Five Steps to Ease Your Company Through the Economic Downturn

A recession may not be what small and medium business IT manager want during this holiday season, but unfortunately, that seems to be what Santa will be delivering. The recent sharp economic downturn caught many firms by surprise, so one question has arisen: What steps should a company take to remain viable in these turbulent times?Intelliden, a network equipment provider identified five steps that companies can take to try and weather the current economic storm.

1. Implement Technologies with Obvious Cost SavingsGreater automation and recovering stranded or lost network assets are two easy ways of cutting costs and controlling expenses. Because many companies will be looking to cut staff, businesses should focus on deploying products that automate network functions.

2. Simplify Your Technology Environment

On the same theme, it may be time to ditch a legacy system or two, so your business can simplify its management chores. When you have fewer systems, you can manage them with fewer people.

3. Look for Shorter Payback Period on your Investments

New investments will be very closely scrutinized in this harsh economic climate. The recession will dictate new expectations on investments: they will have to faster and simpler to understand. New investments with payback periods of 12 months or more will be extremely difficult to fund.

4. Secure Your Network and IT Assets

As the economy swings into a downturn, fraud and crime will see an upturn. Businesses will need to implement higher levels of network security compliance, network authentication, deterministic traffic routing and system access, and increased audit tracking and logging processes to ensure that corporate assets are properly protected.

5. Dont Stop Innovating

During a recession, many organizations cut all new IT investments, which results in paralysis. Yet, it is during these times that companies can use technology dramatically revamp their businesses. Unified Communications, telepresence, and VoIP are a few items that could help companies become much more efficient.Recessions test the mettle of all businesses. Here were a few tips from one vendor about how to weather the storm. What changes is your company planning to make to help it though these difficult times?