Defining the Minimum IT Baseline

The Feeling That Comes Before the Definition

There’s a stage most organizations pass through without ever naming it.

Technology hasn’t failed — but it hasn’t settled either.

You notice it when:

• Decisions take longer than they should
• Simple changes feel riskier than expected
• The same issues resurface in slightly different forms
• A small group of people carries disproportionate technical responsibility

Nothing here qualifies as a crisis.

That’s why it lingers.

This isn’t a tooling problem.
It’s an ownership problem.

What We Mean by “IT Baseline”

Every functioning business operates above a certain minimum level of IT competency.

Not excellence.
Not enterprise-grade sophistication.

Just baseline — the minimum required for technology to stop consuming excess attention.

Think of it as the operational floor.

Above it, work feels steady.
Below it, work still happens — but with unnecessary drag.

Most businesses never define this floor. They assume they’ll recognize problems when they cross some obvious line.

They rarely do.

The Minimum IT Baseline (Defined)

A business operating above its IT baseline isn’t defined by tools or vendors.

It’s defined by conditions.

At minimum:

• Someone owns technology outcomes
  Not tickets. Not fixes. Outcomes. There is clarity about who is responsible when technology affects the business.

• Issues surface before users are blocked
  Problems don’t always get prevented — but they rarely arrive as surprises.

• There is a defined place for problems to go
  Issues don’t live in inboxes, text messages, or someone’s head. There is a known path.

• Decisions get reviewed before money is spent
  Purchases are intentional. Replacements aren’t reactive. The business doesn’t pay tuition on every mistake.

• Knowledge exists outside of individuals
  The business is not fragile because one person is unavailable.

• Failures are boring
  When something breaks, the response is procedural — not improvisational.

This isn’t advanced.

It’s foundational.

If several of these aren’t true, the business is operating below baseline.

Life Below the Baseline

Below the baseline, IT responsibility doesn’t disappear.

It migrates.

It lands on:

• Owners
• High-performing employees
• The most patient person in the room
• Emergency consultants

These are the most expensive places it can land.

Not because of hourly rates — but because of opportunity cost.

Executive attention is consumed by operational noise.
Capable employees are pulled away from their real work.
Decisions get delayed because no one wants to be the one who breaks something.

Technology becomes something to manage around, instead of something that quietly supports the work.

Why Businesses Stay Below Baseline

Very few businesses choose this intentionally.

More often, it happens because:

• The company grew gradually
• Systems were added one at a time
• Early decisions never got revisited
• “It works” felt good enough
• Nothing ever broke badly enough to force a reset

So the baseline was never named.

And when the baseline isn’t defined, everything else becomes reactive.

The Hidden Cost Isn’t Money (At First)

The first cost of operating below baseline isn’t budget.

It’s attention.

Every small technical issue consumes cognitive bandwidth:

• Second-guessing purchases
• Double-checking changes
• Relearning how things work
• Carrying knowledge that should live elsewhere

Over time, this shapes behavior.

People avoid improvements.
Processes calcify.
Growth feels heavier than it should.

The business still functions — but it requires more effort than necessary.

The Myth of “We’re Too Small”

Many organizations assume IT standards apply only after a certain size.

In practice, the opposite is true.

The earlier a baseline is established:

• The fewer bad decisions accumulate
• The easier growth becomes
• The less rework is required later

Small environments don’t stay simple automatically.

They only appear simple until complexity compounds.

This Isn’t About Technology

It’s about responsibility.

Baseline IT competency doesn’t mean buying better tools.

It means:

• Defining ownership
• Reducing surprise
• Making outcomes predictable

Once that baseline is crossed, technology fades into the background — where it belongs.

A Clearer Question to Ask

Instead of asking whether your technology is “good enough,” ask something simpler:

• Do we know who owns the outcome when technology affects the business?
• Do issues surprise us, or arrive early?
• Do decisions feel deliberate, or improvised?

If those answers are vague, the baseline hasn’t been crossed.

Closing

Most companies don’t fail because of catastrophic IT events.

They fail because of accumulated friction no one ever owned.

Baseline IT isn’t about perfection.

It’s about clarity.

And once that clarity exists, everything downstream — decisions, growth, and change — becomes easier.