Six Risk-Based Questions Every Nonprofit Leader Must Ask About IT Preparedness Before Their IT Expert Leaves
Nonprofit organizations rely heavily on their in-house IT experts to keep operations running smoothly. But have you ever thought about what happens if that expert suddenly quits? It’s not just an inconvenience—it could be a disaster. Here are six critical questions to help you identify your IT preparedness, identify potential risks and protect your nonprofit.
When your nonprofit’s in-house IT expert suddenly leaves, the organization might face serious challenges—from downtime to security risks. To avoid disruption, leaders must take a proactive approach to understanding and documenting their IT environment. These six questions can help nonprofits of any size safeguard their operations.
Device as a Service offers complete IT hardware, software, and services solution for a regular predictable monthly fee.
The business environment is changing, even more so in these past few months of a health pandemic. Business owners and leaders want to pay for exactly what they want, when they want it, and eliminate unnecessary waste. They no longer want mass market products but complete customization to fit their specific needs.
Due to this increasing demand for customization, new business models have arisen to accommodate them, and the consumption model will naturally continue to spread into nontraditional industries.
What is the Technology Lifecycle?
A technology lifecycle is technically defined as the span of a product’s existence from its initial development through the period of marketing and active use to eventual obsolescence. It is the beginning to end process of acquiring, installing, maintaining, tracking and the retirement of an asset in a business environment. These assets could be servers, laptops, desktop computer, tablets, or mobile phones.
Typically, a technology’s lifecycle can be extended through ongoing maintenance, updates and upgrades. Upon reaching the end of its most effective stage, the IT lifecycle moves to replacement, decommission and salvage.
For organizations large and small, refreshing a fleet of personal computing devices every 3 to 4 years can involve substantial costs, especially when considering peripheral expenditures for procurement, deployment, training, support, recovery, and asset management.
This is where Device as a Service, commonly known as DaaS comes in.
URGENT Security Warning For Businesses Running Windows 7. Microsoft is ending support for the operating system starting January 14, 2020.
Your computer network is more important than ever. And so are the computers powering your business or organization. This is especially true if your computer network is still running Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system which the company plans to retire support for on January 14, 2020.
Not only does that mean that any computer with the operating system installed will be completely exposed to serious hacker attacks aimed at taking control of your network, it also means that business data will be exposed to theft, computer system crashes and the possibilities of a host of other business-crippling problems you do NOT want to have to deal with.
Every dollar a small business spends needs to have an immediate and quantifiable return. This is especially true for critical services such as I.T. support. If you are one of the millions of small businesses that depend upon your technology to keep your business running, proactive Technology Management will save you money, improve your efficiencies and reduce your downtime.
The Solution
With the advent of new monitoring tools and the ability to remotely deliver help desk services to small businesses all over the world, Managed IT Services Providers have developed proactive Technology Management plans for their clients that maximize their uptime and reduce I.T. costs over time. By implementing newly available automated processes, systems can be patched and updated overnight without the need for onsite visits, or disrupting an organization’s work day.
Most business entrepreneurs have great talent and the means to run a very successful business. The snag they most often run into is the belief that they can do it all, instead of outsourcing. This mindset can be detrimental to the overall success of their business.
Trying to do it all can lead to hindered growth, lower profit margins and in some cases, failure. Outsourcing for things like technology services creates an opportunity for both the business entrepreneur to focus on what they do best.
In order to create a business that is structurally sound, expandable and profitable, business owners should focus the majority of their time and energy on their personal talents and skills that are most important to the growth of their business and those skills that will most help in the generation of income.
Instead of trying to do it all they can most benefit by delegating certain tasks – and outsourcing for technology services is one of them.
Outsourcing has become very popular and with technology today like the Internet, outsourcing is easy and accessible. Companies can find extremely qualified candidates from around the world right at their fingertips.
Is there a particular time a business owner or the leader of an organization should decide that they and their organizations are ready for Outsourced IT Services?
If you are a small business owner and considering whether or not Outsourced IT Services will benefit your company, the answer is almost always- yes.
There is little doubt that most small businesses can benefit from Outsourced IT Services, yet that in itself does not always justify the cost of bringing on a third party provider.
Accepting that Outsourced IT Services Providers can offer solutions to common problems found in small business operation, the real question is: when does it make sense to switch from in house IT solutions to the next level which includes Outsourced IT Services?
There is a good chance if you are already considering Outsourced IT Services, the time might be near when you are ready to make the switch. Small business owners do not have the luxury of a never ending IT budget, therefore it is very important to recognize when your current IT management is no longer cost effective.
