Cloud

How Small Businesses Are Innovating in the Modern Era

When automation, cloud computing and strategically planned managed services join forces to power small business technology deployments, innovation wins.

Bob Keaveney

Bob is the managing editor of BizTech magazine.

There's a common thread running through small businesses today, and that’s innovation without limits. We hear from small businesses time and again about the many obstacles and challenges they face, from lean IT teams and disconnected data to disjointed systems and tools that had reached end of life. Despite such hurdles, these teams uncovered a strategic path forward, adopting a growth mindset and purposefully choosing the right mix of solutions to meet their needs — now and for the future — and unlock innovation.

In Michigan, 75-year-old General Fasteners has watched its business grow rapidly, covering more ground in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Now branded as GF, the company needed to update its cybersecurity infrastructure to fit its new global footprint and stay ahead of modern threats; ultimately, it adopted platformization as a long-term, scalable solution (see “Less Is More” on Page 30).

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Where To Turn for IT Modernization Help

For time- and resource-strapped IT teams, managing company-issued devices such as laptops and phones takes time away from more strategic, forward-thinking projects. Some companies, such as BuildOps, have shifted the burdens of provisioning and other time-intensive management functions to CDW, while automating policies and application installation depending on the device or user profile (see “Get IT Done” on Page 22).

Companies that choose to lease devices or turn to Device as a Service offerings enjoy the additional benefits of shifting the full lifecycle, from configuration and management to help desk support and disposal, to a third party.

“We try to automate all of it, because setting them up manually takes a lot of manpower for my IT team,” Bob Motamede, the company’s IT and security director, tells BizTech. “I’ve got bigger projects for them to work on.”

These stories serve as potent reminders that when it comes to innovation, where there’s a will, there’s always a way.

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