How to Optimize your IT Network

If you are running a company and are uncertain if your IT is at the level it should be, we are here for you. We can help optimize your IT to your specific business. The goals being reducing your risk and increasing your profitability, using IT.

1. Understand what you have.

Perform an assessment and document your existing network infrastructure and the ways it is (or is not) supporting your business. You would want to ensure that your network is built for growth. Much entry-level software caps out at 25-30 users, adding an extra employee may jeopardize the legality of using that program. A properly performed assessment will provide insight into the immediate, short and long term IT needs of your business and should include things such as:

a) Business requirements and collaboration needs
b) Equipment age and compatibility
c) Software age, compatibility and legality
d) Internet Connectivity
e) Data and application access
f) Remote access
g) Network and Cyber Security
h) Data backup
i) Disaster recovery
j) Cloud services

Understanding what you have is the first step to identifying areas of strength and weakness. Once these things are identified, a clear plan forward can then be created and areas that require improvement can be scheduled for repair or upgrade as required.

2. Fill in the gaps

From the assessment, create a list of deficiencies in the infrastructure then prioritize, budget and schedule upgrades or corrections to fill the gaps. Some upgrades can have a large capital cost associated to them like server replacement or migrating data from a local network to a cloud-hosted one. Companies may want to consider phasing out larger network upgrades to allow capital for other lines of business. Also, companies of this size should identify if they plan on growing their employee base in which case it might make sense to move forward sooner on a cloud project limiting the labour cost of migrating data of more employees later on.

3. Plan for the future

This really applies to any size company but you can plan for the future by selecting an IT vendor that will work with you to perform short, medium, and long term planning. Schedule monthly or quarterly planning meetings focused on identifying new technologies to integrate into your IT infrastructure to support the policies, procedures and change management required by your business.

If you need help optimizing your network, feel free to contact us below.