The last few weeks of the year are stretching ahead of us – but now is the perfect time to tidy up your office technology and plan for the new year’s IT provision.
To help you countdown to Christmas and the New Year we have compiled our top tips to make the transition from old to new as seamless and trouble free as possible….
- Maximise your phone system capabilities to divert calls, manage queries and leave a recorded message – don’t forget to include your Christmas closing schedule on the system.
- Let people know about your Christmas closures – create a newsletter or email to send out to avoid any confusion. Make sure the info is on your social media and your website. Ask us to add the info to your company-wide email footers.
- Get prepared for remote working! With adverse weather and seasonal shutdowns, there may be more employees than usual working from home. Make sure that they have access to a reliable network and connection as well as stored data.
- Make plans for the new year. The Christmas break is a great time to review your IT Support and your system provision. If you are planning on reviewing your budget, upgrading your equipment or simply streamlining and perfecting your technology why not get organised and book a call with us for the new year?
- Make sure that your software is up to date before the Christmas shutdown – check automatic updates, update browser plug-ins
- Don’t get distracted by the Christmas shopping emails and get caught out. Phishing scams increase this time of year, not surprising when we are being bombarded by receipts, delivery notices, order updates… If you haven’t ordered from a supplier think twice – if you have then maybe go straight through your online account or check the real email address (not just the masked version)
- Whilst the office is closed you can get necessary updates and equipment changes done with minimal disruption – don’t leave it too long to book anything in for review!
- Make sure that your office is physically secure – if equipment is being taken home for the Christmas period don’t leave it on full display, lock laptops and phones away safely.
- Back up your data – If anything happens over the coming weeks then having a point in time to return to will be invaluable.
- Who will be monitoring your systems? The last thing you want on Christmas day is an alert that your server has failed – or even worse, returning in January to find that there has been a malfunction! We will be monitoring our clients systems over the Christmas period – if there are any issues they can be dealt with minimal disruption or upheaval.
- Check that your antivirus and anti-malware protection is in place and working – you wouldn’t leave the office unlocked so why leave your tech unprotected?
- Take some time off! Whilst it’s tempting to use all of your Christmas break time to the max, don’t forget to take some time off too! Return with renewed enthusiasm and energy in the new year.
Over the Christmas period TwoPointZero will be taking some of their own advice! We are already excited for the new year and would love to discuss your plans to see how we can help your business thrive in 2023.
