4 Ways to Future Proof Your IT Strategy
The IT landscape is in a constant state of flux with new technology constantly on the move. This comes with its challenges as this means new things to learn, adapt to and master. It can be confusing and often frustrating when IT doesn’t support your business and slows your business down. We deal with businesses in this situation all the time, so we thought we would share with you four of the most effective ways to future proof your IT strategy.
1. Never forget the fundamentals
There are IT departments and companies that are so focused on being at the forefront of technology that they forget about the fundamental things that make a solid IT strategy in the first place.
Whether you’re planning on moving to the cloud or not, you still need to build everything on reliable services particularly the most basic parts of your infrastructure. These include telephony, WAN, and the support you provide your users. For example, providing users with mobile apps without reliable IT support will lead to frustrated users who might abandon the app altogether. So, remember to get the fundamentals right first before anything else.
2. Move to the cloud
There’s no doubt that you’ve already heard about cloud computing, and how it can simplify your IT infrastructure in ways you could only dream of a decade ago. No more messy cables or server rooms taking up valuable space or the risk of overheating.
Cloud services are also highly scalable. This means that you can easily scale up or down your server’s capacity depending on your needs at the current time and only ever pay for what you use. At activIT systems, we offer a selection of different Cloud based services including virtual servers and infrastructure, hosted exchange email platform on the Cloud, critical data backup and much more.
Cloud computing is not for all businesses, it is important to do an evaluation of your business needs and its current infrastructure before moving to the cloud to ensure the new technology will help and not hinder your business. Speak to one of our experienced team members to book a consultation for a full business evaluation.
3. Have a back-up in place if things go wrong
The majority of businesses in today’s society rely heavily on their IT infrastructure to complete their day-to-day tasks sufficiently and effectively, however what happens when these IT infrastructures go down? None of your employees are able to complete their work, jobs get left behind and what you may even lose some critical data if not restored correctly.
This should be at the core of your IT strategy, as they say prevention is best. Don’t wait until you have a problem and lose hours of productivity, costs of wages and catching up on overdue work to take action. Incorporate a preventative IT method, like our serverCare or fixed price activCare plans into your 2016 IT strategy. Our experienced IT team will call you when they first notice a problem with your systems and work to get this fixed before any crashes occur.
4. Don’t forget to give your computers a little TLC
Do your employees constantly complain about slow Internet or a slow server? This can be easily avoided by giving your computer the time and care it needs and deserves. This can be achieved through regular updates of software and ensuring that your anti virus software is working correctly.
Don’t have time to update your computer? Speak to us about our computerCare and we will take care of all the important updates in the background so that you and your team can get back to what you do best.
Overall, you have to be able to combine tried-and-tested solutions and strategies with the latest that technology has to offer in order to help ensure that your IT strategy will be future proof and useful to you long term. It also helps to refer to data that you collect and feedback from other teams and your customers when building strategies and creating solutions, as these can make the process more streamlined and conserve your limited resources. Speak to us today about booking a consultation for an overview of your businesses needs and setting up a solid IT strategy to support your business growth over 2016.