Sample Technology Assessment

This is a sample. The company, the people, and the numbers are made up. The format is real. Every Technology Assessment starts with one page like this, written for the owner, followed by the working detail for whoever runs the systems.

Sample client: a regional manufacturer with about 140 people, two plants, an outside IT company on a monthly contract, and one internal IT person.

Where you stand

Your IT company is keeping the lights on. Tickets get closed. Nobody is steering. There is no written plan, the monthly contract hasn’t been reviewed since it was signed, and your IT person spends most of the week on requests that should go to the IT company.

The biggest risk isn’t a missing tool. Your cyber insurance application says multi-factor sign-in is on everywhere. It’s on for email. It’s off for the VPN and the accounting server. Remote access like that VPN is the most common way ransomware gets in, and one insurer puts the average ransomware claim for smaller companies above $400,000, before you count the lost production days. If it happens through either gap, that one answer on the application can turn a covered claim into a dispute, and the bill stays with you.

The good news: the network is in better shape than the paperwork, backups run every night, and your IT person knows the plants cold. None of this needs a big project. It needs an owner.

The decision in front of you

One decision, and it’s yours, not your IT company’s: who owns technology and its risk here? Right now nobody does. You can name someone inside, ask your IT company to take it on in writing, or bring in a part-time leader. Any of the three works if it’s written down. Leaving it unowned is the one choice that doesn’t.

Stop

• Two backup subscriptions doing the same job. About $640 a month.
• Eleven licenses for people who left. About $410 a month.
• The quarterly review your IT company bills for and doesn’t hold.

Keep

• Your IT company, for now. They do good day-to-day work. They need a written priority list and someone checking it.
• Your internal IT person. Move ticket work off their plate so they can own the plant systems.
• The firewall and the nightly backups.

Fix

• Multi-factor sign-in on the VPN and the accounting server, before the insurance renewal on March 1.
• Test a backup restore. Nobody has, and a backup you haven’t restored is a guess.
• Shared admin accounts at Plant 2. Give each person their own sign-in.

Replace

• The file server at Plant 1. It’s out of support in June, and it holds the quoting files.

Your IT company

They answer fast and fix what they’re asked to fix. The gap is direction, not effort. Nobody has told them what matters most, so they work the loudest ticket. We recommend keeping them, writing down six priorities they agree to, and reviewing progress together every month. If that doesn’t move in 90 days, we’ll say so and help you choose a replacement.

The first 90 days

What comes with it

This page is the top of the package, not all of it. A real Technology Assessment also includes the working detail behind every line for whoever runs your systems, a read of your IT contract, a walk-through meeting with you and your team, and answers to follow-up questions for five business days after delivery. We raise any finding about your IT company or team with them before the report reaches you, so nobody is surprised.

What happens next

You can run this list with your own team. If you’d rather have someone own it, Fractional Technology Leadership, our monthly role, picks up here: one working session a month, a one-page update like this one, and someone who checks the work.

Want to know what yours would say? Book a call.