New Year’s Projects
You probably set your next budget a few months ago. Take the time to review this budget and put in place the steps to deliver on any planned projects. Often these projects can get forgotten until the last-minute. This leads to poor planning, delays in implementation and not achieving the benefits for your business you were looking for. It is also a good time to brainstorm any new ideas of how IT can get you closer to your customers, ahead of your competition and make your people more productive, especially in the new COVID-19 work environment.
Check Your Backups
Now is the perfect time to make sure you have backups in place and that they are ‘accessible’ and ‘readable’. Ideally backups should follow the 3-2-1 policy:
- 3 Backups
- 2 Different media
- 1 Off site (preferably on the cloud)
With many staff and businesses working remotely due the the COVID-19 situation this is a more complex, but equally essential activity.
Data Security – Get a Security Assessment to Identify Risks
There are so many things you should and should not do for data security that it can be over-whelming. Getting a security assessment every 6 months will help you identify risks in your policy settings, compliance and IT environment. In addition, as COVID-19 spread, businesses made the sudden change from mostly in-house workers to remote workers. The need for secure business networks exploded as workers started to work from home and Cybercriminals saw this sudden change as an opportunity.
Thankfully in our experience most security issues are solved relatively easily and quickly. Please call us to book a security risk assessment.
Training – Data Security
In business, most of the attacks on data are successful due to human error. It is critical to make sure that you and your team are well trained to promptly spot the attempts of malicious actors to get to your information. Tip: Don’t forget that you are likely legally responsible to advise of any Notifiable Data Breaches – don’t let this become a major risk to your brand and reputation.
Hardware Review – End of Life Hardware
The performance of your hardware has a significant impact on your team’s productivity and quality of experience for your customers. As hardware ages – e.g. PCs, Laptops, Servers – it becomes less reliable and their resources may no longer be enough for your business applications to work as quickly or reliably as you would like. The trick to managing hardware is to spread replacements over different years. Alternatively leasing or financing can be used, so you can update your hardware without changing your cost structure or having big investment hits on your cash.
With many workers now splitting their working hours between the office and home, the need for portable devices has increased and technology for features such as video conferencing is in demand.
As you consider your options for upgrading the hardware you may consider moving to the cloud. Ask Chill IT which of the many options would be suitable for your company.
Review Your Website
When did you last update your website? Have you added the latest security features? Or integrated apps to make it easier to communicate, sell to and transact with clients? Have your business requirements changed since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic? Chill IT can do a full review of your site and suggest additional features to help your business
Move to the Cloud – Improve Collaboration
In the current environment, seamless collaboration is more important than ever. The Microsoft suite of products under Microsoft 365 enables your team to collaborate more effectively. This includes documents and presentations as well overall internal communication.
Contact Chill IT on 1300 796 246 or email us on sales@chillit.com.au for an IT assessment.
