A Technology Business Review (TBR) is a structured meeting between your business leadership and your IT provider to evaluate the health of your technology environment, identify risks, and plan investments that align with your business goals. It's the IT equivalent of an annual physical: it catches problems before they become emergencies and gives you a clear picture of where you stand. Having one at least annually prevents your IT from falling behind while you're focused on running the business.
What a TBR Covers
A good TBR is not a vague conversation about "how things are going." It's a data-driven review with specific deliverables. Here's what each section should include.
Current state assessment. This is a clear, honest picture of your IT environment today. It covers your hardware inventory (how many computers, their age, their condition), your software licenses (what you're paying for, what's in use, what's expiring), your security posture (MFA adoption, endpoint protection coverage, backup status), and your network health (internet speed, wireless performance, equipment age). If your IT provider uses a real-time dashboard like the Athencia One Portal, much of this data is already collected and can be presented without a manual audit. If they have to scramble to pull this information together before the meeting, that tells you something about their monitoring practices.
Risk identification. Every IT environment has risks. The question is whether you know what they are. A TBR should identify aging hardware approaching end of life, software nearing end of support (such as applications that won't run on the latest operating system), security gaps (employees without MFA, devices without endpoint protection), compliance issues relevant to your industry, and single points of failure (one server with no redundancy, one person who knows all the passwords). Each risk should be rated by severity and likelihood so you can prioritize the ones that matter most.
Performance review. This section looks at how well IT is serving your business day to day. Your IT provider should present data on support ticket trends (are tickets increasing or decreasing?), average response and resolution times, system uptime, recurring issues that haven't been permanently resolved, and user satisfaction. If the same printer problem generates a ticket every week, that's not an IT support success story. It's a sign that someone needs to fix the root cause.
Budget review. A TBR should include a clear summary of what you're currently spending on IT across all categories: hardware, software, managed services, security, internet, and phone. It should highlight areas where costs could be optimized (unused licenses, redundant tools, overprovisioned services) and areas where additional investment is needed (aging hardware, security gaps, compliance requirements). This section turns IT from a mystery expense into a transparent, manageable budget item.
Roadmap and priorities. The most valuable part of a TBR is the forward-looking plan. Your IT provider should present a roadmap for the next 6 to 12 months, with specific projects ranked by business impact and risk. For example: "Replace the 5 laptops that are over 4 years old (high impact, medium cost), upgrade from Microsoft 365 Business Standard to Business Premium to get Intune and Defender (high impact, moderate cost), implement a formal backup for your Microsoft 365 data using Dropsuite (high impact, low cost)." Each recommendation should include an estimated cost and a clear rationale.
Why Small Businesses Skip TBRs (and Why They Shouldn't)
The most common excuse is "we're too small for that." But even a 10-person company benefits from a yearly IT checkup. In fact, smaller businesses often benefit more because they have less margin for error. A single security incident or prolonged outage can have an outsized impact on a business with 15 employees.
Many small businesses lack internal IT leadership. The owner makes IT decisions on the fly, reacting to problems rather than planning ahead. A TBR gives you an hour or two of structured strategic thinking about technology, guided by someone who does this professionally. It's the closest thing to having a CIO without hiring one.
Reactive IT culture is another barrier. When technology only gets attention after something breaks, risks accumulate silently. That 6-year-old server nobody thinks about, the two employees who never set up MFA, the backup that stopped running three months ago but nobody noticed. Without regular reviews, these issues don't surface until they cause an expensive emergency: a server failure, a security breach, or a failed compliance audit.
What a Good TBR Should Produce
Walk out of a TBR with tangible deliverables, not just a handshake and a verbal summary.
Written report. A document summarizing findings, risks, and recommendations. This is your reference between reviews and your evidence for cyber insurance applications, compliance audits, or board discussions.
Risk register. A prioritized list of risks with severity, likelihood, and recommended actions. This becomes your "fix it" list, ordered by what matters most.
Hardware lifecycle plan. A clear picture of which devices need replacement in the next 12 months and the estimated cost. No surprises when a laptop dies if you already knew it was due for replacement.
Security scorecard. Where your security stands against a recognized framework. A CIS Controls baseline assessment, for example, measures your environment against the Center for Internet Security's recommended controls and identifies specific gaps with actionable recommendations. This gives you an objective measure of your security posture, not just your IT provider's opinion.
Budget projection. Estimated IT costs for the next 12 months, including recurring costs and planned projects. This feeds directly into your annual business budget.
Priority roadmap. The top 3 to 5 projects recommended for the next quarter, with rationale, estimated cost, and expected business impact.
How Often to Have a TBR
Annually at minimum. A comprehensive review covering all of the categories above. This is the baseline. Any business working with an MSP should expect at least one thorough TBR per year.
Quarterly is better. Shorter check-ins (30 to 60 minutes) to review progress on the roadmap, address new issues, and adjust priorities. Quarterly reviews keep the roadmap from becoming a document nobody looks at after the annual meeting. They also catch emerging risks, like a new employee who was onboarded without MFA, before they become problems.
Triggered reviews. Schedule an additional TBR after a security incident, a major business change (acquisition, rapid hiring, new office location), or a compliance audit. These events change your IT landscape enough to warrant a fresh assessment. For Athencia's managed IT clients, triggered reviews are part of the service relationship and can be scheduled on short notice.
Most managed IT providers include quarterly or annual TBRs as part of their service agreement. If yours doesn't, ask why.
What to Prepare for Your TBR
Come to the meeting ready to discuss the business side. Your IT provider brings the technical data; you bring the business context.
Share your business goals for the next 12 months. Are you planning to hire? Open a new location? Launch a new service? These plans directly affect your IT needs, and your provider needs to know about them to plan effectively.
Bring up any IT frustrations or recurring issues your team is experiencing. Slow computers, unreliable Wi-Fi, confusing software, difficulty accessing files remotely. These issues often get normalized ("that's just how it is"), but they shouldn't be. A TBR is the right time to raise them.
Mention upcoming compliance requirements or audits. If your industry requires HIPAA compliance and you have an audit in six months, your IT provider needs to factor that into the roadmap.
Be transparent about budget constraints. A good IT provider will work within your budget and help you prioritize spending where it has the most impact. Hiding budget limitations leads to recommendations you can't act on, which wastes everyone's time.
Finally, bring questions. If you've heard about a new tool, a new threat, or a technology trend that might affect your business, the TBR is the right place to discuss it.
Red Flags: When Your IT Provider Doesn't Offer TBRs
An MSP or IT provider that never reviews your environment strategically is operating as a help desk, not a partner. They're solving today's problems without thinking about tomorrow's risks. That distinction matters.
Without TBRs, issues like aging hardware, expiring software licenses, and security gaps go unaddressed until they cause a crisis. You end up in a constant cycle of emergency spending, which is both more expensive and more stressful than planned investment.
A good IT provider proactively schedules TBRs and comes prepared with data, analysis, and recommendations. They don't wait for you to ask. If your current provider doesn't offer regular TBRs, ask them to start. If they're unwilling or unable, consider it a significant factor in evaluating alternatives.
Need Help?
A Technology Business Review is one of the most valuable things an IT provider can offer, and it's one of the easiest to overlook. If you haven't had one in the past year, or if you've never had one at all, reach out to Athencia. We'll assess your environment, identify your risks, and give you a clear plan for the next 12 months.
