Essential Steps To Take To Reduce Your Company’s IT Problems

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IntelligentHQ

 

Essential Steps To Take To Reduce Your Company’s IT Problems

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With many business turning to various IT services, there have never been more opportunities for problems. The more technology we have in our lives, the more chance there is of one part of it failing. Businesses in particular must do everything in their power to reduce this risk, else their entire operation could be affected.

So, just what can you do to aid your IT infrastructure? You’re in the right place. The following article will run down all the essential steps you should be taking to decrease your company’s IT problems. Act now, before it’s too late!

1. Backup your data, then back it up again!
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A lot of businesses who suffer some form of data loss will be out of action within a short period of time. As a business owner, you should hope for the best and plan for the worst – and there’s no better example than this. Data can be a nightmare to recover if lost if it can even be recovered at all. By backing the important stuff up, you take this worry off your mind and will have copies if your first source goes down.

2. Outsource your IT services

Of course, sometimes, you will have no idea how to cure an IT-related problem in your business. You may not even have a staff member with the right skillset on-site. By outsourcing your IT services, you gain instant access to the people who can help you out. Many services, such as Netstar, can provide you with this ability. If your business relies heavily on IT you need steps in place to protect it!

3. Observe your competition

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Competition is healthy. Anyone who says otherwise is wrong, jealous or has no competition of any kind. Of course, that doesn’t mean you should steal from them or copy from them in any way. Rather, you should look at how they implement their IT best practices and see how these could apply to you. Copy and pasting strategies won’t work here. Certain features are tailor-made for certain business. Instead, you should be looking at how to change certain strategies and ideas to fit your company.

4. Keep spare appliances and chargers lying around

Arguably the simplest of problems to fix, but no less annoying. We’ve all faced that desperate scramble for the charger, and it’s irritating beyond belief. Keeping spare cables lying around your office or home ensures that you’re always ready to keep working. What if your battery dies before you saved that spreadsheet or document? You may not be able to recover it.

Similarly, keeping spare laptops, hard drives, printers and monitors around the place can help you a great deal. You never know when you might need a spare – what if you need to back something up but your current drive is full? What if you need to leave the office but don’t have a laptop to take with you? Obviously this will be a pricey step for some, so weigh up just how important this is to you versus how much equipment you actually have.

5. Keep expensive tech out of harm’s way

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If you have an on-site server, ensure it’s in the most secure location possible. If it’s in an office room, make sure only you have the key so nobody can tamper with it. Make sure it’s not on a lower flood that may be liable to flooding. Keep it away from any water sources and other electrical items. The signals being transmitted could interfere with its functionality. Ever wondered why you need to set your phone to airplane mode on a flight?

6. Use the power of the cloud

The cloud is a relatively new addition to many businesses’ IT services belt, but it’s no less valuable. It can allow you to backup data safely, securely and more than once, and lets your business scale up or down as needed. You won’t have to keep an expensive server on-site. So, your business will cut costs. It will be maintained by another company, meaning your infrastructure will be solid.

7. Ensure your employees know how to use and maintain equipment

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Any and all employees should be well-trained in a variety of fields. This allows your company to thrive on multiple levels, rather than relying on one person with one particular skillset. Ensuring your staff know how to use and maintain expensive IT-related equipment means that you can spend less time worrying about it. Additionally, there’s less chance of it failing because there are more people who know how to use it properly.

8. If it can be turned off, turn it off

Believe it or not, it’s not actually harmful to shut your PC off at night. The same is true of any IT-related appliance, and in fact, you’re probably better off doing so. Turning appliances off reduces the stress that battery is under and lets the machine rest. Its lifespan should increase, and you’ll have to shell out less in equipment maintenance costs. Plus, you’ll slash your utility bills by powering down all the electricity-sucking equipment.

9. Go wireless

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Some IT problems can be chalked up to simple ease of use. Having to scramble for a USB cable, charger cable or other form of wire is not always convenient. Additionally, many machines have only one outlet, meaning only one person can use it at one time. You can get all sorts of wireless technologies these days, and each one of them can help streamline your operation.

10. Don’t rely on IT for your core operations
Technology is great when it works Sadly, it often doesn’t. While you may not always be able to solve a particular IT-related problem, you can reduce the damage that problem will cause. This effectively cures the problem, in a weird sort of way. If you reduce your company’s focus on IT, and reduce your reliance on IT, you’ll be in a better position if it suddenly fails. Of course, some operations rely on this technology, but by cutting back you’re keeping any potential problems to a minimum.

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