A strong information technology department is necessary for the operation of most small businesses because it has the power to accelerate growth when effectively utilized. When a business is not aligned well with its IT department, even the most solid strategies can quickly lose value, become expensive and frustrating to achieve the business objectives. Many small businesses need IT as either core business or an enabling environment. In spite of the differences in business activities, there are common themes that exist among the small business in their approach to IT. The following are the common IT problems small businesses face.
Security Risks
The hackers of today have proved to be more sophisticated, and they are targeting everything including individuals, small businesses, and large enterprises. On one hand, the business has to keep the important files and data on the network to ensure they are not lost in case there is a computer failure of breakdown. On the other hand, an intrusion into the network holding the files can be a source of disaster for the company. While it may be impossible to do away with the danger of a data breach completely, a strong IT team can keep the risk potential under control.
Lack of Strategic IT Planning
Many small businesses have their IT activities and their larger company strategies disconnected. The leaders may have a complete view of the bigger picture, but through their activities they appear not to work towards accomplishing these goals. The questions many leaders fail to answer is this: What benefits would they accrue if they aligned the business strategies with those of their IT department? The answer is often that they could scale without many tech-related constraints.
Disaster Recovery Challenges
Failing to secure their data is one of the mistakes small businesses keep making, even in light of several high-profile data breaches. Many of these occur through a power outage, server crash, or a data disaster. Many times, it’s only when a business encounters a problem that they learn about the importance of data recovery and data backup. Having the right backup solution and disaster recovery procedures is critical to eliminate unforeseen data loss and disasters.
Integration Issues
Small businesses acquire new technologies with the objective of providing the needed solution for any problems encountered. The problem with this is that the new devices often do not play along with the older systems or applications. This situation sometimes results in data redundancy, data fragmentation, and other inefficiencies.
These problems are considered normal in many business operations, but having the right approach to IT systems can minimize the effect of these challenges on the small businesses.
Informational Credit to LANDESK

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John
May 19, 2016 at 9:01 pm
I couldn’t agree more about the need for businesses to have a recovery plan in place before (not after) any data loss occurs. Taking the initiative to come up with a solid data recovery plan in the beginning will save executives (and the people working under them) a considerable amount of time, trouble, and definitely money if data loss ever does strike their business. Thanks for sharing.