Take 4 minutes to read this article
Business-as-Usual (BAU) Support for Your IT Projects
Toggling between Business-as-Usual (BAU) tasks and project work can be a tough balancing act, but it’s something that all organizations have to deal with. After all, while BAU work keeps the business operations running smoothly and profitably, companies who want to remain competitive and innovative, also need to work on IT projects.
IT project work allows enterprises to focus on developing new products and service offerings, as well as create solutions that improve efficiency within the business. An organization that allows IT projects to fall by the wayside has probably lost sight of their long-term goals for growth. On the other hand, neglecting BAU work may cause unwelcome disruptions in the business.
So how do you strike the right balance between the two so that important, everyday needs are met while ensuring that new opportunities are explored? First, let’s differentiate the two.
What is Business-as-Usual Work?
BAU work is any ongoing set of tasks that absolutely needs to be done on a regular basis to keep things running. Hence, BAU has no foreseeable end date. Employees doing BAU work are usually the first to see which processes are no longer working and would require some changes.
BAU teams tend to lean more towards mitigating risk and making sure that the organization maintains its stability. BAU work is both predictable and repetitive, and is also easily identifiable because costs associated with it are often part of the company’s operating expenses. In IT operations, user additions/deletions, configuration changes, updating security patches, helpdesk tasks, etc. are common examples of BAU work.
What is Project Work?
Project work is work that is planned, time-bound, and has defined deliverables. It often operates on a larger scope than BAU work with capitalized costs, and all team members know what the project is for and what the expected outcomes are.
IT projects typically involve efforts in IT product/service development, streamlining operational processes, or significant company processes such as ITAD. For instance, a new technology application that is acquired, and then implemented company-wide is an IT team project.
Ensuring BAU Support for IT Projects
As business demands escalate, it’s not unusual for companies to get too focused on one area and neglect the other. Not surprisingly, it’s BAU work that gets done all the time because, well, most employees are recruited to do just that. Staff go through their routines by completing immediate goals and then calling it a day.
That’s all well and good because the reality is that not all employees need to be involved in projects. The tall order of doing project work—developing products and services that should have a significant and long-term impact on the company, falls squarely on the shoulders of the enterprise’s IT department.
But then again, when IT teams are supposed to be focusing their efforts on projects, who provides BAU IT support for them and for the rest of the company? The lack of a dedicated support team is often a key reason why IT projects sometimes take too long to get started or completed. Tech teams should be given the adequate time and resources to prioritize core work that contributes overall to business goals, rather than having them deal with the usual IT issues.
If this scenario is familiar to your organization, it’s time to consider outsourcing your BAU IT support needs. BAU support covers a range of operational IT-related tasks that keeps the daily operations running so no work gets left behind.
Finding IT Support with CentricsIT
Both BAU and Project Work are vital for an organization to ensure that standards for quality, productivity, and security are met, while keeping the company’s long-term business objectives going. Acquiring managed services that can offer support for all your operational IT needs is one of the most cost-effective ways to ensure that both BAU and IT projects are getting done.
Now whether it’s to augment your in-house IT team for important projects or provide you with the tech staff for everyday IT workloads, you can find an entire suite of these services with CentricsIT.
Standing a cut above traditional managed services providers, CentricsIT has the expertise and experience to help your organization maximize IT infrastructure, extend the life of your IT equipment, and improve IT service delivery. Our Managed Services Center of Excellence can not only simplify your IT operations by providing you with the resources you need, but ultimately, what we do is put money back into your IT budget.
