The average employee loses 22 minutes each day on IT-related technology issues.
These technology issues hinder workers’ productivity, jeopardize the security of sensitive data and compromise company processes.
The upshot of having effective solutions for IT issues in place is that it increases job satisfaction — 92% of employees say having technology that helps them do their job efficiently makes them happier at work.
However, numerous businesses still don’t place enough emphasis on methods of solving IT problems, let alone preventing them from happening.
For the majority of technology difficulties, there are simple solutions. And complex problems can be tackled with good IT security practices and/or help from specialized IT services.
This article lists the most common IT issues that affect organizations of all sizes and profiles and provides ways to address them head-on.
Table of Contents
1. Poor Network Security Measures
Bad or no security practices at all can pose a great threat to keeping your business and its database of sensitive files safe. This is why keeping your network secure is a critical consideration for any organization’s IT sector.
Cybercriminals target businesses of all sizes, compromising files and employee data alike. Smaller businesses are at a greater risk of having their network breached because they often do not have robust security policies in place.
To ensure your network and technology devices are safe and secure, proactively seek solutions such as:
- Multi-factor authentication
- Firewall and other forms of connectivity security
- Backed-up data
- Training employees in security principles
- Keeping passwords particularly secure
2. Outdated Equipment
Businesses using outdated, obsolete equipment are also at risk of experiencing severe technical difficulties. Small businesses with big budget restraints are particularly hit by this, while other companies suffer from the complexity of integrating new hardware into their IT infrastructure.
The problem with old tech equipment is that it begins to malfunction on a frequent basis due to deteriorating components. It is unable to adopt new systems and updates and, therefore, becomes unreliable and prone to cyberattacks.
It is important to maintain your equipment regularly and stave off the inevitable decline for as long as possible. It’s also vital to use support services, replace parts of the IT infrastructure and, whenever possible, factor in new equipment within the limits of your budget.
Consulting with IT experts is especially needed in this case, as their advice can limit your expenditure and help you work within your budget. They can also help with freezing, crashing and the general slow performance of your hardware.
3. Untrained and Inexperienced Staff
Human error accounts for the majority of IT issues. These errors can happen out of negligence or lack of focus but, more often than not, they are the outcome of the untrained and inexperienced staff.
While the technicality of operating certain systems may be complicated, your in-house staff that works on maintaining these systems (or the IT service provider that you hired) can assist in training your employees in this regard.
Ideally, IT management professionals should themselves maintain and monitor web hosting, data storage, server and other aspects of a company’s IT infrastructure. They can free up your in-house staff and tackle existing projects, as well as new ones with more success and with fewer mistakes in order to improve your operations.
4. Data Loss and Lack of Recovery Plan
Losing 100 important files can incur financial losses of up to $36,000 for any business.
Organizations can lose their data due to many reasons, such as:
- Cyberattacks
- Equipment malfunction
- Human error
- Power outage
- Catastrophic events
To soften the blow these data loss threats present to your business, you need to have a detailed disaster recovery plan in place that would consist of cloud-based data backup, IT support contacts, backup servers and external storage.
Cloud services use multiple security measures that let you store and access your sensitive information from anywhere in the world.
5. Loss of Passwords
One of the inevitable occurrences in the workplace is that people will forget their passwords. It is also one of the most frequently recurring issues with IT troubleshooting services.
This is a highly disruptive event that can damage your team’s productivity and affect the final output levels. To avoid this, your organization should use special software that removes the risk of passwords getting forgotten.
Software and programs that allow you to generate thousands of very strong passwords and secure them in an online, cloud-based vault are your best bet for preventing downtime from happening due to this issue.
Tools like Zoho Vault, Dashlane, LastPass and NordPass have multiple recovery options, making them quite cost-effective solutions, as most of their pricing tiers begin at very affordable prices.
6. Slow Performance
Computers, servers and other IT components that perform slowly can hinder your company’s productivity and affect employees’ job satisfaction.
The slow performance is usually caused by outdated machinery, bad software, poor processors and RAM and other hardware and software culprits.
There are certain main roots to this problem that you need to monitor. Some of which are:
Inefficient Use of RAM
Instruct your staff to keep open only those applications that they use. For example, if they have too many tabs open in their browsers or a lot of software apps running in their background, this can significantly slow down the computer they are using. Especially if the said computer is not top-of-the-range and is prone to slowness.
Keeping only what you need open reduces the usage of RAM.
Lack of Hard Drive Space
Another common cause of information technology problems is the lack of sufficient space on the computers’ hard drives.
Too much clutter on employees’ computers slows down the entire system. There should be regular defragmentation and clean-up sessions to get rid of excess, unused and nonvaluable files.
Malicious Files and Viruses
Malware eats into the hardware and software. It takes away resources that other apps and programs would normally use.
Systems that are infected with malware are usually slowed down, apparently for no reason at all. Therefore, if you are suspicious about the reason behind a slow performance, check for the possibility of malware and virus infection.
Antivirus, antimalware and anti-spyware software are absolutely essential in this day and age of cyber breaches, so make sure your entire IT infrastructure is equipped with this type of software that keeps malicious files at bay.
7. Unrestricted Access to Data and Other Information
Your organization’s employees need access to certain data and files so that they can perform their tasks efficiently and successfully. However, not all of them need access to all the files and data in your IT system.
Some of the most common technical issues may occur when employees have access to things they shouldn’t, like sensitive files and passwords for important backend services. Or getting the possibility of installing software and plugins without permission.
When giving your employees access to certain data systems, make sure each of them gets access only to those systems they need for specific job duties.
8. Accidentally Deleted Files
One of the most common IT problems, but also one that is very easy to avoid, is losing files to accidental deletions.
As soon as the file is deleted — and in case whoever deletes them notices that right away — you should look into the recycle bin if the file is there. Restoring it is quite easy in this case. Also, if you know the file’s name, try searching for it in case it got accidentally moved instead of deleted. Make sure you don’t use your system for current tasks at this point as you may accidentally overwrite the file with new data.
To prevent any accidental permanent file deletions, it is advisable to use programs that sync all of your system files to cloud drive systems, such as Google Drive, OneDrive or your provider’s cloud storage.
This effectively creates a copy of your file and saves it to the cloud so that even if in the unfortunate event that you do delete the file permanently, the most recent version can be downloaded from the cloud.
However, even that doesn’t guarantee that your files are completely safe from being lost, as cyberattacks also target cloud-stored data. Now that syncing files to the cloud is not enough, it is also advisable to have a backup IT cloud solution that would fully eliminate the risk of permanent file loss.
Finally, if you are certain that your file is lost and you use no cloud-powered storage, look for specialized IT support partners that can help you recover lost files. Top-quality IT providers will automatically back up all of your data, making sure that any files you lost can be recovered quickly and efficiently.
Also, the backup and disaster recovery plans come in handy in these situations, providing your business with much-needed continuity and productivity.
