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Archive for category: Business Continuity

does your it strategy support your business strategy

Does Your IT Strategy Support Your Business Strategy?

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As the year hastens toward its final days, most organizations are gearing up for 2020 with a renewed sense of purpose and solid business strategies. While developing your strategy, you may have some concerns about the unknowns facing your business and industry. But if you are preparing your plan for the coming year without including your IT strategy and infrastructure needs assessment, you’re missing a core piece of your ability to remain competitive, differentiated, and functional. Does your IT strategy support your business strategy?

IT Deserves a Seat at the Planning Table

Business strategy and IT strategy are two sides of the same coin. Yet most businesses look at IT and IT investment as a cost, not an opportunity. Whether you’re launching new products in 2020, planning to hire new staff, rolling out an app, or adding a new location, IT strategy is an essential piece of every goal. Do your new products include IoT components? What resources will be required to launch a new product or service? What kind of equipment will you need to add new people to your network? How will you handle security and training? As you plan for changes, growth, and the future of your business, IT should be a factor in every decision. Your IT team – internal and outsourced – should be part of your planning process.

Proactive IT Planning Saves You Time and Money

If you don’t include IT in your strategic planning, ultimately it will still be something you have to deal with. Unanticipated needs and adjustments will just end up costing you more, slowing you down, or complicating your plans. Proactive IT planning is essential for ensuring that you can meet your strategic objectives. It forces you to consider how your current infrastructure and support will enable you to deliver on your goals, identify where gaps are in your IT support, and establish what will be required to accomplish your strategic plan.

A Symbiotic Relationship

The more closely you can align your IT to your business strategy, the stronger your organization will be. It’s not just about cybersecurity, although that is certainly a piece of the puzzle. It’s about having a mindset in which your IT infrastructure, security, technology, and assets are considered integral pieces of your entire business strategy puzzle and not simply an afterthought.

The ITeam partners with businesses to ensure that their IT strategies and business strategies align. We understand the challenges facing Canada businesses and are committed to helping Calgary- and Alberta-based businesses develop proactive, cost-effective IT strategies that minimize risk and maximize efficiency. Contact us to learn more.

4 Ways to Make Your Organization More Cybersecure

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cyber security awareness month

October is Cyber Security Awareness Month (CSAM), an internationally recognized effort to improve cybersecurity for all persons and organizations. In Canada, cybercrime is one of the biggest threats facing the nation, from identity fraud to phishing attacks and ransomware to election security. Every person and every business have a role to play in keeping Canada safe.

The ITeam is proud to participate in Cyber Security Awareness Month. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram for daily cybersecurity tips, news, and updates. And follow these recommendations to make your organization more cybersecure:

Employee Training

Your employees are your first line of defense against cybercrime. They need to know what to look for, how to respond, and when to act. Employee training should be mandatory for every person working in your organization, from the top down. Ensure that your training includes information about using strong passwords, improving email security (don’t click links or open files from unknown or unconfirmed sources), and establishing firm policies about how, when, and what devices can access your network.

Backup and Disaster Recovery

It’s not a matter of if but when your organization will fall victim to cybercrime. Even with the best training, a sophisticated hacker may still trick an employee into clicking a link that locks you out of your network. Instead of paying a ransom and further encouraging cybercriminals, develop a comprehensive data backup and disaster recovery protocol to protect your business. Start with our guide, How to Create an Effective Disaster Recovery Plan.

Develop a Comprehensive IT Strategy

Securing your business requires more than just passwords. It begins with the right policies: making cybersecurity a business fundamental, setting limits within your organization in regard to who can access your data, and assessing risk regularly. Once you begin to develop a culture of IT security in your organization, you will be able to prioritize essential cybersecurity tasks, such as updating and patching software and apps, implementing layers of security to protect your organization, meeting necessary compliance requirements for your industry, and identifying any vulnerabilities in your network.

Partner with a Managed Services Provider

Every organization faces the real possibility of a catastrophic event that could compromise its data integrity and threaten its very existence. The ITeam provides essential IT support to businesses in Alberta. We provide fully managed and personalized services designed to meet the needs of virtually any business. Our team will work with you to customize a cost-effective solution and help you develop a comprehensive IT security strategy that will help you survive any threat, whether natural or human-caused. Contact us to schedule a network assessment today.