A reliable way to assess progress and review the strength of your network and computing devices is to complete monthly reports. IT monthly management reporting gives you a clearer idea about the state of your IT health.

These monthly reports can show you what’s currently working well, along with issues that need to improve. They also offer an opportunity to review expenses, lay out specific goals, and discuss solutions.

The following are four major benefits that IT monthly management reporting can bring to your company.

1) It’s part of a proactive approach to IT support

A recent article from Info Security discusses a problem many companies face: reactive IT support. With a reactive approach, IT personnel will often hear about a problem from other employees first. They’ll wait until a situation is already problematic and possibly urgent before acting on it.

In contrast, a proactive approach involves continuously monitoring your company’s system to detect existing and potential problems. The emphasis is on prevention and on catching problems quickly before they intensify and become more serious.

A monthly management report can contribute to a proactive approach. Reports provide an overview of your IT health. You can use them to assess potential problems, such as outdated equipment and software, inadequate defenses against an emerging cyber security threat, and inefficiencies in your company’s IT help desk. The reports give you a clearer idea of what needs improvement and allows you to prioritize based on the level of urgency and on your budget. You can also use them to highlight successful past solutions to IT problems, giving you a better idea of what can work well for your company.

2) It contributes to transparency and communication

There’s a common assumption that because IT personnel work with tech, they’re operating in their own realm, and that people who haven’t undergone the same training or education shouldn’t get involved. However, it’s important that you understand what your IT personnel are doing and ensure that they’re serving your company’s needs.

A monthly management report gives your IT personnel an opportunity to communicate with you intelligibly, free of jargon and obscure explanations. Even if you don’t know all the technical details, the monthly report should still provide you with a clear idea of IT activities and progress on various projects. Your IT personnel should never work in secrecy.

3) It fosters collaboration

Ideally, your IT activities will align with your business needs and goals. A monthly report is an excellent way to ensure that your IT personnel and company leaders are all on the same page, working towards the same ends. The feedback you offer on these reports can help your IT personnel adjust their activities to respond to your needs. They can also make suggestions that will potentially improve your productivity, give you a competitive edge, save on costs, and improve your company’s defenses against cyber attacks.

4) It makes your IT activities concrete

The only way to measure progress is to quantify it or otherwise discuss it in terms of concrete objectives. For example, let’s say you need to update your network security defenses. Discussing this goal in general terms won’t help you achieve it. You need to lay out what new defenses you’re looking into, the costs, the level of urgency, the deadline you’re working towards, the risks you incur with a delay, any workable alternatives, and the progress towards meeting your goal.

IT monthly management reporting is a powerful tool for solutions tailored to your company. Using the data from the report, you can act on problems before they worsen, understand your company’s IT activities, better align your IT decisions with your company’s goals, and evaluate your progress and solutions in concrete terms. Please contact us to further discuss the tangible benefits of a monthly report.