One of the most significant challenges for IT teams is making sense of new and ever-evolving technology. Many apps, software programs, services, and even security risks emerge each week and month. Suppose members or departments in your organization want to experiment with these new emerging tools and tech. In that case, a time will come when your organizational processes will become complex and difficult to streamline.
What Does It Mean To Streamline Operations?
Commercial enterprises and organizations streamline IT operations to simplify daily tasks and optimize tools, programs, and applications to enhance efficiency and productivity. A streamlined system makes it easier for technicians to monitor on-site and cloud infrastructure and ensure they work seamlessly.
What does it mean to streamline operations? It means auditing your current networks, systems, devices, and SOPs and then identifying redundancies and bottlenecks that often cause delays or fluctuations in product or service quality. Streamlining projects aims to develop a simpler, more straightforward workflow that can reduce production time without compromising output quality. However, the new processes aren’t rigid. Ideally, a streamlined workflow is also agile and can respond to the evolving needs of a business operation.
This is where Cisco Meraki comes in. A pioneer in cloud-managed networking solutions, it offers technology, hardware, and software solutions that are highly versatile and easy to streamline.
Streamline IT Operations with Cisco Cloud Management
A major selling point for Cisco Meraki is its networks can be unified, and management is centralized via the cloud. It dispelled the long-observed practice of building network infrastructures on-site, which incurs high expenditure for on-premises hardware and labor-intensive maintenance, monitoring, and management requirements.
With Cisco Meraki, businesses can create agile network infrastructures that support remote work. They don’t require large physical offices and on-site IT teams managing hundreds of linked devices, ensuring network connectivity, monitoring security, and other operational IT tasks.
Cisco Meraki believes that simplicity is crucial to scalability, and it is this principle that enables companies to streamline IT operations through Meraki’s cloud-managed networking. Once an organization becomes cloud-first, it will be easier to transition a traditional IT infrastructure into a cloud-based network that benefits from Cisco network automation. Automating routine tasks, after all, is a primary goal of streamlining IT operations.
How to Streamline IT Operations
The textbook procedure for effectively streamlining operations is as follows:
Evaluate current processes and workflows.
List all existing processes and workflows, including those performing them.
Prioritize processes and workflows according to relevance and impact to the business.
Rate each workflow according to importance. You might find that some processes don’t contribute much to your output, while others are crucial for delivering high-quality products and services. Work on streamlining the priority processes first.
Analyze the outcomes of current processes and workflows.
A follow-up from the previous step, analyzing process outcomes can help you decide which steps to eliminate from specific workflows and which processes can be removed or changed entirely.
Collect feedback, suggestions, and recommendations from employees across all ranks.
If you want to change the workflows for rank-and-file employees, get their input first. They often know better than anyone what works, what doesn’t, what needs improvement, and how to improve their workflows.
Start streamlining.
After considering all the pertinent information, redesign your workflows and incorporate automations to streamline them. There are workflow software programs that can help you with this.
Adjust and refine new processes and workflows.
A flexible mindset and openness to feedback is essential when streamlining IT workflows and processes. Expect employees to give their two cents on whether streamlining helps them work better. Streamlining isn’t a one-time deal but a cycle of changing and refining workflows to improve performance and efficiency.
Managed It Services: Streamlining Operations and Enhancing Business Performance
The first requirement for streamlining IT operations is a cloud-first platform. To achieve this, organizations can consult with a Meraki partner about acquiring the company’s product line-up:
- Meraki MR – cloud-managed wireless access points (APs)
- Meraki MS – network switches
- Meraki MX – multifunctional security (firewalls) and SD-WAN appliances
- Meraki MV – surveillance cameras
- Meraki MDM – mobile device management
A certified Meraki partner like Stratus Information Systems can provide expert insight on how to build an IT structure from the ground up or upgrade existing devices and programs into something more modern and agile. If you are new to using Cisco Meraki solutions, let your Meraki partner spearhead Cisco network automation and orient your IT team on how to use it to streamline their work.
However, modernizing and transitioning to a cloud network and streamlining processes in one go is a huge project. It can cost a lot because of the new acquisitions and because major system transformations often require operations to be halted. If you want to avoid the costs but still benefit from streamlining IT operations, consider managed IT services instead.
Companies can benefit greatly from managed IT services: streamlining operations and enhancing business performance are just the cherry on top. Below are the benefits of streamlining IT operations through managed IT:
Saves time and money.
You don’t have to spend months or years studying how to improve your business processes or putting out fires because an expert team will take care of your IT environment. And since you don’t employ them, you’re not burdened with the cost of their benefits, training, and other employer responsibilities.
Constantly improves how you streamline your IT.
Managed IT services providers prioritize efficiency and productivity and ensure continuity in business processes. Their input and expert management can fast-track streamlining for your company.
Strengthens security for your company.
Integrating cybersecurity into your IT environment will be a given when you work with a managed services provider that’s also a Meraki channel provider, like Stratus Information Systems.
Increases your ROI.
With IT experts on board to look after your infrastructure, you get a high chance of seeing good ROI. So long as their presence improves employee efficiency, productivity, and work quality, your business will reap substantial returns through stronger customer satisfaction and loyalty, reduced downtime, reduced costs, and other benefits that indirectly contribute to your bottom line.
Makes scaling your operations easier.
Sometimes, managed services providers understand what clients need before the latter realizes it. With the client’s blessing, they can predict IT needs and rapidly scale their services to meet growing demands.
Achieve Your Efficiency and Productivity Goals with Cisco Meraki
If you’re already utilizing Cisco Meraki devices and cloud networking solutions, you’re likely in contact with a Meraki partner who helped set up your on-site infrastructure and cloud network. If you haven’t yet, and there’s an urgent need to streamline your operations, now would be an excellent time to contact a company like Stratus Information Systems.
We offer project consulting, sales, logistics, and network services for companies and organizations seeking to streamline their IT systems. We help clients become more efficient and achieve their business goals using Cisco Meraki products and technologies.
Schedule a consultation with our IT experts at Stratus Information Systems today.