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How Often Should You Update Your IT Systems?

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Management Article |IT Systems|How Often Should You Update Your IT Systems?Your IT infrastructure plays a significant role in maximizing productivity within your business. Further to this, the company’s various IT systems are also responsible for ensuring security and protection against opportunistic, yet sophisticated cybercriminals.

Keeping your IT systems up to date should be a top priority in order to ensure they are fulfilling their different duties at their fullest capacity. The question is, how often should these updates be taking place? Here is everything that you need to know.

It depends on the IT systems in question

Most IT infrastructures are comprised of a number of different IT systems and components, and each of these systems and components will need to be updated or upgraded at different times, and some more frequently than others. For example, your operating system (OS) software should be updated as soon as new updates are released. Luckily, most operating systems are rather adept at updating themselves automatically.

Virus and malware protection software, on the other hand, will usually only need to be updated once a year, although this varies from provider to provider. In some cases, you might need to allow small updates to take place every few weeks.

Updating vs. upgrading

There is a huge difference between updating and upgrading your IT systems, although both processes are just as important! Updates are generally required a lot more frequently than upgrades. Updates revolve around improving your existing IT systems and software, while upgrades revolve around transitioning to brand new IT systems and software in order to reap the benefits of advanced technology. Most upgrades should take place every few years, or when there is a major breakthrough in technology. These technological breakthroughs are important to investigate, especially if it becomes evident that your competitors are rushing to embrace the latest advancement.

In the vast majority of cases, you will be notified directly when it is time to update your systems and software. Unfortunately, however, it is less clear-cut when trying to figure out when the time is right to invest in IT infrastructure upgrades. This is why it helps to enlist IT support for businesses from an expert IT services company. The employees working at one of these companies will be equipped to advise you in terms of:

  • When your existing systems are no longer functioning optimally and productivity is suffering as a result
  • When there is new technology available that could provide your business with an advantage
  • When your existing systems or software are reaching the end of their ‘life cycle’
  • When your systems or software no longer cover all aspects of your operations
  • How to upgrade when your business is expanding or embracing a new opportunity for growth

The right IT support means that you do not have to worry about trying to find out how often updates and upgrades should be occurring. Your outsourced IT support team will be there to guide you along the way, offering greater peace of mind, improved productivity, and reliable protection against the ever-growing threats to cybersecurity.

5 Signs You Need IT Assistance Within Your Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article|IT Assistance|5 Signs You Need IT Assistance Within Your BusinessIf you’re thinking of hiring IT assistance within your business but you’re unsure whether or not you’re at the right stage then don’t worry, you have definitely come to the right place. Whether you’re just starting your business or you have been operating for years, you need to ensure you’re looking after your IT systems. From freelance IT consultants to full-time IT managers, it’s important to hire the right person for the job. With that in mind, here are 5 signs you need IT assistance within your business:

– You’re Struggling To Keep Up With Updates

One of the hardest things about looking after the IT systems in your business is the constant updates that it brings. Whether that means updating your software or keeping up to date with industry trends, you need to ensure you’re on top of things. Whilst that may be easy where you’re a start-up, it’s often the last thing on your mind as your business starts to grow. If that’s the case, hiring IT assistance may be the best route to take. If you are looking for a guide to keeping up with IT trends, however, you can visit this site here.

– You Have No IT Experience

If you have no IT experience and you’re thinking of improving your systems, a dedicated IT team will be able to help you. Not only will they be able to look at the systems you currently have in place but they will also be able to tell you whether or not you need to upgrade. As you start to work with your dedicated team, they will be able to teach you some tips and tricks to help with your overall knowledge.

– You’ve Experienced Some Issues

Another sign you may need to hire IT assistance within your business is that you have been experiencing issues. Whether your systems are crashing or you’re having trouble uploading files, having a dedicated team to help you will ensure you’re not losing out on valuable time and money. For guidance when it comes to staying calm in a technical emergency, you can visit this site here.

– You Are Concerned For Your Online Safety

If you are worried about staying safe online you may want to consider looking into managed IT services that can help. Whether they set up two-factor authentication on your social media channels or they help you install anti-virus software across all your machines, you want to ensure you’re being as safe as you possibly can.

– You Business Is Starting To Grow

Finally, if your business is starting to grow then you may want to consider hiring a team that can help you manage the growth that comes alongside it – including all of the IT aspects. Although it can be expensive, it will more than pay for itself when you’re able to run your business without a worry.

Do you need IT assistance within your business? What signs gave it away? Did we miss anything? Let me know your thoughts and ideas in the comments section below.

Taking Care of Your Small Business’ Tech

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Business Tech|Taking Care of Your Small Businesses' TechNowadays, we are becoming increasingly dependent on technology. In our day to day lives, we use it to communicate with our loved ones, schedule our lives, and find answers to pretty much any question that pops into our head – to name just a few tasks. Business, in a similar way, are incorporating increasing amounts of tech into their functioning. Many workers spend most of their day behind a computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone screen to get all the necessary facets of their work complete. We use it to communicate with customers, clients, and our target demographic too. So, it’s extremely important that you ensure your small business’ tech is up and running at all times. Without it, work wouldn’t get done and you could lose out on significant profits. So, here are a few things that you can do to keep everything running smoothly!

IT Support

Every small business should have IT support of some sort. IT workers can survey your systems, making sure everything is ticking over properly. They can monitor your tech and identify any problems that may be in the pipeline, working to eradicate them before they establish themselves. If problems do occur, they can help to rectify them as quickly as possible – minimising disruption to your working day and operations. You may want to have your IT support team in house. This means taking on a team to work within your company and only for your company. But this tends to be the territory of larger businesses who can provide IT support workers with space and a base to operate from. If you’re operating on a smaller scale, you might want to consider outsourcing this work. Reliable companies like ClearFuze Networks, Inc. can take the hard work off your hands, a weight from your shoulders and do the work to an extremely high standard!

Update Software

Make sure to run regular software updates on any of the devices that are being used in your workplace. The majority of us are lazy and are easily tempted into clicking the “ignore” or “remind me in an hour” options when software updates are presented to us. But make the time to update. There are so many benefits that come hand in hand with updating – the updates are there for a reason, not just for the sake of it. You will generally end up with a better version of the software that you are using – it has been improved, may be easier to use, more aesthetically pleasing, or more functional. Software updates can also help you to become less prone to being hacked by individuals with bad intentions. The longer a particular piece of software has been running, the longer people have had to figure it out and try to break into it. If you have the latest version, fewer people are going to be able to break in. So, this is a security measure too!

These are just two different ways to take care of your small business’ tech. They’re simple to implement and will make all of the difference to your business and how it runs. So, take a look into the area today and start making changes!

Things To Ask Your IT Support Provider Before Signing

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article

Outsourcing large tasks and functions is fast becoming the thing to do in business because of the success it can offer, and the top of that list is IT support. Of course, this is an utterly logical thing to do because it will take the technical pressures off you and allow you to stay focused on the core operations of your company while saving a buck or two. But that doesn’t mean you should just hand over your responsibilities to the first IT support provider you come across.

When it comes to looking for a reliable technical support provider, you need to do your Due Diligence, and an easy way to do this is to ask your prospective providers a series of questions to help you understand what sort of fit they will be. So, here’s a few ideas to get you underway:

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article

What Is Your Experience With Small Companies?

You’ll learn that a lot of IT support companies, like Sphere IT in London, concentrate on large installations and services because it allows for a better economy of scale, which means you’ll need will get lost or confused. As such, ask to see a list of their client portfolio or ask them about the smaller-sized clients they serve. This will give you a better understanding of their operations and whether they will best suit your needs.

How Do We Know You Can Protect Our Sensitive Data?

One of the most important reasons of having an IT support company come on board is to protect your data, so you need to know they are capable of doing this. The techniques hackers use these days are becoming more and more sophisticated and so it is imperative you find experienced digital data defence pros for business. This is where their record comes in. A prospective IT support company needs to be able to prove they have a fantastic track record in protecting their client’s sensitive data. If they fail to do this, then your business may fail to continue operating.

What Level of Support Will They Offer?

Most companies will ask you what sort of support you will need and then offer you a service based on that requirement, so make sure you come to a deal that suits you and that it is detailed in your service agreement. To give you a little bit of advice on this one, make sure you discuss specific areas like phone, email and chat support, as well as remote management if you have employees or contractors that work from home or on the road. You’ll also want to know how often they can visit your office to perform maintenance checkups.

How Are They With Long-Term Partnerships?

Quite simply, the longer the supplier can commit to a partnership the better fit they will be for your company. The reason for this is most network equipment lasts for years and years and years, while most support arrangements only stand for two to three. Of course, this can usually be extended to around five years if needed and if favourable. So find out what sort of agreement they prefer and then see how this will fit in with your organisation.