Don’t go into 2023 without a plan for optimising your technology. Start on the right foot, improve productivity, and lower costs with a year-end technology review. Here’s what to include!

When the year is coming to a close, it's the perfect time to plan for the future. Most businesses begin the year with the hope of growing and improving operations. So much of how a practice operates depends on technology. So, it makes sense to look to your IT for areas of optimisation.

A year-end technology review provides an opportunity to look at several areas of your IT. The goal is to take time to focus on improvements you can make to boost your bottom line and what tactics to take to reduce the risk of a costly cyberattack.

A recent study by Deloitte looked at digitally advanced small businesses. Small businesses that use technology are well ahead of their peers. Here are some of the ways they excel:

· Earn 2x more revenue per employee

· Experience year-over-year revenue growth nearly 4x as high  

· Had an average employee growth rate over 6x as high

The bottom line is that companies that use technology well do better. They are also more secure. According to IBM, businesses with an incident response plan reduce the costs of a data breach by 61%. Using security AI and automation can lower costs by 70%.

This year-end, take some time to review technology with your IT team or managed IT provider; this will set you up for success and security in the coming year.

Considerations When Reviewing Your Technology at Year-End

A year-end technology review aims to look at all areas of your IT infrastructure. Security, efficiency, and bottom-line considerations will be the key drivers for future initiatives.

Technology Policies

When technology policies get outdated, people stop following them. Review all your policies to see if they need updating to reflect new conditions. For example, if you now have some staff working from home, ensure your device use policy reflects this.

When you update policies, let your employees know it allows for a refresher on important information they may have forgotten since onboarding.

Disaster Recovery Planning

When was the last time your company did an incident response drill? Is there a list of steps for employees to follow in the case of a natural disaster or cyberattack?

Take time to look at disaster recovery planning for the new year. It would help if you also set dates for preparedness drills and training in the coming months.

IT Issues & Pain Points

You want to consider employee pain points before undergoing a significant IT upgrade. Otherwise, you might miss some golden opportunities to improve staff productivity and well-being.

Survey your employees on how they use technology. Ask questions about their favourite and least favourite apps. Ask what struggles they face. Then, let them tell you how they feel technology could improve to make their jobs better. It's likely to benefit your business and help you target the most impactful improvements.

Privileged Access & Orphaned Accounts

Do an audit of your privileged accounts as part of your year-end review. Over time, permissions can be misappropriated, leaving your network at a higher risk of a significant attack.

You should ensure that only those that need them have admin-level permissions—the fewer privileged accounts you have in your business tools, the lower your risk. Compromised privileged accounts password open the door to significant damage.

While going through your accounts, also look for orphaned accounts. It will help if you close these if they're not in use. Leaving them active poses a security risk.

IT Upgrade & Transformation Plans for the New Year

If you make IT upgrades and decisions "on the fly", it can come back to bite you. It's best to plan a strategy so you can upgrade in an organised way.

A vulnerability assessment gives you a list of potential problems your company should address. Eliminating vulnerabilities improve your cybersecurity. In addition, planning allows you to budget for your upgrades and avoid unplanned expenses.

Cloud Use & Shadow IT

Review your use of cloud applications. Are certain apps hardly used? Do you have redundancies in your cloud environment? A review can help you cut waste and save money.

Also, look for uses of shadow IT by employees. These cloud applications are being used for work but have not been approved. As a result, management may need to be made aware of them. Again, remove this security risk by closing or officially approving the accounts.

Customer-Facing Technology

Remember to look at the customer experience of your technology infrastructure. Go through your website and contact process as a customer would.

If you get frustrated by things like site navigation, your customers and leads may be too. So include optimisations to your customer-facing technology in your new year plans.

Schedule a Technology & Security Assessment Today!

We can help you with a thorough review of your technology environment to give you a roadmap for tomorrow. Contact us today for a free consultation; get in touch.

This article is used with permission from The Technology Press.