Connect dispersed workforces. As in-house staff levels contract and the mobile workforce expands, businesses are making due with smaller physical office spaces. More and more companies are giving their employees the option to work offsite, allowing them to save money on the overhead required to maintain large workspaces. This option also allows hiring managers to cast a wider net into the talent pool, increasing the odds of finding a well-qualified candidate. 

Productive employees need instant access to business information, data, and their team; mobile-friendly technologies are a sure-fire way to provide that.

Be reachable. Make sure your remote employees are armed with updated mobile devices and the support solutions to keep them connected. A missed call can mean a missed business opportunity. Invest in a business phone system with UC so you can take advantage of the features that keep you connected. Voicemail to email, find-me-follow-me, softphones, and work caller ID are all features that ensure employees never miss an opportunity, all while maintaining a consistent level of professionalism.

Explore virtualization. Extend the lifespan of older desktop computers by virtualizing operating systems on offsite servers. Virtualization helps lower hardware maintenance costs and capital expenditures by reducing the frequency of required upgrades, in addition to saving costs on service upkeep. If you already have a virtualized environment, add things such as your phone system to it to save even more and increase business redundancy. It’s hard to be productive during a power outage, and downtime is expensive, so having a virtual copy of your infrastructure can get your team back up and running instantly.

Trust the experts. Instead of attempting to be the jack-of-all-trades around the office, be the master of one: managing your business. All kinds of services and processes can be outsourced, but as a general rule of thumb, anything outside of your scope of expertise or anything that can’t be automated should be outsourced. Keep yourself and your employees focused on the job you hired them to do and trust the experts to handle things that are over your head or out of your control.

Run the latest operating system

Older operating systems, like Microsoft Windows 7, have potential security flaws that hackers take advantage of, making a system more vulnerable to malware and other attacks. It's not enough to run a current protection suite, such as one that combines antivirus, antispyware and a firewall, because the operating system itself may contain security holes. With new cyberattacks being launched daily, your organization could easily fall prey to a ransomware attack or malware infection.

Update hardware technology

Over time, computers, peripherals and printers become outdated and move into the legacy class. For very old hardware (say five years or more), you might have a hard time finding drivers that support new operating systems and applications, leading to compatibility and reliability issues.

One major issue with legacy computers is inadequate RAM, which can be a major pain point for users. Web browsers, especially, require a lot of memory. Just open Task Manager in Windows and browse the running processes to see how much more memory a browser uses than most other programs. Many employees tend to have a browser open at all times, along with other software, so a computer without enough RAM can greatly decrease employee productivity while increasing their frustration level.

Keeping old equipment in use might seem like a money saver, but it requires more maintenance than new equipment in the form of upgrades and repairs. And waiting until your server crashes to replace it is risky, potentially setting your business back for days at a time and resulting in loss of revenue. Consider an upgrade cycle of every three years for computers, or more often if you can afford it.