How IT Services Fit In the Modern Office

Working in an office can often be a grind. People that have never experienced it may not realize just how much coordination is needed to perform successful service delivery and support. One way the modern office functions is with the help of integrated technology. This month we will take a look at the modern office, the technology used by the office staff, and how the managed IT service provider can help build operational efficiency.

Almost every industry has some form of office setup. Manufacturers, retail, and service delivery all need their offices to handle the procedural aspects of the business. Some people work from a home office that’s just a laptop computer, while others have multiple floors of a high-rise dedicated to office workers. It’s not an overstatement to say that the office is where a majority of western workers work. The office is where productivity happens. 

This is all made possible through the use of technology. The modern office features all types of technology. From servers to workstations to networking equipment, peripherals, security and signage, and much, much more. With the deployment of all this technology, there needs to be some coordination with the way it is integrated, and with the way a company’s human resources utilize it. 

This is especially true now that:

1. Margins are lower due to rising costs.
2. Data is fueling organizational decision making.
3. Threats to data security continue to rise.

In these three variables, you can find a lot about how organizations are utilizing IT. 

Shrinking Margins

Things cost more today, that can’t be denied. For the business, this creates some tough situations. One way that a business can keep these shrinking profit margins from ruining their business is by leveraging customized IT solutions designed to transfer cost. Some examples of these technologies include:

• Cloud computing - Small business use of cloud computing is up substantially and for good reason. With the cloud, your business can get infrastructure, utilities, and storage through service providers. This means that you only pay for the computing your organization needs, with a built-in benefit of being able to access the data, applications, and virtualized hardware anywhere you have an Internet connection. The scalability provides financial and operational flexibility. 
• Remote Monitoring and Management - As a core part of our managed IT services platform, remote monitoring and management provides several ways that your business can save money. Firstly, you transfer your costs. Hiring an internal IT staff is extraordinarily expensive. With managed IT services, you outsource your management to the managed service provider. This shift provides thorough around-the-clock monitoring and regular maintenance of your entire network and infrastructure. Another way it saves money is by being proactive. Since the managed services provider is constantly managing and maintaining your network and infrastructure, you will experience fewer critical errors and much less downtime, saving thousands of dollars over the course of your agreement. 

Influential Data

Every action your business makes and every interaction it has with vendors, customers, and prospects can be tracked. This data can be used to help businesses see what works and which of those actions are more cost effective for the business to implement as process. In order to integrate this kind of analysis for your business, you first need to understand what data you need to use in order to get the information and what technologies you may need to make your data analytics efforts work effectively. 

• Data Warehousing - Chances are, the way your company’s IT network is currently structured won’t provide you with the type of full-business analysis needed to analyze data properly. If you have parts of your functional business’ data that isn’t included in your analysis tools it severely limits the effectiveness of your results. In order to get the results that represent your entire business, you will need to set up a repository for your data that allows for comprehensive analysis. A data warehouse structures data in a way where each process is represented, yet structured in a way that makes business analytics and business intelligence programs possible and effective. 
• Microsoft Office 365 - If you go through the effort to ensure that all the data you need to completely analyze your business is in one space, you will want to ensure that your data analysis tools will do the job. There are several business analysis tools on the market, but one that you should consider is Microsoft Excel. Excel actually has a lot of good decision-making tools that can be used to analyze your data effectively. Excel is obviously a part of the Microsoft Office 365 cloud-hosted productivity suite, a title TaylorWorks is proud to offer. 

Security Threats

The threats that the modern business has to deal with from outside their computing network puts strain on the users inside their computer network. An organization’s IT administrator typically sets the tone by developing a plan for the business to maintain data and network security, but those efforts can be undermined at any time if the business’ staff isn’t trained in how to confront situations that are coming from outside the network designed to undermine the security platforms that have been deployed. Here are two tools that TaylorWorks can offer to help you thwart threats:

• Patch Management - Every business utilizes a fair amount of software. If that software isn’t patched regularly, it may not have the most updated features, or it may have vulnerabilities that puts your whole computing network in jeopardy. TaylorWorks has a patch management service that ensures that all of your business' software is updated regularly.
• Cybersecurity Training - These days, the encryption used in many of your network security tools is so strong that hackers have absolutely no chance to get into your network...unless someone lets them in. In a response to the huge uptick in social engineering attacks aimed at getting individuals to provide unauthorized access, companies are now starting to provide cybersecurity awareness training to their staff. The more people who are aware of the threats and the methods in which hackers are now attempting to gain access to credentials, the more secure your business’ network is. 

The modern office has a lot of places that technology potentially fits. If your business can use any of these solutions to improve the look of your bottom line, call TaylorWorks today at 407-478-6600.