These IT projects will boost your business in 2013

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You want your small business to grow in 2013. You have dreams of reaching new revenue records and increasing your staff. You would even like to add new locations. But how will you accomplish this growth? You might consider looking at IT. Taking on the right tech projects could make your business more efficient and provide your staff with the tools they need to snag more customers and sell more . Listed here are three IT projects recommended by the Small Business Computing.com website that can increase your business’ bottom line this year.

OnsiteWi-Fi

Maybe you allow your employees to use their own tablets or laptop computers in the workplace. This doesn’t mean as much if your office doesn’t have a Wi-Fi network. Small Business Computing.com points out that Wi-Fi networks today serve a wide variety of devices, everything from tablets and smartphones to laptops, printers and cameras. If you want your employees to be as productive as possible, whether they are exploring new business alternatives or sending proposals to potential customers, you should provide them with access to a reliable Wi-Fi network. This is a task, of course, that is ideal for your business’ IT department.

Upgrade to Ultrabooks

Your people should be equipped with their own laptops. With these devices they can work from hotel rooms when they’re traveling and run presentations in front of interested potential customers. But you need to make sure that your employees are using laptops which are both portable and powerful. That’s where Ultrabooks come in. They’re not overly expensive, but they load programs and boot up significantly faster than do Netbooks. And they’re easier to tote around than are traditional laptop computers. Give your employees the tools they need to be successful; invest in new Ultrabooks this year.

Wipe out Windows XP

Windows XP is a solid operating system, especially compared with the universally unloved Vista. But Windows XP’s time has come and gone. Microsoft will no longer offer technical support for the 10-year-old operating system come April of 2014. And the company will stop delivering security updates for the system at that time, too. Which means that it’s time to upgrade any machine that is still running this operating system. Upgrade instead to Windows 7; it’s one of Microsoft’s more popular operating systems.