For the benefit of forward-thinking managers everywhere, here’s our list of the top six IT problems your business might encounter – and how to guard against them:
6 Small Business IT Problems And The Solutions
1. Loss of an internet connection
The worst small business IT problem is, without a doubt, a lost internet connection. This can happen as a result of an external problem, such as a fault in the line, or an internal one, such as the failure of a router or other piece of kit. These outages are annoying, but the problems can usually be fairly swiftly resolved.
The problems that can be caused by mishandling the switch between two different suppliers, however, are in a whole different class. I’ve known companies suffer a 72-hour loss of internet service. Some people have achieved a month – that’s a whole month without any internet connection at all for their business – because they’d cancelled one internet service and only then ordered a new one.
What often happens is those small businesses are attracted by the low costs, seemingly high speeds, and warm promises made by retail providers. What they forget is that easy as BT or Plusnet is to order, it doesn’t come with the support offered by a specialist business internet provider.
With a business internet supplier, you don’t have to do any messing around with MAC codes or face any loss of internet connection. The supplier will typically put in your new service alongside the old one so that you only cancel your existing service once the new one is already up and running.
The solution to dodgy internet connections in your business? Always hire a specialist business IT support company to provide your business internet.
First Line IT is an IT support company specialising in small businesses, find out more about the IT solutions we offer, including business internet connections.
2. Accidentally Deleting Files from the server
This may sound like a trivial small business IT problem, but it happens surprisingly frequently. Unfortunately, restoring accidentally deleted files takes an inordinate amount of time. In small companies, many business-critical processes are run on simple spreadsheets. If someone forgets to save the most recent version, days or even weeks of work can be lost.
This can all be avoided if people run sufficient backup that can restore to a file level. Some back-ups rewrite everything on the entire system, which is a touch excessive if all you want is the sales file from yesterday.
3. Equipment failure
Equipment failure is the third business IT problem on the list because it’s not a particularly big serious issue. Workstations can and do fail, but it is not disastrous providing that people haven’t been saving data locally.
As long as your management systems and processes make it absolutely clear that all documents and data have to be saved to the server, where they will be backed up, you can regard someone’s workstation or laptop going on the blink as a minor irritation.
Server failure is a bit more serious, but its impact can be mitigated by advanced BCDR planning and making suitable provisions for back-up, replication, and continuity of your email service.
You can also avoid server failure altogether simply by recognising that hard drives do fail and building that into your planning and budgeting. IT asset management is a solution for this, as it helps your business keep IT assets safe, and managed correctly, should anything untoward happen to any IT device or hardware.
Word of advice, don’t ignore beeping noises and don’t keep running your server for yet another year with your fingers crossed. One day you will no longer be able to get away with it.
Working with a dedicated IT support company that provides active IT maintenance is the solution here to avoid any equipment failures in your office.
4. Viruses
A decade ago, viruses may well have been top of a list of small business IT problems. Now, their impact has reduced significantly, though there are still some nasties out there.
One of the worst is a crypto-locker virus which has been developed by criminals to extort money from companies. This type of virus will lock down your systems and data.
You can only get it back with a code that, naturally, you have to pay a great deal of money for.
Most good anti-virus software will stop this sort of virus. What you have to watch out for is the capacity of your staff to be taken in by a cleverly worded email that purports to come from a respected source such as DHL and their determination and ingenuity in getting around your own security systems to open that email.
Regular backups can avoid the worst if you become a victim of one of these viruses.
5. Email blacklisting
Have you ever felt that your emails were floating into the void and never be delivered? Have your customers ever suddenly gone quiet, and not responded to your emails? Has anyone rung you up to demand a piece of information that you know you emailed them a week ago?
If you have experienced any of these things, the chances are that your email address has been “blacklisted” by your customer’s email provider, a common small business IT problem.
Sometimes this is because a spammer has deliberately spoofed your email server to send out unsolicited emails. Sometimes it’s because you have accidentally made yourself look like a spammer by sending mass emails from your own server or including a link in your email signature.
A quick IT tip and solution to avoid email blacklisting is to do this – Run your emails through a mail continuity system from a reputable supplier, use a mailing house, such as Mailchimp or Dotmailer, to send out your marketing emails, and keep your email signatures as simple as possible.
6. Hacker Attacks on Your IT System
Hacker attacks are getting quite rare now, but don’t forget that the end of support for Microsoft XP will leave anyone still using that operating system vulnerable. Cybersecurity is important for any business, large or small. In fact, smaller businesses are more vulnerable to cyber threats and need to be well prepared for cyber attacks.
You can guard against such attacks with a strong router firewall and password – a multi-character, multi-formatted, randomly generated string, featuring at least 20 characters.
7. Training Your Staff in Cybersecurity
This might seem like a wasted budget, however, 95% of cyberattacks stem from human error. 95% of which are Phishing scams. Often, a simple incorrect email address or a social engineering hack is enough for cybercriminals to bring down an SME’s IT systems and hold it to ransom.
Cybersecurity training allows you to ensure your employees don’t fall foul to simple mistakes that cause huge IT security issues. Simple techniques as addressing simple password mistakes or identifying a social engineering scam can help increase business cybersecurity by 100%.
About First Line IT – The IT Support Company in Oxford
First Line IT is an IT Support company located in Oxford, UK offering a comprehensive range of IT services to small to medium-sized businesses. From essential IT support, cybersecurity and staff cybersecurity training, disaster recovery planning, First Line IT also offer business internet services and VOIP phone systems.