Operating and managing a successful business requires more than the ability to provide products and services with high demand. When you want to build a successful business or brand, keeping your company's IT management skills and techniques in mind is essential.
Knowing how to optimize your company's IT management is a way for you to ensure all projects and tasks are being completed as effectively and efficiently as possible, even when you are not around. Optimizing your company's IT management provides a better work culture and environment for employees to help increase the overall output of each day's work.
Use the Cloud to Optimize Workflow
Use the cloud to optimize workflow by storing data, documents, and completed projects all in one central location. When your entire IT staff has the ability to upload, download, and share files from one location, improve the overall speed of and productivity of those working together on an IT-related project or task.
Using the cloud to optimize workflow helps to eliminate tasks such as saving files to hard drives and thumb drives while also drastically easing accessibility when seeking files and looking to share different uploads for input and potential changes between IT staff and team members.
Set Reasonable Goals
When managing a group of IT professionals, setting reasonable goals is a must in order to keep your staff from feeling overwhelmed or becoming frazzled due to the number of tasks and projects they are working on simultaneously. Having reasonable goals set in place help to alleviate workplace stress while allowing your employees' more creative freedom while they work to hit milestones with each project they are taking on. Without reasonable goals set in place, staff may quickly become confused and overworked, especially if they are responsible for delegating work and tasks on their own.
Delegating daily tasks is another important factor to keep in mind when you are looking to optimize your company's IT management, especially as it helps to streamline the overall effectiveness of each of your employees. Create a list of the most pressing projects and daily tasks for your IT staff to determine the best fit for each item on your list (based on skill set, communication preferences, and workflow style of each individual employee).
Delegating staff properly helps to create a motivating work environment that boosts productivity while also providing atmospheres that are most preferred by your IT team.
Avoid Micromanaging
Most professionals working in IT are excellent at their craft and prefer to work in solitude or their own personalized work environment. While your IT staff may work well together as a team, it is important to avoid micromanaging throughout each task and project you delegate. Micromanaging can feel smothering when IT professionals are working to code, debug, or test a project they are working on. Instead, be sure to outline milestones and final deadlines for project reviews and completed releases to allow your staff to feel more at ease and comfortable when focusing on the work that needs to be done.
Use alternative methods to communicate in order to keep track of the flow and progress of any project you have assigned to your IT staff.
Telecom and Tech Expenses
Managing telecom and other tech-related expenses can quickly become a nuisance when you are steadily focusing on growing other aspects of your business as you expand. Having your telecom and tech expenses audited, monitored, and properly managed is a way for you to spend more time generating leads, sales, and building the best professional team of employees possible.
Having your telecom and tech expenses managed with a professional service is essential when you are still utilizing phone services in order to communicate as well as provide customer support services to your users.
Improve Communication With Staff
Put communication apps such as Slack to use with your IT team to keep in touch while working together to complete projects and tasks. Set regular meetings to review progress, updates, and to answer questions any of your staff may have while also allowing them to talk amongst each other. Keeping the lines of communication open helps to streamline progress in IT departments while drastically increasing productivity.
Without proper channels and platforms to communicate, IT employees may find themselves working on duplicate tasks or going in entirely different directions when working on a segment of a larger group project.
Make Time for Staff and Team Members
Making time for your staff and IT team members helps keep workplace issues to a minimum while boosting overall workplace morale for your employees. Allow your IT staff to voice their concerns, share their opinions, and offer advice for upcoming projects you have planned. The more involved your IT team is, the less likely they are to become demotivated and discouraged when working to reach goals you have set in place.
Taking the time to completely overhaul the way you manage your IT staff and day-to-day operations is a way to ultimately gain more control over the entirety of your business and brand. The more involved you are in various areas of your business, the easier it becomes to communicate with staff while also informing employees of current and upcoming changes, keeping anyone working for you informed at all times.
Optimizing your company's IT management and smoothing the process of collecting, storing, and organizing data are ideal to keep your business running properly while also providing the necessary analytics and insight to outperform the competition in your market and industry.
About the Author: Nancy Peckham
Nancy began her career in telecommunications in 1983 as an account executive with Republic Telecom, a regional long distance carrier. She was named district sales manager for the Wisconsin region in 1987 when Republic Telecom was acquired by Mid American Communications. She recognized a need for independent, objective telecommunications consulting which led her founding Valicom. Since its launch in 1991, Valicom has been a leader in providing telecom expense management solutions and serves enterprise and mid-market clients in a variety of industries and verticals across the U.S. Nancy earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, founded and served as president of the Telecommunications Professionals of Wisconsin (TPW) from 1989-1992, and was executive vice president on the board of directors of the Society of Telecommunications Consultants (STC). Nancy is also a founding member and executive council chair of the Independent Telecommunications Expense Management Association (i-TEM).