So, it’s that time of year again: you start to (hopefully) wind down, review and reflect on another successful year of business and treat your team to an all expenses paid Christmas party. You’re ready for the festivities to begin and are feeling optimistic going into the new year ahead.

But as you begin to review the different processes within your business you ask yourself: are your current IT systems in the same, proactive position, ready for the new year and its inevitable technological challenges? Have you truly taken time to take stock, review existing procedures and consider future changes within your IT infrastructure for the following year?

Why review your IT?

We’ll keep this simple. There are tens of reasons as to why reviewing your IT and its provider will be of upmost benefit to you and your business. At Evolution Managed IT Services, we’ve taken the work out of you needing to delve into this and given you our top five reasons, as listed below:

• Gives an insightful, clear roadmap – in terms of the past and future projections for your business
• Keeps any costs down – especially by preventing possible threats and issues
• Enables you an infrastructure review, giving you an overall holistic picture of the business’ reliability which in turn enables you to identify your strengths and flaws
• Increased productivity of each team
• Enhances security – which is of huge significance to your cyber security, safeguarding your data (GDPR), etc.

Next steps on your IT journey

So, you’ve now reviewed your IT in detail and have come to the realisation that it’s time for a change! (Think of it as a new year’s resolution within your organisation). The very thought of change is scary, especially when it comes to your IT systems.

But don’t let the fear and worries put you off such an exciting time of opportunity. Instead, we’ve put together a comprehensive list of aspects to consider, specifically when changing your IT provider.

Things to consider when looking to change your IT provider

Network and data security

It can never be under-estimated how crucial it is to safeguard every single piece of data your company holds. Not just in terms of the legalities, but as a moral duty to your users and clients. Data security has to be of paramount importance when changing your IT provider, as it fundamentally underpins everything you do. Your network and the infrastructure that is in place must ensure every single piece of data is securely transported through the system; from start to end. This also involves the protection of your software, hardware, applications, and storage. Ensuring comprehensive, thorough data and network security is an absolute non-negotiable as a business owner.

Is data backup in place?

Imagine data security and data backup going hand in hand together. They’re seldom seen apart, especially within your business.

One of the biggest advantages of using an MSP to provide your IT plays out in the fact they manage all of your data using cloud-based storage infrastructure. This ensures your backup and recovery of data is managed purely by them and all is done so via a cloud-based storage system.

Without the safety and security of a managed data backup, catastrophe is waiting to happen!

Are you fully licensed to use technology?

From our experience, we’ve come to learn licensing is an area most businesses fail to consider, which could in turn have long-lasting consequences. Without realising, your everyday apps, such as Office 365, email providers and communication tools such as Zoom all require a user license. Most businesses fall into one of two categories: either purchasing too many licenses (and therefore encountering significant wastage) or unknowingly skipping license renewals. Your IT provider should manage and maintain all records of your software licenses, to prevent any issues arising.

When was your last hardware review?

If you’re left either unsure or without an answer, perhaps it’s another sign telling you to change providers! Look around your organisation – is every device working up to scratch? Or are you forever dealing with laptop, phone, internet complaints from your team? Does your IT provider regularly check and service your hardware, to ensure they’re fully utilised and fit for purpose? If not, why not?

Tech reviews, including hardware, should come as standard protocol from your MSP.

Cybersecurity – how secure are you?

Within an ever-changing technological landscape, for every leap forward, there are many threats, risks, and targets. Make sure your organisation doesn’t fall prey to them! Do you know how secure your current IT systems are? What are the risks you face? How are you overcoming these?

Whether it be a cloud attack, phishing threat, ransomware attacks or mobile security attacks, the threat is very real and preventative action absolutely must be taken.           

This again lies with your MSP and their ability, foresight, and productivity in managing such ongoing threats. Cybersecurity involves precise, reactive server management, network support cybersecurity, application implementation, and infrastructure management; all of which are achieved through regularly scheduled IT support.

Does my business need a managed services provider (MSP)?

It’s a real-life decision a lot of businesses are asking themselves, as the advantages are becoming increasingly well known. So much so, a recent study conducted in 2021 showed 86% of businesses (customers) are looking to work with an MSP in the coming year, which is increasingly up from the 75% when previously asked.

If you’re left pondering over any questions or points raised in our article, please feel free to drop us a line! Whether it’s the prospect of us assisting you with regular data backups, off-site additional storage, crisis management and disaster recovery solutions, we’re on hand to help. Heaven forbid a crisis was to occur within your organisation, but if it was, rest assured you’re in safe hands with our experience and knowledge as an MSP.  You’re always welcome to book a consultation with one of our most trusted advisers today.

Remember, ‘Who you are tomorrow, starts with what you do today!’ and the same applies for your business.