Top 7 Tech Challenges for Businesses

Just like life itself, online life comes with risks as a given. At times, however, the IT arena can seem overly bedeviled with risks and failures. As online life has progressed, business concerns have morphed, too; yet it seems far too many IT business risks are still either 1) poorly understood or 2) fobbed off in the absence of an incident that sparks panic.

In 2019, it should be a standard (albeit ever-evolving) routine of back-checking and, ultimately, IT auditing for any business. It’s a wonder that both internal departments and outsourced IT support companies often let thorough IT auditing fall by the wayside, as it’s often not a high priority for management.

Businesses vary in terms of their IT dependency, but good risk mitigation starts with thorough auditing. For that, you’ll need the right mindset. If you’re located in the UK, finding the right IT support in London isn’t difficult. IT auditing should be enacted regularly as a baseline practice to mitigate business risk, no matter where you do business. Big-name corporations aren’t immune to data breaches and other incidents, either, meaning even sophisticated systems can still be breached.

While statistics are hard to quantify, it’s fair to say many breaches are the result of sloppy housekeeping –not the supposed genius of the hacker. While there are other tech challenges facing business going forward, security and the mitigation of risk is always in the background, even while it presents as a prime challenge in and of itself.

1. Data Security

The security of information has been an evolutionary tapestry as computing has evolved over the last few decades. Security (including data privacy, storage, and management) has remained the prime concern. Without data security, nothing can run smoothly with professional integrity. Often, breaches that “should never have happened” indicate nothing more than a failure to conduct a regular IT security audit, system checks, or basic but essential monitoring.

The landscape is one of a constant to-and-fro. Surprisingly, sophisticated systems are a target for determined hackers, and there’s a constant plugging of holes and keeping pace with developments being asked of modern business in order to enjoy the IT world. That said, many attacks are hackers looking for an opportunity. Very often, the opportunity they find is due to a doorway that shouldn’t have been open – one that would have been flagged by regular analysis of a business’ IT infrastructure and systems.

2. Cloud Computing

Cloud computing comes with its own challenges. Optimizing processes is the inherent challenge facing business moving into the cloud, along with security. In a nutshell, making sense of it all to a business’ benefit is the nuanced challenge facing any concern heading to the cloud.

Security has been tight so far, and the imaginings of cloud computing giving rise to a body of intercepted or erroneously distributed data hasn’t happened. The prime concern of global business in the cloud remains – security, but costs and associated expertise are equally pressing challenges. While cloud computing has indeed come of age, many businesses still need to glean a more profitable flow from their migration.

3. Regulatory Compliance, Risk Management, and Compliance

As the IT arena has evolved, legacy regulatory requirements have often been pasted onto online life. Besides that – and partly spurred by cryptocurrency’s alarming ability to set markets alight – more onerous fiscal regulation has recently entered online business life.

While the norms of good governance have carried over into online business, there are now far more stringent regulations at play in the EU and abroad, surrounding personal data management and privacy overall. Remaining compliant as an IT-enabled business has become more formalized and better policed. It’s a specific area of concern to ensure compliance when conducting business, and many larger – especially fintech concerns – appoint a dedicated officer to make sure corporate governance is never caught off guard.

4. Upgrading And Integrating Technology

The nature of IT invokes a managed process of upgrading and integrating tech on a regular basis. With such rapid recent advances in AI and data management, that process has become far more than simply opting for a newer laptop with greater memory or computing power. That simplistic option died an honest death in the 1990s, and today’s integration demands generate a plethora of options on how a business chooses to conduct its affairs.

New automation possibilities seem to be released almost daily. Modern business faces the challenge of optimizing spending, work-flow, and results with their consumers when upgrading, or shuffling systems for better results. It demands careful thought and meticulous planning to really move “up” with an upgrade nowadays, as so many alternative solutions often present the opportunity to substantially and profitably change the way a company does business.

5. Social Media

It might be getting harder to secure revenue via social media, yet those platforms remain an essential component of a business’ standing, integrity, brand, and –ultimately – profitability. A timely (if nominal) backlash against such an abandonment of privacy by billions the world over presents as an opportunity for savvy business, too.

Perhaps more than ever, a business’ approach to clients and ensuing service needs to be on point– a difficult task to get right in the playground of social media. Adspend has increased in the arena, but more importantly, clear messaging and a welcoming ethos take consistent effort.

6. Fraud Detection

Closely aligned to data security, the detection of fraudulent transactions within a given company system requires monitoring. Although random checks might seem sufficient, we’re entering an era of default monitoring, spurred by regulatory oversight.

Whether or not the failure to detect fraud within the company’s activities places culpability on the company itself, under new legislation designed to order business affairs in the interests of retail investors and consumers, it’s a potential legislative liability no one wants to get entangled in. The greater a company’s reliance on IT, the more systems need to be monitored for those who will try to bend things to their illicit favor.

7. Business Disaster Recovery

Finally, the ability to recover from a disaster such as fire or flooding needs to be manifest in any fit business. While hard to quantify, there’s no debate over whether a wholesale crash costs revenue. Although more a memory of a bygone era, our heavy reliance on and integration with IT in business make a modern-day crash that much darker.

Ideally, a wholesale disaster in operations is avoided or mitigated. But it happens, often enough, and mitigation is a challenge business will have to square up going forward. Very few businesses have a legitimate, workable disaster recovery plan with the tech to back it up, but it remains high on the list of tech challenges business must face in order to prosper in a fast-paced, connected environment.