Not only is your business growing, but technology is advancing at a rapid rate. With so much change going on, it is easy for your business to outpace your currently installed technology systems.
It is not necessary to continually purchase the “latest and greatest” as it is introduced.
But as a business owner, you should be aware of the warning signs that your system capability is insufficient for your thriving and expanding business.
When is it Time to Upgrade Your IT Infrastructure?
- Your Response Time is Lagging: If users are waiting too long for the system to respond – or if the system often times out – it is being overworked and overloaded. Technology exists to make processes more efficient, so when users have time to grab a cup of coffee while waiting to look up a file, your system is not appropriately sized.
- You Run Reports After Hours: If you have grown accustomed to staying after hours to run data-intensive reports (so as to not slow down the system for everyone else), it is time to scale your IT infrastructure correctly. Everyone at the company, from the accountant to the sales executive, should be able to perform their job simultaneously without compromising the productivity of the rest of the team.
- People are Complaining: If you are hearing grumbling from employees and customers about delays, clunky processes, or tedious manual tasks, it is absolutely time to reevaluate your IT infrastructure. These days there are apps and programs for virtually any business process, and innovative software such as Microsoft Office 365 allows you to tie them all together. Streamlining your workflow and automating processes is sure to make everyone, from customers to employees, far more satisfied with your organization’s abilities.
- You Haven’t Reassessed your Backup Strategies: There is nothing more important to your business survival than your data. If you have not looked into utilizing the latest tools to make sure that your data is backed up, secure, and readily available, it is time to reassess.
- You Don’t Know What You Have: The great news is that your company is growing by leaps and bounds. The bad news is that with each new employee, you add new devices that aren’t always in your control. If you don’t keep track of all devices which access your network – that they have the latest anti-virus software, are performing system upgrades, and are applying security patches – you can’t guarantee the safety of your network. Many companies aren’t even aware of the assets they own, let alone how to best integrate them for productivity and efficiency.
Performing a complete assessment of your current technology, its age, and its function is a great way to discover inefficiencies and identify old technology that is slowing you down.
You are an expert at what you do – and the professionals at Alliance IT are experts in our field.
From helping you to create a smart technology infrastructure plan to managing your IT services in an offsite environment, we work every day to solve problems for our clients.
Let us help you to grow your Sarasota or Bradenton area small business.