There are a number of things in our everyday lives that require regular assessment and maintenance in order to help ensure our safety, health and success. If you want your vehicle to perform well, you get oil changes and have it checked out by a mechanic. Trying to stay fit? Eat lots of veggies, exercise regularly and get an annual physical by a doctor. And how about your hard-earned cash? Chances are you’re working with a trusted financial advisor to make sure those investments are providing a good return. So, why should the technology you rely on to run your business be any different?

 

Why You Need an IT Assessment:

An IT network, and the technology that supports it, requires routine maintenance and constant evaluation, particularly with the growing number of cyberthreats that exist today. Over time, an organization’s focus on technology and data security can become lax – software updates aren’t performed regularly, security patches aren’t installed in a timely manner or backups aren’t tested often to ensure they’re working properly. Any of these things can not only impact performance and productivity, but open a business up to a potential data breach or ransomware attack.

Most organizations appreciate how important regular IT assessments are to help ensure their systems are in tiptop shape – but they simply don’t have the time, expertise or resources to perform one on their own. That’s where consulting an expert can help bridge the gap and make sure your company’s valuable data and brand are secure.


The Benefits of IT Assessment

IT assessments aren’t about trying to sell you the latest hardware or making unsolicited software recommendations. An experienced Managed Services Provider (MSP) like One Step Secure IT can evaluate your network based on industry best practices and help develop a strategy for addressing any issues that are discovered – and there will be issues! Let’s look at some of the ways an IT assessment may help your business:

  • Identifying Vulnerabilities: Little is more important to a business than the safety of its valuable and often sensitive data. Cybercriminals are constantly finding smarter and more creative ways to hack your network, with new malware and viruses unleashed every day. To help mitigate this risk, One Step conducts a complete audit of all systems and processes to make sure you’re aligned with the latest cybersecurity best practices. This includes assessing high-risk areas that could leave your network and business open to an attack like firewall settings, remote access controls and file management tools.

  • Device Check… One… Two: Keeping your network and hardware up to date at all times can be a daunting task. One missed Windows patch update or a faulty backup can spell D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R for a business, yet it happens every day. During an IT assessment, our team makes sure you’ve got the latest OS patches, security updates and virus definitions installed. We also verify backups are not only running, but restorable, so if something bad happens you can likely recover with minimal damage.

  • Establishing Performance Baselines: Most businesses rely on performance metrics to measure success and plan for growth. However, technology is typically an afterthought when it comes to analytics which is unfortunate since it’s one of the primary drivers of organizational efficiency and security. We deploy performance monitoring, asset tracking and critical utilities on all devices to help evaluate key benchmarks that enable us to measure trends and system health over time. But first, we need to assess the current state of your network and determine what metrics are most important to your business.

  • Knowing What You Have and Don’t Have: In our rapidly changing and often mobile digital world, keeping track of the technology your business uses every day is no small feat. During an IT assessment, we review your network environment and all devices to ensure they’re well documented and can be tracked for identification, reliability and support analysis. One Step can also help determine the age and condition of each device, what may no longer be under warranty and even check to make sure software licenses or support agreements are current.

  • Strategic Planning and Budgeting: Properly incorporating technology into your operating budget and overall business strategy can be difficult without fully understanding things like hardware lifecycles, depreciation or cost of ownership over time. That’s why One Step provides a Virtual CIO who works with your leadership team to help prioritize key IT initiatives/expenses while developing a realistic technology roadmap to guide decision making. A good IT assessment will lay the foundation for this roadmap and provide an ideal starting point for further discussion. 

As you can see, IT assessments are designed to give businesses an in-depth look into their current technology infrastructure while identifying key opportunities for improvement and growth. The valuable information obtained during the process is used to make strategic decisions and help better align technology with overall business goals.

With the help of an MSP like One Step Secure IT, you’ll not only get a comprehensive overview of your current network environment, but an actionable plan to help fill any security, hardware or resource gaps that may be discovered. If you’re ready to schedule your own IT assessment or would like more information about our services, please CONTACT US today. We’re here to help! 

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Part of every good assessment is learning about the threats you are facing, get a head start on your learning by checking out our paper “The Top 10 Ways Hackers Get Around Your Firewall and Anti-Virus” 

 

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