Small Business Tech Tips

The 5 Critical IT Needs Of Today’s Small Business
by Josh Clifford | www.everonit.com

Without question, technology is transforming today’s small business landscape; it vaguely resembles the small businesses our parents once knew. Websites, computers, and email have replaced the need for storefronts, cash registers, and memos. Advances in technology bring with them efficiencies, increased productivity, and greater access to wider audiences, but they also add a complicated layer of new questions for the small business owner. What follows is a simple step-by-step guide for thinking through the critical technology needs of small businesses.

Infrastructure

Technology infrastructure can be compared to the plumbing in your house. Your technology infrastructure comprises computers, servers, routers, and switches. All of these components provide the foundation for your overall network or system. All or parts of your infrastructure can be housed internally (in-house) or in some cases hosted externally. A properly built network infrastructure can increase operational efficiency, lower IT costs, increase security, and can easily accommodate scale as your organization continues to grow. Your infrastructure can accommodate centralized communication and information exchange as well as remote access independent of time and location.

Infrastructure Key Elements:

• Stores and protects intellectual property
• Increases productivity through system availability
• Supports critical business function and business processes
• Promotes seamless database access and data flow from anywhere in the world

Security

One of the most valuable and important aspects of any business is its intellectual property and information. Protecting this information should always be a priority and should be carefully planned. There are numerous tools and types of security that should be taken into account when assessing an overall technology plan.

Security Key Elements:

• Physical security (Locked server room and computer locks)
• Digital security (Firewall, security patches,data access, file permissions)
• The proper security tools (Antivirus, Spyware, Intrusion protection)

Business Continuity

The statistics are absolutely amazing. For small businesses, extended periods of downtime can not only result in data loss and lost revenue, but could also mean potential failure for the business. Having a business continuity and disaster recovery plan is essential to ensure business continuity in the event of an unforeseen disaster, as well as a plan for recovery.

Business Continuity Key Elements

• Proper backup strategy
• Clear disaster recovery plan
• Understand the costs of down time to your business
• Testing

Communication Tools

Technology has undoubtedly changed the way businesses communicate, enabling them to not only reach larger audiences, but it has enabled them to do more with less. This is especially true for small businesses. Enhanced collaboration can result in improvements in productivity, efficiency, customer service, and increased revenue.

Communication Tools Key Elements

• Email
• Phone systems
• Contact management tools
• Mobil communication
• Web presence

Productivity Tools

Advances in technology have brought with it increased operational productivity and efficiency, derived from the countless software applications that have been introduced to the market. Many of these applications can be hosted internally or externally. These simple and easy to use products are giving small business access to tools traditionally found at larger corporations.

Productivity tools key elements

• Shared calendaring
• Online Collaboration
• CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
• Custom database tools / 3rd party applications
• Financial management tools
• Automation tools

This is an excellent framework to use as a discussion point with your next IT provider or when selecting a new one. If you’d like additional information on any of the above topics please feel free to contact Josh Clifford at Everon Technology Services.

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Tags: business, business communications, business continuity, communications, everon, everonit, infrastructure, it security, productivity, resources, security, small business, technology, technology resources, technology strategies

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 18th, 2007 at 10:53 am and is filed under Small Business Management Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.