Don’t Ignore Communication with Your IT Department

When dealing with a large infrastructure, like that found within your business, it’s important to be clear and concise. This is especially true when it comes to your IT department, as miscommunications can lead to lost work or even fatal issues. If a problem does arise, you want to make sure that they are available to take care of it. In order to keep your issues to a minimum, it’s a good idea to plan out your IT communications systems and stick to them at all times.

Without a quality IT communications system, you can say goodbye to inter-department synergy. Failing to announce downtime warnings can result in lost work and inconvenience for all, and even if late news is better than no news at all, it’s important to be up to snuff at all times. According to TechRepublic, there are four important benefits to optimizing your IT communications protocol:

• Better and more timely warning of technical events: Unexpected downtime can be difficult to recover from, especially if important files were being worked on and they weren’t saved properly. Online meetings with clients can also be abruptly ended by unexpected downtime, which can be seen as unprofessional and inconvenient. With proper planning, this can be avoided.
• Make your IT wins public: A structurally sound IT communications system deserves to be made public, and when people understand that you have a good reputation as being reliable and transparent, your reputation will improve. This can even make employees feel good about their work environment, in addition to an increased lead capture rate.
• Justify your IT expenditures: Since you’re the one paying the IT staff, you want to make sure they’re doing their job properly. Compensate them for the job they do, not the job title they hold.
• Work with the end goal in mind: All of your goals for communication should be aimed toward one specific goal. By keeping sight of your long-term goals, you should be able to better achieve them, making sure every small movement you make is aiming for that goal.

Reactive Communication vs Proactive Communication
When deciding how best to approach your IT communication, you should be able to understand the difference between two key terms: Proactive communication and reactive communication.

• Reactive Communication: This method of IT communication uses the problem as a reason to act, thus being called reactive communication. Generally, this includes reacting to issues as they show up rather than taking measures to prevent them in the first place. It can be compared to spur-of-the-moment, last-minute requests, and should generally be avoided if possible. We understand that some things can’t be avoided, but when possible, you should opt for proactive communication.
• Proactive Communication: Unlike the chaotic nature of reactive communication, proactive communication involves scheduling tasks to be completed as time goes on to avoid further issues. One example of proactive communication is an IT roadmap, where you plan out expenditures and maintenance protocol ahead of time, effectively avoiding random fixes.

When it comes to your IT support, you want a detail-oriented business like XFER manning the helm. We offer a variety of services, all geared toward helping your business better communicate both in and out of the office. We’ll supplement your in-house IT staff and offer advice, or if you don’t have an internal IT department, we can act as that, too. For more information about our managed services, give XFER a call at 734-927-6666 / 800-GET-XFER. We can provide a free IT consultation to help you get a feel for where your business stands.