IT is no doubt an important aspect of most (if not all) businesses regardless of the industry. In this blog post, we will dive deeper into some of the unique challenges that manufacturing and distribution verticals face when it comes to IT.
Diverse User Environment
Manufacturing and distribution organizations often have multiple departments with very different roles. For instance, administrative staff members have different IT needs than salespeople traveling across the country or the warehouse manager who maintains an inventory shipping and forklift system. And beyond the IT needs of your people, there are machines and robots wired into the network, which need to be managed as well. We often find that many of these businesses have a COO, CFO, or General Manager that also wears the IT hat in addition to their day to day role.
Increasing efficiency an productivity are typically among the top priorities in the manufacturing space. Technology should be a conduit to enhance, and not hinder, these goals.
ERP, CAD, and Proprietary Applications
Whether its an ERP system that houses jobs and invoicing or CAD software among other applications, your software plays a large role in your business. Managing and maintaining the hardware that houses your software as well as providing technical support can quickly become overwhelming.
Downtime not only causes delays and frustration for users. It also leads to lost revenue and business production for the amount of time that your applications, PCs, etc. were not functioning. Trust a vendor that will collaborate with your application vendors so that you can focus on your core business. With a proactive IT support model, like Centrality’s Managed Services, preventative maintenance for your servers and workstations (i.e. patching, anti-virus) are monitored and kept up to date. Unlimited remote helpdesk support ensures that your users always have resource when technical issues arise.
Business Continuity for Manufacturing
Files created from applications like AutoCAD or SolidWorks, are often very large, and can quickly take up disc space. You need to collaborate with co-workers, vendors and your client on drawings and updating your files for a project, and may also even need to reference prior project documentation. Centrality can assist in designing the proper network structure and backup / business continuity plan, whether on-premise or in the cloud, to suit your specific business needs.
