Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, most firms scrambled to make working with a dispersed workforce extra manageable. From Zoom to Skype to Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, companies adopted options that made working from house extra seamless. For a lot of firms, nevertheless, this fast adoption created a patchwork of options, which might trigger IT departments and finish customers complications and setbacks.
After all, patchwork IT has been round lengthy earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic. We usually see patchwork options throughout mergers and acquisitions when one firm makes use of a set of functions and productiveness suites and the opposite firm makes use of one other. Collectively, they need to make this mismatched group of options work.
Resolving patchwork IT shouldn’t be a straightforward feat. It requires cautious planning, thought and execution. Nonetheless, by following these subsequent steps, MSPs and IT professionals can seamlessly resolve patchwork methods for firms.
Take a look at patchwork IT holistically
Each IT scenario has benefits and drawbacks. For patchwork IT, the cons usually outweigh the professionals. One of many benefits of a patchwork of options is that you would be able to select the “better of one of the best” to deal with your operational wants. Nonetheless, this tactic often results in a state of affairs the place options can not talk with others.
For instance, you may have Cisco firewalls, routers and VPNs whereas additionally utilizing VMware. This may not be such a nasty factor, however the options don’t essentially speak to one another. And each has completely different administration consoles.
Consolidating options provides performance and makes them simpler to handle. By optimizing patchwork methods, firms can clean out operations, keep away from end-user confusion and get monetary savings on redundancies.
Consolidation is vital
Resolving patchwork IT usually means consolidation. To consolidate correctly, MSPs and IT departments ought to contemplate these steps:
- Assess: First, firms ought to assess their inner and exterior wants to find out which platforms and functions they want. For instance, if cloud-based doc collaboration is important, firms might think about using Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. Assessing your operational necessities allows you to determine which options you want and which you’ll be able to dwell with out.
- Establish: Pinpoint which options aren’t serving operations or have grow to be redundant. For instance, an organization might have adopted Skype throughout the pandemic, then realized inner groups solely use Zoom and Microsoft Groups for video calls. Eliminating Skype frees up house for different important functions.
- Execute: When it’s time to consolidate, you want the best instruments to make sure options are correctly eradicated, migrated and saved to keep away from complications and misplaced knowledge. Utilizing the best migration device can make sure you transfer your knowledge safely and successfully.
Migrating to resolve patchwork IT
Earlier than a migration, it’s best to contemplate just a few components. Do you might have a full image of what knowledge and options must be moved? What quantity of knowledge must be migrated? The place does it must be moved? Do you might have a migration device that may successfully deal with this undertaking?
Stakeholder suggestions can also be important. You need to guarantee everyone seems to be on board with the adjustments following a migration. For instance, if firms concerned in an M&A necessity to decide on between Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, get enter from workers to find out which answer works greatest for them.
Finishing a migration with out consulting stakeholders dangers confusion and operational setbacks. Staff might need to discover ways to use new methods, which might result in frustration and disruption in productiveness. For this reason firms ought to at all times deploy change administration and guarantee finish customers have the mandatory assets and coaching to make use of the brand new options as soon as the patchwork setting is resolved.
Lastly, with any migration, you at all times need to mitigate dangers. A method to do that is to make use of the best migration device. To make sure all of your knowledge and knowledge are moved correctly, deploy a migration device constructed to satisfy the scale, timeline and specifics of the migration. This prevents setbacks and permits for a seamless migration. Because of this, firms received’t have to fret about misplaced knowledge or the migration failing, permitting finish customers to entry their mail and paperwork of their new places.
Avoiding patchwork IT sooner or later
As soon as a patchwork of options is resolved, it’s necessary to stop it from reoccurring. To do that, MSPs and IT professionals ought to contemplate what we name the 5 Pillars of Office Maturity:
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- Content material Companies: Disorganized recordsdata are a typical ache level for finish customers of patchwork methods. By digitizing recordsdata and operations, firms can scale back bodily paperwork and worker frustration as they seek for important paperwork. With content material companies, workers can entry paperwork from wherever, saving time, cash and assets.
- Hyperautomation: Leverage instruments that help hyperautomation so workers can reallocate time to extra essential duties. Hyperautomation can optimize worker processes and create house for extra participating work, decreasing danger and growing productiveness.
- Unified Communication and Collaboration: One of many important causes of patchwork IT is having completely different instruments that do the identical factor. Deciding between a number of instruments could make groups much less productive. If workers are experiencing these ache factors, you want communication, collaboration and convention instruments to make sure workers are productive, engaged and communicative in actual time.
- Rising Functions and Know-how: New expertise can assist you allow legacy infrastructure and modernize your utility stack. With rising functions and expertise, you’ll be able to guarantee your group and workers are agile within the face of disruptions and absolutely ready for the way forward for work.
Dealing with patchwork IT head-on
Almost half of IT leaders (48%) stated their firm deliberate to do a big IT improve to streamline patchwork methods inside the subsequent 12 months. Virtually a 3rd (29%) had been already within the midst of a migration.
Now could be the time to deal with your patchwork IT issues. By following the steps outlined above, you’ll be able to resolve your patchwork system and stop it from reoccurring sooner or later, creating smoother operations and end-user productiveness to maintain your enterprise thriving.
By Stacey Farrar, product advertising and marketing supervisor at BitTitan, and Christopher Chesley, North American digital office development chief at SoftwareOne
