As we enter the last couple of months of the year it's important to line your business up for success in 2024.

While that's certainly a loaded statement, here are three technology-focused objectives that you should consider taking on.

1. Take inventory of equipment and retire old technology

Now is a great time to take an inventory of servers and computers used at your business. A review of inventory helps you plan and budget for 2024 and can help prevent older technology from falling off your radar. This inventory review should cover any networking and computer equipment used at your organization, including software.

On October 10th, 2023, Microsoft's "Server 2012" operating system officially reached end of support. Security updates and general support from Microsoft are no longer available.

If you have servers running anything older than "Windows Server 2016' or any workstations/laptops using anything older than Windows 10 or MacOS11 you are facing serious security risks and likely are not compliant with standards or insurance policies that apply to your business.

If you are using unsupported software, we strongly recommend working with your IT resource to put together a plan to retire this old technology as soon as possible.

Don't have an IT resource or the fact that you are in this situation is making you wonder if you have the right IT resource? Consider using this company to help.

2. Grow the security mindset in your organization

Phishing is still the preferred attack vector by malicious hackers. After all, the latest and greatest security technology in the world becomes very ineffective if someone just opens the door for them.

There are tons of ways to improve security at a business, they are all important, but none of them are as important as developing the security mindset and culture of your organization.

This starts with consistent education and communication internally about the importance of cybersecurity in your organization.

You can also implement a security awareness program to help with training, testing, and to drive conversation about good security practices.

Speaking of good security practices... it's 2023, so you are already using multi-factor authentication (MFA) to secure the core components such as your remote access, email, and key business applications, right? After all, it's one of the best and easiest ways to reduce the risks of a compromised identity at your organization.

A goal should be to expand that MFA integration with all applications used in your business, implementing Single Sign-on (SSO) whenever possible. This will improve security, reduce identity compromise risks, and provide a better experience for your staff. If you are working with a vendor that doesn't support MFA or SSO, consider that a major red flag!

If MFA hasn't been implemented in your business, we need to talk. You can stop reading and call (872) 215-3060 or send an email to info@aevotec.com with your contact info and we'll reach out as soon as possible.

3. Educate yourself on AI

Ready or not, AI will soon disrupt our lives in ways that aren't necessarily visible to the untrained eye. If not directly, then your industry will be impacted indirectly through AI's integration into the various technologies your business relies on.

When this technology first showed up, you could ask it a basic question and get an answer. Now you can say things like "Read my meeting notes and make me a to-do list".

Today, AI technologies like ChatGPT and Dall-E are capable writing emails, creating templates, and generating ready to use images in seconds.

Microsoft and Google are both racing to implement AI into their productivity solutions. Microsoft is rolling out "Copilot" which will be able to generate complete documents that securely pull data from your business applications and from trusted industry databases.

How AI integrates into our work will take time to sort out, but the technology is rapidly developing. There will be a major difference in productivity, quality, and capability of a business using AI vs a business that does not.

That does not mean "Drop everything and start using AI".

Our recommendation is to be cautious and educate yourself on how AI could be used in your business. Test it out and explore its capabilities in a pilot when you are ready to do so.

You don't want to be caught off guard by the impact this technology will have on your industry or business!

Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business?

Send in a contact request at www.aevotec.com or email info@aevotec.com.