Productivity is a key metric for any business and maximising productivity is an effective way to boost profitability and accelerate your company’s growth. Despite this, many people overlook the impact that IT support can have on a company’s productivity and efficiency.
9 ways IT Support can improve business productivity
IT Support can play a crucial role in improving and increasing business productivity in various ways. Here are 9 ways IT support can achieve this:
1. Faster speeds
With access to expert IT support, you can get the most out of your current hardware and systems. This equates to faster operating speeds and, as a result, employees won’t waste time waiting for programs to respond or get frustrated as software lags.
Furthermore, the right IT support team can identify effective ways to optimise your tech infrastructure for optimal speeds and performance. From an in-depth audit and complete tech overhaul to minor tweaks and upgrades, IT support professionals can empower your teams by maximising tech speeds and enabling them to work faster.
When a company’s tech systems are engineered to operate at faster speeds, productivity can be increased accordingly. Instead of IT limitations holding your employees back, your IT systems become a critical part of your success.
2. Less downtime
In today’s digital world, businesses are reliant on functional IT systems. Whether you’re using computers to manage a manufacturing line, receiving online orders via your website, or delivering customer care via a CRM, any downtime can have a detrimental effect on performance and productivity.
Fortunately, utilising IT support services is an easy way for businesses to minimise downtime. With proactive IT support, for example, the risk of systems and platforms going offline is greatly reduced. Additionally, planned maintenance can be scheduled at a time that causes least disruption to your operations, thus minimising the impact on productivity.
When something does go awry, having immediate access to IT support staff will ensure the problem is resolved swiftly and effectively, so that your IT infrastructure is up and running again as quickly as possible.
The result? Your teams have access to the systems, tools, and platforms that they need to undertake their roles and your operations benefit from maximum productivity levels.
3. Access to productivity tools
The right IT infrastructure can have a direct impact on productivity simply by streamlining your operations and ensuring consistent functionality, but a proactive tech strategy can offer additional productivity benefits too.
When you rely on your IT support team to guide your IT strategy, for example, you can integrate dedicated productivity tools into your day-to-day operations. From project management software to time-tracking and reporting, there are various IT solutions that are designed to increase in-house productivity and your IT support team can help you to find the best combination for your business.
4. Fewer security threats
Cybersecurity is a major issue for today’s businesses. Startups, SMEs, and enterprises are all affected by online security threats, which means that every type of business needs to have an effective cybersecurity strategy in place.
As well as causing financial and reputational damage, security threats can pose a risk to your productivity levels too. If a virus is allowed to sweep through your network, for example, it can permanently damage data and render software unusable. Until the problem is fixed, your employees will be unable to access critical tech tools and, due to this, their productivity levels will plummet.
By using your IT support team to implement an effective cybersecurity strategy, however, you can significantly reduce the risk that online threats pose to your business. From firewalls to keep your network secure and encryption to ensure data remains confidential to multi-factor authentication (MFA) and security awareness training, there are a variety of ways IT support can elevate your cybersecurity to ensure seamless operations and enhanced productivity.
5. Transition to cloud computing
Advancements in technology have changed the way we live and work, which is why so many companies are embracing what cloud computing can offer. When software and platforms are hosted in the cloud, they can be accessed from any location, which enables business owners and employees to operate from anywhere in the world.
With greater flexibility over how and where team members work, cloud computing enables businesses to increase their productivity levels. Furthermore, being able to employ staff from all over the world and build distributed teams empowers companies to hire the best employees across their respective industries.
Of course, any company that is considering transitioning to the cloud requires IT support to facilitate the move. Similarly, ongoing access to an IT Helpdesk and/or IT support teams will ensure that a company’s cloud solutions continue to provide a seamless and flexible digital working environment.
6. Easier collaboration
Employees need to be able to collaborate with one another to deliver the best outcomes and, today, much of this collaboration is done online. From video meetings and instant messaging to email, VoIP chat, and document sharing, there are endless ways that employees can use digital tools to work together.
In fact, optimising your tech systems can simplify in-house collaboration and enable employees to work together more effectively. In turn, this boosts productivity and increases efficiency, thus enabling companies to deliver higher, better outputs in a shorter timeframe.
While there are plenty of collaboration platforms and tools that a business can utilise, finding the right solutions for your specific needs should be a top priority. As well as reducing your tech spend, this will enable your teams to access the features and functionalities that are most relevant to their roles and, therefore, enhance team building and performance.
7. Increased automation
Automation can be used in a variety of ways to streamline a company’s operations. From sector-specific solutions, such as quality testing on a production line, to more generic workflows, like invoicing, automation can reduce the burden on employees and enable tasks to be conducted more quickly and with greater accuracy.
However, successfully automating your workflows relies on having access to the right tech solutions and infrastructure. There is a seemingly endless choice of automation tools out there, but there aren’t all created equal.
By working with experienced IT support staff, you can get the lowdown on which automation solutions are most suited to your needs and what type of automation software will deliver the best performance for your business. As a result, you’ll be able to integrate automation into your operations and successfully reduce workflows, eliminate repetitive tasks, and increase productivity.
8. Enhanced compatibility
A commercial organisation often uses a wide range of hardware, software, and digital tools to achieve its goals, but compatibility can be a major issue when it comes to functionality. At best, incompatible tech can lead to inefficiency but, at worst, it can result in excess downtime, data loss, and network failure.
Due to this, it’s vital that your IT solutions are compatible with one another. In some cases, this means selecting hardware or software that is known to work well together but, in others, it can mean upgrading or modifying your tech infrastructure to facilitate seamless connectivity and functionality. Similarly, you’ll want to take a strategic approach to onboarding new tech, so that compatibility doesn’t become an issue in the future.
Fortunately, having access to IT support is as easy way to ensure your IT solutions provide an efficiency and productive working environment. From providing advice regarding compatible tech when you’re investing in new hardware or software to resolving existing compatibility issues, your IT support team will take a proactive approach to maximising productivity by transforming disparate tech into a holistic digital infrastructure.
9. AI integrations
Artificial intelligence (AI) is already having a transformative impact on a variety of industries, and we’ll see a sharp rise in the number of companies using AI as solutions become more tried, tested, and trusted.
By embracing proven AI-driven technology, businesses can leverage the benefits it offers, such as:
- Deeper insights
- Big Data management
- Increased automation
- Quality enhancements
- Consistent monitoring
Although artificial intelligence has been developed over many years, it’s still considered a relatively new solution for operating businesses. While there’s no doubt that productivity levels can increase as a result of using the right AI tools, identifying, implementing, and maintaining these tools is critical to success and you’ll need an expert IT support team to achieve this.
Improved data security, retrieval, and recovery
Data management is a critical area for modern businesses, especially as new regulations and legislations are placing companies under increasing pressure to safeguard customer information. If a data breach occurs, it has a direct impact on a company’s operations as time must be spent rectifying the situation.
Depending on the type or volume of data that’s been lost, employees may be unable to complete their work until the situation is remedied, which obviously reduces productivity. Additionally, extra work is created as in-house teams face dealing with the fallout that a failure in data management can bring.
The operational, financial, and reputation consequences that arise due to a data breach or loss of data means that companies must have effective data management strategies in place. With data security, retrieval, and recovery strategies devised and managed by your IT support team, for example, you can ensure your company has effective data management protocols in place.
As well as protecting your company from unwanted criticism, regulatory fines and unnecessary disruption, enhanced data management can prevent employees from being negatively impacted by unexpected data loss and will, therefore, assist in maximising your productivity levels.
Futureproofing and growth strategies
Technology changes quickly and new solutions are continually on the horizon. For businesses, this can make it difficult to determine which IT tools and platforms are worth investing in. By using your IT support team to assist with tech decision-making, however, you can futureproof your IT infrastructure and ensure it provides continual and optimal functionality.
As your company evolves, your IT infrastructure will need to provide the right digital environment to facilitate its growth. If you hire more employees, expand your product or service range, or launch in new markets, for example, you’ll need a wider variety of tools and more bandwidth to facilitate your operations.
When you don’t have access to expert IT support, it can hamper your growth strategies, resulting in missed opportunities, reduced productivity, and a loss of revenue. In contrast, integrating IT advice and strategy into your growth planning will ensure that your IT solutions are aligned with your strategic objectives.
Maximising productivity levels with IT support
As you can see, IT support can have a significant and positive impact on your company’s productivity levels and, in turn, its performance and success. Of course, choosing the right level of support and partnering with the right IT managed services provider is essential if you want to reap the operational benefits that IT support can offer.