by Chris Corbet and Jonathan Dale, Fiberlink

The year is 2010… IT departments have watched their resources steadily being depleted over the last 2 years, while the workload increases and tasks pile up. 

The year is 2010… it’s also the year organizations need to move faster than the competition to get to the front of the economic recovery in their respected industries. That means new projects for IT on top of the pile they already have.  Adding complexity…workers are more mobile, smartphones took over the communication landscape, data security regulations continue to pop up, and new operating systems have been released. IT has a front seat watching their responsibilities grow at exponential rates.  Time to hire more folks right? Not so fast – companies are hiring about as fast as Zoysia grass grows.

So how do you cope?  Here are the top 5 workflows that an organization spends too much time on every day, which can be simplified in 2010. Look to these to gain competitive advantages and keep up with the ever changing landscape, commonly called our device base.

1. Proactive Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC)
On 3/1/2010, the state of Massachusetts will put legislation into effect that will affect any organization doing business in this third-most-densely-populated state.  Updating anti-virus and personal firewall software, installing OS patches, and encrypting data will become mandatory.  Couple this with other internal and external regulations, and you can see how IT spends so much time ensuring endpoint security compliance.  In 2010, become more proactive! Ensure that you have a reporting tool available to access your compliance state on the fly when you have time.  Jump to problem areas and remediate them before they snowball or an audit failure causes you to spend even more time on GRC.

2. Simplify Software Updates
In 2010 the world watched as the Google China Hack took over front page news in the IT community.  We listened as vulnerabilities in Adobe and Internet Explorer were both blamed for the exploit.  The result was IT departments all over the world scrambling to ensure that all software was up to date with the most recent patches, anti-virus applications were being updated (which became difficult with Symantec’s Y2K10 issue), and operating systems continued to be patched.  This took up a lot of time and energy.  In 2010, simplify this!  Utilize services that automatically update endpoints via the cloud… then proactively verify these updates occur.  Visibility becomes key to take the guess work out of software updates so that you are not scrambling the next time an application vulnerability hits the front pages.

3. Windows 7 Migration Planning
This is an easy one, right? It should be. Almost every organization (large or small) is planning a migration to Microsoft Windows 7. In fact, companies like Hewlett-Packard  are already seeing a boost in their revenue from it. Windows 7 migration planning is not rocket science. There are many sites and tools out there to help with your migration. Take advantage of them in 2010 to make your migration a no brainer. What if you had a tool which automatically let you know which devices are ready for Windows 7 and which ones are not (and why they aren’t). How much time would this save you? Here is a site which can get you Windows 7 educated in a hurry. It also has free tools!

4. Create an Efficient Help Desk
Another time and money saver is working to create a more efficient Help Desk.  End users are always going to have device problems and call support.  But developing a Help Desk process that checks the common problem areas on the fly during the first call can drastically cut down on the time to resolution.  Problems like low disk space or RAM, outdated Anti-Virus definition files, missing OS patches, or the installation of conflicting software should be checked procedurally for every call to eliminate them as potential reasons for the device issue.  Be sure and track metrics to ensure improvement.  “Always on” visibility into your device base is a key first step in preparing your support team to handle calls in a more efficient manner in 2010.

5. Get a Handle on your Handhelds
The population of workers who are not issued a BlackBerry, iPhone, Droid, or other smartphone is already shrinking. This trend has not gone unnoticed by IT, however, most organizations are simply adopting these devices as quickly as they can and have not truly considered everyone who is impacted. Unlike plain old cell phones (dumb phones), to support these devices you generally have multiple departments involved, including Purchasing/Provisioning, your Help Desk, and even Security. For example,  when was the last time your security officer cared about your dumb phone usage? They do, however, care about your smartphone being hacked. Now, not just one person, but lots of employees are spending too much time and money on these devices alone. Organizations can help multiple departments run more efficiently by making small investments to integrate their handhelds into the same reporting and management platform as their other devices (desktops, laptops, and netbooks), thus ensuring that key individuals who need access to this data for decision making have it at their fingertips.

IT has lots to do in 2010. We believe this list is critical for organizations to tackle as resources and cost will continue to be a factor for the foreseeable future. These areas can free up resources while at the same time saving money.  Do you feel we missed one? Already working on one of these? Let us know about it.

Get started simplifying your IT workflows today with a free trial of MaaS360.