Whether that’s working from away, embracing this year’s summer of sport, or taking a well-deserved beach break, the summer months usually require revised ways of working and employers must adjust to a more dispersed workforce.
To keep productivity high while priming the business for the second half of the year, the flexible summer schedule is an opportune moment for businesses to conduct a mid-year tech audit. This enables IT and business leaders to evaluate any potential vulnerabilities while reviewing whether legacy systems are still fit for purpose. Flexible summer schedules mean IT and business leaders can better plan for downtime and introduce and test any necessary interim tech.
The time to prep and prime
For many teams, summer offers a small let up from the average hectic workday, providing IT and business leaders an opportunity to take a step back and analyse the current reality of the business. To establish the company’s current pain points and weaknesses with the existing technology stack, business leaders must review the tools they have in place, identify any gaps, and tier the digital tools that make the biggest difference. This reflection enables business leaders to see more clearly where their teams are still spending large amounts of time on tasks that require lots of tedious admin and manual data entry.
With a clear blueprint in place, IT leaders can implement updates that help facilitate cross-team collaboration and centralise data in one space.
Does the tech still match the vibe?
When evaluating the current tech stack, business leaders must also account for growth. As businesses scale, their datasets and workstreams need to grow with them. This means that if the existing work platform doesn’t have the flexibility and scalability to store and organise larger quantities of data efficiently, it’s time to reassess.
IT systems are only as good as the data they’re based on. Data silos across a business cause inefficiencies and prevent seamless collaboration which can be costly. Tools that offer centralised data access can help eliminate siloed systems by serving as a connective layer. Working with data that can be tracked, measured, and analysed, teams are in a better position to gain new insights and work more effectively. As a result, teams can make more informed data-driven decisions.
Embracing downtime
A summer tech audit helps business leaders uncover challenges posed by legacy systems that could be exposing the company to security vulnerabilities. During a quieter period, IT leaders have the capacity to properly investigate a company’s IT infrastructure to detect security and data compliance issues. As a result, IT leaders can help to faze out any software that no longer receives security updates during a quieter period.
While regular patch tests should be carried out, summer also provides a better moment for IT leaders to run any necessary downtime to fix patches. With potentially fewer projects in the works, downtown during the summer can be less costly for business leaders. Aligning on priority patches will enable IT leaders to run downtime in the most cost-effective way possible.
Employees just wanna have sun
When summer holiday season peaks, leaders need to find ways to maintain productivity and efficiency while headcounts are reduced. This could mean shifting teams towards a more asynchronous working pattern, or encouraging the use of AI and automation tools to support activity. Ensuring that the tech stack facilitates this way of working will ensure greater collaboration in the long run as flexible working patterns become the norm.
This style of work needs to be underpinned by a unified platform that centralises disparate information, enhances file sharing, and organises workstreams. Having a single source of truth means teams can stay abreast of the latest developments in the case of any absences and keep the engine running.
In addition, AI and automation tools can support smaller headcounts by handling mundane tasks such as data entries, reporting, or digesting and simplifying complex information. Using AI to handle the mundane tasks allows employees to focus on the tasks that require human input, keeping the creativity running while teams operate with fewer resources than usual. A summer audit can also help identify any tech skills gap so that necessary training can be rolled out.
Summer is the prime time for a tech refresh, when IT teams have the time and space to analyse, refit, and refine any new tech tools in line with employee and business needs. Optimising the tech stack is no longer a choice but a strategic decision to keep ahead of competitors, exceed customer expectations, and enhance employee experience.
