Boost your small business with these IT projects

Your New Year’s resolution was to grow your small business in 2013. How is that resolution going? If you’re struggling to boost your small business’ revenues so far this year, it might be time for you to check out your IT department. Yes it’s true: Your IT department boasts the technical expertise to make your business even more efficient. That, consequently, can raise your employees’ productivity and improve your business’ bottom line. Here are a few tech projects that Small Business Computing.com suggests for small business owners who wish to see their businesses grow in 2013.

OnsiteWi-Fi

The bring-your-device movement continues to grow. This makes sense: Employees often work more effectively when they can work on their own personal tablets, laptops and smartphones at the office. After all, they are more accustomed to these devices. Taking their own personal devices to work can also help when employees need to put the final touches on a report or presentation when they’re at home or on the road. But this policy only works if your office features a strong and reliable Wi-Fi network that employees are able to use to access the Web, send and receive e-mail messages and update your company’s Twitter and Facebook pages. Make acquiring a reliable Wi-Fi network a key goal of 2013.

Ultrabooks

Your employees are able to do more when they can tote laptops to meetings with clients. Traditional laptops, though, are too cumbersome. And small Netbooks are often too slow and limited. Ultrabooks, though, are a different animal. These laptops are both small and light enough to be portable, and powerful enough to enable staff members to display multimedia presentations and reports to prospective customers. A great way to watch your business grow is to give your employees more options for snagging new clients. Ultrabooks are one of these options.

Say farewell to Windows XP

Do you still have computers that run the Windows XP operating system? That’s a mistake. As Small Business Computing.com highlights, Microsoft will not provide technical support for this operating system as of early April 2014. The company will also no longer send out regular security updates for the software as of this time. Running Windows XP, then, means that not only will your workers be working on a decade-old operating system, but their computers may also be highly susceptible to virus attacks. Make the smart move and upgrade to a more recent Windows operating system.