While many organizations’ IT teams have toiled away in obscurity for years, the last two decades have increasingly shined a spotlight on the critical role they play. IT has become a zeitgeist in the business world, especially since the pandemic.
An increase in remote workers over the last two decades and the pandemic have accelerated greater demand for faster, better, more secure IT practices and infrastructure. Today, employers and employees alike have lofty and varied expectations for their organizations’ technology.
3 IT practices to let go of in 2022
Organizations must prioritize their IT infrastructure, policies, and practices to maintain a competitive edge in the marketplace. In most cases, speed to market is a top priority, and a strong IT program is essential to that. Organizations must be nimble, responsive, and increasingly more productive to survive and thrive.
As organizations continue to migrate from traditional platforms to meet ever-increasing demands in the marketplace, here are three IT practices to let go of in 2022:
1. Relying on end users to report problems
Many IT departments work on the philosophy that there are no problems until someone tells them there’s a problem. Unfortunately, the "someone" who reports a problem is typically the end user. Many users attribute the problem directly to the software when in actuality, it often resides within the organization itself – either the infrastructure or the IT department.
Rather than relying on your “customers” to relay issues, implement proactive solutions. Look for solutions that offer real-time alerts and a dashboard that enables your IT department to identify issues quickly and easily, even before the user is aware of them. The more detail your solution can provide, the better.
[ Want more leadership advice for the challenges of the new year? Read IT leadership: 4 tips on achieving your goals in 2022. ]
For example, the best solutions allow IT teams or managed service providers (MSPs) to prioritize the largest geographical outages for remediation. They also help MSPs pinpoint activity peaks to ensure that there is enough bandwidth to monitor and handle help desk tickets during those periods, while also maintaining network connectivity for all users. With more users dependent on laptops in remote locations and on different networks, customers are demanding reduced outage times and faster remediation when problems happen.
Organizations are expected to be customer-focused. Those that continue to rely on traditional siloed troubleshooting methods regarding their customer experience will be left behind. IT departments with integrated, enhanced solutions will have distinct advantages to those that don’t, including better customer service; greater productivity; less downtime; and more manageable workflows for understaffed, overworked IT departments.
2. A disorganized, unprioritized help desk log
Historically, IT problems have been addressed in a reactive manner. A help desk ticket arrives, and an MSP then initiates an investigation into the issue. That methodology is akin to finding a needle in a haystack, especially if it is a global or regional issue. It requires going into your in-house server to backtrack the issue, resulting in lost productivity and excess effort on the part of MSPs to find and resolve the problem.
A cloud-based solution eliminates manual exploration and remediation of help desk issues. Many offer alert prioritization features, enabling IT to clearly see the most urgent issues and address them in a more proactive and efficient way. If there are multiple outages in multiple locations, these solutions allow MSPs to triage issues.
What’s more, cloud-based services can be designated for hybrid, public, or private hosting. This eliminates the need for antiquated in-house servers, which are vulnerable to system crashes and lost data as well as costly repairs and maintenance. Cloud-based hosting offers greater backup, recovery, and restoration capabilities, saving maintenance and upgrade costs while reducing downtimes and improving the user experience.
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3. A one-size-fits-all approach to hybrid work
With hybrid work here to stay, IT departments can’t rely on the same approach that worked for remote-only or office-based productivity. New technologies and practices born out of the pandemic have spurred more collaboration between teams that may be working remotely and/or in the office.
Solutions should encourage more inclusive collaboration than in the traditional top-down method. Cloud-based tools offer greater agility and ability to pivot as necessary and collaborate more effectively than legacy technologies. Speed-to-market is essential for organizations to survive and thrive. Tools that enhance collaboration and offer a chance to pivot – whether there’s a pandemic, economic downturn, or other challenges – support the speed-to-market agenda.
Moreover, even if organizations return to physical offices, legacy systems and processes will only continue to become ineffective and obsolete. Organizations that adopt technologies to meet the needs of all employees are likely to enjoy greater productivity and meet the organization’s overall strategic goals.
Start 2022 off on the right foot: Let go of outdated IT practices such as the three mentioned above. Migrate away from legacy technologies and start investing in digital transformation.
To remain a viable, competitive force within your marketplace, you must remain agile and innovative. Let go of past, outdated practices and embrace new and better ways to manage your IT, strengthen your organization and teams, and ensure that your end users are satisfied.
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