Leaders who care too much about the business are either worried or enthusiastic about many things which lead them to staying awake late at night. Being enthusiastic isn’t difficult to manage, it’s the worrying that becomes harder to contain. Top management team is responsible for ensuring the financial and operational health of the business. The weight of that responsibility is too immense that business leaders often take their issues even up to bedtime.
Based on our experience working with many organizations for their IT projects, we listed some of the top concerns of many CIOs that keep them awake at night:
#1 Keeping confidential data safe and secure.
While the age of BYOD has fueled mobility and has driven staff productivity, it also poses a challenge in security more so in the context of financial and customer data. Staff connecting to unsecured wireless connection or getting their devices lost are some of the reasons that your data becomes susceptible to cyber threats. There is also the need to stay compliant on data protection laws or the business faces the risk of paying for hefty fines. Keeping it completely confidential and secure all the time is one of the top priorities of any CIO.
#2 Ensuring data recoverability in case of a disaster.
In cases of a natural disaster, power outage, system downtime or cyber security incident, does the business have a solid backup and disaster recovery plan? Will the business be able to continue its operations as usual if these incidents occur? These are just some of the questions that any CIO should be able to confidently respond to. A Disaster Recovery plan enables your organization to continue operating by having access to back up data, preventing it from becoming completely paralyzed. Operating without a DR plan is like running the business without any form of insurance.
#3 Ensuring system uptime at all times.
Frequent complaints about your application’s slow performance, slow upload or download time or the network going down are some of the most frustrating IT issues for your users. Having your IT recurrently fire fight these issues reduce their effectiveness, more so if they are troubleshooting applications without the technical skills to support it. It dampens employee productivity, affects staff morale and hinders the overall workplace environment for everyone.
#4 Reducing IT spend.
IT is typically an expensive component of the business. Investment in hardware, software, maintenance and technical training are not cheap so keeping the costs down is on every CIO’s radar. The need to be resourceful, strategic and ensuring you are working with the right IT solutions provider are mandatory towards maximizing your investment and reducing costs.
#5 Hiring and retaining quality IT staff.
The field of IT is a constantly evolving industry. Every year, there is a new innovation or product update that your people has to know to effectively support the applications and systems that your business is using. Keeping your team abreast to these changes is a challenge on its own, much more to retain quality employees. The grass is always greener at the other side of the fence, as they say and so businesses need to be creative with their talent retention strategy.
How can a Managed Services Partner address these business concerns?
Most small to medium sized organizations take the reactive IT support route. By that, we mean having a contractor provide technical support to the business for the short-term and leaving the company right after. Compared to a reactive means of fixing IT issues, a managed services provider such as Systema Solutions takes a preventive approach to IT support services.
Support engineers are there to ensure the uptime of your network systems and applications. They are contactable at a predictable time and when you need them the most, not when they are only available. They can provide you access to IT professionals instantly, while working with your existing IT team. Best of all, managed service providers reduce your overall IT spend by providing you with strategic insight and best practices to IT management and quick resolution to issues.
Systema Solutions has been providing consistent and reliable support services to its Microsoft Dynamics customers since it started its operation. We have helped organizations support their users with resolving post-production issues on Dynamics 365 Business Central and NAV, all at an affordable monthly service fee.
If you are you experiencing the business concerns mentioned in this blog and need assistance with resolving them, sign up to a no-commitment consultation here and let’s discuss how we can help.
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