Understanding Business Life Cycles
Every business has different needs. Understanding those needs is a major key to success.
Knowing where your business is at in its life cycle can give you some insight into what your business needs might be. It can also help you understand what is required to grow to the next level, what might be holding you back, and how to plan for the future. All important things to know if you want to keep growing and succeeding in your business.
To help you determine where your business is at in its life cycle, we’ve outlined the major life cycle milestones and what your technology needs likely are at that phase.
Start-up (Sub $500,000 in revenue)
Typically use shareware / free software
G-mail, Google products or Office 365 for advanced security and scalability
Small point solution software
Focus is on revenue acquisition
Our solution: IT Roadmap LITE / Strategic planning services
Small business ($500,000 to $2,000,000)
Business complexity increases
Software solutions become more valuable / necessary
Office 365 with full Office suite enables business richer B2B experience
Need for CRM / ERP begins to emerge
Typically, a point solution software architecture begins to form
Has higher cost of ownership and will not scale long term
Focus on revenue acquisition begins to be strained by increasing business complexity
Our solution: IT Roadmap LITE / Strategy planning services / Process improvement services
Small business ($2,000,000 to $5,000,000)
Likely need to document and re-engineer business processes to drive productivity
Need single instance of data truth architecture
Need security audits
Infrastructure is likely consumer grade, not enterprise grade
Should be planning to move toward a framework CRM / ERP solution
Consolidating / shutting down point solution software
Broader integration with partners
Scaling the business begins to be a real challenge
Our solution: IT Roadmap LITE or IT Roadmap / Strategic planning services / Process improvement services
Medium business ($5,000,000 to $10,000,000)
Significant growth is typical
Single instance of data truth is critical
Need for productivity improvement and cost management
Business processes likely “spaghetti”
Need security audits
Infrastructure is likely consumer grade, not enterprise grade
Business process knowledge is within the village square and key employee’s minds, not systematic
Need to finalize solid business processes and software (CRM / ERP) before hitting the $10M range
Critical to scaling
Need to consolidate all point solution products
Our solution: IT Roadmap / Strategic planning services / Product management improvement services / Penetration testing services
Medium to large business ($10,000,000+)
Need process documentation and re-engineering
Need single instance of data truth architecture
Need security audits
Potential for CRM / ERP upgrade
Potential for data management training
Typically has IT limitations in understanding business needs for technology
Our solution: IT Roadmap / Penetration testing services / Infrastructure audit services / Process improvement services