Yes… yes, IT can.
No matter what type of business you own or work for, there are some business challenges you can’t avoid. You could be an accounting firm, medical center, or real estate agency, and still be plagued by these 3 problems: data and cybersecurity, cash flow, and business growth.
Similarly, every business can use technology to effectively address and overcome these challenges – whether they realise it or not. That’s why we’re breaking down each business challenge, to help you understand how technology can make your life easier:
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity has become a growing challenge for all businesses, especially with the increased global prevalence in ransomware attacks.
To recap how ransomware works: A user typically clicks on a link that seems legitimate, but is actually a phishing email with embedded ransomware. A program downloads, then encrypts files on your computer and network. A threat pops up and demands (bitcoin) ransom in exchange for decrypting your data, providing a customer service number or email to help with the transaction.
The reality is, no one is immune from accidentally clicking on a ransomware email link. Even the most cautious executive can open a seemingly inconspicuous email and have it shut down their whole network. In fact, two-thirds of all emails are now considered spam, and more than 90% of IT experts have even been duped by phishing scams!
So what can you do about it? Well, here at Dynamic, we offer email filtering and antivirus to all our managed service clients as a basic necessity. Even if you’re not in a position right now to work with an MSP, a cloud email security solution like MailGuard is a must. Malware protection won’t cost you more than a handful of dollars per month, so it won’t break your bank!
Managing Cash Flow
Speaking of your bank… managing cash flow is one of the biggest concerns for small businesses, specifically. The time it takes to receive payments can significantly impact how well companies can meet their ongoing expenses.
Unfortunately, there’s not as obvious of a solution for this challenge as there is for cybersecurity. But, you can make decisions that make it easier to plan ahead and ensure long-term viability.
We talk about this in our white paper (which you can download for free by visiting our page on Managed Services), but managed services can help you better handle your cash flow by making your IT needs easier to understand and budget for. Dynamic offers fixed-fee plans, which can minimise (and sometimes altogether eliminate) unexpected costs. Plus, managed services help to monitor and maintain your technologies on an ongoing basis, to further minimise unexpected costs from random failures.
While that can’t save you from clients that don’t pay, it can save you some stress when they don’t.
Business Growth
More than 90% of businesses in Australia are considered to be small or start-up. As most business owners dream of ROI, it only makes sense that growth is a challenge. Cash flow is definitely a contributing factor, as are attracting customers and having the right staff to handle the workload.
Just as managed services can help with cash flow, they can also help with making sure you have the right people in the right seats. When you don’t have the resources to hire a CIO or individuals with significant technical expertise, you can trust you have the proper insight and expertise in your back pocket to improve your efficiency and give you expert guidance.
It’s difficult to scale a business when you don’t have the right technologies in place to support your growth. Depending on your business type and goals, there are many technologies that could benefit you. But if you haven’t already, migrating to the cloud can help you create and support a more viable and scalable infrastructure. Cloud solutions reduce the need for on-premise technologies, allowing you to take your data with you and collaborate across devices. Cloud solutions are also more cost-effective, and can backup your data to prepare you for unexpected downtime (caused by ransomware, power outages, and other disasters).
