Having the right technology is essential to keeping your growing business competitive. Of course, it can also be a lot to manage, and you don’t always know what technology will benefit you the most and make your team as productive as possible. If you own a small to medium-sized business and plan on expanding, here are some tech options you should consider.
Dedicated Servers
With dedicated servers, you don’t have to lease your Internet hosting service with anyone else. This means that you, as a business owner, will have full control of your server, including operating system, hardware, and so on. Not only that, your Internet connection will be much stronger, since you don’t have to share servers with any other networks offsite – which uses a ton of bandwidth.
Bigger Routers
Bigger routers means having the ability to support more connections. If you don’t know, wireless routers allow access to the Internet, but that access can be impeded if too many people are trying to connect through a router that can’t support as much as you need. As your company grows, so does your staff, and so does the need for larger Internet capabilities.
Macs can be configured to connect to a 5GHz network, as opposed to the standard 2.4GHz network. 5GHz networks have a shorter range, but there is less interference of it, and these networks can support faster data transfer. You’ll have to separate your 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks by accessing your router settings (consult your router manual if you’re unsure!). After you do this, go to System Preferences > Network > Wi-Fi > Advanced and tell your Mac to join the 5GHz network. If this sounds a little complicated to you, you can call Nerds In A Flash and we’ll help you through it!
Bigger Switches
With a larger quantity of equipment comes a larger need for these devices to communicate with each other. That’s what switches do. As opposed to a router, switches are the highway to convey data between devices in your office; think sending something to the printer remotely from your desktop computer in another room. The more devices you have, the more ports you’ll need on your switch!
Accounting Software
Even if you have an in-house accountant or bookkeeper, accounting software helps you to see your profits from a bird’s-eye view. It can also be a great tool for creating and maintaining a budget. As your business grows, keeping track of expenses might get more overwhelming, so any tool that allows you to look at your expenses faster helps.
Telephones
It may seem obvious, but if you’ve been using your personal cell phone to take calls and field questions from clients, then it might be time to separate your home line from your business line. Finding the right telephone system that works for you is a great way to give your business a “home base” hotline for people to call if they have questions. There are all kinds of options when it comes to business phone systems. You can get business service from the phone company, or opt for an internet-based phone service – called PBX or VOIP.
Knowing what equipment to buy and how to support it are both daunting tasks. That’s why we offer Technique managed IT services. Our IT consulting experts can help your Austin or San Antonio business determine what equipment you need to upgrade to and we’ll help you maintain it – all for a fraction of the cost of hiring a full time IT person. To learn more, check out our Technique tab on Facebook.
