Jakub at FX7 Solutions Ltd, one of PBLINK members, writes about IT issues facing small business today.
Many businesses have a love-hate relationship with computers and IT: they love them when they blaze through complex tasks in minutes, but hate them when problems hold up a simple task that could be completed in a few seconds with pen and paper.
One of the reasons for this is that frequent updates needed to take advantage of advances in technology can upset systems that were running smoothly, often introducing minor bugs that, like insect bites, become major irritants.
There’s no escaping updates – they’re vital for productivity, connectivity and security – so what is the best way to ensure they do not cripple your business?
Establishing a relationship with a professional IT support provider – whether through an ongoing service contract or ad hoc access to help – can sort out a problem when it first occurs rather than letting it develop into a more serious drag on your business. Even better, 24/7 remote monitoring of your systems can detect many issues before they occur, enabling adjustments to be made to keep your systems running without interruption. Often you won’t even notice there was a potential software upgrade or compatibility problem and can focus on your work rather than having to keep an eye on your computers.
As well as sorting out software issues, IT support resolves hardware issues fast. Instead of wasting your valuable time turning a device off and on again to get it to work or putting up with the idiosyncrasies of ageing hardware on the blink, preventative maintenance ensures equipment remains in working order or is swiftly swapped out for working kit when it approaches the end of its life. This is essential for servers supporting a work group or entire office where teams of employees have to stop work when server failure prevents them accessing company databases, cloud services or other tools shared across the business. A call to your IT support provider can resolve a failure in minutes or hours, according to your agreement, minimising downtime for your essential systems.
Another minor hold-up that can have major consequences is email. What is more frustrating than pressing the button to send an urgent report to a client only to find that a glitch won’t let you send any email? Possibly only the opposite when clients phone up to ask why you haven’t responded to the urgent email they sent you which hasn’t arrived. Email is an essential link with your customers and needs to be running smoothly all the time, but working through the complexity of email permissions and connectivity issues can test even the most patient of us. Often the solution is knowing how to identify problems and your IT support provider will get to grips with this fast using their industry knowledge and experience.
Minor IT issues only have a major impact on businesses because technology is so important for productivity. Keeping your systems tidy, up to date and in good shape means that your business will rarely be impacted by these problems and with an IT support provider taking care of this for you, you won’t even have to think about it.
70 years ago, businesses relied on the telephone or telegrams for fast communications, whereas today they depend on email. Back then there were severe limitations on what could be transmitted, but today businesses send and receive large or urgent documents instantly without having to print, post or courier physical copies. The old equipment was more mechanical and not open to attacks from hostile viruses, phishing and ransomware threats that we see now, although with the assistance of a professional IT support provider businesses can be confident in the security of their computers.
Perhaps the most common external threat is infection from computer viruses. An easy solution is to install anti-virus software, but if you have servers managing networked devices with multiple users, this can be a complex task. And it’s not just installation that takes time – the software has to be managed to ensure it’s updated with profiles of the latest threats so that nothing gets through to your systems that could harm them. Your IT support provider can take care of this for you by selecting the best anti-virus protection to handle threats ranging from email attacks to external USB drives plugged into computers, ensuring that you don’t experience performance loss as it scans and protects in the background. This will ensure that emails from important clients are not wrongly rejected and are scanned quickly so that you can process them without delay. When a major threat is flagged by the IT industry, your IT support provider will ensure your protection is up to date and ready to deal with it.
In addition to anti-virus software, there are systems that can scan your emails to identify suspect emails aiming to launch phishing and ransomware attacks. In a phishing attack criminals steal confidential identity or financial data often by deceiving you into clicking a suspect link and handing over confidential details, while in a ransomware attack criminals take control of and lock you out of your systems so that they can demand a ransom in return for giving you back access. Criminals might also be able to destroy all your data in a ransomware attack.
It is also essential to introduce strict IT security processes which all users must follow without fail. This includes managing passwords to ensure they are secure enough to withstand attacks and educating employees to recognise potential attacks and follow specific procedures to deal with them.
No system is infallible, although many attacks are made possible by users ignoring security processes or plugging in unprotected devices. When an attack is launched, you need to isolate and disarm it as fast as possible. An expert IT support provider can tackle this immediately to stop a virus or malware in its tracks, protect the rest of your system, remove the intruder program and restore the system to its original state. Operating suitable, up-to-date anti-virus software is the best starting point for this, which will make recovery and data restoration faster and easier.
When most businesses think about their computer systems, what’s really valuable to them is their data. Collecting, managing and manipulating their commercial data is the main purpose of a company’s IT systems.
The Microsoft suite of products is probably the most widely used collection of office tools used by employees of all levels to process data, including Word for document creation, Excel for spreadsheets and calculations, and Exchange Server for email and calendars. Now available as Office 365, these products are provided over the Cloud so that users can access them on any devices in any location.
While the individual tools are easy to use for more employees, administration of Office 365 is a more complex task. Keeping track of licences, installing new users and managing configurations can be a big distraction when you want to get on and use the tools for business tasks. A professional IT support provider can remove this distraction by handling all the administrative tasks and freeing up you and your employees to use the office tools unhindered.
In addition to office tools for processing data, businesses also need tools to store data securely. In the event of a disaster, such as a fire, or a malicious attack on its systems, a business needs to access a reliable, up-to-date copy of its data so that it can restores its systems to how they were before. This requires specific back-up systems and processes. Copying data on to a removable drive on an ad-hoc basis is a risky back-up strategy, as back-ups could easily be forgotten at busy times and the drive lost. An automated system that backs up at specified intervals and stores software and data at multiple locations, such as on-site, off-site and in the Cloud, will ensure that whatever happens, a very recent, accurate copy of company data can be restored quickly to get a business back up and running.
How do you do this? The best option is to use an IT support partner to assess your data back-up needs and install a system that works seamlessly in the background so that you don’t have to think about it.
FX7 Solutions has considerable expertise in both provisioning and administering Office 365 as well as in the design and operation of secure and reliable back-up systems. We’d be happy to chat through the options to put your mind at rest.
If this sounds a nightmare, it shouldn’t with professional and responsive IT support. Your IT support provider should be able to take care of all this so that you don’t have to worry and can concentrate solely on running your business.
FX7 Solutions has considerable expertise in IT security, including anti-virus software and protection from phishing and ransomware attacks. We’d be happy to chat through the options to put your mind at rest.