These six free quick guides might be some of the most important freebies you look at all year, if technology is critical to your business
Just last week we commented that there's a lot of quite useful, free brochures and handbooks on everything from tax to starting a business.
IT is a particular problem area. When you're busy, you don't have the time to understand technology products. A lot of business owners get a solution in as quickly as possible rather than making long term decisions.
We've written about this before - the temptation is to make decisions and act quickly is a trap.
Enterprise Connect has prepared a series of guides to help provide some rigour and structure around IT decision-making. After many years of developing and deploying IT systems I've learned that there is a proper process that can be followed that minimises the risk of making decisions that aren't going to deliver what you need.
There are six guides on the site. They are
- Identify the Business Case
- Identify the Business Requirements
- Selecting an IT Solution
- Procuring an IT Solution
- Implementing an IT Solution
- Using the 'Cloud' to support your Business
The first five follow a well-worn path that successful IT professionals have paved. The last guide, about cloud computing, provides a clear introduction to cloud IT services - something that's often referred to as SaaS.
The guides are written in a plain, jargon-free style that's designed for non-IT people to read and use and cover all the basics such as what to look out for when it comes to costs - both obvious and hidden, as well as how to discern between competing products.
