In the IT industry, you want to avoid making mistakes where possible. It’s less time that you have to spend on fixing issues and more time that you can spend on moving your company forward. You are also avoiding the waste of your hard-earned money when it is directed toward profit-generating activities instead of fixing mistakes that could have been prevented in the first place. With that being said, there are certain mistakes that you should avoid making altogether. These are the kinds of mistakes that can compromise the security of your company, lead to the misappropriation of important data, and even get you fired! Here are the top 10 IT mistakes that you should not be making:
In the IT world, you will often find that the same mistakes pop up repeatedly. They only appear different on the surface because the story can be told in multiple ways through multiple contexts. Avoid making these mistakes, and you will save a lot of wasted time and money.
1) Not buying your products from a reliable supplier.
This one sounds like a dead giveaway, but you will be surprised to see how many people try to save a couple of dollars by purchasing their products from a less-than-reliable supplier. This hurts them in the long run for many reasons. In addition to an increased chance of the product arriving in a damaged state, you will have a hard time dealing with trying to return that same product. Now you are going to have to spend more money buying the same thing twice from a different supplier. To prevent this from happening, you need a well-established supplier that will offer a lifetime warranty on items and a minimum 30-day money-back guarantee on any orders that you make. In addition to this, you want to ensure that the people in customer service are trained experts that are informed enough to answer any questions you may have.2) Not backing up your data.
Take a quick peek online, and you will see endless horror stories about the millions of dollars lost simply because important information was not backed up to a secure server that could be accessed in the case of an emergency. You don’t want to wake up, find an empty network drive that used to contain all of your documents, and then discover that backups were not being made. You need to have a reliable and secure backup system set in place. This means that you back up your data each and every day, and have the IT specialist confirm that they have been made successfully.3) Failing to test disaster-recovery plans.
You have a system that you have set up in place to recover your data in case a disaster comes your way, but have you tested it multiple times? Have you put it through a lot of rigor and considered the several instances where things could go wrong?
4) Lack of proper training provided to all employees that use the IT services.
A crucial part of having a solid IT system in place is ensuring that all of the IT employees are well trained in using the provided software and troubleshooting common problems.5) Becoming complacent with technical support.
As someone who works in technical support, it’s easy to think that you already know everything. This kind of thinking leads to problems down the road. Achieving excellence in tech support requires continuous self-education to keep yourself up to speed with the latest developments in your field.6) Not having a security system set up.
Your typical anti-virus software that might come pre-packaged with your setup does not count. You need to invest a lot of money into a robust security system that will keep your private information safe.7) No termination system for employees that have been let go.
How do you terminate the access and credentials for someone who is no longer working at your company? There are many horror stories out there of disgruntled former employees who decide to take revenge by using their access to do some serious damage.8) Using illegal software.
It seems obvious until you consider the number of companies who will try to save money by any means possible. Sure, you’ve saved money in the short term, but what about those legal fees you will have to pay when you get caught?9) Trying to solve problems by yourself.
No matter how competent you and your IT employees are, you may come across the rare scenario where you simply can’t figure out what is going on. You can choose to spend thousands of dollars and waste countless hours on solving what appears to be an unsolvable puzzle. Or, you can make the choice to acknowledge that a third-party technician might be the one to get the job done.10) Not following the IT rules set in place.
An IT system is only as good as the people who follow it. There is a good reason why the current IT system is set up as it is! This excludes scenarios where a part of the system may prove to be faulty. In the IT world, you will often find that the same mistakes pop up repeatedly. They only appear different on the surface because the story can be told in multiple ways through multiple contexts. Avoid making these mistakes, and you will save a lot of wasted time and money.
