and Goal Setting

What are Your Goals?

This learning module is intended to give you as much information as is necessary for you to reflect seriously on the following questions. While you are working through this module focus on your overall business goals and how implementing might help.

• Does it make sense to bring the Internet into your business life?  How deeply do you want to involve it?
  
  
• Are you looking to enable more business?  Expand your markets?
  
  
• Are you thinking that the Internet can entice new customers?  Build firm awareness? Become a sales vehicle?
  
  
• Is your goal to reduce costs?  Cut operating costs by identifying better or more efficient suppliers?  Reduce carrying charges or inventory by just-in-time stocking?
  
  
• Do your goals involve enhancing quality and efficiency?  Are you thinking that the Internet can improve or at least send a message of improved quality of your firm?  Might it help with the quality of your product/service?
  
  
• Do you want to empower your customers?  Give better access to you and your product or more information about you and your product?  Are you looking to build a community within your customer base, thereby enhancing loyalty?
  
  
• Have you considered what your firm’s "brand" is?  Is presence or lack of presence online a factor in that brand or in brand recognition?

Beginning Strategy Assessment

Conducting an assessment of your business usage of IT and the IT skills of personnel is the best place to start. You need to have an accurate assessment for where things stand right now before we can being to identify where adding can make a difference. An audit will mean an honest realization of what you are currently using in the way of technology, what you might like to add and the personnel or skill sets that will be required.

Each of the worksheets in this section is designed to get the best assessment possible. Read each worksheet’s introduction, and then take all the time you need to complete the worksheet, again, your assessment is an essential part of the goal setting necessary to successfully add into you business plan.