IT Plans for 2022

January 10, 2022Manhattan Tech Support

Tech Support & Managed IT ServicesCloud ServicesIT Consulting & Strategy

Looking to give your business a boost this year? Here are some ways you can empower your team.

Just like in our personal lives, the new year is the perfect time to start thinking about the upgrades you can do to your business. The difference, though, is that you’re not just looking to improve one aspect of yourself. You want to do things that improve the way you work, the way you serve your customers, and better secure your data.

It doesn’t have to be a daunting task, though. You can make small improvements to the tech in your business or even small improvements using tech that have a huge impact.

Let’s explore some of the things you can do to give productivity a boost in your organization this year.

IT Plans for 2022

When you’re looking to add tech to your business, the first thing you really need to do is determine what your end game is. If you just start buying and implementing solutions willy-nilly, you’re likely going to cause more problems than you’re solving because of the lack of a coherent vision. We’re going to look at most of this through the lens of boosting productivity, but a handful of these suggestions also help give your business the boost it often needs.

New website for your business

A new website might not boost productivity within your business, per se, but a new website can be an easy win that helps you bring in new customers and, ultimately, is easier to work with. A well put together website is designed to make it easy for customers to find you, easy to report issues that existing customers are having, and are designed in such a way that new visitors can get all the information they need about your business, services, or products.

Not only that, but if you’re running a smaller shop and you don’t have a dedicated tech person, even making small updates to your existing site might be a bigger task than it needs to be. Modern websites are often quite user friendly and can be easily updated by anyone.

Custom software

Odds are there is at least one task within your organization where you’re using a tool that’s almost, but not quite perfect for the job. Chances are you get most of the way through a process before you have to stop and manually insert an email address or cut and paste everything from one program to another. Custom software solutions put an end to that by giving you a software platform that fits your workflow perfectly without the need to stop and either use a second program or manually input information. What you get is a solution that helps you move seamlessly through the task, bringing in the relevant information when needed or giving you a way to import what you need without opening a new program. You end up spending less time on tasks because you’re working with the proper tools.

Automate away busy work

Fewer things slow down productivity than working on tasks that should be automated, yet we all lose time to tasks like this. We’re responding to emails that could be handled with a template, manually formatting documents, cutting and pasting information from emails into spreadsheets, etc. But these tasks, even if they’re mission critical, don’t need to be done by a human. That’s where automation comes in. Rather than using humans moving information into spreadsheets, tasks like this can be automated, which not only means that the work gets done faster, but you’re also freeing up people to focus more on the tasks they were hired to do.

Upgrade your servers (or other hardware)

Sometimes, all you need to boost productivity is better equipment. Upgrading servers and other hardware gives you the ability to work using the best tools available, rather than scavenging together solutions based on old hardware that kind of work, but aren’t ideal (similar to the way that using custom software helps).

Something like upgrading your servers can make it easier for people to access the data they need remotely, so they can work better while on business trips or even from home.

Move to a new office

This doesn’t seem like it’ll help you be more productive, but moving into a new space can sometimes be just the thing your business needs. New offices give you the freedom to create a space that reflects the culture of your organization and to bring tools that you’ve been wanting, but haven’t had the space for in the old office.

Cloud migration

Somedays, it feels like the cloud was made to help boost productivity. It gives companies the flexibility they need to get the work done, regardless of the circumstances, similar to what we saw happening during the Covid-19 pandemic. The ones that thrived during that time had the necessary cloud infrastructure in place to quickly adapt to the situation. Among other things, the cloud makes it easier to work from anywhere. It also gives you ways to better serve your customers by finding new products or services that they might want. And, you can use it to drastically improve business continuity by storing backups and business data in secure locations.

Go remote

One of the bigger lessons in 2020 the business world learned is that people don’t need to be in the office to be productive. In fact, a lot of people found working remotely helped their productivity and left them feeling better about their jobs.

You can bring in a fully remote or a hybrid setup pretty easily by using more cloud-based tools, using video conferencing systems, and beefing up security to allow people to safely connect to the office (and your systems) from anywhere.

Implement business intelligence solutions

Business intelligence solutions don’t just make you more productive, they have the potential to improve just about every aspect of your business. Business intelligence works by collecting all the data that exists within your business and analyzing the trends that appear. What you end up with is a system that helps you make incredibly well-informed decisions that are backed up by data from your business.

For example, you can gain insight into the wants and needs of your customers, that’s an easy one. But, business intelligence solutions can also help you better understand how your employees are solving problems, both internally and customer-facing. This includes learning how effective the tools they work with are or whether there are any unnecessary delays in the workflow (areas where you could introduce automation, for example). Like all things business, the more your decisions are informed by data, the better.

Upgrade your security

You know what slows down productivity like nothing else? Cyberattacks. They can fully hobble your business and prevent you from doing any work at all. That’s why it’s important to use a proactive cybersecurity approach that doesn’t just focus on keeping hackers out of your systems, but also works on improving the overall security of your business by making sure that your staff have the knowledge they need to keep safe.

The best approach uses 24/7 monitoring to stop attacks the moment they start, not the moment someone notices something’s wrong. Along with that, making sure that staff are aware of what current threats are circulating around and that they know how to spot social engineering attacks, so they don’t accidentally let criminals into your systems.

Want to get ready for the new year?

Think it’s time to upgrade your tech stack and give your staff the tools they need to crush it in 2022? Let’s talk. Our experts can help you with everything from creating customized software solutions to making sure your new office has all the technical infrastructure you need in place when you walk through the doors. Contact us today to find out more.