no proper access control and probably no backup of its own.
5. Nobody can say when the backups were last tested
"We've got backups" is the most common answer we hear. "We restored one last quarter and it worked" is the rarest. If nobody's tried, you don't know. Our guide on how to check your backups actually work shows how.
6. A customer has asked for Cyber Essentials
More customers and public sector contracts ask for it now. If the question sent everyone scrambling to find out what it even involves, that's a sign nobody owns security. Our Cyber Essentials guide covers what's needed.
7. There's a server nobody wants to touch
The box in the cupboard, or the hosting account set up years ago by someone who's since moved on. It's out of date, nobody's sure what runs on it, and everyone's quietly hoping it keeps going. It's on our Linux server page for a reason.
8. A supplier project has stalled
The new website, the system upgrade, the integration that was meant to take six weeks. It's now six months, the supplier has gone quiet, and nobody internally has the technical knowledge to push back.
9. Leavers still have access
Ask who still has a login to your email, your cloud accounts and your shop's admin panel. If the honest answer is "not sure", it's worth finding out before someone else does.
10. Every problem needs a different supplier
One company for the laptops, another for the website, a freelancer for the database, a reseller for the licences. You're the only person who talks to all of them, which makes you the IT department whether you like it or not.
How did you do?
- 0 or 1: you're in decent shape. Keep an eye on it as you grow.
- 2 to 4: you've outgrown it. Nothing's on fire yet, but the risks are building and the time cost is real.
- 5 or more: technology is costing you more than it should, in money, time and risk. It needs an owner.
Why fixing them one at a time keeps failing
The natural response is to deal with each problem as it comes up. Get a quote for the backups. Find someone for Cyber Essentials. Hire a freelancer to sort the spreadsheet. Each fix is reasonable on its own.
The trouble is that the problems are connected. The spreadsheet exists because two systems don't talk to each other. The backups are patchy because nobody knows everything that needs backing up. Cyber Essentials is hard because of the old server. Fix them separately, with separate suppliers, and each one fixes its own piece without seeing the rest. You end up with more suppliers, more subscriptions and the same gaps between them. That's sign ten again, only bigger.
It also keeps the job on your desk. Every new supplier is another person you have to brief, chase and pay.
What owning it across the business looks like
The fix is to make technology one job, owned by one team, covering four things:
- Planning. Knowing everything you've got and what it costs, then deciding what to keep, what to drop and what to build. Written down, in plain English.
- Building. Joining systems up, replacing the spreadsheet, setting up open-source or off-the-shelf tools where they fit, and building custom ones where they don't.
- Running. Servers, cloud accounts, updates, monitoring and suppliers, looked after in the background.
- Securing. Access, two-factor login, tested backups, Cyber Essentials and a plan for when something goes wrong.
In a big company that's an IT department. In a business of 10 to 100 people it's usually too much for one hire. One decent all-round IT person costs about £55,000 a year all in (we show the sums in what an IT department costs), and can't cover all four. That's why outsourcing it as a whole tends to make more sense. Our guide to what an outsourced IT department should cover explains what to look for.
What we'd do
We're biased here, since this is exactly what we sell, but here's the order we'd tackle it in, whoever does it.
- A full picture. Every system, subscription, server, account and supplier, and who depends on what, with a name next to each.
- The urgent risks. Nearly always untested backups, leavers' access and anything about to fall over.
- The joining up and building. Worked through in order of what saves the most time.
When we do this for a business, the first step ends in a written plan that's yours to keep, whatever you decide to do next.
Common questions
Usually somewhere between 10 and 30 people, or sooner if you rely on custom systems, hold customer data or need Cyber Essentials. The clearest sign is that one person, often not an IT person, has become the only one who knows how everything works.
Untested backups, leavers who still have access, old servers nobody wants to touch, data typed into more than one system, overlapping subscriptions and supplier projects that have stalled. Most of them come from nobody owning technology across the whole business.
Under about 50 people, outsourcing usually gives better cover for less money. One hire costs about £55,000 a year all in and brings one set of skills, while a business needs planning, building, running and securing.
With a full list of every system, subscription, server, account and supplier, and a name next to each. Then deal with the urgent risks (backups, access, anything unsupported) before building anything new.
Tell us how many you scored
Give us a call and we'll tell you which of them to fix first.
Tell us which signs sounded familiar and who looks after what today. If it only needs one thing fixing, we'll say so.
What we will cover:
- Which risks to deal with first
- What can be joined up or dropped
- Who should own it going forward
- Whether you need us at all
Rather talk now? Book a call or ring 01474 639 089.
We reply within one working day.
