The costs of IT infrastructure and operations are undergoing a dramatic change. Before, practically all IT costs revolved around hardware and software purchases, maintenance, and upgrades. Today, however, with the rise in cyber threats, the advent of cloud computing, and the emergence of new business-impacting factors (e.g. the current pandemic), companies are faced with additional costs which, if not managed properly, can seriously impact other areas of the business.

Gartner projects that IT spending will reach an astounding $4.5 trillion in 2022, the highest year-over-year jump in more than 10 years. Let’s have a look at the key areas where IT costs are expected to come from and what you can do to reduce them.

London-based small businesses that outsource their IT functions to a managed IT support London provider can improve cost efficiencies, reduce downtimes, improve cybersecurity capabilities, and gain several other major benefits. But what exactly is managed IT support and what are the benefits this type of service can offer?

Remote working has been both a boon and a bane for many organisations and employees. A boon because it has allowed work to carry on even as a global health crisis continues; and a bane because it has given rise to employees’ struggles with time management and work prioritisation when doing their jobs outside of the physical work space.

That said, however, the availability of technology, tools, and remote IT support have been instrumental in making remote working the best option to keep employees in service and businesses, well, in business. The numbers indicate as much.

An IT support ticket system is a key backbone of IT services. It determines the flow of customer service, from when your customer reaches out with their concern or request until you address or solve it. Without effective ticket handling processes, you get unnecessarily long downtimes that cut down on productivity and decrease client satisfaction. The more issues left unresolved, the more it can cost your business.

It’s well worth noting that clients may also refer to internal customers—employees who have issues with their devices or IT-related tasks. Resolving their concerns allows them to get back to work sooner and do their core functions. It is thus crucial to realise that reliable IT support services can improve efficiency in the day-to-day operations, give you an edge over competitors, and propel your company to greater heights.

From the unprecedented surge in e-commerce to the dramatic digital transformation, the current economic environment (largely impacted by the ongoing pandemic) has made one thing clear: technology is vital to business growth. Enterprises have realised this by now and are starting to make the necessary adjustments in their operations—and your UK-based SME should too. Fortunately, for start-ups and established but smaller organisations alike, the perfect solution for technological dilemmas can be found in remote IT support.

Ransomware attacks are incredibly prevalent – and can also be very damaging. Successful attacks occur all the time – this year alone, a major infrastructure company in the US was hit with an attack that came with a US$ 4.4m demand for ransom. Closer to home, Doncaster-based One Call Insurance found itself unable to service customer requests after a computer system blackout due to ransomware.

As a business, you need to invest in internet security to protect your systems against ransomware – but at the same time, also assume the worst-case scenario: that a successful attack can occur. Responding rapidly and effectively is critical – the better your response, the lower the cumulative cost of the ransomware attack – and the less disruption your clients or customers will experience.

Some businesses would like to think that doing things the traditional way is best. Well, this may be true for certain tasks, but in general, technology has allowed processes to be done much faster and more efficiently—and that’s with the help of business automation.

Automation strategies have proven to be very effective for many enterprises, so much so that Gartner, Inc. speculates that 69% of managers’ current workload could be fully automated by 2024. If your organisation is not yet making full use of automation tools, this post should enlighten you on how your business can benefit from an automation strategy.

The world continues to grapple with the long term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and organisations are compelled to sustain remote working arrangements for their employees. In the haste to quickly adapt to the new and evolving work environment however, it appears that one essential concern has taken a back seat: security.

IT company Hewlett-Packard recently released Blurred Lines & Blindspots—a comprehensive global study assessing organisational cyber risk in today’s remote working era, and in it, a number of worrying, albeit unsurprising, findings were revealed. Of the over 8,000 office workers surveyed:

Technology has always moved rapidly –even more so in today’s cloud-centric world where the next major feature is an automatic update away. Needless to say, the companies that can make the most of the technology available to them are likely to enjoy a competitive advantage over their peers.

How can businesses stay ahead of the technology curve – making maximum use of the technology available to them, while ensuring that competitors never gain a competitive advantage due to their greater ability to harness the latest technology? Let’s take a look.

Like any other form of crime, when it comes to cybercrime, there’s always the temptation to take the view that “it would never happen to us”. However given that, every single day, more than 65,000 attempts are made to hack an SME in the UK, the risk of cybercrime is real for UK businesses – no matter their size, or their position in the market.

In this article, we outline some of the key points SMEs in the UK should think about around IT security. While most businesses would take at least some precautions, it’s nonetheless worth taking a more structured approach to IT security – even if your business is not enterprise-scale.