Are Your IT Strategies Causing Your Corporation to Stagnate?

Your technology can make — or break — your business. Are you taking advantage of IT services that will enhance operations and improve efficiency or still struggling to do everything in-house?

Having the right technology solutions in place seems like an easy proposition: you pick the right software, hire the right partners and everything should work — right?!? Unfortunately, it’s rarely easy for business leaders to rely solely on internal staff to pull together a cohesive IT strategy. This is due to limitations such as the dramatic lack of expertise in the Canadian cybersecurity community that is driving up the cost of bringing this coveted skillset into your organization.

Primary Technology Threats to Small Business Operations

Your small business operational costs could be making a serious dent in your revenue, often without you realizing the overall impact of specific technology decisions. Here are a few of the ways you can shift a technology threat into a business win with the right tools and frameworks at your disposal.

1. Creating a Scalable Infrastructure

Is your internal IT team taking 2-4 weeks to spin up a new server for that big project — or to keep your website moving swiftly? Internal management of your infrastructure may have provided a secure and stable start to your business, but scaling for growth quickly becomes a challenge. With a more flexible model for your technology infrastructure, you are able to seamlessly upgrade technical assets or add new locations without the hassle and elapsed time required with other technical models.

2. Managing Security Risk During End-of-Life and Upgrades

Oh no! You just discovered 15 machines that are still running Windows Server 2003 — which has reached the end of its lifecycle. Upgrading these machines or making a mid-year purchase can put a consequential dent in your bottom-line revenue for the year, particularly if you haven’t budgeted for the upgrade. Working with an IT services provider offers additional accountability as well as dedicated time for hardware and software replacement or upgrade strategies.

3. Balancing IT Workloads and Internal Staffing

It’s unusual to have enough money in your IT budget to fully staff all of the technical functions that you need. Even if the budget is available, hiring is becoming an increasing issue for small businesses that are competing with their larger counterparts for top talent. Telling your business teams that you are putting off their new software — yet again — is unlikely to be a conversation that you’ll enjoy.

4. Selecting (and Optimizing!) the Right IT Solutions

Infrastructure issues aside, the software applications that are utilized to run your business operations can cause massive headaches without the right support levels. Simply trusting a vendor partner to be able to deliver as promised is often a recipe for disaster, making it crucial to choose the right IT solutions and partners for each project.

5. Integrating Legacy and Cloud Software Applications

How many types of software can you string together before havoc ensues? Creating a spiderweb of solutions requires care and strict architecture or you risk data compliance challenges and cybersecurity nightmares — not to mention operational slowdowns. The privacy laws in Canada are quite complex, and apply to a range of data types and situations.

Maintaining fluid operations means optimizing your technical infrastructure in an effort to drive out inefficiencies and create a more streamlined flow of information through your business. As technical challenges continue to grow and evolve, it is vital to have trusted IT solutions experts at your side to ensure that your organization is taking full advantage of the benefits that technology can offer. Reach out to the professionals at Fuelled Networks for your free initial consultation and you will quickly see why our team is the top-rated IT solutions provider in the Ottawa, Kingston, Brockville and Eastern Ontario areas since 1982. Contact us at 613-828-1280 or send a message to connect online.