4 Ways To Optimize Your Business Hardware

Featured article by Liam Campbell, IT expert

One of the goals of businesses is to deliver consistent and high-quality products that match their brands. As sales increase and the business grows, the demand for providing the exact topnotch services that made it happen in the first place, stabilizes. Things like inconsistency in quality and underperformance from business- and customer-facing aspects of the company, will only destabilize it, causing harm to the company or, in some cases, resulting to total loss of business.

To avoid this, business-owners made it a point to standardize company policies and practices to minimize factors that may interrupt consistency. Rules have been enforced, key performance indicators (KPIs) have been placed, as well as other methods that can curb inconsistency. To sum it up, having a standardized policy in place makes handling the business easier. 

However, all of these would only be effective with a system that can carry it out. Before thinking of standardization, let alone, providing consistent quality to customers, businesses must first think on how to improve their information technology (IT) systems especially now in the digital age. Software improvement is one thing, but hardware is just as important, or even more so. To help you out, here are four ways to optimize your business hardware:

1. Getting The Right Help

In the digital side of the business, some software management can be ‘do it yourself’ (DIY). Tasks such as keeping your computer’s operating system (OS) up-to-date, checking regular updates with your antivirus, emptying the system’s recycle bin, among many others, can be done regularly with little to no help at all.

However, when it comes to hardware, things can become complicated. Your printer that suddenly broke down can’t be fixed by merely pressing F5, and your computer that freezes won’t resume its tasks by tapping the system unit. In situations like these, getting a dedicated team to manage your IT system is an important investment. 

IT teams can help you run constant checks on your terminals and other equipment to ensure that you don’t need to whack your computer each time it lags. Not only is it preventive, it’s also cost-efficient, particularly fixing hardware components can be costly. If you’re from the Golden State, you can check out this Sacramento managed IT services company Executech to know more.

2. Lights On Or Off?

As a business owner, first and foremost, you’d want to generate revenue. However, generating revenue may present a challenge when competition, production, marketing, and other business elements are factored in. Simply, you’d want to generate income, regulate competition, produce goods, market them, and so on.

In the business side of things, except from those mentioned above, you’d also want to innovate, since it positively contributes to market competition. However, innovating in your industry while handling the business affairs isn’t a simple feat.

The concept of ‘Keep the lights on’ or KLTO refers to the portion of the entire expenditure allotted to running most of the business such as customer service, maintaining IT systems, ad hoc tasks, and others. In relation to hardware optimization, the talk of KLTO is important, in a sense that the business owners must smartly strike a balance in keeping their KLTO expenses to a minimum without the expense of quality.

Since higher budget allocations to KLTO drive businesses to do budgets cuts here and there, some departments may be compromised and in turn affecting the overall performance of the company. 

Moreover, KLTO in IT systems management covers how much the business spending is to maintain their IT infrastructure and its components. For example, if you have a dedicated modem supplier and relies on their warranty services to do the modem check-ups for you, you might miss out on checking other managed IT services companies who can do the same thing with other value-added services for a relatively cheaper cost.

3. Make A List And Check It Twice (Or More)

Managing your IT infrastructure can be a major pain in the back. Something as small as a keycap should be accounted for, since every piece and component has its own value. 

Making an inventory of your whole system helps you in organizing, as well as monitoring and maintaining it. Including checkboxes such as check-up schedules, hardware parts, serial numbers, warranty dates, among many others can provide you (and your people) better understanding of your own IT infrastructure.

This is extremely important when you plan on curating risk management policies and a needs-assessment checklist. Creating countermeasures will provide assurance to the business, which may even prevent massive losses in the future when problems arise.

4. The ‘E’ In Responsible Means ‘Everyone’

Despite having a world-class IT team and superior equipment and facilities, if your employees still slam their computer units when the terminals are acting slow, or uninstall antivirus programs when they get intrusive, then it would be all for naught. 

Educating your employees about your IT infrastructure—how it works, the dos and don’ts, the proper navigation—will greatly help you maintain your systems. Proper hardware care will result to lower chances of damage that leads to incurring lower costs in repair. 

In A Nutshell

IT systems help the businesses hold their positions in the industry. Propelling the growth of the company relies heavily on proper hardware and software care. Making sure that all these aspects are checked, will be conclusive on the success of the business.

About the Author

Liam Campbell is an IT expert. He shares his expertise through blogging during his free time. Liam loves hiking and camping. He is also a music-lover. He is married with two children.