If your business is fortunate enough to make it through the first stage and is looking to open a brand new facility or add onto its current setup, you will need to figure out how you are going to use your technology. This can be a challenge. 

Innovation Technology

Information technology systems are the foundation of the many processes that a lot of businesses rely on. These systems enable you to store data efficiently, putting it to use and interfacing with it collaboratively - but as these systems are so crucial, they must also be properly monitored and maintained.

After all, without its technology, a business that relies on said technology isn’t going to be able to accomplish much.

This has been a driving force behind innovations to technology - boosting reliability, introducing transformative tools, and advancing both business and society at large. However, since this isn’t particularly easy to put into practice, various industry thought leaders have been actively attempting to transform a variety of considerations, including:

• Applications
• Infrastructure architectures
• Service delivery
• DevOps
• Production operations
• Security
• Compliance

This has effectively been accomplished by developing solutions to meet assessed needs. As a result, new solutions are being thought up to help expand IT from its role in support to actively promoting key business tasks.

Leveraging Cognitive Computing Investments

Cognitive computing is the processing of business data through a combination of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other powerful computing resources. With these systems, patterns can be recognized, data mined, and language processed far more efficiently than without. With more information, businesses that leverage cognitive computing can see considerable benefits:

• Enhanced business agility via quicker decision making
• Consistent process scaling to meet operational and budgetary demands
• Improved business performance and efficiency

Using these technologies also allows you to support various other aspects of your operations, both internally (filling out your operational structure) and externally (automating customer retention efforts). By making a business more “intelligent,” these investments can provide a competitive advantage, as well as more diverse means of generating revenues.

Smarter Security

A data breach can be catastrophic for a business - and attacks happen far too often today to be ignored. Quite a few tools have been developed to help block out these threats, as well as improve internal data security initiatives.

Of these tools, many leverage AI and machine learning to adapt a cybersecurity policy to better match the threats a business contends with. However, these systems aren’t impervious to threats, which means that business owners need to identify their potential risks, including:

• Remote access - With the rise in remote workers and other mobility enhancements that allow data and applications to be accessed from outside the network, the connections that enable this access need to be secured.
• IoT - The Internet of Things has seen an explosive growth in popularity, but with the unfortunate side effect of bringing insecure endpoints into your business. You need to have a strategy to minimize the risks they present.
• Regulatory requirements - Some businesses and industries have additional rules that they must abide by passed down by the government. You must ensure you are meeting any conditions that apply to you.
• Hackers and cybercriminals - While businesses now have access to better tools, so do hackers. This requires you to remain vigilant in your network security.

It is also important to mention that this list is far from comprehensive - there are many more threats out there to resist, avoid, and otherwise defend against. Today’s tools are the most effective way to accomplish this.

To learn more about how you can adopt technology that helps your business succeed, reach out to the IT professionals at Coleman Technologies.

Two years ago, a friend of mine had a swimming pool built behind his house. It had a real nice deck, a deep end, a slide for his kids, and a little sectioned-off shallow end that was heated with jets. Talk about a nice way to cool off after a long week! This pool was in constant use - his kids had pool parties, he hosted cookouts. This investment of his was bringing his family a lot of joy and happiness.

Fast forward to this summer. Apparently the ground had settled and shifted, causing a leak that not only slowly drains his pool, but has been washing out the dirt under the pool. Even worse, some of the excess water has found its way into his newly renovated basement. This is not an ideal situation.

Now the thing that used to bring my friend a lot of satisfaction is the bane of his existence. It’s a problem, and it’s causing stress and costing money.

Your business technology can work the same way. It’s designed to help you do more and keep track of more, but when things go bad, it can really be a disaster, especially if you’ve been relying on it. 

My friend now hates his pool. He regrets it. In all seriousness, I feel terrible for him. More than half of the summer went by before he was able to get the problem fixed. By the time it was fixed, the joy that his swimming pool once brought him was gone. After a particularly hot weekend, I asked him if he was glad that he got his pool fixed so he could enjoy it again. He just shrugged and said it barely crossed his mind.

I was thinking, this guy must be crazy! I would have spent the entire weekend in this swimming pool. Then I realized that I’ve seen this before. I’ve felt this.

It’s really easy to get disenchanted by something that once made you excited or brought you a lot of joy. Once it’s a burden, you can get burnt out by it.

For a lot of business owners, your technology is going to feel the same way. There’s a lot of good it can do for you, but once you’ve dealt with years of annoying issues, unexpected bills, and users reporting problems, it starts to really weigh you down.

I don’t want any of my clients to feel the same way about their business as my friend feels about his swimming pool. I want your technology to work for your business. I want it to help you make more money, not be an expense. If anyone feels burnt out or let down by their IT, please give me a call at (604) 513-9428 so I can help you love it again.

That’s all I wanted to say; there’s no pitch here, there’s no IT lesson. You don’t deserve to be constantly frustrated by your IT, and it doesn’t have to be that way.