Have you worked on a troublesome problem or challenging project that occupied your mental space far too much? Every time you got a little free time, your brain took over trying to problem-solve and figure it out. Typically, these struggles come when that problem or project is not your normal area of expertise.

I have experienced this in the contrast between self-performing home remodeling work and having a general contractor do it for me. I’ve done both, usually based on the complexity of the project. When hiring a general contractor to do the project, the big benefit is that I have an expert who guides me through the process. It takes far less mental energy because I have direct access to the expert. However, when doing it myself, I need to research everything. What thickness should that underlayment be? What kind of screws? Do I need to prime that first? How do I square it up? What type of adhesive?

Many business owners and leaders have similar concerns about their technology and cybersecurity. These concerns come from not having someone who is charting their IT course. They may have a great tech guy who chimes in with his opinion. The problem is that he doesn’t truly understand business risks and is more of a technology geek than an advisor. It also happens that the person they trust for technology guidance is no longer in the know. Technology changes quickly, and without a specific system for staying current, even a great technology advisor gets stuck in the old way of doing things and does not make sure we stay current and safe.

Unfortunately, we don’t always know when an advisor leads us down the wrong path. That is the whole point. We need an advisor because we don’t know what we don’t know. While we can’t always tell if the technical advice we are getting is on track, there are some indicators that we can trust.

Here are 7 Ways You Can Tell if Your Technology Advisor Is on Their Game

1. Security is always at the top of their list. We live in an era of extremely high risk when it comes to IT security. What worked only a few years ago is just not good enough today. Your advisor should be recommending multi-factor authentication for all remote access to your network or cloud resources. They should be recommending enhanced tools that include 24×7 security monitoring. They should be urging you to up your cybersecurity because the game has changed.
2. They make a big deal out of age. The age of equipment and software plays a huge role in productivity and security. When equipment ages beyond the 5-year mark, the mean-time-before-failure rate increases dramatically. This means the likelihood of your systems going down increases significantly. You can avoid most downtime by simply tracking your equipment and applying a systematic replacement schedule. Old software that is out of support or several versions old is also risky. There are security holes that are unpatched in the out-of-support versions. And, if something goes wrong, there is no way to get help.
3. They insist on following IT best practices. If you haven’t heard the words “best practice” from your IT advisor, you should. Measuring your company against the generally accepted best practice or even a framework like CIS or NIST is a great way to ensure you are on the right track. A good advisor will provide the reference point of how your IT compares with doing things correctly.
4. Band-aids, if they exist, are very temporary. We’ve all been in that cycle where it seems like everything is a band-aid, and the quick fix never gets replaced with the right solution. This is a sign that your IT has become reactive and usually dangerously so. Sometimes, a quick fix is necessary, but a good IT advisor will quickly recommend replacing the quick fix with the right thing.
5. Business savvy, not just IT savvy. Too often, IT people, though super smart about technology, have a gap in relating IT decisions to business impact. This manifests itself in many ways. One example is the IT person who does everything cheaply because he can’t justify the cost of the right solution in his mind. A better understanding of business impact would have him realize that the cost is small compared to the impact of reducing business risk. The lack of business savvy results in a skewed solution that often creates a position of insecurity or one that lacks stability and scalability.
6. They balance security and usability. Your IT advisor should promote IT security and advise you to implement safeguards that are a MUST (think MFA, Strong password policy, encryption, and new managed protection mechanisms). However, they will also recognize that they can’t impede the ability of users to do their work. This seems simple, but I have repeatedly seen overcomplicated security severely impacting daily work. Typically, security measures affect users, but this can be balanced so that it does not impede performance and create frustration.
7. Learning is a regular thing. You can’t be in the IT business and stay the same. If your advisor is not attending vendor sessions, learning conferences, and training, they will fall behind. If they are not continually learning, your IT will fall behind. If you never hear about a new product, a new technology, or a new vendor from your technical resource, he may be stagnant, which is problematic in today’s world of constant innovation. Staying with the old is both insecure and overlooks productivity gains that you could have.

A strong IT advisor can be hard to find. Often companies rely on the same person doing their hands-on IT work to be their advisor, which often isn’t a good idea. Some degree of separation between the hands-on IT person and the advisor is a good thing. When you are entrenched in day-to-day IT, it is tough to take a step back and see the big picture. If you want to increase your IT strength, consider a strong managed services provider with a separate team for hands-on work and advisory services. Having the right resource to guide your IT path makes all the difference.

Scott Hirschfeld

Scott Hirschfeld is the President of CTaccess, a Brookfield IT support company that has been helping businesses stop focusing on IT and getting back to doing business since 1990. Under his leadership CTaccess provides the business minded approach of larger IT companies with the personalized touch of the smaller ones. Connect with Scott on LinkedIn.