Empowering IT Support to Deliver Efficiency, Reliability, and Satisfaction Across Every Interaction
Aligning Technology Planning With Long-Term Goals for Competitive Advantage
Today’s global economy is largely facilitated by technology. In a sense, technology has evened the playing field, making it possible for small businesses in various industries to take chunky bites from markets that have been singularly dominated by large corporations for ages.
Unsurprisingly, chances of significant growth are almost non-existent for businesses that are reluctant to adopt tech solutions. Integrating advanced data analytics and emerging technologies into your core business processes can transform customer experiences, improve operational efficiency, and drive expansion beyond expectations.
That said, you don’t have to jump at every solution. Your approach to these integrations and the adaptability of your strategy in the face of rapidly evolving tech landscapes are vital. How you handle these elements could very well redefine your market position and growth trajectory.
How do you define and map objectives for your IT strategy? How do you align IT strategy with your business goals? Is your IT integration strategy data-driven? How do IT strategies improve your customers’ experience and satisfaction?
IT strategy and integration do not happen in a vacuum. To grow and innovate effectively, you must first clearly define your IT strategy objectives.
Before you immerse yourself in the specifics, it’s important to understand what you’re trying to achieve with your technology.
Here are the steps to take when creating objectives for your IT strategy.
Once you’ve defined your IT strategy objectives, the next step involves aligning your technology plans with your broader business goals.
Alignment guarantees that every technological investment and initiative directly supports the paths your business intends to take, maximizing both efficiency and returns.
Here are the considerations to take when aligning your IT strategy with the overall business goals:
Embedding data analytics in IT strategy will enhance decision-making within your company. For starters, data analytics informs predictive analysis, which can forecast trends and behaviors, giving you a competitive edge.
This approach streamlines operations and propels business growth and innovation.
Data analytics empowers you to make informed decisions by revealing essential insights hidden within your business data. By integrating advanced analytics tools, you can sift through vast amounts of data swiftly and accurately. This capability allows you to identify trends, understand market dynamics, and assess operational efficiency with a clarity that was previously unattainable.
You can leverage data analytics for:
Working with data helps you create actionable strategies that drive your business forward.
Harnessing predictive analytics can greatly enhance your ability to forecast future trends and make proactive business decisions. By analyzing historical data, you’re not just reacting to events but anticipating them. This means you can optimize operations, reduce costs, and target the right customers more effectively.
Predictive models use patterns within the data to identify risks and opportunities that you wouldn’t see otherwise. For instance, you’ll know which new products are likely to succeed or which customer segments are at risk of churning. This foresight allows you to allocate resources more purposefully, pushing your business ahead of the competition.
Ultimately, integrating predictive analytics into your IT strategy is a smart move that is essential for staying relevant and innovative in today’s fast-paced market.
Now that you have set your IT strategy objectives and aligned them with your business goals, what are the tools that will drive you to your desired outcome?
Today’s fast-paced markets demand that you recognize and leverage market disruptors if you want to stay ahead. And that requires investing in emerging technologies that can enable you to keep up with and scale innovative solutions.
This strategic approach guarantees your company remains competitive and ready for future challenges.
There are two key points to consider in this regard:
Invest in emerging technologies that promise to disrupt the market. As you navigate the evolving tech landscape, pinpointing which innovations hold the most potential becomes crucial.
Hypes are not enough cause to opt for a technology. Analyze the practical impacts on your industry and compatibility with existing business processes.
Here’s how you can identify and leverage these disruptors effectively:
Once you’ve identified potential market disruptors, it’s important to focus on effectively scaling innovative solutions within your business.
For disruptive technology to work for you effectively, you must integrate it strategically to maximize its impact.
Firstly, you must evaluate your current IT infrastructure and determine the necessary upgrades or changes to support the new technologies.
Secondly, you’ll need to train your team to use these technologies and leverage them to drive business objectives.
Additionally, it’s vital to establish metrics to evaluate the success of these technologies in achieving your business goals.
Finally, consider partnerships with tech startups or collaborations with industry leaders to find opportunities for improving your tech stack for better outcomes on the go.
Enhancing customer experience is key to driving engagement and loyalty in today’s competitive market.
As you refine your IT strategy, it’s important to focus on how technology can make every interaction with your business smoother and more personalized. Implementing advanced analytics can help you understand customer behaviors and preferences, allowing you to tailor your services or products more effectively.
To truly elevate your customer experience, consider these three actionable tips:
It’s necessary to point out that efforts to implement IT strategies to improve customer experience and boost revenue might be in vain if the employees are not fully onboard with the process.
A well-crafted IT strategy is essential for business success, but organizations must also ensure that their service desk is equipped to provide seamless end-user experiences.
Therefore, you must establish a workplace culture that brings your employees up to speed with your IT strategy.
Fostering a culture of innovation within your organization empowers employees to explore new ideas and solutions that drive business growth. By creating an environment where risk-taking is supported, you’ll see a surge in creativity and a broader range of strategies that could redefine your market standing.
To kickstart this transformative atmosphere, consider implementing regular brainstorming sessions where all ideas are welcomed and valued. This will help you tap into the diverse perspectives of your team while making them feel like a true part of the company’s journey.
You should also promote cross-functional teams to blend different skills and viewpoints, enhancing the innovative process further.
It’s vital that you recognize and reward creativity. Whether through acknowledgment in meetings, bonuses, or career advancement opportunities. Showing appreciation for innovative efforts encourages a continuous flow of fresh ideas.
It’s also vital to remember that fear of failure often stifles innovation. You need to communicate clearly that reasonable risks are acceptable and that every failure is a step towards success.
More importantly, invest in training that fosters creative thinking and problem-solving skills. Equipping your team with the latest technological tools and methodologies will enable them to efficiently turn their creative ideas into viable solutions. This keeps your team competitive and deeply ingrained in the innovation culture you’re aiming to cultivate.
To effectively gauge the success of your IT strategy, you’ll need to establish clear metrics and KPIs that align with your business objectives. These indicators shouldn’t only reflect the immediate outputs of your IT initiatives but also how they contribute to long-term business goals. You’re aiming to see how technology investments improve overall business performance, not just IT efficiency.
When setting up your measurement framework, consider these key areas:
As you refine your business strategy, it’s crucial to ensure that your IT infrastructure is actively supporting and driving your business objectives.
At Network Right, we specialize in Managed IT services, IT support, and vCISO services tailored to propel businesses forward. Our IT strategy solutions leverage advanced technologies and robust data analytics to enhance customer interactions and cultivate an environment ripe for innovation.
IT strategy is a substantial investment for any business to embark on. Hence, it is absolutely necessary that all your steps are in the right direction. With us, you can get it right on the first try.
Our local experts are dedicated to understanding and aligning your needs with cutting-edge IT strategies. We also offer regular monitoring and assessments to ensure the effectiveness of these strategies for your business, ensuring that your business stays competitive and surpasses market expectations.
Contact us now to learn how IT strategy solutions can be personalized to make your business indomitable in your industry.
Maintaining High-Performance Connectivity to Power Collaboration and Productivity
Reliable Wi-Fi is no longer just a convenience in the modern workplace. As businesses—both small and medium—evolve, Wi-Fi networks have become essential for ensuring productivity and efficiency. More importantly, they have become a critical part of IT infrastructures across industries.
As you analyze your business’s technological backbone, remember that reliable Wi-Fi is now a necessity. With the right practices, you can boost connectivity and maintain consistent performance across the workspace.
So, let’s look at these best practices for enhancing your Wi-Fi and how they can help you ensure a seamless network experience in your workplace.
To effectively enhance your Wi-Fi, start by evaluating your current network’s performance and limitations. You’ll need to understand where it stands before you can make any meaningful improvements.
First, check your internet speed to see if they align with what you’re paying for. Use an online speed test from your computer connected directly to your router via Ethernet. This will show you the baseline speed without Wi-Fi interference.
Next, assess the age and capabilities of your existing hardware. If your router and modems are several years old, they might not support newer, faster Wi-Fi standards like 802.11ac or 802.11ax, which greatly improve speed and reliability. Also, consider the software side of things—ensure your network’s firmware is up-to-date to benefit from the latest performance enhancements and security patches.
Positioning your access points strategically can greatly enhance your Wi-Fi network’s coverage and performance. You can start by reviewing the layout of your workspace. Look for central locations that avoid physical obstructions like thick walls or metal file cabinets, which can block or degrade signals.
Elevating the access points can also improve signal distribution, especially in a multi-story building. Consider mounting them on walls or ceilings to maximize the area they cover. It’s important to spread them evenly throughout the premises to avoid dead spots—areas where the signal doesn’t reach.
You should also consider the density of network users in different areas. Places like conference rooms or communal areas might need additional access points to handle the high volume of devices. Conversely, less frequented sections, such as storerooms, may not require as much coverage.
Lastly, remember to periodically test your Wi-Fi signal in various places around your office. This will help you identify any coverage issues that need adjusting. Tweaking the placement based on real usage patterns and feedback will ensure that your network remains robust and responsive to your team’s needs.
Implementing robust network security measures is essential to protect your company’s data and prevent unauthorized access. This means starting with strong encryption. Utilizing WPA3, the latest Wi-Fi security protocol, helps safeguard your network by encrypting user data and strengthening user access control.
By following these guidelines, you’re laying a strong foundation for network security that efficiently supports and protects your business operations.
After setting up strong network security measures, it’s equally important to maintain your Wi-Fi network’s health through regular maintenance. Here are some essential tips you should follow:
As you maintain a reliable Wi-Fi infrastructure, don’t forget the importance of creating an effective IT onboarding process for new employees to ensure they can access and utilize the network efficiently.
Wi-Fi technology has rapidly evolved, offering faster speed and more reliable connections to enhance workplace productivity. As you consider upgrading your network, it’s essential to understand the latest advancements that can transform your connectivity experience.
One of the most significant developments is Wi-Fi 6, the latest generation of Wi-Fi that increases the network’s efficiency and capacity. This is a game-changer for crowded office environments where numerous devices are connected simultaneously. Wi-Fi 6 uses Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) technology, which allows multiple devices to share a single channel, reducing latency and increasing throughput.
Moreover, the introduction of Wi-Fi 6E extends capabilities into the 6 GHz band, providing more spectrum, wider channels, and less interference. This is particularly beneficial in areas dense with competing networks, ensuring that your connection remains swift and stable.
You should also be aware of Mesh Network Systems, which use multiple router-like devices to spread Wi-Fi coverage evenly throughout your workspace. This eliminates dead zones, ensuring you’re always connected, no matter where you’re in the office.
Assessing your existing Wi-Fi infrastructure is the crucial first step to enhancing connectivity and improving efficiency in your workplace. It allows you to strategically position access points and significantly improve coverage.
Additionally, implementing robust security measures and regular maintenance and updates helps you safeguard your network and ensure sustained performance.
At Network Right, we specialize in providing tailored IT solutions that can help you navigate these upgrades smoothly. Our expertise in Managed IT services, IT support, and vCISO services ensures that you receive comprehensive guidance tailored to your specific needs.
Let’s discuss how we can enhance your network’s reliability and keep your operations running smoothly.
Choosing the Right Support Model for Agility, Budget, and In-House Capabilities
When determining the amount of IT support to enlist for your company, you may see the terms “co-managed” and “fully-managed.” After all, both models have their benefits depending on the specific needs of your business. Throughout this article, we discuss the differences between co-managed and fully-managed IT services, what they uniquely offer, and how each can be beneficial depending on the needs of your company.
Co-managed IT service is a model of IT support that allows you to choose which IT services your company will handle internally and which it will outsource. This kind of IT is ideal for companies with some internal IT resources already in place and looking for a partnership. Do you have an in-house IT professional that can handle strategic IT needs of the business, like budgeting and planning? If so, you could save money by opting for co-managed IT support focused on the aspects of IT that are more day-to-day (such as a user help desk). Conversely, you may choose to outsource the strategic aspects and handle the day-to-day in-house.
When employees have problems with their computers or other devices, time may be wasted waiting on IT personnel to fix them. A co-managed IT model with help desk support can help you avoid costly delays in lost productivity. A good help desk will allow users to submit tickets online and track progress on those tickets so everyone knows what’s going on with their device or computer at any given time. This allows in-house IT personnel to focus on other pressing issues.
Here are a few examples of how a co-managed IT service model can help you:
Fully-managed IT service is a comprehensive IT support model. The fully-managed model is designed to support the day-to-day IT needs of the business while also providing strategic IT guidance. Fully-managed IT services support businesses in a proactive manner. Rather than waiting until something breaks, fully-managed IT teams anticipate problems and set your company up for success through strategic planning.
Fully-managed IT services may include:
At Network Right, we offer virtual CIO services that help growing startups with IT planning and budgeting. This service also usually includes help desk user support. We find that businesses with 10-100 users are a strong fit for a fully-managed IT support model. Our services are also scalable. If you prefer to start with fully managed model and work towards a co-managed model once your team is ready to bring IT support in-house, that is an option for you with Network Right. Our team of dedicated technicians and account managers provide timely support, flexible pricing, and no long-term contracts. Feel free to adjust your services as needed.
While there are key differences in the extent of services provided by co-managed and fully-managed IT support, both offer organizations very effective solutions to IT problems. Consider co-managed or fully-managed IT support services for your business based on the extent of your internal resources and the amount of support your team requires. Contact us at Network Right to find out how we can help your IT needs.
Creating Seamless Tech-Driven Journeys That Empower New Hires From Day One
The employee onboarding experience is one of the first impressions new employees have of your organization. The process can be smooth or rocky depending on the systems you have in place.
Your IT team can be the backbone for many processes and systems that make your organization run effectively, and as such, your IT team should be involved in the onboarding process.
Your IT team can also function as the liaison between hiring managers and employees by helping to explain your technology processes to employees. Onboarding is not just about laptops, desktops, and smartphones. It’s also about company culture, online policies, social media guidelines, and more – all of which are enmeshed in technology.
Getting IT involved in onboarding will improve this experience in a variety of ways, leading to greater early job satisfaction.
IT has many responsibilities when it comes to employee onboarding, such as helping new hires get up to speed on new tech, tools, software, and processes.
Here are a few ways your IT team can improve the employee onboarding experience:
Documentation can include help desk tickets, policies, and procedures for specific applications or presentations on how things work at your company.
Having documentation available will be helpful when questions arise during an employee’s first week on the job and beyond. It’s important to have complete and up-to-date documentation so that new employees can get up to speed quickly. If IT documentation isn’t kept up to date, it can actually be harmful.
Here are some best practices to follow when creating IT documentation
Onboarding is a crucial part of the employee lifecycle, and it’s critical that it’s done right. The onboarding process needs to provide employees with a smooth transition from an outsider to a valued team member. It must be effective, well-planned, and supported by various departments within the company, including your in-house or outsourced IT team.
If you’re looking to find out how outsourced IT support can help your organization during onboarding and beyond, contact us at Network Right.
Protecting Sensitive Data and Simplifying Access Control in a Growing Digital Landscape
At the end of the day what stands between access to your companies SaaS Apps, web portals, and computers is a password. Employees are their logins are all possible entry points for malicious parties to access sensitive company data and now more than ever it’s important to utilize password managers to not simply remember your logins but ensure strong credentials are being used.
The goal of password manager is to offer your company and its employees a system to store private logins as well as shared accounts credentials safely & securely. Our brains (or post-it notes) are only so good at storing and remembering passwords on top of the ever growing complexity standards around them. A great password manager will make storing passwords seamless, intuitive, and offer ways to ensure you’re not just storing passwords but creating complex ones.
Here are just some of the reasons your company needs to invest in a password manager today!
The reason many set simple or easy to crack passwords tends to be cause they’re easier for them to remember. The more you add onto that with passwords for their email, computer, various SaaS apps the easier it gets for them to use simple passwords. The great thing about most modern password managers is they allow you to set 1 complex password that you use to access the app and from there you can auto-generate secure passwords for each login. This further enhances your overall security in that it trains your employees to use various passwords across platforms versus one. Further protecting in event of leaks or access to one password.
Password managers allow users to generate secure credentials based on parameters that may be required per site such as length of characters, unique symbols or numbers required, and so on. Effectively allowing you to remember your one password and letting it handle the rest for you.
The other benefit to password managers is the ease in which you can safely & securely share credentials with others in the organization. Often it happens where companies have shared accounts for departments or specific apps in order to save on license costs. Anytime anyone needs access you either need to manually share it with other employees or users are forced to remember said login.
Password managers ease this whole process by allowing sharing of logins to other users in and even outside your organization (contractors etc). Putting the login behind a portal that requires the user in question to have specific access to said login or a number of them depending on your preference. All with the ability to cut off access as needed.
Nowadays almost all modern password mangers offer some form of integration to easily login to your sites automatically via desktop apps, mobile apps, or even web browser extensions. These apps make it even easier for your employee to store new logins they create in said managers and then automatically login to the respective sites going forward. Most popular form of these include web browser add-ons/extensions which live in the browser and then handle the automatic login portion for employees. Keeping it secure and convenient. At the end of the day if the password manager tool itself isn’t convenient users won’t use it so these various forms of integration make it all the more seamless for day to day use.
Often times in IT we see the need for password, security questions, 2FA resets. Notably companies who implement password managers see a reduction in said issues as employees are empowered with the right tools. Making it more efficient for them in day to day activities spending last time hunting down passwords and simply being able to get access to their tools and get their work done.
Beyond just passwords these tools often allow for the following to be stored in them as well:
Really anything confidential that revolves around some sort of access can be stored in most of the password managers to be safely secured & protected. Beyond that other great features across some of the managers include the ability to detect leaked/compromised passwords, get an audit of re-used passwords across the company, and just generally from a security standpoint see where your company and employees stand.
Below you can find a list we recommend to our clients based on features, support for cross platforms, and ease of use.
At the end of the day your company and it’s employees will only benefit from adding a password manager to your app-stack. It’ll help across the board from overall security, implementing best practice to your employees routines, and making general day to day work easier on everyone. Make the investment today & you’ll thank us later!
Streamlining Employee Transitions With Secure, Scalable IT Processes
One of the biggest challenges existing and new clients expressed amidst the shift to a remote environment is the IT side of on/off-boarding. Coordinating that new hires get their machines all set up, additional accessories are sent out, and in the other events returned in a timely manner. All of this from a logistical side introduces some challenges for all parties involved. Thus we at Network Right have offered multiple solutions to our clientele as to how we can help handle the pressures and shift to a remote on/offboarding experience. Check out our list below to see how we can help your business!
One big piece of getting company machines out to new hires or a departing employee’s laptop is storing & shipping. We help ease the load by offering flexible solutions such as stockpiling client hardware at our offices to be ready to be prepped & shipped out as needed. As well as an ex-employees hardware to be wiped & stored in the event it ever needs to go out. Helping our clients manage their inventory of laptops, mobile devices, and so on it makes it easier to get new hires or employees transitioning sorted with less hassle.
We go as far as to help ship out the hardware on the companies behalf so your new hires have the best possible start experience they can from the IT side. To further help with efficiency if possible in certain environments we set up zero-touch deployments meaning we ship the hardware directly from a manufacture such as Apple and have software implemented so that their machine configures itself out of the box. Installing essential apps, enforcing security policies, and much more all automated.
For certain clients, we have gone as far as setting up an IT orientation that either runs separately or in tandem with HR’s onboarding process. Developing a system based on a client’s environment to have their new hires get introduced to common IT practices, apps, and so on. All with the focus of helping new hires understand the essentials of their IT setup and resources within the company.
Offering things like:
These sessions can also extend to that of terminations or off-boarding. Understanding the sensitive matters that sometimes arise, our team is readily available to connect with users and help do our best to make the transition process is seamless and secure from the companies perspective.
Dependent on a client setup we often aim to get some sort of remote desktop software to allow us to help users troubleshoot issues & or configure certain things on their machines on their behalf. Given the inability to meet in the office in some cases & resolve an issue for hires, remote software has proven to be a big productivity booster for our clients.
As mentioned in the IT orientation section, never underestimate powerful and detailed documentation. This goes a long way in remote on or offboarding that may happen last minute. Allowing other members or departments to step in. We understand sometimes things happen at a moment’s notice and want to make it easy as possible to have resources of knowledge shareable across our own team internally & our clients. So we go above & beyond documenting our process on the IT end to ensure as things change & adapt in the remote environment, we can too.
Something we preach highly amongst are clients is the need for an MDM. Read our entire article here to see in more detail what an MDM can offer your company. Where this comes into play for our role in remote on/off-boarding is multi-faceted
There are many issues that arose amidst the shift to a remote environment that physically being in the office allowed our teams to do. However with the right planning & tools in place we’ve helped many clients & their workforce ease in the transition to a remote on/off-boarding workflow.
