What to Include in a Year-End Technology Review

Planning Ahead with a Year-End Technology Review

With 2023 right around the corner, it is the perfect opportunity for your business to conduct a year-end technology review to plan ahead for the new year, but also consider the foreseeable future. Businesses in Suffolk are becoming more and more dependent on technology, and it is absolutely vital that your business is looking to see where you can optimise and better your IT processes.

Through completing a year-end technology review there is plenty of opportunity for you to look at various elements of your IT. You want to ensure you are devoting enough time to your review, as it is going to be focusing on the improvements you can make to better your business, alongside the ways in which you are going to be reducing the risk of any Cyber Security attacks from occurring.

There’s no doubt about the fact that businesses that use their technology more effectively are going to do better and inevitably, be more secure.

Ipswich based Business IT Support provider Corbel recommend this year-end that your business in Ipswich, Felixstowe and surrounding Suffolk area takes enough time to review your technology in order to set you up for a combination of success and security in 2023…

Things you Should be Considering in your Year-End Technology Review

A year-end technology review is going to look at all aspects of your businesses IT infrastructure. You want to be looking all things security, efficiency, and automation, alongside anything that is going to support future initiatives – some key examples to look at include:  

Technology Policies

People will stop following a technology once it is outdated and therefore it is essential in a year-end technology review to update any policies that need it to best embody new conditions. An example of this could be, if you have staff working from home or in hybrid conditions, then you should have a device policy that allows for this.

It’s also a good idea to give employees a refresher on important information when policies are updated as strengthening employee knowledge will never let you down.

DR Planning

Are you doing incident response drills regularly enough? Are your staff aware of what they need to respond as best they can to Cyber-attacks, or even a natural disaster?

When completing this year-end technology review, it’s a good idea to plan out some potential drills and training opportunities for the new year.

Pain Points and IT Issues

When going through a big IT upgrade, it is vital for your business to consider employee pain points and seek opportunity to improve staff productivity, efficiency and most importantly, wellbeing.

It is more important than ever before to prioritise your staff wellbeing and there are some tips on how your business can do this here.

Ask employees what’s working well and what’s not working so well – ask them if there is any common struggles they face.

You never know, your employees may provide you with some insightful information as to how they think technology could make their jobs better and better your business.  

Orphaned Accounts and Privileged Access

It is a good idea in your year-end review to consider your privileged accounts. Privileged accounts are a login credential to a server and its users who are authorised to perform security related functions that ordinary users are not authorised to perform including it administrators, security teams and helpdesk experts. When not looked at again, permissions can become misused, and this can result in your network being at a much greater risk of a cyber-attack.

Your businesses risk will be lower the less privileged accounts and so you should consider cutting out any accounts that don’t need these admin-level permissions.

Simultaneously whilst you are doing this – it can be highly beneficial for you to look for orphan accounts and close them. Orphan accounts are accounts without an active user, and since they’re not being used – it’s a good idea in terms of security to close them to minimise any security risk.

Transformation and IT Upgrade Plans for 2023

You ideally want to lay out your IT Strategy in as much detail as possible and a clear sense of direction. IT isn’t something you should be “winging” – you want a clear, concise plan that can be upgraded along the way and leaves room for opportunity and growth.

In order to help you prioritise the elements of your strategy you want to focus on, it is recommended that your business gets a penetration test in order to assist you. A penetration test will provide your business a list of potential vulnerabilities and look at the potential security weaknesses they could cause. Through looking where you can eliminate these vulnerabilities, there will be opportunity for your business to improve its Cyber Security.

Additionally, ensuring you have a solid strategy in place will help you alongside your financial planning in terms of avoiding unplanned expenses and budgeting for any upgrades that may occur.

Shadow IT and Cloud Use

Reviewing how regularly you use your cloud applications is essential to helping your business be as efficient as possible. If there’s certain aspects of your cloud environment that you are not using, then it is likely you are wasting storage space and money – this can simply be spotted and reduced by reviewing your environment.

Also, it is recommended for your organisation to have a look at any Shadow IT that is being utilised and consider the security implications this may have. Shadow IT is essentially where cloud applications are being used for work purposes, they just haven’t gone through the approval of the IT department. An example of this could be using elements of the Google suite for example if they haven’t been officially licensed or approved for use.  In order to reduce any security risks resulting from this, it is best for your business to officially approve them or close the account.  

Technology Facing your Customers

An essential part of your year-end technology review should be looking at your technology infrastructure’s customer experience. A good exercise to do for this, is to go through your website as if you were a customer and consider how easy it is to navigate and get in touch. Think if you’re struggling to navigate something – as an expert in your field – then the likelihood is that your customers are finding it tricky as well. Therefore, it is essential to consider optimising your customer-facing technology in time for 2023.

Looking for Some Support with Your Year-End Technology Review and Security Assessment?

If you are looking for some support with reviewing your current technology environment or building a technology roadmap, then feel free to get in touch today to gain some IT support. Either pop us an email at info@corbel.co.uk, or give us a call on 01473 241515.

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Ipswich-based Business IT Support partner Corbel, work proactively with businesses in Ipswich, Felixstowe, Stowmarket, and the surrounding Suffolk area. From IT consultancy services to Cyber Security – Corbel can work with your business effectively to help you implement a technology roadmap and strategy for 2023 in alignment with your business goals.