Top 5 areas to tackle

1. Shift your hardware – have you got a cupboard where old devices have been put out to pasture? How long do they stay in there: days, weeks, months… years? Help create some feel-good factor for yourself, by ‘spring cleaning’ them away from your workplace. That way, you can give an opportunity for businesses elsewhere in the world who may have need of their older technologies, or for industry specialists who can break them down into their constituent materials for recycling, to use them – and you may make a rebate on any re-sales. Find out more here.

2. Free up your digital workspace – encourage your colleagues and team mates to adopt a clearly laid-out screen approach, perhaps by gaining their inputs then setting up a template. In the process, undertake a system for erasing all duplicated files and folders from desktops and laptops, encourage a compliant clear-out of overstuffed inboxes, and ensure your cloud storage is a) large enough and b) automates backup, getting rid of haphazard file-saving and sharing, while, crucially, maintaining the integrity of your data protection.

3. Update your software – as part of your hardware audit, you may uncover the need for operating system upgrades which, in turn, impact your software usage. Check your licensing agreements, and whether these simply extend, for example, into the next version(s) of the software you habitually use. Check you have enough licences to be legal and compliant, but not so many that you’re paying for nothing. If your business has expanded its portfolio of service offerings, you may need a new suite of software to meet your needs – time to get some demonstrators in and your in-house teams prepped.

4. Review your security settings – cyber and data protection get top billing in security. You know the score if you get it wrong: angry colleagues and customers, steep fines, loss of reputation, a hit to the bottom line. A regular review and update, by skilled professionals, of your cybersecurity and data protection protocols is a no brainer: check who has access to varying degrees of information, how, and why; do a blanket-wide change of passwords (that are not birthdays, pets’ names, etc); use encryption software; and make sure you have secure processes in place for data erasure. This last point is hugely relevant when you are disposing of redundant hardware and must be fully managed to maintain your compliance and to eliminate the risks of unauthorised individuals (aka, thieves) accessing your valuable personal data.

5. Explore new technology – the buzz, naturally, is around Artificial Intelligence apps and how their automation inputs can streamline productivity, efficiency and, in the right hands, inspire creativity. What might suit your business sector, and make an impression on your customers?

Data erasure

Meeting your customers’, and colleagues’, expectations regarding protecting the information they give you, in addition to the industry and organisational ‘secrets’ you handle daily, means you must adhere to data protection legislation – GDPR – or more if you handle official secrets. The delete button will not do. At Restore Technology we can erase your obsolete information from every asset that is data-bearing – and that’s most electronic devices these days (go to ncsc.gov.uk to find out more).