If your business is anything like the typical small business, you have a list of things you know you ought to do, when it comes to computers and the web:
- Back up our files
- Develop a disaster recovery plan for our computer files
- Come up with a security strategy for our computers and our data
- Build or update our website
- Blog regularly
- Get involved in social media
- Make sure our website works on smartphones
- Clean up our hard discs and make sure our computers are in good condition
- Check out web rankings and make sure we look good online
- Get our office systems integrated with our computers
That’s probably just the beginning.
If you’re like most small businesses, you tend to have the same list month after month and possibly even year after year, because you just don’t have the time. For a lot of these items, your next step might not be so much “Back up our files” as “Find out how to back up our files.” Or maybe the real next step is, “Figure out which of the things on this list are the highest priority items.”
Prioritize
A survey of 2,000 IT managers around the world found that security and disaster preparedness were the highest priorities they had — and no wonder. A loss of data can be a complete disaster for a business. Many businesses literally never recover from such a loss. If you are not working at the level of security required by your industry, security must also be a major priority. In general, electronic files are more secure than paper files, but many fields, including medicine, education, and government agencies, have strict security protocols that must be followed.
After security and disaster readiness, customers are usually the next highest priority. Their experience at your website can affect your bottom line more than almost anything else, if only because for many of your customers, your website is the first contact they have with your company. A consistent customer experience is essential for retail and service industries; it is the #1 recommendation from retail market research companies this year.
Once these things have been covered, your office systems should be the next priority. Many business owners and managers underestimate the effect of efficient systems on the productivity and the morale of their staff. Problems like information silos, duplicating tasks, and miscommunication can often be solved with the right software, customized for your company’s workflow.
Take Action
Once your list is prioritized, don’t heave a big sigh of relief and decide that you’re through. You actually have to take action on the items on that list before you can check them off. Contact Asis to help; we can cover most of the items on your list for you so you can get back to your mission-critical tasks.
