Managing IT operations in any industry can be a tiring, difficult job. It takes a lot of time and patience, along with a great deal of expertise. If your company has multiple locations, different devices, or unreliable networks, there are several opportunities to make processes as efficient as possible. We’ve heard it all from IT, so we’ve outlined a few of the common pain points and our suggestions for how to remedy them in the future.

Your Devices Manage You: With systems spread across multiple locations, IT professionals are often called upon to be in many places at once.  Chasing problems from one device to another is extremely inefficient, and you shouldn’t be managing all of your time as an IT professional fixing POS systems. Investing in an IT management system you can count on will help with these issues. Nearly half of all retail organizations still utilize multiple point products to manage their systems, but the system doesn’t have to be complicated.

Devices Are Left Unprotected by the Network:  Not knowing everything that’s out on your network exposes your entire organization to risk. Unlicensed, unsupported software can lead to security, compliance, and performance issues. On the opposite end, over-provisioning is safe, but very wasteful and expensive. It can also take up needed server capacity and bandwidth. It’s important to audit your infrastructure and allow visibility into all systems. This keeps you secure, compliant and safe.

Downtime is Lost Revenue: The time it takes to update your organization’s software can mean making a sale (or several sales) and losing business to a competitor. Gartner estimates that one hour of network downtime—planned or unplanned—costs the average company $ 42,000.  Some form of planned or unplanned downtime will happen to your systems during business hours, and you need a solution that two people can use a computer at the same time. A web-based console can be operated remotely in the background, and it keeps a POS device up and running throughout the maintenance process. It’s non-disruptive and shows that no lost sales can be attributed to the IT department.

Visibility, automation, and security are all important aspects to consider when creating a technology infrastructure for your company. Gaps in your system create work and take time that really is unnecessary.  It’s important to find the technology solution that works for your particular business