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It’s a familiar situation for any growing business – while your IT seemed to work just fine initially, you and your staff are stumbling upon more and more IT issues. Files keep getting misplaced or deleted, a malicious email attachment has been opened and released a virus, or your telephone systems doesn’t allow for flexible working. Whatever the nature of the issue(s), they all have the same result – slowing your business down and hindering your success.

So does that mean your IT no longer fit for purpose?

Well, before you can answer that, the first question you need to ask yourself is, ‘what's the purpose of my IT?' While every industry is different, there are some universal core requirements to enable growth, increase value and mitigate risk for your business.

In simple terms, your IT needs to be able to successfully - and consistently - do the following:

  1. Store and protect your business data (and keep confidential files private)

  2. Allow colleagues, clients and partners to communicate easily with each other

  3. Provide reliable access to systems that help improve efficiency and gain competitive advantage

  4. Boost productivity

  5. Protect you from cyber attacks

Simple, right? Yet a huge number of the IT systems of SMEs that we see, fail at providing one or more of the above. The reality is, technology has been evolving very quickly (especially since the beginning of the pandemic) and the businesses that haven’t kept up are increasingly losing competitive advantage.

To help you judge whether your IT is adequately providing each of the above, let’s break each down into more detail:  

  1. Data

No matter the size of your business, your IT needs to be able to handle and protect company data from both internal and external threats.

Questions to ask yourself (or your IT company/department) are: Is the data restricted, confidential or public? Should it be stored on the cloud or locally? Who has access to what data? Have relevant staff members been trained about their role in keeping data safe?

Answering these questions will help you to form systematic policies and controls for your data. You can then take proactive steps to enforce these, including setting up encryption and role-based access controls.  

Finally, implementing, managing and monitoring backups ensures all of your business data is protected if disaster strikes (such as server failures). As a minimum, we advocate having hourly local backups with encrypted daily backups transferred to at least one offsite location, preferably also to a cloud environment.

  1. Communication

Being able to communicate in a timely manner is crucial to keeping your business running effectively and ensuring you do not lose customers to competitors. Research shows that approximately 1 day per week is lost by employees because of inadequate communications capabilities.

Business communication methods includes telephony, email, video meetings and chat – so you’ll want to make sure that your IT can handle all of these consistently. If you’re finding that your current communication methods aren’t reliably working or don’t support flexible or remote working, you may also find that productivity suffers.
One of the biggest advantages of modern business IT is the speed and scope of communication - odds are you may just not be aware of how much tech-enabled comms can benefit and add value to your business. 

  1. Accessibility

Every time a new starter is unable to log in, or a program has suddenly crashed, your business will suffer - whether it’s on an operational, financial or reputational basis - until the issue is resolved.
Tim Leslie


Put simply, you need constant access to the programs and systems you use. Every time a new starter is unable to log in, or a program has suddenly crashed, your business will suffer - whether it’s on an operational, financial or reputational basis - until the issue is resolved.
 
Rather than trying to fix these issues yourself, having professional, expert technical support ensures issues are resolved quickly and you can keep focused on your business. A (good) IT support desk will maintain your computer systems and networks for you, identifying faults and solving technical and applications problems, either over the phone or in person.
 
The other side of accessibility is integration. Having integrated, cloud-based software means you can access anything from anywhere whilst boosting efficiency and communication. Solutions such as Microsoft 365 means you can streamline tools such as email, file storage, CRM, meetings and chat into a single productive workspace – which leads us nicely into the next section…

  1. Productivity

Ultimately, productive employees make more money for the company they work for. Technology can be a key part in hindering productivity (if it’s inflexible, slow and glitchy) or maximising it (if it’s intuitive, collaborative and flexible).

As the last year has shown, being able to easily communicate and collaborate remotely is vital. With flexible working set to become a permanent fixture for many business, the need to invest in remote working applications has never been greater. These systems allow staff to communicate, share and manage documents and files seamlessly, whether they are in the office together or working remotely. In turn, this flexibility makes staff happier and helps to attract top talent – 90% of companies have seen positive impacts from remote working such as greater engagement and happiness.

To monitor productivity and other performance metrics, reporting software can provide you with this information in a real-time, digestible way. With data and analytics increasingly shifting to a core business function, it’s worth considering having the right tech in place to keep up with competitors. Many solutions now available have the capacity to connect into multiple data feeds and allow real-time overviews of your Operations, Sales or Marketing information with the ability to drill down if needed. Get in touch with us to discuss the options available. 

  1. Security

Your business' data is the lifeblood of your business, so protecting it from threats should be the highest priority. The main aspects of IT security you need to consider are:

  • Email protection – With over 90% of attacks on organisations starting from a malicious email, relying on your built-in security might leave you open to cyber criminals. Email protection software that includes security measures such as encryption, security policies and content filtering will ensure your company has the best defence against common email attacks.

  • Antivirus – Antivirus software works as a last line of defence if all else fails, protecting you and your employees’ data from both old and new threats. Good antivirus software will update daily and protect your devices no matter where your staff are located.

  • DR & Backups  - No business can be completely protected against IT disasters. You can have all the precautions possible in place, but there’s still a chance that some form of disaster will strike that puts precious data in jeopardy. Without a structured and tested disaster recovery plan in place, these unforeseen events can bring the day-to-day operations of your business to a halt.

 A good way to have peace of mind about your IT security – and to show your commitment to security to your clients and prospects – is to apply for a Cyber Essentials certification. The government-run scheme has two levels – Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials PLUS. MTech can help you achieve either (or both) of these, by undertaking your assessment for you and ensuring you have the right policies and processes in place.

If you'd like to discuss any of the points raised above, or would just like a quick chat about your business needs, fill in the form below or give us a call.

 

Call 0113 897 0999
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