By TerryAnn Fitzgerald, SMB Solutions Marketing Manager, HP Networking
Even after New Year’s resolutions have faded away, I like to make it a habit to assess the way I work and live my life on a fairly regular basis. I like to ask how things are working for me – are they helping me achieve my goals or getting in my way? Am I working efficiently as possible? Is there anything I can do to save time or money? If something isn’t working for me, I begin investigating how I can make a change and then begin working on it step by step.
Businesses of all sizes need to assess their approaches as well. They need to ensure they are spending wisely as they strive to increase revenues and keep customers satisfied. However, with much of the low-hanging fruit of business efficiency harvested over the last several years, SMBs must find new ways to maintain―and grow―revenues while holding down cost.
Here are five ways to use technology to drive efficiencies in the coming year.
1. Embrace BYOD in your mobility strategy. 2012 is likely to be the year of BYOD, or “bring your own device.” Allowing your employees to use their personal smartphones, tablets, and laptops on the company network creates both benefits and challenges. Employees no longer have to carry an arsenal of mobile devices to stay connected with work and home―and that convenience can raise employee productivity and satisfaction. Plus, your business can potentially offset the cost of buying mobile devices and service plans for employees.
Make sure your company’s wireless LAN is up to the task of supporting this mobility wave. Supporting many more smartphones and tablets calls for a high performance, IEEE 802.11n wireless network. Just as important, you should make sure that your information security is up to the task of protecting your company’s data on those mobile devices.
2. Get clear on the cloud. Cloud computing offers SMBs an attractive, pay-as-you-go model for applications and IT services. It gives businesses access to state-of-the-art IT systems without the effort and expenses associated with modernizing their on-premises systems. In addition to the cost efficiencies, workers can access their cloud-based data and applications from anywhere.
While SMBs can benefit greatly from cloud computing, accessing multiple cloud computing services without an optimized network architecture can create additional challenges. Ensure you have the proper levels of prioritization, bandwidth and service-level agreements and specialization.
You need ensure your rich media traffic is given enough bandwidth to deliver the type of user experience viewers expect from videos. If your networking equipment supports standards, you'll be able to run end-to-end QoS, even in a multi-vendor environment.
4. It’s a dangerous world. SMBs are no longer “too small” to be a desirable target of cyber-criminals, especially if they are in retail or banking. Nor should you discount the risk from your own employees. Ninety-two percent of data breaches stem from external breaches, but 17% implicated insiders, according to the 2011 Data Breach Investigations Report from the Verizon RISK Team.
2012 is time to take stock of your security practices. Security breaches are often particularly troublesome to smaller businesses because they lack the resources to contain and recover from attacks.
5. Make the call for unified communications. There’s been more than a decade of chatter about voice over IP (VoIP). If your company is using an aging phone system, now is the time to consider unified communications (UC).
Not only can using VoIP reduce your telecom expenses, but you can also give your employees the communications tools they want. For example, workers can receive their e-mails, voicemails and faxes in a single in-box, which is more convenient. They can be reached at a single phone number, whether they are using their desk phones or mobile phones. Your workers can now be more accessible to customers and coworkers.
But VoIP is a demanding application when it comes to the network. Today’s network switches have the performance power needed to make sure that voice conversations come through loud and clear. Also look for switches that support Power over Ethernet (PoE), which simplifies the task of connecting IP phones to the network.
Make 2012 a year of growth
Keeping with my assessment philosophy, this year I am focusing on my health. I have carefully mapped an eating regimen and began working with a personal trainer who kicks my butt 2x a week. If you, like many other businesses, have under-invested or neglected your network infrastructure 2012 is the year to reassess your network’s health and start your efforts to get it back in shape.
Networks are often overlooked by business executives, especially when finances are tight. Revamping the network can allow your business to deliver better-quality voice and video and to support more mobile devices while lowering capital and operational expenses. It can even pave the way to cloud computing.
If we start investing today, there’s no telling what great strides we will have made at the end of this year!
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