A new year is here, and your business operations are well underway. But before we get too far into 2022, it’s time to ask: how prepared are you to manage the data, technology, ERP, and infrastructure risks and challenges nearly every business is facing?
In this blog post, discover the biggest technology and data risks for growing organizations and what tools you can use to mitigate or avoid them—to not only protect your company but also to manage your operations and grow your performance:
- Insufficient analytics and business intelligence
- Delayed migration to the cloud
- The dangers of ransomware
We also invite you to watch our February Coffee with Chris webinar that discusses all these topics in a live presentation with certified ERP and IT experts!
Inaccurate or Insufficient Analytics: The Value of Business Intelligence
Many companies acquire data as they grow, and there are a variety of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions on the market designed to collect it. The more data companies collect, the more challenging it becomes to sift through it and extract valuable insights or trends (and make decisions or take actions accordingly).
In a Harvard Business Review report, only 23% of business leaders said they were able to “act on all or most of the customer data they collect.”
Beyond that, not every ERP solution is capable of accurately analyzing data to give companies insight into their operations and inform decision-making. Many ERP solutions simply collect and catalog data rather than provide any valuable reporting or analytics functions.
The problem is, if your analytics are insufficient, inaccurate, or inefficient, your company risks missing out on the value of business intelligence. In its report, 5 Key Actions for IT Leaders for Better Decisions, Gartner explains how human decision-making should be complemented with the power of data and analytics to capitalize on opportunities we might not otherwise see, to gain a competitive advantage, and optimize performance.
Without effective reporting and analytics, here’s what companies risk missing out on:
Getting Stronger Visibility on the Business
A business intelligence (BI) and analytics platform helps you sort through large quantities of information—fast. You’ll be able to synthesize whole data clusters without any complex system setups or major connectors. Disorganized items turn into sources of knowledge that inform your decision-making. A comprehensive overview of your business emerges as you pull data and information from the different sections of your business and get a clear view of your performance.
Instead of relying on piecemeal insights into your business or a long list of statistics, you can rely on a BI program that goes much deeper into your business.
Making Informed and Effective Decisions
Running a business relies, in part, on good decision-making, especially for people in leadership or upper management positions. Leaders use data and information in the leadup to making a decision, so it’s crucial they gather and analyze the right data beforehand and then have the information they need to explain or justify their decision.
Staying Competitive and on Top of Business Trends
A company that wants to grow is one that can react to ongoing developments on a tight turnaround. But making time-sensitive shifts (and staying ahead of the competition) means staying on top of business trends. One of the most direct ways of finding trends is to retrieve information from your existing sources, such as customer or sales data.
Integrated and optimized analytics can pull from these data sources as they’re inputted, giving your company real-time access. You’ll spot incoming trends and implement them far ahead of the crowd.
Take your first step towards eliminating the risks of lacking data and insufficient analytics:
The Danger of Delaying Migration to the Cloud
If your business hasn’t already adopted a cloud-based business management solution, this is the year you should do so. With the growing number of remote workforces, universal supply chain challenges, and capacity shortages, cloud ERP technology will play a key role in delivering the efficiency you’ll need to stay profitable and competitive.
Publishers have begun phasing out on-premise solutions such as Microsoft Dynamics NAV, GP, and SL, and the longer you wait to move, the more expensive and risky it will be. If you stall too long on migrating to the cloud, you risk eventually not having a choice about how you make the move, so it’s least disruptive to your business to act now.
Cloud ERP software solutions, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, offer a pay-as-you-go model that requires minimal up-front investment and no long-term commitment, allowing you to only pay for the licenses and resources you need.
Why Cloud is the Preferred Option
Businesses implementing ERP software overwhelmingly choose the cloud, partly because it’s an affordable way to scale with various stages of growth, allowing you to invest in a single solution for the life of your business. It’s also a way to offer improved customer service. Here are other advantages for businesses who move to cloud ERP:
- Process Efficiency
- Business Agility
- Cost Control
- Scalability
- Convenient Access
- Enhanced Collaboration
- Security & Reliability
Ready to learn more?
Data Risks Posed by Ransomware and Disasters
Cyber terrorism that targets business is growing exponentially. These attacks cost businesses billions of dollars in ransoms fees, legal costs, consumer confidence, lost productivity, and stalled operations. In its report on the top five risks of 3Q21, Gartner identified new ransomware models that pose unique threats to businesses.
These evolutions in ransomware practices include ransomware as a service (which increases the number of attacks) and new cyberextortion techniques, including the ransoming of trade or business secrets or personal information.
On top of cyber terrorism, there are also the ever-present risks posed to operations posed by natural disasters, floods, and fires.
Whatever the reason for losing their data, over 90% of businesses that have experienced data loss for more than ten consecutive days went out of business within one year. Having a business continuity plan is non-negotiable. A single bad event could be the thing that closes your business forever. This isn’t the time to drag your feet or put your head in the sand.
How To Protect Your Business From Data Risks
As threats grow and evolve, so does the demand for malware prevention practices, alongside a multi-faceted approach to business continuity. The goal is to keep you fully functional in the event of an attack or disaster—before they happen. A business continuity or backup plan is like insurance; you can’t purchase it after the fact.
Implementing a Hybrid Cloud Disaster Recovery protocol on your systems is the best way to avoid fallout from a ransomware attack (and not violate any ransomware laws in the process). By combining private and public deployment models, hybrid cloud solutions help you back up and recover your sensitive data.
Clients First offers tailored enterprise cloud backup services and recovery solutions that ensure your ERP and client data are backed up, protected, and recoverable always. We can prepare your business systems, critical data, and infrastructure for every kind of disaster, from IT outages to cyber-attacks to unintentional human error.
EverSafe: Disaster Recovery Services and Business Continuity
With cybercrime, data breaches, and natural disasters on every corner, organizations need a security and backup solution that they can rely on. That’s why we developed EverSafe—a hybrid cloud platform to back up your data securely and ensure that it is recoverable.
Ready to learn more about mitigating these big data risks?
