3 Tips To Improve Your Business’s Information Technology in 2024
In the fourth quarter, many businesses take time to reflect on the past year.
What went well? What went wrong? How can we prepare for next year?
While many organizations tend to focus primarily on financial, customer and staff goals during their year-end planning conversations, it’s also important to evaluate your company’s information technology in the same way.
Have you experienced downtime because of inefficient accessibility? Are your employees sufficiently equipped to prevent phishing attacks on your company? Would your information technology withstand an unforeseen disaster?
There’s a lot to consider, and it can be difficult to prioritize improvements and efforts for the new year.
Here, we’ve outlined three tips to help you improve your organization’s protection, heighten your efficiency and make the best decisions for your company’s information technology in 2024.
1. Evaluate Your Software
Is your software providing the information you need to successfully manage your business?
Software is one of the greatest places to improve your organization’s efficiency through technology. If your business has seen change or growth in the last year, you could already be outgrowing the tools that you have, so it’s important to take the time to evaluate whether your software is still scaling with your company’s trajectory.
Consider the tools your organization uses to communicate, collaborate, share and store information, document projects, manage data and more. Financial software generally releases critical updates, such as payroll updates and tax table updates, during the fourth quarter, making now a prime time to assess your tools.
Is your software providing benefits that are worth what you’re paying? Are you confident in the security and speed of your tools? Is your software user-friendly and productive for your team?
If you decide that it could be time to consider other software options for your company, investigate the alternatives, and don’t overlook add-on software or integrations that can bring disparate systems and data together.
Even if you’re satisfied with the tools that you have, moving your existing software to the cloud can also provide increased security, data accessibility and backup availability.
2. Plan for Continuity
Your data is one of your most valued assets. It holds everything from your customers’ information to details about the operations of your business. But most companies aren’t fully prepared to protect their data in the event of a disaster or ransomware event. If your company is affected by an unforeseen event, would your information technology be able to carry on with business as usual?
Now is the time to develop a business continuity plan or a disaster recovery plan (including a data loss and prevention program) if you haven’t already. Even if you do already have a plan, it’s important to evaluate your procedures, tools, methods and other options to make sure they are still a fit for your company and your recovery objectives.
Consider how your data is backed up and stored—and how you might access it in an emergency. Evaluate your use of the cloud, remote accessibility, security, agreements with vendors/customers, team training and infrastructure redundancy. It’s also important to make sure that your processes consider any specific regulatory requirements your business might have.
And while it’s essential to have a plan, it’s just as important to document and communicate it effectively. Developing a disaster recovery plan and testing your plan at least annually will evaluate your organization’s response. Testing the plan will offer insights into the plan’s effectiveness and allow for necessary adjustments to be made.
3. Protect Against Cyber Threats
Companies should be proactive in protecting their data by implementing a strong cybersecurity plan. Cyber threats evolve rapidly, so it’s important to evaluate your business’s cybersecurity provisions annually at a minimum.
Depending on your specific business, operations and requirements, you’ll probably at least want to consider:
- Disaster Recovery Planning and Backups
- Multi-factor authentication
- Employee training (specifically related to phishing)
- Cybersecurity insurance
- Documented cybersecurity policies
- Next-generation antivirus (NGAV) tools
- Perimeter Security (Firewalls or Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA))
- Vulnerability management
- Ransomware protection
- Anti-spam and Anti-phishing tools
Talk with your advisor about cybersecurity tools and protocols that can be incorporated into your environment that are the right fit for your unique organization.
Learn More about Improving Your Business’s Technology in 2024
Technology is always changing, and threats are always evolving, which means it’s important to make sure your business is not only staying competitive in your market, but is protected against attacks.
Considering these three areas can help your business leverage technology for success in the coming year.
If you’d like to learn more about the specific ways your business can improve your technology in 2024, reach out to your Warren Averett Technology Group advisor directly, or you can ask a member of our team to reach out to you to start the conversation.
This article was originally published on October 19, 2020 and most recently updated on November 14, 2023.
