The tech world has been taken by storm since Gartner released research about the top 10 strategic tech trends of 2019. It's always intriguing to see what the next year has in store for technological advancements, and can also be very helpful in keeping your business competitive.

Below are top trends we pulled from the Gartner study to keep an eye on in 2019. These are based on research that highlight "changing or not yet widely recognized trends that will impact organizations through 2023."

ALL THINGS AI

AI has been on the radar for several years now, and is now being used on autonomous things to perform tasks that are normally done by humans. Examples of autonomous things being impacted by AI are: robotics, vehicles, drones, appliances, and agents. This is expected to increase in strength in 2019 and beyond. An AI-related tool that might be more relevant to your business are chat bots. This technology is becoming more and more prevalent in the way users seek information and make requests. Chat bots are expected to improve immensely in 2019 as users continue to rely on them. According to a recent study conducted by Spiceworks, within the next 12 months 40% of large businesses, 25% of mid-size companies, and 27% of small businesses are expected to implement chat bots into their communication strategies.

Data reporting and collection is extremely helpful in measuring business success, which is where augmented analytics come into play. Through automated algorithms, more conclusions can be drawn where it might have previously been missed. Generating analytics will become easier than ever before, and according to Gartner, by 2020 more than 40% of data science tasks will be automated. Bias will be removed, and data insights will become more readily available.

THE MIX OF DIGITAL AND PHYSICAL WORLDS

Gartner states that this next year will raise more opportunity for the blending of the digital and physical worlds, in order to create a more immersive world. These two worlds will be blended in several ways, one being through immersive technologies such as augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and virtual reality (VR). Gartner predicts that increased productivity will occur in both VR and MR, VR technology will increase its' ability to sense shapes and track user's positions, and MR will enable people to interact with their world. According to the study, by 2022 70% of enterprises will be experimenting with immersive technologies.

"Digital twins" are also a prediction expected to slowly arise in the upcoming year and advance in future years. This is defined as a digital representation that mirrors a real-life object, process, or system. These will become more advanced as they will provide a focus on improving specific business outcomes, real-time monitoring and control, driving new business opportunities, and the evaluation of "what if" scenarios. An example? A business model or process will be moved from a white board in a board room meeting to a process that is tracked and implemented completely through business technology.

BUSINESS PRACTICES

As information grows more and more valuable, keeping information private will increase in importance. Gartner states that privacy must be rooted in ethics and trust. "The conversation should move from 'Are we compliant?' toward 'Are we doing the right thing?'. Digital ethics and privacy will continue to grow in importance and relevance, especially for businesses.

Gartner defines a smart space as a physical or digital environment in which humans and technology-enabled systems interact. These smart spaces are predicted to increase momentum in the next few years. Smart spaces are all about the collaboration of technology to create an interactive environment for the user. These will be used to connect businesses to their communities, and will drive more social and community collaboration.

The overall theme we are seeing from this study? Interaction. Technology is only going to increase the amount of interaction it has with users and other pieces of technology as the years go by, and 2019 will be no different. Continue keeping your business competitive by staying on top of the latest, most relevant technology to your industry, and don't be afraid to try new things that will streamline your processes.

Technology is always going to outgrow previous expectations, and we can't wait to see what the future holds.

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2019 will be here before we know it, is your technology accounted for? In order to keep a well-maintained IT environment, you must make your technology a part of your annual strategic efforts. As the new year creeps closer, it's time to start thinking about your IT strategic planning for this next year. How can you do this? Where should you start?

Guide your strategic planning conversations with the touch points below to set yourself up for success in 2019.

GOAL SETTING

When it comes to strategic planning, an initial objective should be sitting down to establish effective goal setting. This is such an important aspect of general business, and the same should apply to your business technology. According to The Economist Intelligence Unit, executives see technology as their #1 business challenge. Identifying and discussing goals can help to conquer the technical challenges that seem impossible or difficult to face. We recommend sitting down and discussing any upcoming goals or changes you have to your technical environment for the next 18-24 months. To further your discussion, identify the strengths and weaknesses that will contribute to the success of your IT infrastructure. Things may need to be adjusted over the 18-24 month period, but your organization will continue to have clear goals and expectations when it comes to your business technology.

Want tips on how to discuss the need for strategic IT with your organization's decision makers? Click below to download our free guide on How To Sell Managed IT Services To Your Decision Makers.

FOCUS ON EQUIPMENT

Take some time to assess all of your IT equipment. You will want to take note of how your equipment is currently performing, the age of the hardware, gather all EOS and EOL dates, and work with your IT team to forecast when certain pieces of technology will need to be replaced. Inventory all hardware or anything that has a renewal date such as a warranty, domain, or SSL certificate so you can stay ahead of the curve. Having this information on hand will help you to prepare a full IT budget that will also align with the goals you are setting.

PREPARE YOUR BUDGET

To forecast well in advance, map out a 3 year budget to go along with your strategic planning. This will include any equipment that will need to be replaced in that time frame, an estimation of renewal prices based on vendor recommendations or past renewals, IT projects you have coming up the pipeline, as well as any partnership agreements or paid IT employees you will have. According to Boardview, 60% of organizations do not link their strategic priorities to their budget, yet 88% say successfully executing initiatives in order to deliver strategic results is essential for competitiveness. Successfully executing IT strategies will require an alignment of your goals and your budget. The more you can map out ahead of time, the more you can act on the goals you have set for your IT environment which will set you up for success in the long run.

Continue to better your IT environment with strategic planning so you can stay ahead of the curve and increase your organizational up-time in 2019 and beyond. Start with a goal setting discussion, run inventory on all of your equipment, and move forward with preparing a 3 year IT budget. The more intentional you are about your technology, the more impactful it will be for your organization.

Want to implement a true strategic IT plan? Click below to request a free IT assessment from Five Nines. We will come to your office and assess your workplace technology, no strings attached!

Your network is such an important part of your business, which is why correctly managing your network is so important. Overlooking network management could cause a severe halt in productivity which could become detrimental to your business. Without your network, many day-to-day business operations simply wouldn't get done.

We're here to tell you how you can continue to sustain your business with correct network management.

MAINTENANCE

Everything worth having often requires a little maintenance and care from time to time. The same thing goes when it comes to your network. Maintenance is important as it catches small imperfections that could harm your network in the long run. Be sure to talk to your IT team about network maintenance on a consistent basis. Network maintenance typically requires analyzing different network issues such as whether cable connections are damaged or incorrect, whether your system is outdated, how much space your network can continue to hold, DNS or ISP failures, vulnerability to viruses and much more. 

MONITORING

Monitoring your network on a consistent basis is important to keeping your IT environment sustainable and efficient. Typically an IT team can do this for you. Monitoring requires allocating time to update the network based on industry improvements and updates. Not only is monitoring important for staying on top of the network itself, it helps to implement efficient recovery plans if needed as well. You never want to issue a recovery plan, but if you have to you want to implement it as soon as your network is showing signs of slowing down.

PRODUCTIVITY

In order to keep your network optimized for the highest levels of productivity, you must configure your network for optimization. This will help keep your information secure and your network uninterrupted. This will also help to save your organization money by preventing potential downtime as well. Steps towards optimization may include upgrading your anti-virus software and storage plans. This will all lead towards a more efficient network that fits your organization.

The best way to stay on top of network productivity is to create a plan for your network. This plan should entail how your network will be managed, monitored, and how your organization will continue to work towards the optimization of your network year after year. Your network is an important aspect of your business, don’t forget to treat it like one.

For a guide on what to look for when conducting a Network Health Check, click here:

Have you ever heard anyone go up to an IT engineer and say "Hey, just checking in to let you know that everything is running smoothly!"? Probably not. In the IT industry, there are always tech problems that need to be fixed, and once one problem is fixed there is always another.

Put yourself in the shoes of your internal IT employee for example. You are energized and excited about bringing someone in to manage your technology, and they are excited to implement and control an entire IT environment. They will clean up your network and put together new technical processes. Once that's done, they will begin addressing any IT issues that your employees are having as needed until the concerns of running an entire IT environment alone creeps up on them.

"I feel like I'm becoming an internal support desk." The "as needed" issues will escalate as your employees feel more comfortable running to IT with issues they are having. When outsourcing your IT, calling in about any and all IT issues is normal, but for an internal IT individual, they may have other IT projects to work on throughout the day. They become the go-to for everything, and eventually you'll realize you're spending $50k or above on an individual who is being asked to replace keyboards and put band-aids on larger tech problems that would be completely fixed if they weren't distracted with random issues throughout the day. Without a proper ticketing system, which usually isn't implemented for one or two internal IT engineers, things can become lost in the shuffle of emails. The IT professionals are either going to get bored with solving basic tech issues because they are more advanced engineers, or they will quickly become burnt out from having either too much or not enough to do.

"If I go on vacation, who is going to cover for me?" You invest in your technology, which means the expectation that your IT environment should be monitored 24 hours a day, 365 days a year is not unrealistic. It is unrealistic, however, to expect that one individual can constantly monitor an entire technical system all on their own. Not only does this lead to an unhealthy work/life balance for the employee, it leads to mistakes as the employee is trying to do it all at once. Working on an IT environment alone could mean that no one is there to double check anything or pick up the slack. This could also lead to an eventual resignation because the employee won't feel as though their time is being valued, which will leave your IT environment in a state of limbo. If the internal engineer would have been backed by a team of experts, the constant monitoring wouldn't seem like such a large request.

"I don't have time for extra training or certifications." Naturally, any business wants to continue growing and developing its' employees through extra training or certifications. Frankly, that is probably the last thing an internal IT engineer has time for. It's not that they don't want to do it, but with IT requests and projects stacking up, that will become the last thing on their to-do list. That isn't good for business growth or individual growth, which is why having a team that can fill in for each other when someone wants to take time to complete a certification is highly recommended.

"I feel like I'm on the accounting team." Because business technology is viewed as a "cost center" of most organizations, an internal IT engineer must also collaborate constantly with an accounting department to ensure that money being spent is budgeted and accounted for. The engineer must be able to provide proof as to why certain technical pieces must be purchased, as well as keep everything documented and organized on their end. Even if they find time at the day to work on a certification, it's likely they won't be able to because they will need to stay on top of their expenses.

As you can see, your internal IT employee must wear many different hats to balance your IT environment accordingly.

Extensive research has shown that if you compare all of the costs associated with hiring and managing an internal IT engineer vs. a managed IT services organization it's incomparable. The bottom line is, you will gain more for an equal amount of money or less when outsourcing your IT needs. Not to mention, no one involved will have to worry about being affected by any of the statements listed above.

No one ever lets the IT engineer know when their job has paid off, when everything is working, and when nothing else needs to be done. It's time to let business owners focus on their business practices, while letting a fully equipped outsourced IT team handle the rest.

You deserve peace of mind.

For more information about the specific cost breakdown of Internal vs. Outsourced IT, click below.