Why Standardize your IT?

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A state of (IT) confusion

The CEO has a Dell laptop with Windows 10, the finance guy has a Lenovo desktop with Windows 8, and your office co-worker has a Macbook. Some folks use Dropbox, others use Sharepoint, and still others use Google Drive. Linda has McAfee, Jane has Norton, and Bob has ESET. Alex VPNs into the network, while Sue uses remote desktop.

Does it matter?

These scenarios are all too familiar and you may think, ‘does it matter? All those folks can work, they can all share files, have access to the network, and they all have antivirus protection’. That may be true…but what happens when you need to update, replace, find, learn how to use, or support something. That’s when you’ll be pulling out your hair!

Higher level thinking

Handling your business IT with inconsistent standards is not only costly in terms of time and money but could be potentially damaging to your data and intellectual property in the case of lax cybersecurity standards.

We believe that technology can help small businesses reach their business goals, but if your IT team is spending too much time solving the every day issues, it’s nearly impossible to take the time to be proactive or think strategically. IT standardization is one of the most simple ways for your employees and technology team to be more efficient with their time and more effective in their work.

For all these reasons, IT Direct goes through a network discovery process while learning about a new potential client. We find out your current technology situation and figure out the best way to standardize your software and platforms.

The benefits of standardization

Some of the benefits of IT standardization:

  • Reduce time spent on solving IT issues: Standardizing saves time on support and makes it quick to troubleshoot common problems. Co-workers can help each other when they all have the same system, as well. Additionally, standardizing allows for easier patching, updating, and better system monitoring, allowing issues to be caught before they cause a problem.
  • Reduce training time and costs: Each unique piece of hardware or software involves a learning curve to learn, use, and support. This is both time consuming and costly. Standardization can also reduce the number of applications that do essentially the same thing.
  • Decrease compatibility issues: Finding, buying, and replacing the parts to multiple types of hardware can be a real time-waster. If there are different systems in use, some software may not be compatible.
  • Improve communication: Sharing information becomes easier when everyone uses the same types of files, on the same network or file sharing platform.
  • Better budgeting and cost management: Software licensing and hardware costs are easier to manage and predict
  • Increase cyber security: Standardize and be safe in the knowledge that everyone has antivirus and anti-malware protection and it’s all being updated regularly and effectively
  • Improve business continuity: A backup system is easier to implement properly and effectively when every setup is the same. Data is held in the same locations on each computer or directly on a network or cloud server. Your backup systems won’t miss the important files on Suzy’s R: drive because everyone else’s are stored on the F: drive!

Find out more

Feel free to reach out to find out more about how standardizing your IT will make your organization more efficient and productive.

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