How to Avoid Computer Issues In Your Business

The top 5 recurring complaints all us IT support providers hear from businesses (regardless of their industry) are:

1. “My machine is soooooooo slow”!
2. “The internet is soooooo slow”!
3. ”I can’t compose an e-mail in Outlook”
4. “I can’t print!”
5. “The feature in this application worked yesterday but it doesn’t work today!”

Any of these ringing a bell and rising your blood pressure?

While diagnosis and resolution for the above issues could identify literally hundreds of potential sources for the pain, the following are very common factors that contribute to annoying and stressful slowdowns in your computer network that YOUR COMPANY can play a large role in causing, and minimizing.

Complaint #1: My machine is soooo slow!

If the machine is more than 4 years old, it is most definitely underpowered for today’s software. The technical resource demands that current software require to perform at an optimal speed are a lot greater than 3+ years ago. So if you have a computer that’s 4 years old and you’re trying to run Office 2007 or 2010 with the latest updates installed, you will definitely see slower performance in comparison to a new computer.

Complaint #2: The Internet is soooooo slow!

While the issue could lie within your provider, most times it’s how a company uses the internet that determines its overall performance in your network.

The biggest offender is streaming of music or video over the internet . Doing so consumes an incredible amount of bandwidth and resources. Further, if you have staff accessing your network remotely, performance drains on the internet will be particularly frustrating for them as they are competing for network access through the same internet connection that staff may be using to stream content.

Complaints #3 to 5: I can’t compose an E-mail in Outlook / can’t print / my application doesn’t work properly anymore

The primary cause for these types of issues are related to resources on the local computer. The simplest remedy is to regularly restart the computer.

We see recurring complaints from the same staff members across our clients – they call us frustrated because applications don’t work properly and everything is slow. When we look at their computer remotely via our remote monitoring tools, we see these systems often haven’t been restarted for several weeks.

RESTART! RESTART! RESTART! RESTART! RESTART!

Leaving a computer on for weeks at a time without a restart taxes the computer and makes it very sluggish. It’s tantamount to never going to sleep so you can recharge your batteries.

RESTART! RESTART! RESTART! RESTART! RESTART!

Doing a restart on your PC at the end of your work day is one of the best technical habits to get into. It doesn’t take long (you can hit “restart” and walk away) and can save a lot of frustration, computer support costs, and slow productivity.

About the Author: Technical Action Group provides managed IT services, and technical and network support for Toronto, Ontario businesses with 10 to 75 computers who need stable, reliable and secure computer networks to run their business effectively. Visit our website to learn more about us and find out how we can take the frustration out of managing your IT assets. http://www.technicalactiongroup.com/