I.T. GUIDEPOSTS FOR 2015 

1. The Cloud is here to stay.
   ☞ If a single combine to harvest Corn now costs $500k with satellite linked thermal and moisture sensors – you can bet that technology and automation are changing your industry.
   ☞ Your question is not if you will need the cloud, but when, and not only when, but:
   ☞ how will you adapt your business focus and technology stack to focus on the key value drivers you offer your customers.
2. The largest IT costs are episodic not chronic. |
   ☞ It’s the one event out of the blue that is 90% of your actual IT cost, not the day to day upkeep.
   ☞ Risk management is the biggest cost driver over capital or maintenance spend.
3. Chronic IT Performance Drags are a far greater costs than all combined IT maintenance and Capex costs.
   ☞ For example: calculate the number of minutes per day you wait for your computer to respond. (hourglass time) and multiply those minutes times the salaries of every staff member in your company.
   ☞ Productivity drag cost dwarfs any other IT cost except out of the blue episodic catastrophes like flood, fire or other physical calamity.
4. When it comes to back office or infrastructure, standardization rules, and variables and complexity will sink you.
5. Innovation and change cycles are accelerating each year.
   ☞ You can win if you focus, focus, focus on your key value drivers and leave back office execution to specialists with deep technical expertise and implementation scale.