A lot of us went through it back in March of 2020 – the scurrying about to get our IT running smoothly so our teams could continue working as we were faced with work-from-home orders. Some of us were already operational in a remote setting, but a lot of us were either only partially onboard or had no idea where to start. Although the world proved we could work from home productively, a lot of us were operating on systems that were slapped together and hobbling along on the uncertainty of what was to come next. We were, and some still are, in a haze – the COVID Hangover. With current events starting to settle somewhat and the New Year right around the corner, it’s time to talk cleanup and getting your team settled into a system that’s catered to your needs. Here’s the top four questions to ask when reviewing your Information Management System / setup.
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- How are you working with your information?
In tech talk, you’ll sometimes hear phrases like ‘logical architecture’ be thrown around. In a nutshell, this refers to how your content(files, folders and other resources) is organized as a whole. Do your departments work in silos, or is company-wide information all intertwined? Is information easy to access? Is information and the processes associated with its production duplicated across the organization? Having a logical architecture that’s straightforward for your team to access across all departments is critical in ensuring your team is productive and efficient day-to-day.
- Is there a Governance System in place?
We all know our needs change all the time – Information Management (IM) infrastructure is no different. Piggybacking off of the previous point, it’s important to have a system in place to manage the information as a team. When we work with clients, we recommend a Governance Committee be put in place to meet regularly and review the IM needs of the organization. Whether this is every quarter, 6 months or annually will depend on your business. However often a group decides to meet, having the opportunity to check in on things as seemingly mundane as folder/channel structure, access to new tools or changes to levels of permission for said information goes a long way in keeping systems in check and getting ahead of the curve (like being prepared for another lockdown)!
- Cybersecurity
So we’re up and running on the cloud. Great! We’ve all gotten the hang of accessing information online and sharing documents with one another a la 2021. Microsoft, Google, Amazon – all the big players have their own backups, so nothing to worry about! Wrong. Although the big players need to have some assurances in place to protect data against bad actors, the age of Big Data has brought with it big hacker opportunities and is showing a steady increase in cyber attacks across all industries. Having supplemental backups available, implementing spam filters and multifactor authentication are a few simple but key items to seriously consider (we’d even go so far as to say these should be mandatory requirements). Not only are you protecting company and possibly personal data, but you’ll likely be reducing your liability risks and insurance as well.
- Do you have the right kind of support in place?
Who’s currently managing all of your company’s information? Is this something that can be done in-house, or do you lack the resources and know-how? Often enough, internal teams simply can’t keep up with today’s demand in tech. By outsourcing to an external provider, you’re getting a set of fresh eyes evaluating your systems, expertise and the resources to support your team so you can focus on what you do best. A good IM support provider will take it one step further with a thorough audit and won’t be afraid to tell you if you’re spending too much money on extra licensing or unnecessary / duplicate systems, which could result in saving you thousands of dollars year-over-year depending on the size of your organization.
However your team has fared over the last two years, it’s worth doing a review of what you’ve got in place and discussing where your systems need to go to be future-proof. It’s an opportunity to streamline your team’s efforts to get the best bang for your buck. Not sure where to start? We can provide a free analysis of your information management systems’ licensing with a competitive quote to highlight cost-savings opportunities.