Being an innovative organization doesn’t just happen overnight. It takes the right people, culture and partners coming together with the vision and talent to make it happen. From cloud integrations to new technology throughout your headquarters, there’s no question that innovation can increase efficiency and have your customers looking at you differently.
Being an innovative organization doesn’t just happen overnight. It takes the right people, culture and partners coming together with the vision and talent to make it happen. From cloud integrations to new technology throughout your headquarters, there’s no question that innovation can increase efficiency and have your customers looking at you differently. But part of innovation requires a strategic vision from a very savvy IT partner. Over the years we’ve seen some bad advice given out, but these three take the cake. If you’re starting to question your provider and have been given any of the following advice that we view as the worst IT suggestions, it’s time to rethink your strategy.
“Back your data up to USB drives and take them home with you.”
WHAT? This is the worst idea ever, for a few reasons. This might be okay for personal data, but not for businesses – no matter what size. The idea of having multiple copies of backups is always good, but you can never count on your backup being 100% reliable. The drives could get lost, your toddler could throw them in the toilet (don’t ask how I know that) or the data on them could have not backed up properly. Not only should you have the appropriate equipment backing up your organization’s data, but you also need to be sure that it takes multiple images of your hard drives throughout the day and runs tests on those backups to be sure that they’ve been completed properly and the backup data is sound.
“Just download some free antivirus software. It’s all the same anyway.”
If this saying ever applies to any situation, it applies here: You get what you pay for. Free antivirus software just doesn’t stack up against enterprise-class antivirus solutions. Enterprise-class solutions get more frequent and automatic updates, have more sophisticated scanning engines, and are centrally managed and monitored. It’s vital to have a reliable, licensed solution that will continually run diagnostics, inform you of issues and be updated with information about new viruses that have come out.
“Hosted systems aren’t reliable, so keep your e-mail in house.”
This is just silly. We’ve discussed server failures, data backups and fault for data loss many, many times. Your e-mail no longer needs to be stored in-house on a local server, because ultimately any security and reliability measures that you make on your tiny server pale in comparison to the billions that Microsoft has invested into development their hosted e-mail infrastructure and storage solutions. The peace of mind and ease of access that you gain with hosted e-mail is exponential in comparison to the small expense.
Bad advice runs rampant in the tech industry. It’s given by in-house techs, reactive support companies and one-man shops all the time. The truth is, though, that these suggestions aren’t just bad, they’re downright damaging. Sure, a simple suggestion sounds harmless enough – but backing up your data the wrong way could lead to hundreds of thousands in lawsuits, the right virus could completely annihilate your organization and the wrong e-mail solution could seriously impact employee productivity. If these guys gave you this advice, what could the right advice do for your organization’s innovation and efficiency? It’s time to stop putting your time and money into the wrong IT strategy.
