That digital transformation (DT) is merely about replacing your manual processes with newer digital technologies is a common misconception. In truth, DT is also about changing your company culture to fundamentally improve how your business operates and delivers value to customers.

2020 was a year unlike any other. With the economy taking a hit because of a worldwide pandemic, businesses struggled to keep operations going, maintain steady cash flow, and keep employee morale high. On top of that, businesses had to ward off cybersecurity attacks.

The technological landscape is always in flux, and in order to keep up with it, every organization has to upgrade its IT once in a while. If your business doesn’t invest in new technology, it risks losing its competitive advantage and putting its data at risk of cyberattacks.

Media such as films, TV shows, and comics often portray cybersecurity breaches as something grand, with mysterious hackers furiously typing on their state-of-the-art gadgets. The truth is, most cybersecurity incidents happen silently, and some attacks are not even discovered until it’s too late.

Passwords tend to be the first thing that comes to mind when we think about cybersecurity. After all, they’ve long played a central role in keeping our data safe. However, the rise of eCommerce and digital platforms is changing the way businesses interact with their customers and the ways employees interact with one another.

The era of remote work is here to stay, but the transition hasn’t proven easy for everyone, not least because of the stay-at-home orders to stem the pandemic. IT admins often find themselves struggling to find new solutions and tweak existing business IT infrastructure to support remote workers.

Every day, a business generates, receives, and handles raw data such as customer information, inventory accounting reports, and downtime statistics. In themselves, these data don’t have much value, but by using powerful tools to analyze them, a business leader may find patterns and answers in the numbers, which can help their organization be more efficient, agile, and competitive.

Within the span of several months, remote working has shifted from being an option to becoming a necessity. Any business that wanted to survive the pandemic quickly implemented work from home setups, often with minimal planning.

While many remote workers have been able to do their jobs thus far, workflows are still far from perfect.

Once merely an option, remote working has become an integral part of business operations because of the pandemic. In fact, Gartner notes that when the pandemic struck, 88% of organizations encouraged or required employees to work from home. While this setup has been largely beneficial to companies, the experience hasn’t exactly been the best for some remote workers.

Running a business without an IT specialist is like driving without a seatbelt on. You’re aware of the risks that can halt your activities, but you’re not doing much to mitigate those threats. Should you opt to fly solo and not partner with an a managed IT services provider (MSP), beware that you’re putting your business at risk of the following:

1. System vulnerabilities to cyberattacks
Managed IT services providers handle your entire IT infrastructure.