At A M Exclusive, we’re big fans of making lemonade out of lemons! While I’m sure, like us, you are yearning for more of a return to normalcy and would love to have more people in the office, the reality in the IT world is that having minimal staff allows for some unique advantages when tackling projects. Not only that, the changes to how we work are likely here to stay, so you’ll need to be prepared with the technology to facilitate a hybrid at-home/in-office culture.
Here are some projects to consider doing now (and if you need an extra hand completing them, our staff can help!):
1. Prepare for higher bandwidth demands & add video conferencing rooms
Even when people come back to the office, we anticipate the demand for video conferencing to remain, so you need to make sure you have the bandwidth to support this. Not only that, but you likely will have many teams that will have people both in the office and working remotely that will need to be able to collaborate efficiently. You can turn some private offices into bookable video conferencing rooms. Using the Bookings app and an HP Slice will allow you to achieve this if you’re using Microsoft Teams.
2. Cable cleanup & inventory of equipment
We touched upon this in a previous blog post with “4 Tips to Follow When Finally Cleaning Your Network Closet.” If you do this now before people start returning to the office, you’ll be able to diagnose issues and plan so much better, and you won’t regret it.
3. Workstation refreshes & getting rid of old equipment
Clear out the old and make room for the new! Reduce or eliminate your “IT Graveyard.” If you contact us, we may even be able to get you money back for your old equipment.
4. Transition to VoIP
As mentioned earlier, the flexible work culture is here to stay. Forwarding calls to a cell phone robs employees of easily conferencing in and transferring calls to colleagues. The time is still ripe to evaluate your infrastructure and make upgrades to support internet calling and vet vendors.
5. Downsizing copiers & getting rid of personal printers
Perhaps you can finally get rid of those pesky personal printers?! Any employee who was not given a printer to work from home can probably do without a printer in their office. And those huge copiers in designated copy rooms that haven’t been used much over the last year? You can save a ton by downsizing them. What makes more sense, is more cost-effective, and is more easily supported by your IT team is deploying midsized multifunction machines for smaller workgroups.
6. Reduce security vulnerabilities by patching your printers
Firewalls are not enough to keep out the bad guys. Steps must be taken to reduce vulnerabilities once someone is already in your network. You’ve been patching PCs for years; the time has come to patch your printers as well.Schedule a Conversationwith one of our IT
Solutions Experts
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