IT spring clean? Time for a tech review

With the easing of lockdown restrictions on the horizon, businesses need to do a tech review to ensure they’re agile and efficient.

When we were all put into lockdown the first time, it was a bit of a rush for many businesses to get their teams up and running from home. There was an element of ‘weathering the storm’ and making do.

Many companies saw remote working as a short-term measure and hoped that staff would return to the office fairly quickly. So basic home networks and poor broadband connections have been tolerated. But what about the future?

What is your business’s next step?

Now the government has presented its ‘roadmap out of lockdown’, there are many discussions making headlines about how we should all be working. Should we return to the office? Stay at home? Or adopt the so-called ‘hybrid approach’ with a mix of both?

There are arguments from all sides. There are those who miss the structure (including infrastructure!) and banter of the office environment. Others want to continue remote working, saying they get more done without the commute or distractions of office life – and it saves money on office overheads. Then there is the camp who think the way forward would be a combination – the best of both worlds.

Make your approach to IT part of the solution, not the problem

Each business, of course, will have different answers to how staff work. What will be crucial, though, is that the decision made needs to be backed up by a sound IT and cyber security strategy and plan. The steps implemented from this plan should enable the workforce to do their best work, be connected, collaborative, engaged – and productive – wherever they are.

There will be some business leaders who, frankly, will only see £ signs when it comes to IT and will struggle to see how investment now will decrease the #ITfail pain later. You may know someone like this – they usually have staff who take to social media complaining that they got into the office early, only to still be trying to log into Outlook an hour later. Or that a major embarrassment occurred on a video conference call they were supposed to be leading … that #ITfail hashtag certainly comes in handy for them!

Others will realise that coming out of a pandemic presents unique opportunities to embrace new ways of working.

Performing a tech review

• Consider what’s good for your business and what isn’t to decide methods of working (office, remote, hybrid). Look at your work culture, values and goals in the context of where you want your business to be in a year’s time. This will help inform your decision.
• Ensure your IT systems and cyber security enable your people to perform at their best however they work. You will also want to remove tech challenges that cause disruption to business-critical activities.
• It will help to discuss ideas and the latest services with tech experts. They can carry out a full IT audit and provide a report which will inform next steps. That could be a migration to cloud services, or cyber security awareness training for staff, for example.

An investment in robust IT and cyber security systems now will provide the framework for a smooth start for your business ‘post lockdown’.

If you’d like to have a chat about your tech review, do get in touch on the form below.