Implementing Business Assessments

Manage business more effectively, save resources, and increase overall profitability. Regularly planned business assessments in several areas can help your company meet all of these needs.

Assessments are important for any small business aspiring to grow and succeed. They help measure the direction in which the business is headed. Following are several examples of areas that can benefit from assessments, thereby strengthening the business.

The SWOT analysis
The SWOT analysis is a method that is used to assess and review the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats faced by a business across its operations or in a particular area. The SWOT analysis reveals how well the strengths and weaknesses of a business align with the opportunities and threats it faces in the market. When reviewed, SWOT reveals the:

• Strengths or advantages your business has over others in the same market
• Weaknesses or disadvantageous features possessed, in relation to the market and competitors
• Opportunities or the prospects that could prove to be advantageous to your business
• Threats or prospects that could prove disadvantageous

Conducting the SWOT analyses helps identify key elements that contribute to better business planning. It assists in establishing objectives and goals that are realistic and achievable. SWOT analysis can also help businesses gain an understanding of their performance in relation to competitors.

IT Assessment
Small businesses may be completely dependent on their IT infrastructure for several reasons. It may be a critical component to their own operations or to the services provided to clients. Regular reviews and assessments are necessary to keep IT performance optimized. IT assessments should include steps to –

• Check specific IT system components like network performance, applications, server infrastructure, network and data security, etc.
• Identify and help resolve performance issues such as breakdowns and redundancies before they affect critical operations.
• Measure and check whether IT performance is maintained as per expected at all times. This is particularly important for small businesses that have a limited budget to invest, and for whom IT outages can quickly turn into real financial liabilities.

Sales or Business Forecast Assessment
Sales forecasts help small businesses make important decisions, especially regarding investments. Forecasting tools identify and provide business owners with insight such as information revealing that a business is on track to meet 25% of its annual sales target in a specific month. Armed with this information, business owners can choose an appropriate course of action, including ramping up infrastructure to meet service or product needs, or hiring additional resources if required.

Sales and business forecast assessment are particularly important for start-up businesses or companies which lack historical data.

Business Continuity Assessment
Ensuring growth is a continuous process. Business continuity management is a practice that must be addressed if a company aims to expand in the near future. As a business grows, measures must be implemented to ensure that a company’s existence is not dependent upon a single individual. A business continuity assessment should evaluate areas such as process documentation, planning, strategic development, communication and training, and emergency contingency planning.

Analytix Solutions can assist in providing your business with assessments in all of these areas. For more information, please contact us at sales@analytix.com or at 781-503-9002.

Written by

Analytix Editorial Team