Do Your Employees Get the Same Level of IT Support as These Retirees?

Senior citizens have valuable, strategic technology lessons for your business. That’s probably not a statement you expect from a company offering IT support in Phoenix and Denver. But it’s true.

What Every Business Can Learn From a Senior Living Center

A local senior living center depends on us for IT support. The seniors who move in come with their Alexas, smart TVs and tablets. They want to stream, video chat with family and use those digital assistants. It’s an evolution from how residents behaved 5 or 10 years ago.

These tech-savvy seniors aren’t that different from your employees

Sure, the residents may be streaming Netflix while your team is working on client deliverables, but the underlying requirement is the same — a flawless IT experience.

The senior living center isn’t waiting around for something to break

They’re building a sustainable, glitch-free environment that can meet the evolving IT expectations of residents. It’s why they initiated strategic discussions with us before starting a renovation project that will demolish existing buildings and construct new ones across the campus. We’re working with their leadership team to make strategic IT decisions that:

• Last the full life cycle of their technology — maximizing ROI on investments
• Work now and meet current needs
• Can adapt to changing circumstances
• Are viable 10 years from now

It’s a smart way to approach IT support and technology

Other organizations choose a different path.

The Alternative: Only Calling IT Support When Something Fails

Not everyone views IT support through a strategic lens. For them, it’s a number to call when their computer won’t connect to the network or the copier breaks. These leaders aren’t concerned about regulatory requirements like HIPPA or SEC cybersecurity recommendations.

Most of these organizations don’t think strategically until after a hack or business-disrupting incident occurs. A hack shouldn’t be your catalyst to change how you think about IT providers and support.

Don’t bring an opinion to a data fight

This break-fix model doesn’t lead to informed decision making. It creates costs. If you justify your choices with statements like “I don’t care about HIPPA,” or “I won’t get hacked,” you’re running your business based on an opinion. This approach won’t lead to sustainable business decisions. Data will.

How Data Makes it Easy to Make Strategic, Sustainable Decisions

Are the IT decisions you make today capable of carrying your organization forward for the next 5 to 10 years?

This question is less daunting than it sounds. It’s not about overhauling your entire IT infrastructure overnight. Your goal is to take readily available data to start (and maintain!) a conversation where you to step back and think strategically about how technology is intertwined in your operations. Throughout the discussion, you’ll rely on information gathered during risk and rapid security assessments.

Risk assessments

Risk evolves as your business changes. Regular risk assessments are the best way to evaluate your environment and pinpoint what to address now and what to tackle later.

Rapid security assessment

You could spend a fortune on cybersecurity tools that don’t move the needle because none of them can dismantle your organization’s particular threats. Our rapid security assessment tells you which solutions lower your risk profile at a fraction of the cost of a pen test.

Add assessments to your annual planning

You already do business planning in Q4. This is a logical time to add in IT assessments and reviews.

Why “rapid” security assessments don’t cut corners.

See what’s covered.

2 Ways to Be More Strategic with Your Existing IT Support Resources

1. Automate Security Controls

Microsoft has cybersecurity tools that use artificial intelligence (AI) to evaluate different criteria and flag behavior that looks risky. If you have an employee who logs in every day at 8 a.m. from a specific location, the system learns that pattern. Then, when it detects a log in at 3 a.m. from halfway across the country, it can raise the alarm that something isn’t right. Your IT provider can then evaluate the logs and determine if the threat is real.

Use Azure to get this protection for non-Microsoft applications

You can extend this protection to non-Microsoft apps, too, when you federate with Microsoft Azure. In short, federation centralizes your control over the domains and applications you use to run your business. Employees like it because instead of logging into Teams and Salesforce and Redtail, they’re only asked to sign on once.

This makes your entire business safer

The AI powers can now evaluate non-Microsoft solutions. MFA can be implemented on all federated apps. It becomes less likely you’ll make avoidable mistakes — like forgetting to deactivate all accounts when employees leave your organization. When every authentication goes through Microsoft, you only need to deactivate the Microsoft 365 account. Once you do that, the employee is cut off from everything, automatically.

Check your vulnerabilities

Get a Rapid Security Assessment

2. Remember, it’s never too late to learn a new trick

Those tech-savvy seniors didn’t grow up glued to screens and devices. They learned how to use what was available to them.

You only use a fraction of what’s available in Microsoft 365

You’re in the cloud and have Outlook, Teams and Office, but have you delved into Delve? What about OneNote? These are apps you pay for and they’re gathering dust.

Some of your peers have already figured this out

Recently, a CFO we work with called and said she wanted to start using Microsoft To-Do. The app has been available for over a year, just waiting for someone to use it as a productivity tool. We added it to every device and she dove in headfirst.

What Could You Achieve with Strategic IT Support?

The senior living center is making sustainable, strategic IT decisions that offer a better quality of life for its residents. Can you say the same about your organization and what you offer employees? Are you using IT to make it easier for employees to work now and in the future? Or are you only focused on fixing what breaks?

No matter where you are now, we can help you:

• Actually use business applications you pay for
• Increase productivity
• Make IT decisions that match immediate and long-term business plans
• Simplify and strengthen cybersecurity across devices, data and apps

Strategically Empower Your Business

Contact Us Today