There's a large range of IT Solutions which will be appropriate for your business. These will vary across industry sector, and depend on how large your business is. If you're looking to implement new systems though, my advice would be give your business reliable, cost-effective Internet connectivity first.
Why? Particularly if your business need is for an Accounts solution? Or Customer Relationship Management (CRM)? Why should you not just(!) select a good product, from a reliable vendor, with good support, install it on a new or existing server, and start reaping the benefits?
Because if you're planning on being in business for any length of time, you'll want to be leveraging the advances in Information Technology. The brave new world of cloud computing is fundamentally changing the economics of IT. Why buy a depreciating asset (a server), when you can rent the business service? Why employ systems administrators when you can make systems administration someone elses problem? Why try and compete with the likes of Google in deploying reliable, available solutions, when your business most likely is not IT?
Increasingly there is no reason.
One example of a service that works superbly in the cloud is Google Mail. Google Mail for your business delivers 99.9% availability. Guaranteed. The data is backed up to multiple data centres so it can be restored seamlessly in the event of failure. Encrypted so third parties cannot view your sensitive data. You can certainly provide all of that with a Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes, or Linux-based solution. Is it cost-effective to do so? About as cost-effective as starting an airline so you can make weekly business flights to Johannnesburg.
Email is a particularly good example, but what about the rest of your IT estate? Increasingly that's moving into the cloud too. Salesforce.com showed that it could be done with CRM, and every vendor who can is following suit. And that's an important point - 'every vendor who can'. For some legacy applications there is no simple roadmap which takes their applications from the data centre, and into the cloud. Look for new entrants in every sector to introduce offerings that will increasingly take market share from the larger, more established, but less flexible IT suppliers.
There are also various entry points into the cloud. From a full Software as a Service (SaaS) model, through to renting server CPU and storage space from Amazon. Renting server space alone means you still need (good) systems adminstrators, but you have at least taken that large depreciating lump of tin out of the equation. So, if you do find you underestimated or overestimated your usage, you can just change your plans so they are right-sized for your business.
So, that finally brings me back to the subject. If you're looking at your IT systems, start with your Internet Connectivity. It's a challenge to deliver reliable internet access to your business, but it can be done - without breaking the bank. The rewards for doing so is entry into the next generation of Information Technology. A whole new class of applications, delivering features and functionality that you would otherwise pay a small / medium / large (choose one) fortune for.
