Our top five strategies for fourth quarter technology planning

The end of the year is nearly here and if your business is anything like ours you might find yourself busier than ever, you may not relish the thought of adding more to an already full to do list but adding these technology related items will put you in a better position this time next year.

Optimizing your business for technology is more than just purchasing new hardware, in fact some major upgrades have no cost associated with them other than a bit of your time (which we do know is valuable and in short supply).

Our top three tips that have no cost are:

1. Take advantage of free security upgrades like Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). According to InfoSecurity Magazine 90% of attacks can be prevented just by enabling MFA, and enabling it for most accounts just involves a button click.
2. Evaluate your internet service. You may be overpaying for your current plan or not getting the best service for your money, if you have a legacy plan your internet service might be slower than plans available now. Also, if your contract lapsed a while ago, they might offer significant savings to enroll under another contract. We suggest evaluating your internet service first though before re-signing another contract. In our article from last week, we discuss what to look for when it comes to business internet.
3. Inventory your existing technology assets. This step will really help you out when it comes to applying our tips for 4 and 5, but it’s also just a good idea. If you don’t know what you have it’s pretty easy for devices to go unaccounted for, and an accounted for device (especially something like a laptop) is a pretty significant threat vector to your business. We suggest creating an inventory worksheet now that includes all of your hardware to start and later on you can look at items such as peripherals which could including networking equipment, monitors etc.

Of course, some technology upgrades do cost money, but we found making these purchases in quarter four can be really advantageous for a multitude of reasons. One, making technology upgrades now will give you a strong start for next year. Two, there are actually tax benefits you can take advantage of before the end of the year (such as Section 179). Three, you have greater insight into what your budget for spending is because most of us are doing are year-end tallies around this time.

Our top two tips to make the most out of your technology spending for this year is:

1. Use that asset list you created to evaluate aging hardware. Aging hardware is risky, they can fail spontaneously and may not have the most up to date security features. Hardware such as an office server that hosts the company backups, or key employee devices that are struggling to keep up with their day-to-day workload are items we suggest replacing ASAP.
2. Of course, technology services are another area we recommend looking at. Why go into the new year with a service provider you haven’t been thrilled with? Making a change like this now will cement a better 2024 for your business. We have a kit for making the change you can find here.

If you’re in the Central Valley, Valley Techlogic is also offering for a limited time $100 to any business that takes a meeting with us to hear about our services. See our flyer below to learn more about taking advantage of this offer or you can sign up here to get started.

Looking for more to read? We suggest these other articles from our site.

This article was powered by Valley Techlogic, an IT service provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/valleytechlogic.