Why you should audit your IT systems annually

In most cases, the unfortunate truth about business systems and technology is that they can go out of date very quickly.

How do you keep up with new technologies and make sure you have a competitive advantage?

In this article, we will outline some simple example steps your IT provider should be doing on an annual basis, to keep you informed and your business up to date with the latest IT technologies.

An IT systems audit should be scheduled, conducted and reviewed at least annually.  When this takes place very much depends on your business operation.  A good rule of thumb is to carry out an audit before quieter times of the year.

This helps the business to plan any upgrades and projects to coincide with those quieter times which will cause less disruption to the business.

The following items are examples of some components an audit should include.  This is not a complete list.  Let's get started:

Age of equipment

• An inventory of all IT equipment should be kept, this should include model numbers, serial numbers, manufacturer and more importantly warranty status.
• IT equipment which includes desktops, laptop, servers tend to have an optimal performance life cycle of between 3 - 5 years. 
• Maintaining an inventory with this information allows the business and IT provider to plan for upgrades.  You can easily prioritize which machines should be renewed or upgraded using the inventory list.

Automation

• The audit should also look to include an overview of manual tasks or problems in the business.
• Is there a manual, repetitive task that could be automated?  This could be something as easy as duplicate data input by a member of staff. 
• You might have 2 systems in place that require the same data to be input, why not automate this so data it is entered manually only once? 
• Automation is becoming more common in the workplace and services such as Microsoft Power Automate and Zapier allow business to work smarter, not harder.

Disaster Recovery Test

• Backups should be tested monthly to ensure files can be successfully restored, but disaster recovery is meant for larger events
• More insurance providers are now offering "Cyber Insurance" critical insurance that any business that has been hacked will make a top priority when renewing.
• A little known fact about cyber insurance is the need for a disaster recovery plan with answers to questions such as "how long will it take your business to recover"  and "when was the last time your disaster recover was tested?"
• This highlights the need for at least an annual test of your recovery process and should be included as part of an IT audit.

 

For more information about how we can help your business and provide an independent 3rd party IT audit of your systems and technology, follow the "Get Started Now" link below.