It’s that time of year again, when things seem to both incredibly speed up and slow down at the same time.  STOP … Take a deep breath and THINK. That almost constant e-mail notification can wait. Use the next 15 – 30 minutes and go down this list to close out the year and prepare for the next:

1. Take stock in accomplishments. Most of you had 1-2 projects this year and eliminated a server with virtualization, escaped disaster recovery with cloud computing, or have simply forgotten the headaches and frustrations of the bad old days when you didn’t have managed services benefits.
2. Budget and plan projects. If you haven’t had your last CIO Review or looked at the 5 Year Technology Forecast, there are still a few meeting slots open or we can schedule for next year and send the current budget information on file. What are the 3 technology projects that are holding the business back for next year? Remember, any software version 2003 or older is not supported by the manufacturer next year.
3. Save on taxes. Let’s see you can pay more tax or many customers choose to take an additional discount and pre-pay a project or their Guardian Managed Services for next year. Obviously, if you need to replace hardware or software, shop for the best price and this is the perfect time to do it. Sorry Ghost Rider, the pattern is full to implement any new projects this year with Delta, but we can handle the required billing and install starting in January. It’s time to clear out and donate that old hardware and pitch the old software and manuals from 15 years ago too.
4. Prepare for winter. We’re going to have another El Nino, which means another 2009 ice blast. Make sure you have a current hard and soft copy of your System Plan off-site along with DVD copies of critical software – not to mention the gun, bottled water, powerbars, or other parts of your disaster recovery. Just dipped your toe into Office 365 for unified messaging? Well, now is a good time to get serious about moving documents to SharePoint Online. Oh, and it’s never too late to start an Office 365 Free Trial for a disaster plan if you haven’t done anything else.

What are we doing? Well old servers and workstations are going bye-bye, existing servers and workstations have been upgraded to Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 respectively. New versions of Insight Remote Monitoring and Recovery Online Backup are under-way. And we’re doing our board review near Christmas to continue the focus on lowering your technology costs and streamlining operations.

Published by Kevin Fream

Many people don't understand their current situation and become frustrated in business and life, so I created the Delta Method and wrote the #1 Best-Seller "Change Your Game" - as featured at Harvard and NASDAQ as well as national TV news. Streamline your technology for competitive advantage using vetted IT support and take a divergent approach to personal growth. View all posts by Kevin Fream