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The sudden shutdown of the economy in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic forced many businesses to rely more heavily on technology. Some companies fared better than others.<\/p>\n
Many businesses that had been taking an informal approach to IT strategy discovered their systems weren\u2019t as robust and scalable as they\u2019d hoped. Some may have lost ground competitively as fires were put out and employees got back up to speed in an altered working environment.<\/p>\n
To keep your approach to technology relevant, you\u2019ve got to regularly reassess processes and assets. Doing so is even more important in the new normal. Here are six key questions to ask:<\/p>\n
1. What are our users saying?<\/strong> Every successful IT strategy is built on a foundation of plentiful user feedback. Talk with (or survey) your employees about what\u2019s happened over the last few months from a technology perspective. Find out what\u2019s working, what isn\u2019t and why.<\/p>\n 2. Do we have information silos?<\/strong> Most companies today use multiple applications. If these solutions can\u2019t \u201ctalk\u201d to each other, you may suffer from information silos \u2014 when different people and teams keep data to themselves. Shifting to a more remote workforce may have worsened this problem or made it more obvious. If it\u2019s happening, determine how to integrate critical systems.<\/p>\n 3. Do we have a digital file-sharing policy?<\/strong> Businesses used to generate tremendous amounts of paperwork. Sharing documents electronically is much more common now but, without a formal approach to file sharing, things can still get lost or various versions of files can cause confusion. Implement (or improve) a digital file-sharing policy to better manage system access, network procedures and version control.<\/p>\n 4. Has our technology become outdated?<\/strong> Along with being an incredible tragedy and ongoing problem, the pandemic is accelerating change. Technology that may have been at least passable before the crisis may now be falling far short of optimal functionality. Look closely at whether your business may need to upgrade hardware, software or platforms sooner than you previously anticipated.<\/p>\n 5. Do employees need more training?<\/strong> You may have implemented IT changes over the past few months that employees haven\u2019t fully understood or have adjusted to in problematic ways. Consider mandatory training and ongoing refresher sessions to ensure users are taking full advantage of available technology and following proper procedures.<\/p>\n 6. Are your security protocols being followed?<\/strong> Changes made to facilitate working during the pandemic may have exposed your systems and data to threats from disgruntled employees, outside hackers and ever-present viruses. Make sure you have a closely followed policy for critical actions such as regularly changing passwords, removing inactive users and installing security updates.<\/p>\n Technology has played a critical role in enabling businesses to stay connected internally, communicate with customers and remain operational during the COVID-19 crisis. Our firm can help you assess your IT strategy in today\u2019s economy and identify cost-effective process changes and budget-conscious asset upgrades.<\/p>\n \u00a9 2020<\/em><\/p>\n <\/body> The sudden shutdown of the economy in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic forced many businesses to rely more heavily on technology. Some companies fared better than others. Many businesses that had been taking an informal approach to IT strategy discovered their systems weren\u2019t as robust and scalable as they\u2019d hoped. Some may have lost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,10],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-14853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-news","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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