Using IT to drive your business forward (Article for Business Brief April 2009)

In the current economic climate many businesses fail to see the benefit and advantage of a modern and secure IT system, and generally only see it as another area for cuts and potential savings. However efficient IT systems should be seen as an area for providing major competitive advantage, a vital tool working for you helping to make your business run more efficiently and become more successful.

Careful investment in new IT systems could allow you to drive your business forward whilst at the same time reducing costs.  

Virtualization, for example, combines multiple physical systems which many companies presently maintain, on to one single piece of hardware which will not only reduce the initial purchase cost, but will reduce the maintenance of multiple systems, avoid duplication of testing all devices, provide disaster recovery benefits, and at the same time reduce energy bills.

Replacing old paper processes with computerised systems, can lead to significant savings in storage costs of on site and off site data but also in staff efficiency.  Finding that piece of correspondence quickly saves time, and allows faster access to the information you need.  How much paper do you generate which ends up in the bin?  How long does it take you to file and retrieve a single letter or invoice?  How much costly floor area is occupied by paper and filing cabinets? Paper is a major indicator of inefficient staff processes.

The need to be flexible with working hours and the ability to respond to customers’ needs and requests whilst out of the office has become ever more important.  In the recent bad weather in the UK, businesses closed incurring an estimated cost of £48 million in lost productivity to the British capital alone.  Why do all your employees have to work in a central office location?  Should you consider whether some staff can work in less costly remote locations such as their home and are you making the most of staff productivity while they are travelling or on the move?  Mobile and remote working is now far more user friendly and fast so that it allows you to get to your valuable information where and whenever you need it, at the click of a button giving you the ability to respond to any request instantly.

Taking advantage of these IT solutions and many other new technologies will allow you to provide your customers an enhanced service, cut operating costs and help generate sales.

Do not just consider investing in new IT Systems as it is also vital to maintain current systems as you would any regularly used vital piece of equipment which is business critical to your operations.  Computers do not maintain themselves. Serious consideration should be given to general PC and server maintenance and a replacement plan implemented, as technology improvements are so rapid you can soon be missing out on real additional benefits.  Not maintaining that server or PC may result in significant downtime incurring staff costs and lost opportunities whilst hardware is replaced and data recovered (if of course this is possible).

Prevention is better than cure as the old saying goes. IT Systems do require maintenance and upkeep to ensure they continue to function reliably.  Preventative maintenance will significantly reduce the likelihood of significant loss to a business as potential problems will be identified and resolved before they can turn into a disaster.

Securing IT systems should be at the top of any business agenda; the damage to reputation or possible financial losses of a security breach can be immense.  In many cases businesses have been unable to recover from unforeseen security breaches or critical hardware failure. The credit crunch will not have affected the hackers and the incidence of malicious software circulating is forecast to only increase.  Ensuring systems have sufficient security controls applied is more important than ever.  Check that your IT service provider offers regular system health checks and update services.  Ensure that you understand fully what you are paying for with this service and what you will be safeguarding in return.  Insist that it is explained fully in laymen’s terms and that you are getting value for that service.

Businesses must have an appropriate system backup and business continuity plan, and having these regularly tested allows you to be confident that in the event of an incident your systems and business can continue to operate with no or minimal down time.  Offsite backups to your IT provider give you the added assurance in the event of a disaster (fire, flood, hacking, virus, drive failure etc.) that your data is secure.  The opportunity exists to offload the entire server and system to a hosted server’s site at your IT service provider enabling you to concentrate on your business and no longer worry about your IT security.  This can be a low cost measure as the IT service provider should be passing on various economies of scale benefits.

Computer systems have a significant part to play in any business and ensuring systems continue to function correctly and to maximum efficiency will provide the business advantage high on everyone’s priorities.  Make sure you get the support and guidance which you need in this area from your IT service provider to drive your business forward even in these difficult times.

Matt Le Patourel

Systems Consultant

Resolution IT Ltd