The term “holistic” means you’re thinking about the big picture. It commonly precedes words like “parenting,” “design,” or “medicine,” but at SBT Partners, we pride ourselves on applying a holistic IT approach to every one of our clients.
A holistic approach identifies an obstacle, then takes a step back and views that obstacle as part of the whole situation. Your technology touches all aspects of your business in some way. By approaching your technology this way, it accomplishes a number of things.
Interrelation between parts – By seeing how the issue relates to everything else, you can find connections and relationships you wouldn’t have noticed otherwise. The problem may seem centralized but made worse by something seemingly unrelated.
Functional fluidity – A holistic approach is more than a single way of looking at an issue. Rigid thinking resists innovation, and when you take everything into account, you find new ways to approach an issue.
Remove assumptions – It’s easy to assume what the root of the problem is or how a solution will affect the entire system. More information means the issue can be interpreted differently.
Find a better solution – This all helps find a better permanent solution instead of a superficial one. What may get the job done today can lead to more issues down the road.
How SBT Applies a Holistic Solution to Your IT
Your technology is like any other complex system—all functions work as one to accomplish a goal and the system is viewed as a single entity.
Systems Thinking
Traditionally, IT systems were broken into separate elements: Security was separate from disaster recovery, which was separate from the operating system. This approach sees the system as something that is balanced; an improvement in one area should coincide with improvement in another.
Technology is related to other aspects of the business as well—finance, marketing and procurement. All of these activities carry with them a predetermined level of risk, and technology is no different. Your point-of-sale technology, for example, does more than receive money. It communicates sales to your accounting software, it reduces inventory and sets reorder points, it manages loyalty programs, and it needs to perform all of these functions safely and in compliance with industry regulations. When you take a holistic approach, you’re making decisions about the point-of-sale system and accounting for how it works with other business processes and functions.
The Human Aspect
People want their technology to work. When it doesn’t, it’s frustrating and productivity suffers. A major part of this is training, or understanding how your technology works. This doesn’t mean an accountant should know how to work a forklift; it means accounting and forklifts are related through cost and productivity. When your workforce buys into how technology works and how their jobs affect others, they are taking their own holistic approach.
SBT Partners Are Experts in Holistic Thinking
When you join the SBT Partnership, you’re leveraging our years of IT knowledge and experience to work for you. One of the ways we do this is to take your technology as a whole, not as separate parts. This way, improvement in one area automatically means improvement in others. Call us today, let us perform a thorough IT assessment, and get on the path to total enterprise improvement.
