Owning a business is great, there’s no doubt about it. However, the excitement of owning a business may come with many challenges, such as IT problems. To fix a problem, first you need to understand it. Here are 10 common IT problems that businesses face, and the solutions PRC Services recommends.
1. Integration Issues
When new technologies are released, it’s not uncommon for them to malfunction with older systems or applications. This can result in several issues, such as double entry of data and information across multiple locations or systems. With proper IT planning, this can be minimized. That’s why we recommend working together with an experienced IT partner to ensure you get the best solutions for minimizing integration issues.
2. Too Much Paper
Take a minute to look around your office. What do you see? If you see a lot of paper, this can be a problem. All that paper can be slowing your business down. By using paperless systems, you will allow users to find data quicker and interact with it in a more centrally located environment, while reducing printing costs and stopping global warming. Time spent filing, organizing, and searching for paper documents is time that could be spent on more productive tasks. Save time, save space, save money, and promote the environment by going paperless. Here at PRC, we recommend evaluating different businesses’ processes and determining which one is the best option to make your process to paperless more efficient.
3. Cloud Confusion
“Cloud” is a term that you hear every day in the Business Industry. This term gets thrown around a lot but is not always explained. What is it? How do we use it? These are two questions you need to answer before having a Cloud service. A Cloud is an IT environment that abstracts, combines, and shares scalable resources across a network, and users don’t need anything other than a computer, network connection, and operating system to access it.
Using a Cloud solution is a great way to meet the needs of your business and your clients without having to invest too much. However, since cloud services vary in cost, availability, and complexity, we recommend using these services judiciously along with internally owned technology. We recommend working with an IT partner to guarantee that your needs are assessed before any cloud solution is purchased. This will ensure that the option you choose is the best solution for your business’ needs.
4. No Backup or Disaster Recovery
Have you ever deleted a file accidentally? Or maybe, had a power failure or a computer crash that made you lose important data? Then you understand the importance of having reliable data backup. A Disaster Recovery Plan to restore your data in the unfortunate event of such a tragedy is important. Remember that eliminating or minimizing downtime can save you lots of money in the long term. Your IT dept should have a schedule and a plan to back up data, and a process to restore data if an issue arises. If you are not sure how to do this work, with an experienced IT Solution Provider you can get the best solutions for your business.
5. Not Understanding the Root of the Issue
Understanding the cause of a problem is significant in IT. That’s why is very important to have an open line of communication when reporting IT issues. Providing as many details as possible is essential to build up evidence and understanding what caused the problem.
As a problem arises, be sure to thoroughly document it so that you can report to your IT Department what is happening and how it’s happening. This will help them to effectively discover the root of the issue so that you can better understand how to repair, remove or work around it. Work with your IT staff or a trusted IT partner like PRC Services Corporation to get to the root of the problem. That way, the problem will be resolve faster and more effectively.
6. Security Risks
Cyber-criminals and hackers are becoming more sophisticated each day and, very often, small businesses are the target of their attacks. Your computer stores all sorts of information about your business, can you imagine if all your trade secrets get stolen? Or your private emails, HR data and customers’ information were to be deleted? Would your company survive? Let me answer that for you: no. In fact, an article made by INC.com expresses that 60% of small businesses go out of business within 6 months of a cyber-attack. Don’t let your business become a victim of a cyber-attack, remember there are cost-effective solutions that can be used to ensure that your companies data remains secure and these types of issues don’t become a business-ending problem.
7. Legal Compliance
If your business uses computers, you are obligated to operate under certain guidelines, rules or laws that govern how the data is used, stored, and/or shared. All too often, businesses overlook the legal implications associated with not complying with these laws designed to safeguard information, and that is a mistake. It’s important to audit your network to ensure that there are no issues, and to know what you need to do to correctly and legally protect your business from unseen issues. Our recommendation is to run audits of your network and use partners like PRC Services Corporation to give you an annual assessment of your IT networks’ health and identify issues promptly.
8. Lack of IT Planning
Business leaders and IT depts must be in connection when planning goals for the company. By planning the direction of the company together with the IT Department, the leadership of any business can ensure the proper technologies are placed to make the vision of the company happen. This strategy helps protect your technology. The infrastructure of technology within your business is something that should be planned and implemented in a way to ensure profitability. Working together with IT Managing Service Providers can help develop a roadmap for better IT Planning.
9. Don’t Wait for it to Break
IT is expensive and many businesses put off regular maintenance and replacement of aging systems due to high costs or the thought of “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it”. WRONG. IT systems are much like your car, they need regular maintenance to ensure proper, secure and efficient operation. With the right IT processes in place, problems can be predicted before they become a disaster. Remember that knowing about an issue is going to cost you less over time. As part of the IT Planning, Managing Service Providers like PRC Services Corporation can evaluate and provide recommendations for maintenance and replacement.
10. Employee Frustration
For many employees, using obsolete technology can be frustrating. Having a system that is outdated, slow, or have a wide array of problems can make the workday long, difficult and irritating even to your best employee. Not to mention the loss of productivity, which can result in loss of revenue. To prevent this problem, it’s important to maintain your technology up to date.
These IT problems are often perceived as “the norm” when working with computers and technology because many businesses don’t know that better IT is possible, affordable and easy. If your business is struggling with any of these or other IT issues, make sure you’re getting the most out of your technology investment. Give PRC Services Corporation a call: 787-621-7727.