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Bring Information Technology Spending in Line with Business Objectives
We’re headed for 2025, and it’s time to consider technology spending for the next year. How will you know the best allocation of your technology dollars? Read on to learn about how to align your tech budget with your business goals. Getting Started with IT Budget Alignment A LinkedIn article presents steps to follow in planning your IT budget. A good first step is understanding your overall business goals. What do you want to accomplish in the next year, and beyond? Broad goal categories include upgrading existing systems, reallocating spending to more critical areas, and investing in new technology. How will you use trends in technology–automation using artificial intelligence, for instance–to improve processes? Your company’s goals will be unique to you, and need to be prioritized according to what’s most vital. Artificial intelligence offers great potential for increasing efficiency for your company. On the customer service front, it can automate processes like virtual chat, allowing conversational AI to handle routine questions and free up representatives for more complex tasks. Data analysis is streamlined and can efficiently provide insights. Network monitoring is improved, with automation allowing constant scans and identifying possible problems. Email messages are sorted, hence removing spam and forwarding the most important messages to the proper recipients. Assessing Your Current IT Spending What is the state of your current technological ecosystem? Are you overspending on areas you don’t need to, and underspending in more important areas? What does each element of your technology contribute to business objectives? For example, you might need to move some systems and data to the cloud for greater flexibility and...
Technology Trends for 2025 Provide New Possibilities and Require Consideration
Gartner has released a tech trends report for 2025, and automation (especially through artificial intelligence) is a keystone. While technology has great potential for companies, depending on goals, it also carries challenges. Such challenges include costs in time, money and effort; legal and ethical considerations and guardrails for use; and adaptation of the workforce to changes. Read on to learn more about upcoming trends and why they matter for your business.
Assess Spending with a Telecommunications Audit
Communications and collaboration are vital to your company’s operations and success. But how do you know if your spending is effectively allocated? Read on to learn about the role of a telecommunications expense audit in shaping up your telco budget
Become Aware and Prepared During Cybersecurity Awareness Month
There’s never a bad time to examine your company’s cybersecurity posture, and even improve your strategy. Threats abound, including security incidents resulting from weak passwords, phishing attacks, and the lack of strong authentication. Read on to learn how you can assess and improve your preparedness for security incidents–it’s not if, but when.
Protecting Your Business from an Evolving Threat Landscape
Whether man-made or natural, threats to the security of your company’s network are on the rise. Not only do effects of climate change (such as wildfires and floods) pose threats to businesses, but cyberattacks including ransomware via phishing emails, jeopardize your network and data. Read on to learn more about threats and how to overcome them.
Guarding Your Network Against Ransomware
Hybrid workforce is here to stay, and some businesses are entirely remote. With the benefits remote employees bring, it also introduces dangers like unprotected network access and greater exposure to ransomware. Over the last several years, ransomware has increased and can have disastrous consequences to businesses of all sizes. Read on to learn more about the ransomware landscape and how to protect your company from attacks that steal data.
Lessons from a Global Technology Outage
As we saw two weeks ago, our entire world is dependent on technology. The global technology outage precipitated by a faulty software update rollout by Crowdstrike illustrates how a small problem can have enormous repercussions. The recovery will likely be difficult and expensive for many companies but especially for small to medium-size businesses. Read on to learn about how a technology advisor can help your company mitigate damage from and even prevent technical issues
Adopting a Risk Management Approach to Your Business
Doing business in today’s world doesn’t come without risk. Anything can happen, from a brief power failure resulting in two hours of downtime, to a days-long global technology outage precipitated by a CrowdStrike software update. How will you know what risks your business is most subject to, and how to mitigate those risks? Read on to find out what types of risks can threaten your company, and how to protect yourself.
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) for Hybrid Work Environments
In 2020, the way people worked changed, likely for good. Instead of being in the office most of the time, employees worked at home. Although some workers have come back to the office, hybrid work is here to stay. Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), pronounced “sassy”) is ideal for hybrid work, with its cloud-native architecture, centralized access policies and support of access based on device identity. Read on to learn more about this architecture and what it can bring to hybrid offices.
Put Artificial Intelligence to Work for Your Business
What will your company do with artificial intelligence, now that it’s a key technological trend? Artificial intelligence (AI, for short) holds the potential to revolutionize how your business meets its goals. Fueled by the natural language model of generative AI, automation of processes, data analysis, and streamlining tasks have all helped businesses work more efficiently. Read on to learn more about specific use cases for different aspects of your business.