September 25, 2023

Top 8 IT Mistakes You Must Avoid

Top 8 IT Mistakes You Must Avoid

Information Technology is supposed to make things simple and easy. But in doing so, technology itself has grown quite complicated. It can cause even the savviest business owners to make costly mistakes. 

Let us look at common IT mistakes that business owners must avoid. 

#1. Procurement

Technology trends evolve fast, and the choices seem overwhelming. It can result in poor decisions. We have seen countless cases of wasted money on outdated, overpriced, or unusable solutions.

Picture This:

You have a team of 30-40 employees. You want all your employees to be able to work from home or from anywhere. A competent IT person can comfortably implement this, utilizing open-source software and hardware that already might possess.

As an exercise, we encourage you to contact your friendly IT vendor to recommend a WFH solution. Typically, the vendor will offer some product that will cost 300% more than the open-source solution. We have seen a case where the solution recommended by the vendor was as overpriced as a designer handbag.

Businessman worried about expensive IT hardware

Points to Remember:

  • Selecting the right solution takes more than just technical expertise and knowledge.
  • One must consider user requirements and the evolving needs of the business.
  • Your IT vendor is just a seller who may not fully understand the product he is selling.

#2. Deployment

Deploying an IT solution is a non-trivial task. Most IT vendors will unbox the product, connect the cables, install it, and turn it ON. At this stage, the product is barely functional and may not meet your needs. It may even malfunction. That is not what you have paid for.

Likely Scenario:

You need a centralized file-sharing system for your growing business. You may opt for a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device or a traditional server. Both are good choices. Assume that you decide to buy a well-specified branded server hardware (HPE or Dell) with Windows Server operating system.

The IT supplier will deliver the server with pre-installed software. The system incorporates several applicable features, such as access control, user management, network management, etc. To use these features, they need to be activated and properly configured. In 99% of cases, the IT vendor would not know how to perform those tasks.

A person without any knowledge trying to deploy an IT system

Points to Remember:

  • IT products have wide-ranging capabilities and features that require elaborate configuration and testing.
  • To get the most out of any IT product, you must configure it to meet your requirements.
  • To ensure smooth functioning, you must also implement the vendor-prescribed best practices.
  • Poorly configured systems are less reliable and frequently malfunction.

#3. IT Operations & Maintenance

Disorder in any IT system will increase over time. It can result in unstable and unreliable systems. IT maintenance is critical for keeping your systems functional and your business running smoothly. If you overlook the operational and maintenance aspects of the IT systems, it will hurt your business.

True Story:

The poorly maintained network infrastructure at an e-commerce company led to frequent outages.

The employees faced disruptions in accessing and processing the orders. It resulted in canceled orders, late shipments, and angry customers.

Employees unable to work because of poor IT maintenance

Points to Remember:

  • Adequate monitoring and timely interventions are necessary to keep your IT systems functioning.
  • Poor maintenance will result in unstable and unreliable systems that may let you down when you need them the most.
  • A proper operations & maintenance plan should incorporate monitoring, reporting, updating, backup, configuration management, etc.
  • Effective IT operations and maintenance will maximize productivity and minimize downtime.

#4. Tech Support Service

Technology can be tricky. There will be times when things will fail or work in unexpected ways. Considering how much a business relies on IT, not having access to a competent tech support team may worsen the situation.

When Chaos Ensues:

Picture this – an employee spends hours crafting a masterpiece of a report. Then poof! It disappears into the digital Bermuda Triangle. Who will the employee call to restore that report from the backup?

Yet another example – in the IT universe, people forget their passwords more than anything else. Without tech support service, they are locked out of their accounts, banging their heads on keyboards, pondering if ‘password123’ would have been a better choice!

A worried employee who can't find his files

Points to Remember:

  • Failure to quickly resolve IT issues can lead to more complications and may also affect your customers.

  • It can adversely affect employee morale.

  • A competent tech support service will help your employees remain productive and do their work without worrying about IT problems.

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#5. Information Security 

Information security is often a topic of discussion in the SMB world, yet it remains one of the least understood aspects of IT. Business owners recognize its importance but struggle with how much they need it and how to achieve it. Even a minor breach in information security can lead to a range of negative consequences like data theft, operational disruption, monetary loss, reputation damage, etc.

Unmitigated Disaster:

In this sinister story, the employees are the pawns. One innocent mistake can open floodgates to catastrophic breaches.

The employee clicks on a fraudulent link in an email, unknowingly installing malware on his computer. This simple error gives hackers unrestricted access to his email account and files.

Hacker stealing data

Points to Remember:

  • There is no such thing as “100% secure” in information security.

  • Conduct periodic risk assessments and accordingly apply necessary controls.

  • Data backup is the most critical security measure.

  • Human errors are the leading cause of information security incidents.

#6. Backup and Disaster Recovery

It is a cardinal sin to ignore backup. Lack of a proper backup solution can expose your business to multiple risks, e.g., data loss, data corruption, loss of employee productivity, etc. If a systematic backup plan is not in place, you will be left with no recourse for data recovery, potentially leading to permanent loss of vital data.

A True Horror Story:

A legal services firm neglected the backups. They assigned the task to an employee to copy the data periodically to some external HDD. There was no systematic backup plan. And there was no monitoring to check whether the backups were taken regularly.

A ransomware attack encrypted all the data on the NAS. At that point, they found that their latest backup was six days old. With no recourse for recovering the encrypted files, they restored the files from the last available backup, and as often happens, the firm lost six days of work. It could have been much worse, though.

Ransomware attack

Points to Remember:

  • Backup does not mean merely copying data to an external hard drive.

  • The backup solution should allow you to restore all IT services, applications, and data to the working state within a reasonable time.

  • Backup should be immutable so that it remains unaffected by ransomware.

  • A good backup solution should include versioning, disaster recovery (DR), and cloud backup.

#7. IT Training & Awareness

Information Technology is a very dynamic field which is always in flux. A good training and awareness program can help employees keep up with changes, learn new ways of accomplishing their tasks, and improve their understanding of information security risks.

One Wrong Click:

Failing to invest in IT training and awareness is a recipe for hilariously catastrophic mishaps.

Picture your employees falling for phishing emails. They will start clicking on links and sharing their passwords faster than a speeding bullet.

Employee becomes victim of phishing attack due to lack of training

Points to Remember:

  • Investing in employee training programs will result in higher productivity, enhanced security, and adaptability.

  • The employees will be more motivated to invent and improve.

  • Lack of training may make employees susceptible to errors and security threats like phishing and ransomware.

#8. Automation

As a business leader, you must be open to modern technologies and automation. Failing to consider automation will eventually lead to inflated operating costs, reduced competitiveness, increased errors, employee burnout, etc.

The Spreadsheet Prison:

Imagine your employees making weekly or monthly reports, following the same procedure they did previously – collecting data from sources, arranging data in rows and columns, and so on. 

Without automation, they are trapped in an endless cycle of repetitive, mind-numbing work.

Lack of automation can demoralize employees

Points to Remember:

  • Automation technologies have become much more affordable for small businesses.

  • Cloud-based automation platforms and services have also made it easier for everyone to adopt automation.

  • It will be hard to scale your business without embracing automation.

  • Repetitive tasks such as email marketing campaigns, social media posting, data entry, report generation, etc., can be easily automated with little effort.

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