The 3 Most Common IT Problems | Steady Networks

If you listen to the news about cyber attacks and cloud solutions, you might think that the three most common technology problems would be internet outages, ransomware and data breaches. However, these are actually the symptoms, and not the causes of IT problems.

The root causes of most technology problems in business are:

• Surprise IT projects
• Staff training
• Information silos

Let’s take a closer look at these problems with IT one by one, starting with surprise IT projects.

3 Common Technology Problems and How to Solve Them

Problem #1: Surprise IT Projects

Tell me if this scenario sounds familiar: your business has been humming along for six or seven years. You occasionally have your problems with your IT, but nothing that is too insurmountable.

Then one day, your IT guy comes up to you and says, “Hey, Boss! The server is full, and it’s out of warranty! We need to spend thousands of dollars this quarter to fix it! Sorry I didn’t mention it before, but you never asked!”

If that’s ever happened to you, you know how impossible it can feel to be hit with a big project with no budget planned and feel like there’s no recourse but to spend the money and hope the annual sales revenue can absorb the expenditure. This is one of the biggest IT problems in business.

There’s also that nagging feeling like you want a second opinion on the answers to certain important questions, like:

• Should we be moving to the cloud?
• Should we be leasing or buying hardware?
• What is the impact of current supply chain delays?
• Will there be problems when we do move?

But when you are hit with a surprise project, there’s rarely time for thoughtful discussion because after-all, you are making a decision in an emergency.

What if you were to have a quarterly planning session with a high-level team? You could get outside the technology bubble and look at technology issues within your business to find a more comprehensive solution that considered not just tech emergencies, but budgets, timelines and opportunity costs as well.

I will let you in on one of our trade secrets: Steady Networks offers this type of high-level quarterly planning to every customer, because every business needs this type of service. Make surprise projects the exception, not the rule for your business.

Problem #2: Staff Training

The second of our three common technology problemssmall businesses face is staff training. You train your staff on how to work machines in manufacturing or how to use your accounting software in finance, but some of the most ubiquitous tools in business are email and the internet.

Unfortunately, we rarely train our employees on best practices to prevent information breaches, ransomware and wire transfer frauds that are all preventable with email and internet awareness training.

There are a few ways to tackle this problem. The most common method we see are automated training programs where users are forced to watch security risk training videos to prevent cyber attacks. These are a great supplement, but often leave out real world situations and are rapidly outdated.

Steady Networks presents a live quarterly cyber security awareness training seminar that all of our customers are invited to attend. In this forum, we can answer questions, bring you up-to-date information and use the real world scenarios we have gathered from our customers to provide relevant IT security solutions and recommendations.

Having a live security expert at your disposal can be a much more effective way to train staff on how to prevent IT problems for your business.

Problem #3: Information Silos

The last of the common technology issues in business is information silos. So often there are processes, passwords and documents that are vital for keeping control of the vast and complex information needed to maintain a modern business.

These issues are often maintained in the form of spreadsheets on computer desktops, or volumes of three ring binders, or worse – sticky notes stuck to computer monitors.

Usually, one individual maintains access to all this information which can contribute to slow performance or other problems with IT if they are on vacation or out sick.

What if there were a way to securely store these documents and share them with the IT support team so that solutions could be documented, passwords could be securely shared and inventory can be maintained?

This is precisely why Steady Networks maintains an up-to-date IT database that is accessible to IT staff and business owners as well.

It’s important to share a common technology interface to allow all interested parties critical information on items such as disaster recovery and data backup, new user setups and termination procedures.

Having a shared database can keep information out of silos and assist with preventing repeat issues and allows for improved IT management services overall.

Solve Common IT Problems in Business With Steady Networks Today

Those are my recommendations for how small businesses can address the top three issues we see working with over 60 companies and managing over 2,000 end users.

If you would like to learn more about how to implement solutions to these and other common problems with IT, please reach out to us and let us know about the issues your small business faces.

Chances are we can help you solve your IT problems the same way that we have helped countless business leaders in New Mexico and beyond.