IT Resolutions: Improve Security, Backups and Employee Productivity
Get Better IT Results. Your Business or Firm Should Consider These New Year IT Resolutions.
Happy New Year! During this time of year, we meet with companies that either want to find improvements or flaws with areas such as IT Security, Backups or Employee Productivity. Here are our top 4 IT Resolutions that your company should consider improving on this year.
Resolution #1:
I envision an IT provider who proactively collaborates with me to strategize for my business's technology needs, diligently monitors and reports performance, and ensures alignment with industry standards and best practices, and keeps my cloud services up and running, rather than simply reacting to issues as they arise.
Whether you’re looking to get more out of the IT provider you’re already working with, or you're in the market for someone entirely new, you’ll want to start by asking a few basic but critical questions. You’ll need to know that they can:
• Provide the expertise, processes and staff needed to help you carry out strategic Business and IT goals.
• Monitor and maintain my business's cloud infrastructure to improve security and efficiency.
• Provide constant updates and feedback to ensure your technology is performing at its peak.
• Provide solutions and guidance to help you meet compliance requirements and security best practices.
• Proactively monitor/maintain your IT systems and private cloud to keep costly downtime to a minimum.
Resolution #2:
I want my business or firm to be safeguarded with worry-free IT Security. This includes proactive processes ensuring ongoing system and security checks, best practices, and comprehensive reporting to eliminate blind spots and mitigate risks.
Cybercriminals are evolving and businesses need to keep up. Contrary to popular belief, it takes more than a firewall, antivirus and other IT security tools to ensure that your business is properly protected. You need assurances that an ongoing process exists to verify that your business is adhering to IT Security Standards.
Ensure that your provider:
- Has the process and dedicated resources responsible for IT Standards and Security alignment and reporting so you know exactly where you stand.
- Has a process for identifying potential risks to your business and proactively meets with you regularly to report and interpret those results.
- Will go out of their way to ensure no aspect of your security has been overlooked.
- Creates a plan to keep your business and your data safe, no matter what.
Resolution #3
I will have a deeper understanding of my IT System Performance through proactive system measures, reports, and IT metrics and KPIs. This will allow our business or firm to achieve greater ROI from our people and technology investments.
Most businesses know that IT directly impacts their biggest expense – their people (payroll). Yet many don’t have the systems or processes to measure IT effectiveness, and how IT is positively or negatively impacting productivity. With most businesses being reliant on IT systems for their people to perform their jobs, IT is the core function that every business needs to get right. You'll need to:
- Ensure there is a process and KPI’s for measuring IT performance.
- Receive regular reporting on key metrics and KPI’s.
- Have scheduled time to review and interpret IT results and put plans and processes in place to improve results.
- Discuss with your IT provider to understand where you have performance gaps and what is the plan for improvement.
Resolution #4
I will no longer settle for just fixing IT issues. I want a true proactive process in place to maximize my IT and business results.
This resolution is as simple as it is critical to your business’ ongoing success. If you’ve been relying on a break/fix IT solution to keep your technology running, you likely have increased risk and inefficiencies that are slowing your people down and costing your business money. You should make 2021 the year you leave that behind.
- It’s more important to have proactive processes in place to keep things from going wrong in the first place.
- Installing new equipment and fixing IT issues is only a small part of what a true proactive IT provider can offer your growing business.
- A true IT partner can help you stay ahead of problems and grant the ability to leverage technology in ways you never thought possible!