Is our attitude to business IT more like our attitude to visiting the doctor? Many people put off visiting the doctor until they are actually ill, meaning that health issues are often only diagnosed once they have started to cause major problems. If we all took the time to get regular health checks, any problems could be picked up early and we would all enjoy happier healthier lives.
In a similar way, many businesses fail to recognise that IT needs ongoing attention in order to remain strong. If businesses took the time to do a regular IT health check, many problems could be avoided, saving time and money and making recovery times shorter when issues did arise.
Is your Cyber-Security adequate in protecting your business?
According to Accenture, over the past five years, cybersecurity breaches have increased by 67% and Juniper research found that the average small to medium business invests less than £400 (US $ 500) a year on cyber-security protection, generally relying on consumer-grade products which aren’t really designed for the needs of a modern business. Keeping on top of security is a challenge for any company, especially if it’s not an area of expertise.
Are you providing your people with intuitive IT?
Ensuring you provide great customer service is a priority for most business, but what about the infrastructure for those who run your business? Downtime and inefficient IT is expensive, embarrassing, and stressful for your team. Your employees’ performance will be impacted if IT systems aren’t effective or easy to use, leading to poor morale and low productivity. Companies that invest in ‘employee experience’ with more user-friendly, consumer-style IT systems, are highly competitive. Better employee engagement undoubtedly results in a better customer experience, therefore your IT health check should look at your employee experience as a priority.
How you can invest in a healthier bottom line
There is a significant difference between investing money and spending money. Paying for proactive IT services can seem expensive for small businesses, but the price of downtime, unproductive systems and cyber security breaches can cost much more. When IT servers go down for whatever reason, your employees can not work and the services you provide to customers may also suffer. Add to this any fines for GDPR violations and the cost of not proactively maintaining IT systems can get very expensive indeed.
Aiming for Peak fitness to beat the competition
Well-chosen software and infrastructure help your employees do their jobs more efficiently. By implementing infrastructure that is designed to flexibly meet the needs of your business now and in the future, your business can spend more time developing innovative products and services that meet your customers’ expectations. This improves your chances of avoiding issues that can affect performance and staying one step ahead of the competition as your business grows.
How we can help
To Conosco an IT health check is not just about evaluating if your servers have enough capacity or your network is configured correctly. It is about checking that your IT infrastructure is aligned to the needs of your business, identifying areas where it is holding you back or creating unnecessary risk and identifying ways you can improve performance.
If you’d like to learn how Conosco can help you check your IT health, get in touch for a free consultation.
