As business quietens down for 2022, now is the time to start looking at what changes you want to make in 2023 to grow and improve productivity, security and business outcomes. Whilst many factors affect this growth, there is no doubt that technology plays a major role.

2022 has been a landmark year for technological innovation, and it looks like 2023 will be no different. Whilst this presents an exciting opportunity for businesses, it can be difficult to prioritise where to spend your IT budget to ensure the maximum return on investment.

To aid in this process, we have collated the top 5 technology New Year’s resolutions for businesses in 2023.

Strengthen your Security Posture

Throughout 2022 there have been countless cyberattacks on businesses of all sizes. Research by the UK Government found that 39% of businesses identified a cyberattack in 2022. Whilst this number is down from some previous years, it shows the importance of securing your IT infrastructure, so you are less at risk of falling victim to an attack.

We believe that setting your organisation the goal of strengthening security posture is essential, as the potential fallout from a cyberattack significantly outweighs the costs involved in investing in a cybersecurity solution. 

There are some simple controls that can be put in place to improve your security, such as multifactor authentication and security awareness training. However, to truly reduce your cyber risk, a holistic security solution is essential.

A holistic security solution addresses your entire IT infrastructure, with controls in place for endpoints, networks, email, identity and access management, employee training and more.

Whilst the breadth of such a solution may seem intimidating, if your business can make this your New Year’s resolution, and stick to it, you will greatly reduce your chance of falling victim to a devastating cyberattack.

Embrace Employee Experience Platforms

A business is only as good as its employees and over the past few years, a focus on employee experience has only become more important.

If your organisation sets improving the employee experience as your resolution, it can not only lead to a happier workforce, Gallup Research also found that businesses with highly engaged staff result in 21% greater profitability.

Tech companies aim to help businesses improve the employee experience through a novel set of solutions known as Employee Experience Platforms (EXP). Microsoft’s release into this space is Microsoft Viva, which includes 7 modules that work together to support connection, purpose and growth.

Some of these modules include Viva Engage, Viva Insights and Viva Goals. 

Viva Engage is a Teams app, powered by Microsoft Yammer, that gives employees a space to connect, express themselves and find belonging within the organisation.

Viva Insights has a variety of features designed to improve employee productivity and well-being. This includes giving employees insights into their work patterns, as well as well-being tools to enable gratitude, reflection and mindfulness.

Viva Goals is a goal-setting and key results (OKR) management solution that helps employees set goals and achieve them. This can help build a positive company culture whilst making it easier for employees to focus on high-impact work.

This is just scratching the surface of how employee experience platforms can make a tangible difference to your organisation in 2023. 

Move to the Cloud or Optimise Cloud Usage

Since 2020, the move to hybrid work acted as the catalyst for many businesses to start moving servers and workloads to the cloud. If you’re yet to make the move, 2023 should be the year to embrace cloud technology.

Moving workloads to the cloud can reduce your IT expenditure, whilst also strengthening your security posture and enabling scalability. This is particularly relevant for businesses running Windows Server 2012, as this operating system will reach the end of support on October 10, 2023.

If your organisation has already moved to the cloud, it should be your resolution to ensure that all workloads are correctly optimised. With high inflation rates, reducing your cloud spend is a surefire method of increasing profitability.

For businesses running workloads in Azure, Microsoft has a suite of tools available to reduce your cloud spend. However, if you do not have the technical expertise to do so, working with a trusted third-party advisor is recommended to ensure maximum efficiency. 

Save Time with Automation

If you start looking within your business, you will likely find that there are many processes that are tedious, repetitive and time-consuming. With robotic process automation (RPA) becoming more accessible, some of these processes can be automated in 2023.

We believe this is an important New Year’s resolution for businesses as automation can cut costs, whilst freeing up time for your employees to work on higher-impact tasks. RPA is an attractive option for many organisations, as the average payback period is less than 12 months. 

There is a misconception that RPA is an expensive process that is only feasible for large enterprises, however, with the advent of low-code solutions, such as Microsoft Power Automate, smaller businesses can work with automation providers without breaking the bank.

Some common processes that can be automated include employee onboarding, invoice processing and data entry. However, once you start viewing processes through the eyes of automation, you will quickly realise many processes within your business can be automated.

Train Employees for Better Adoption of Technology

Whenever a business implements a new technology, they expect to see benefits, such as improved collaboration and communication, reduced costs or increased productivity. However, if your business does not have a comprehensive adoption strategy and training program, you may not see these benefits.

This has been the case for many organisations that implemented new technologies to enable remote and hybrid working in 2020. If this sounds like your business and you are not seeing the benefits you expected, a resolution for 2023 should be to train employees for better adoption of technology.

This may be through in-person training or using a third-party learning management system (LMS). Either way, if employees invest time into understanding the features and functionality of technology, it ensures that they will be using it to the best of its ability, and you will see the benefits you expected.

How to Stick to Your Technology New Year’s Resolutions

Everyone knows that it can be difficult to stick to New Year’s resolutions, regardless of whether they are in your professional or personal life. The good thing about setting technology resolutions is that you can rely on the assistance of a trusted managed service provider to ensure you stick to them.If your business is looking to implement new technologies, or optimise the use of your current technologies, contact us today and we will be happy to help.