Is it time for some technology housekeeping?

If your business is experiencing or anticipating some downtime, then it’s a great time to take action on those technology issues you’ve been ignoring. It’s time to replace, reorganise and reinstall so you’ll be ready to go when things return to full speed. Here’s our technology to do list for downtime.

Is it time for some technology housekeeping?

Whether it’s because things have been a little quiet recently thanks to COVID-19, or because your planning for a well-earned break throughout the upcoming holiday period, any sort of downtime in business is a great time to do some technology housekeeping.

If you’re experiencing downtime in your business, here’s a simple list of technology tasks, that if you do them now, will have things running more efficiently and effectively than ever when things ramp back up to full speed.

It’s time to replace, reorganise, reinstall.

I get it. You’ve been putting off dealing with IT issues on your own computer because you’re simply too busy to do anything about them.

You know that pesky little problem you just put up with? Are you wondering why your computer takes 20 seconds to do a simple task? Well now is a good time to get it checked out. This might mean a new computer, an upgrade or a reinstall. Or perhaps even a combination of all three.

Let’s say your computer is three years old, still goes well, but could do with a good clean out. Then there’s the accounts computer. It’s super OLD and you know it’s costing Warren in accounts, heaps of lost time and even more frustration. Then there’s Dianne in HR who wants to work more from home, but can’t because her remote access doesn’t work very well.

All these things have been put off for months because you’ve just been too busy to deal with them. Well downtime is the best time to do just that.

1.    Buy yourself a new computer

You’re the boss, you’ve earned it. It will be faster. It will also be nice, slick and clean. And it will have all the latest bells and whistles that will make your next planned downtime more enjoyable (hello more rounds of golf, or pina coladas by the pool…).

2.    Redistribute your old computer (but reinstall it first)

That super OLD computer in accounts? Time for it to go to computer heaven (by which we mean electronics recycling). But that doesn’t mean you have to buy something brand new. In fact, if you’ve followed step 1 above, then you’ll have a perfectly good computer for Warren. You just need to complete a reinstall first.

This means taking all the old programs and files off it, wiping it clean and installing a fresh version of Windows. You might even choose to upgrade the RAM a bit to give it more speed. Warren in accounts will love it and you’ll be doing his blood pressure a favour.

3.    Reorganise files to the cloud to allow remote work

Poor Dianne in HR. She’s been trying to work from home but has to keep coming into the office because her remote connection is terrible.

Some quick questions to ask yourself. Why is she trying to login from home? Why can’t she work from her home computer as if she was in the office?

If it’s a legacy program that’s causing this problem because it can’t run inside the cloud, is there something you can do about that?

If it’s because she can’t access the shared folder when she’s offsite, can you move the shared files into the cloud?

And if it’s because she really needs a laptop to make working offsite seamless, then can you buy her a laptop?
 
All of these relatively simple and inexpensive things can make a huge difference to your business and your team. And any period of downtime in your business is a great time to take stock and make affordable improvements, so that when things have ramped back up to the normal levels of chaos everyone can work more efficiently and happily.

Not sure how to get started with any of this?

Get in touch with your managed IT service partner and they will tell you just how easy it can be.

 

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