A well-planned IT strategy will translate into financial profit, one of the mandatory goals of the business. Moreover, good IT planning will allow you plenty of time to do the things you are most good at running your business.
While investing in information technology (IT) is increasing, many small and medium enterprises still fall into the classic trap of poor IT planning. Under the pressure of increasing sales, improving performance, satisfying customers more often, technology is often marginalized. A good trend is to use the technology temporarily and then ignore it. However, the technology does not wait for you and your competitors too.
Whether you are a small business is buying the first PC, or medium sized enterprises are owning many old MT, the following is still the IT questions that businesses often encounter:
1. What are the business benefits of investing in IT?
2. When need to upgrade or replace the system is using?
3. Do IT equipment fit the real needs of enterprises?
4. Does the company need a server?
5. Is your company's IT system secure?
Let's answer each question.
Invest in profitable IT?
The presence of an MT will produce significant results: improve employee productivity by giving them the ability to react quickly to high-intensity work to keep up with the demands of the small business environment. Multitasking today. Must see this to believe.
Consider a small example. In the past, a travel company usually took about 15 minutes to make a deal with customers: compose e-mail, access the data and call the airline to book tickets. Today, such a transaction can be made in a few minutes thanks to the support management software and high-speed network. Just look at the number of clients that you have served and you will know how much time and effort you have saved.
When to upgrade?
Selecting and maintaining the technology carefully to fit the needs of the company is a prerequisite. Regardless of the level of technology your company is using, if you have not upgraded it in the last 2 or 3 years, your system is definitely in need of an overhaul.
The optimal life cycle of a MT is three years, and MT is two years. After this cycle maintenance and upgrades can cost more than buying a new one. This may sound weird, but if companies do not plan to update regularly or replace only when it breaks down, businesses will not only lose the opportunity to increase productivity with newer machines they are also threatened by. due to backdated hardware and software configuration; This leads to increased long-term maintenance costs.
Upgrade how?
Upgrading an MT, for example, adds a video card, which can be a great way to customize the MT according to the needs of the employee. In the long term, however, extending the product life cycle by replacing parts is a weak strategy.
From a cost perspective in the short term, you can add hardware components to MT. But if you take into account the cost of labor, the neglect of the main responsibility of each employee, the stability of the system is reduced, the problems related to maintenance, you will find very reasonable. Purchase new MTs with stronger hardware and peripherals to better meet your business needs.
No need to talk about the potential benefits of the latest technology. New processors with multitasking technology, such as Intel's Pentium 4 processor, have Hyper-Threading Technology, which allows users to run multiple tasks simultaneously, thereby improving kernel performance. member.
Appropriate allocation
In an effort to simplify and standardize computer systems, many companies give employees their MTs that are not appropriate for their work. Those who have to move are assigned desktop computers while office workers are using notebooks. Using a system tailored to the needs of the company is as important as using the new technology.
If your employees are & quot; street warriors & quot; and have to move constantly, they will be more useful if used MT portable. As with the design staff, you will have to buy them large-capacity desktops. It is very convenient if you organize your employees in groups and identify the needs of each group.
When do you need a server?
As your IT needs grow, you need to deploy applications and information on the server, so you have a server. Many small companies try to simplify this by running server software on a strong MT. The costs they save by this will be paid off by reducing the stability, security and speed of the system.
An MT that dies at the time it needs it most will cause the same damage as investing in a real server. Buying a server means spending a great deal of money, but the server is more scalable and can be configured to meet the needs of the company. A real and reliable server, such as an Intel Xeon processor-based server, needs little maintenance compared to a PC running server software.
Safe for the system
There are a few points that are not controversial, such as viruses, natural disasters, unstable power supplies and some other issues that will threaten your system data. Most people have backup systems but they usually do not have centralized backup policies.
Burning a CD or using portable storage devices to back up files in an emergency is a good fit for a single computer, but for IT networks it is very costly and invisible to set up. Data is vulnerable to theft or damage.
The simplest solution for the network level is to use a storage area network (SAN). This is an ultra-high speed network for connecting servers to storage devices. This solution greatly reduces the over-reliance on CDs and removable storage devices and supports group data sharing.
In short, maintaining a small IT network is a relatively simple task if you choose the right technology. Network maintenance also helps you find new ways to improve network technology while improving your company's competitiveness.
Trinh Thanh Lam
Solution Manager, Intel Vietnam
According to PCWorldVN
