Six Sure Signs You Need To Change The Way You Manage Your IT

When the engineer that came to fix your PC at 9 am is still in your office at 4.45 pm.

If your PC is infected by malware, the only way that you can be absolutely sure that you have a clean PC is to reload it from scratch. Without a recovery plan, it can take an entire day to reload Windows 7, apply all of the patches required, and then reload your business software. If you want to avoid escalating IT support costs, you need a recovery plan that allows you to rebuild your PC’s in minutes, not hours.

When your server crashes and your tape backup won’t restore.

Although there is dispute about how frequently tape backups fail to restore (some sources quote 70% failure rate), it is clear that manual methods of data backup cannot be relied on for data backup. In any event, your critical data should be automatically backed up to offsite storage to protect you not only against server failure, but also against fire or flood.

When your staff tell you that you need a faster internet connection and have no way of knowing if they are right.

Companies everywhere are turning to video and podcasts on their web sites to engage with their customers which is great for customer engagement, but can take up internet bandwidth that you need to use for VPN connections or client extranets. If your firewall is more than 2-3 years old, consider upgrading to a "next generation firewall" that not only protects you from hackers, but also provides you with clear information on how your internet connection is being used at any time.

When your internet link fails and your staff stop working because they can’t access your hosted email / CRM systems.

Cloud computing services allow you to reduce operating costs and access your business applications from any internet connected device … but only as long as your internet connections is working! Before moving your business applications to the cloud, make sure that you have considered making provision for access to key business applications using 3G / 4G cellular, satellite, or a second internet connection in the event of failure of your primary internet link.

When an employee’s PC “breaks” after they installed some software from the internet.

Free software is great until one of your employees installs the wrong kind of free software on one of your PC’s. Unless you want to keep on paying IT engineer callout charges, you need to take control of who can and can’t install software onto your company PC’s. You need to ensure that any software installed isn’t a Trojan in disguise or badly written freeware, both of which can make your PC’s run unreliably and eventually crash. If it isn't possible to lock down your PC's then you need to strengthen your web security to make sure as best you can that your users don't accidentally download malware from the internet.

When the engineer who took a £250 cheque from you yesterday is back at 12.00 today.

When new bugs are discovered in software that you have installed on your PC’s, the “bad guys” hurry to work out how to exploit them so that they can get their code onto your PC’s to steal your personal information and logins. You must make sure that updates required to protect your PC’s are installed, otherwise you are a sitting duck for malware that can be accidentally downloaded from comprised or malicious websites.

You may not be in the IT Business, but most businesses today rely on IT. Our IT Support Services keep your systems running as reliably as possible without the need for you to employ your own skilled IT staff. If you would like to know more, please download our white paper, visit our web site, or contact us by phone on 01707 255060, or via email at info@clearview.co.uk.