5 Signs that your small business needs technology upgrades

Remember back when we had to wait minutes for our dial-up modems to connect us to the internet? Nowadays, we’re perpetually connected to it — no more waiting necessary. If everyone in your company had to revert to dial-ups, that’ll add up to hours of wasted production hours.

Sticking with old and inefficient tech can essentially have the same effect on your business, but how would you know it’s time for IT upgrades? Here are five signs you need to watch out for:

1. You’ve outgrown past capacities

This is a usually good problem to have because it means that your business is growing. Small firms often use free versions of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apps. However, once they exceed a certain number of employees and/or need more advanced features, they’ll need to upgrade to paid versions with richer sets of features.

You’ll also need to scale up your tech when your customer base grows. For example, you might need to augment your team of customer service representatives with chatbots that can take FAQs off of your reps’ shoulders. This will enable your agents to take on the increase in complex customer queries — the type that only humans know how to answer.

Business growth also means the generation of more data, such as customer records, order information, and shipping details, among other things. Not only will you need more data storage, but also better data protection and enhanced backup systems.

2. Device repairs and upgrades are costing you more

Often, when your computer is still relatively new, replacing or upgrading worn-down parts is the cost-efficient way to go. However, as more time passes, replacement parts become harder to find and thus more expensive. Furthermore, operating systems and software require greater computing resources that old and obsolete computers don’t have. Such machines will run slow or hang, which leads to costly downtime. Whatever money you think you’re saving by not buying new devices will be quickly exceeded by the money you’ll lose in terms of productivity, paying customers, and opportunities to surpass your competition.

3. You’re missing out on energy cost savings

Beyond providing better performance, newer business computers also offer greater energy efficiency, which leads to substantial cost savings. Heck, some computers can be used by multiple end users. By using such powerful devices, you won’t need to allocate individual computers to each employee, but instead provide them with networked machines called thin clients that consume up to 50 times less electricity.

4. Your business processes have become more complex

Offering a wider array of goods and services, partnering up with other businesses, and expanding to new territories all lead to the adoption of more complex business processes. To illustrate, broadening product lines necessitates factoring in more data variables, such as the sourcing of new materials, construction of new factory machines, and creation of new production workflows. Partnering up with another business means setting up new accounts, communication lines, and protocols for data sharing and ensuring data security. Putting up offices in other countries means complying with varying laws on data storage and handling.

The more intricate your business processes become, the more you’ll need data systems across teams, departments, and business partners to be better integrated and streamlined for the sake of efficiency.

Most businesses take the piecemeal approach to building their IT systems. That is, they build upon their existing infrastructure by adding new tools that may fit their budget and fulfill their business requirements in the short term. However, these often introduce costly incompatibilities and inefficiencies in the long term. Partnering with a top-notch managed IT services provider like [company_short] to upgrade and correct your tech will reduce your costs down the line.

Furthermore, the more intricate your business processes become, the more you’ll need data systems across teams, departments, and business partners to be better integrated and streamlined for the sake of efficiency. Steps like manual data entry and records reconciliation must be automated to make processes faster and less prone to errors. You’ll also want your SaaS tools to work well with one another so that you’ll avoid redundant data processing steps and the formation of data silos. You can do all of this by upgrading your tech with enterprise resource planning in mind. Our IT specialists at [company_short] can help you out in that regard.

5. Your staff members are complaining about their devices

Last but not least, forcing your staff to keep using outmoded machines will frustrate them and cause them needless stress. Managers often underestimate how much their staff resent them whenever they expect a certain level of performance but don’t provide the tools that are sufficient for this purpose.

However, by providing your employees with new computers and adding just a few more minutes of productivity into their day, you’ll realize gains that will eventually pay for the cost of the machines. Not only that, but you’ll also show your staff that you value them and their contribution to the organization and want them to succeed in their roles. All of this will likely boost their morale and motivation to do their best work for the company.

For all of your tech upgrade needs, [company_short] has got you covered. Leave us a message or call us at 801-747-3200 today to learn more.

7 ways to make cybersecurity understandable for everyone in your organization

Most people use technology without ever understanding its underlying principles and mechanics. The average person would be hard-pressed to explain how a pulley reduces the effort required to lift heavy objects, how airplane wings generate lift, or how emails reach their recipients.

When it comes to IT, people know less about cybersecurity and how it keeps things that may stop them from using their computers and other tech tools at bay. Your staff may not be aware of how malware and other cyberthreats put their jobs and even their personal lives at risk. Therefore, it’ll be good for everyone on your payroll to understand how cybersecurity works so they can help keep your organization safe.

You can achieve this by educating your staff on cybersecurity best practices through regular training. The question is, how do you make cybersecurity understandable for your staff? Here are a few tips for you to start with.

A cyberattack on an entire organization may be at too big a scale for employees to grasp mentally, so it may be helpful to scale everything down to an individual — and personal — level.

1. Use everyday things or common knowledge to explain cybersecurity jargon and concepts

Ever wondered why website cookies are called such? It’s because computer memory space is likened to a jar, and pieces of a website’s information are kept there for later retrieval. IT is full of terminologies that reference everyday concepts to make them easier to grasp.

The same principle can be applied when explaining cybersecurity. For example, a distributed denial-of-service attack can be likened to a traffic jam, and ransomware can be likened to a hostage situation.

2. Show staff how devastating cyberthreats can be in their own lives

A cyberattack on an entire organization may be at too big a scale for employees to grasp mentally, so it may be helpful to scale everything down to an individual — and personal — level. For instance, you can show staff how hackers can use phishing campaigns to steal their online banking credentials and lock them out of their own hard-earned money.

When workers are shown how cybercrime can negatively affect their lives, they understand how it can ruin the business they work at. It also makes them appreciate the cybersecurity lessons more.

3. Provide cybersecurity training that’s specific to their jobs

The field of cybersecurity is ever-expanding, and no expert could ever master everything there is to know about it. Therefore, it’ll be too much to expect non-techies to grasp countless concepts. Instead, you must limit cybersecurity training to topics related to the jobs your employees do and the tech they use to accomplish these.

If email is the only program a worker uses, then that worker’s training ought to be focused on email-related cybersecurity topics, such as business email compromise. However, someone who manages on-premises servers will require more in-depth training.

4. Build an archive that serves as everyone’s standardized reference

Certainly, one can Google cybersecurity terms to learn more about these, but there may be multiple sources that aren’t consistent with one another. Creating a compendium of knowledge for your company not only makes information easier to find, but it also helps prevent confusion because everyone has one source of truth.

5. Run simulations of cyberattacks

Concepts taught in a classroom setting may remain difficult to understand and retain, but experiencing a cyberattack, even a simulated one, may help ingrain lessons more deeply into the trainees’ minds. Through simulations, they can practice executing protocols for reporting ongoing web exploits. They’d also know to disconnect their computers from the company network and boot data backups when they’ve been hit with ransomware.

6. Install a cybersecurity culture advocate in every department

If you’re lucky to have cybersecurity enthusiasts in your roster, then it’ll pay to appoint one for every department. They can be a readily available resource in case cybersecurity questions or issues arise. Furthermore, since they belong in those departments, the advocates are familiar with the context behind their teammates’ concerns. Because of this, they’ll be able to address such concerns in a manner that their audience will more easily understand.

7. Carve out time for staff to teach refresher courses

One of the most effective ways to see if someone understood a lesson is by having them teach what they’ve learned to others. Therefore, when it comes time to refresh people’s minds on cybersecurity topics, let the trainer take a back seat and have trainees take over teaching. Also have them use the first three tips above for maximum effect. If the presenters fail at teaching their refresher course, that may indicate a lack of comprehension on their part, which is something the trainer can address later on.

Many businesses in Salt Lake City rely on [company_short] for all their cybersecurity needs. To learn more about how we can serve you, send us a message or call us at 801-747-3200 today.