Editor’s Note: Here at Dispatches, we are always looking for ways to help our readers do things. For some of our readers, that means helping navigate the working world, for others, it means assisting in the ever challenging question, “what’s for dinner?” For still others, it means figuring out how to balance family life with everything else. In an effort to aid in all of these endeavors, we have collaborated on this article written specifically for our readers.
No matter your business size, if you have a bad marketing strategy, you’ll alienate more clients than you bring in. If you have a bad IT setup or none at all, your chances for success become even more difficult.
It’s important to understand just how important a speedy, reactive IT solution can help your business. Life moves online these days at a dizzying speed, and with that comes many untapped resources for marketing and exposure. Business leaders who fail to implement a sound IT strategy are making things more difficult in the short and long term.
Large Bandwidth
The bandwidth your firm has will allow for a better internet connection speed around all of the computers you use on your network. It will allow you to keep on top of the whole business strata without any of your employees experiencing downtime. This is super useful if your firm has high upload or download requirements, such as working in content creation or marketing. It will also allow you to perform VoIP calls and video calls without a hitch. To learn more, check this useful article on bandwidth here to find out how a higher allowance can benefit your business.
Reliability
Finding budget IT equipment is akin to hiring bad staff. For some reason, people don’t translate this logic to getting online with a form of IT, and try to save money on cheap equipment. What’s unfortunate is that no matter how well you save, the less money you spend, the more likely you are to need advanced repairs doing on your equipment. Not only that, but old equipment may not be compatible with the demands of modern software you’re going to be using to manage your business.
Retreating to older operating systems often leads computers away from modern security fixes to prevent viruses as well, so even if the old computers you’ve acquired are working well, for the time being, they will be ill-equipped to defend against the most malicious of hacks. This can wreak havoc on your daily functioning, and even make your private documents or employee details public. There’s nothing quite as toxic for a business environment as for one of these things happening.
Employees
Your employees need to understand exactly what you require of them and how to stay up to date and trained with new equipment. Using software and processes from the past will only serve to make them feel alienated in their job, and like they could achieve a better and more technically satisfying job elsewhere. Employees often know what the best IT solutions are for their jobs, and will understand when they’re being provided with equipment that isn’t up to par. It will feel like a cheapened investment and limited trust in their skills, or they’ll question your understanding of the relevancy of their department. Treating your employees well means giving them the tools to do their job with speed, efficiency and ability. No employee wants to come to work and struggle with the tools they are given, so make sure this is never an issue and spend the requisite investment keeping them happy in this regard.
Storage
As businesses develop in size and structure, their storage requirements will go through the roof, and the demand on this will only increase in time. If you’re wise, you can overcome this immediately by enacting always online cloud storage solutions, and paying for a larger storage capacity as needed. In order to access this, you’re going to need to enact always online solutions for you and your team to access this. If possible, consider using wise suites such as the Google Drive & Documents capabilities. While having speedy computers is needed to run Google Chrome and access these devices with the least issues – Google Chrome is always reliable, is low on bandwidth, and many computers are able to run it, so it form fits with all of the suggestions above.