If you have been putting off a tech upgrade for your business for some time, you have no choice but to get into action right now. 2020 is the year of business disruption and embracing new tech becomes imperative for organizations, regardless of their domain, size and scale. The coronavirus crisis has thrown everyone out of balance and transformation is the only way to survive and fight back. Considering that you have to make a move, it makes sense to see the positive in the situation and take it as a big push that you always needed for modernizing. Thankfully, ramping up your IT ecosystem is easier than ever and you can do it fast and without a massive investment. Here are some measures that you can implement for getting on with your upgrade initiative in 2020.
Embrace the remote working model
Work from home is the need of the hour as businesses have to prioritize social distancing for the health and safety of the employees and clients. So embracing the remote working model is what you need to get started. Whether it is about realigning your infrastructure, moving to the cloud, training your team for remote work or adopting remote collaboration applications and communication tools, you need to have all the aspects covered. Having reliable IT support is equally vital because your employees are bound to face glitches as they settle in the new working model. There has to be someone to resolve the issues and get things streamlined quickly and effectively.
Prioritize cybersecurity
As if the growing number of cyber threats were not enough, the move to remote working has aggravated the security concerns of businesses even more. Therefore, it is vital to prioritize cybersecurity as a part of your upgrade initiative. The first thing you need to do is to secure your systems, network and applications. Having a proper cybersecurity policy in place is equally important. You can go the extra mile to train the employees and highlight the significance of data security, considering that they will access business data remotely and with personal devices.
Simplify your IT ecosystem
Your legacy ecosystem will probably be a complex one, considering that most of the businesses have been used to the idea of plug and play with software applications. In fact, organizations often end up assembling a wide suite of solutions to accomplish the simplest of day-to-day tasks and goals. When you upgrade, your aim should be to declutter and simplify. Look for a modern IT solution that streamlines everything and covers the entire tasks with a unified system. Rather than establishing a full-fledged IT team, opt for a managed service provider. This is a simpler and cost effective alternative that cuts down your hassles to the minimum.
Modernize customer-facing applications as well
When it comes to a tech upgrade for your business, it is not just about ramping up your infrastructure and operations. It is equally important to modernize the customer-facing applications such as the business website and mobile apps as well. Having modern-looking and secure applications is a good way to attract the customers and gain their trust. This is, in fact, the best time to revamp these applications because you can expect an increase in the online traffic rather than physical traffic for your business. Moreover, this tech upgrade will fuel up your marketing initiatives at present and serve as an asset for the future.
Automate repetitive tasks
Automation is the ultimate winning approach for any business, today and tomorrow. And it becomes all the more important in the current scenario when you would want to reduce the dependence on human employees. Further, it can speed up the process and eliminate errors, thus increasing revenues in the long run. Additionally, your team will experience an efficiency boost and have free time to focus on critical tasks. Automating the repetitive tasks and operations, therefore, should be on top of your upgrade wishlist in 2020. Whether you run a manufacturing unit or provide services in the banking sector, there are myriad tasks that you can automate, all with a smart software application.
Upgrading the tech in your business can make a whole lot of difference, specifically in the current situation where technology is the lifeline of enterprises. This is something that will get you through today and enable the business to remain competitive in the long run. The best thing is that you can do it without spending a fortune, provided that you have the right technology partner to guide you and implement the upgrade plan as well.
