January 2018: It’s hard enough to move your office from one location to another without thinking about how to move your IT. But before you schedule the moving vans, make sure you have a solid plan that will keep your IT running at the level you’ll need throughout the transition. Planning ahead tees you up …
If your company is merging with or acquiring another company, consolidating IT infrastructure is key to your success. Do it well and you leverage the best of both worlds without downtime. Do it not-so-well and you can torpedo the transition and maybe even the business objectives. Integrating IT systems is complicated but with a good …
Updated for May 2017 (Originally posted December 2014): Do you run any part of your business in the cloud — maybe Office 365, Salesforce.com, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), payroll or voice calling? How about email? The more you have in the cloud, the more you need a working internet connection. You need your employees productive …
March 2017: Does your company have a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for IT? If not, then it’s missing out on the single most effective way to see how well your IT is performing so you can make the improvements you need. Defining your IT metrics also defines something else — your commitment to …
January 2017: Is your company in compliance when it comes to software? Microsoft appears to be stepping up licensing audits, so if you’re using Windows, Office, Server or any of Microsoft’s more complex software solutions like virtualization, you need to be able to prove you have up-to-date licenses. It’s easy to inadvertently get out of …
Updated for January 2017 (Originally posted May 2012): Letting your employees use their personal mobile devices for work makes them happy — they love their devices. Research shows Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) also makes them more productive and increases their engagement with the workplace, including after hours. But when your company’s data isn’t under …
Do more devices connect to your business network wirelessly this year than last year? Does your team use more laptops, smart phones, wireless printers and tablets? When was the last time you saw an ethernet port on a new ultrabook? Gone are the days of one wire for one device. Now you might have one …
October 2016: There’s no reason an SSAE 16 audit should strike fear into the hearts of those who have to prepare for it — even if you’re running a big part of your business in the cloud. You can set up your policies, procedures, systems and reporting functions so that proving you’re compliant is a …
September 2016: When your spam filter isn’t set high enough, you get a lot of spam. And when it’s set too high, you get important emails that go straight to your junk folder, causing you to check that folder more often than you’d like. It’s the same with the rest of IT — too little …
April 2016: When you use proven processes for your business, it runs more smoothly. And when you use proven processes for your IT, it runs more smoothly, too. They’re called best practices for a reason! Well-run IT departments and managed IT companies use processes provided by ITIL, or the Information Technology Infrastructure Library. ITIL is …