Small companies typically have just one professional dedicated to technology services and support. In the vast majority of cases, they are in charge of so many tasks that they are not always able to identify ways to improve the productivity , making their own time less productive and busier.
In this article, we will address the main difficulties faced by “lonely” IT professionals in companies and some ways to improve the productivity of both the team and IT itself in a simple and applicable way in almost all areas.
What are the difficulties faced by IT professionals?
In the corporate environment, especially in small and medium-sized companies, IT professionals experience several difficulties that take up their precious time during the day. The vast majority is related to the behaviors of other employees, mainly using the internet and the company network. Therefore, I have listed the most common ones below.
Multiple tasks
As soon as the IT professional starts a new task, an email arrives requesting support, the phone rings, his superior calls him for a meeting, a piece of equipment malfunctions, among other tasks that must be done immediately.
Most of the time, being busy is not synonymous with productivity, it is just an excess of tasks and low professional productivity. Not that this scenario is the employee's desire, but for various reasons it ends up making his time extremely disruptive and unproductive.
Great teams
The term “large” is compared to the presence of just one professional in the vast majority of small and medium-sized companies. Imagine a company with branches, containing several employees in each one and several computers and devices connected to the internet. There are several points with possible problems and maintenance.
Several users connected to the internet in the company generate many tasks for the IT professional, taking into account the users' lack of knowledge, thus generating the need for technical support from the responsible professional.
Home office professionals
With the pandemic, many companies keep some of their employees teleworking, the most commonly called home office However, at their homes, employees are out of the IT professional's physical reach, generating doubts on various issues such as remote access to company files, video calls, task control programs, among many other points.
If the company has only now decided to implement remote work or for some reason was forced to adopt this type of work, the scenario could be even worse. The IT professional's task is to ensure that this entire process is carried out in the best possible way, requiring the good will and cognitive capacity of the employee in question, so that the implementation of the home office is healthy. But, inevitably, he will have a lot of work.
Furthermore, there are security related to remote access. If it is already difficult to control access and downloads of harmful files in person, imagine remotely. Users without any type of control and protection on the internet can put the company's entire database at risk. We will see more about this below.
Lack of access control
The lack of control over internet access in the business environment is one of the biggest causes of extra tasks for professionals responsible for the company's technology sector.
In addition to giving IT more work, this fact leads to two other extremely relevant problems: data security and team productivity!
In the vast majority of incidents or security breaches, the gateway to attacks or virus installation are users who are unable to identify possible risks and end up clicking on fake email or malicious links on the internet.
Furthermore, without any website blocking, it is very easy for employees to lose focus and productivity, accessing social networks , for example.
You can see more information on the topic in the Internet Access Control Guide for Companies .
Network security issues
As we have said several times here on the blog , the main reason for problems related to cyber attacks and breaches in network security in companies comes from the misuse of the internet by users. Clicking on phishing emails, fake advertisements, malicious links on websites considered harmful, cause a lot of headaches for the IT professional responsible for the security of the company's data.
Keeping employees away from these threats is a task that takes time, but mainly requires the understanding and common sense of employees, who, when misused, cause various problems such as virus infection on devices, disruption of system files, slowness in the company's network, and in serious cases, loss or kidnapping of the company's sensitive and confidential data.
How to improve team productivity?
As we saw throughout the text, there are several factors that lead IT professionals in small and medium-sized companies to become very busy professionals, often hindering their objective of improving processes and helping the company's technology area to improve. become more fluid and automated, and also less susceptible to problems.
In the next few lines, we will see some ways to improve the productivity of the team that works directly with the internet, in the most automated way possible, making the IT professional's work less “turbulent”.
Using team management tools
The basics are the first step. Solutions to optimize team tasks are certainly one of the most effective ways to improve team productivity and, consequently, reduce IT professional overwork. Some of the most important solutions are:
- Backup
- Antivirus and Antimalware
- Routers and Switches
- Firewall and Internet Access Control
- Active Directory Domain Services
- Office Suite
- File Storage
- Business Email
- Corporate Communication
- Activity and Process Management
- Helpdesk and Service Management
- Video conference
In our IT Guide for Small and Medium Businesses , we mention several of the most common solutions to help IT professionals in their daily work. These tools work in favor of IT, helping to protect data, improve communications and reduce support.
Block websites
Controlling internet access is a common practice in companies and is increasingly important and necessary. It avoids wasting time or lack of focus among employees with activities on the internet that are personal or unrelated to work.
Unfortunately, this behavior is common in companies. Research shows that employees spend only 43% of their working week on tasks they were hired to do, meaning more than half of their working time is spent on tasks outside their scope of work.
In addition to improving team productivity, website blocking systems significantly reduce many of the tasks generated by the IT professional, arising from improper access, such as Phishing websites and also blocking the download of Malware, keeping systems healthier and the network of the safest company.
Remote access control
One of the biggest challenges for the company's IT is being able to keep remote access to the company's systems by employees working from home under control. Using a Business VPN, it is possible not only to keep the data that travels between the company's internal network and the remote worker secure, but also to control access, determining rules, user permissions and also permitted times for connection. This way, it is possible to automate any difficulties related to access, keeping company data safe and employees more productive.
Lumiun's Business VPN is a great solution for remote access control. With support entirely in Portuguese and payment in local currency (R$), they have been widely used by several companies in this turbulent period, mainly due to the ease of use and the cost related to the number of users using the tool. See more information about the solution here .
In addition to remote access control, there are several solutions that somehow improve home office processes and can take away excess work from IT professionals who are far away. We mention many of them in our Home Office Guide , which you can access or download whenever you want, it's free.
Conclusion
Certainly, many technology professionals suffer from excessive tasks and are constantly asked for systems that automatically improve team productivity. However, not all of them use technology to their advantage to make their work more productive and less disruptive.
I hope this article was a good read to help identify some ways to improve this scenario.
To the next!
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