By Courtney Pinkston, Marketing Administrator at Goodwin PC
Miranda Priestly, Tony Stark, 867-5309 Jenny and Ross Geller walk into a blog post about business IT. Some of the best advice didn't come from a tech conference. It came from a gala, a Marvel film, an 80s one-hit wonder and a very chaotic Friends Christmas. Here are four mistakes your business might be making (and the pop culture moments that already called them out).
You don't have a backup plan.
There's a scene in The Devil Wears Prada where Miranda is at a fancy gala. Miranda would never memorize the names of guests, but her trusty assistant Emily must. After all, the mission is to make Miranda look good in order to attract donors and supporters. An ambassador and his wife come up, but neither Emily nor Miranda know their names. Not a good look.
Fortunately, Andy is there too. She immediately remembers the name, saving Miranda from a PR nightmare. Miranda had a backup. But her backup failed. So she had a backup backup.
In the world of IT, backups are so important. Without them, you'll lose your information. You'll be stranded without a plan. You'll risk experiencing a nightmare. The only good news is that you won't be wearing a fancy gown when it happens.
You don't govern your AI systems.
Avengers: Age of Ultron, anyone? Tony Stark and Bruce Banner build Ultron, an AI that is supposed to run a global peace program. But the AI decides humans are the threat and tries to eliminate them. The Avengers come together to stop it. It sounds wild, but if you think about it, they simply weren't governing their AI.
So how do you do this? Create an AI usage policy, use an enterprise-level system built for secure transmission of your data and review everything with your own eyes before implementation. AI is not the endgame (see what I did there?). It's a useful tool that, when used properly and safely, can streamline processes, enhance efficiency and produce better work. Just don't trust it to keep the peace. You have a brain for a reason.
You don't keep things secure.
I bet Jenny still isn't happy with Tommy Tutone. He blasted her number all over the radio in 1981 and no one has forgotten it. Jenny wasn't a real person and 867-5309 wasn't her number, but it was a real number and quite a few folks were rather annoyed by the calls they received. Phone numbers aren't exactly private, but imagine if Tommy had written a song with a password in it. Hello, disaster.
By not protecting your passwords, you're basically writing your own 80s song with the lyrics: "Hackers, they've got my password. They're gonna make me cry." Find a reputable password manager, turn on MFA and stop accepting those auto-generated passwords that get suggested all the time.
You don't think proactive IT is important.
Remember the episode of Friends when Ross wears an armadillo costume at Christmas? He thought he had everything figured out with a simple lesson about his heritage, but his child only wanted to see Santa. Ross frantically tries to find a Santa costume, but they were all sold out. So he rented the armadillo costume instead. Ross didn't consider that Ben would want to see Santa and ended up putting a "weird turtle man" sized band-aid over the problem. He reacted and panicked.
Chandler, the hero of this episode, shows up dressed as Santa. Ben was happy and Christmas was saved.
Ross had to react and spend money on something he didn't actually need. In the world of IT, you definitely don't want to do this. Most business owners don't realize how much downtime costs until they're in the middle of it. Don't let things break before reaching out to your IT provider. Find the company that is prepared, not the one showing up in an armadillo costume to save the day.
Unlike Ross, you don't have to figure it out at the last minute. Schedule a call with our team today. It's free and it's the first step in helping you map out a path to proactive IT for your business.
About the Author
I lead marketing at Goodwin PC Services, where my focus is on helping connect Mid-South businesses with reliable IT support through clear, honest storytelling. I've spent over a decade in marketing and public relations, with a background in communication and journalism. I'm also a pop culture fanatic ... and Age of Ultron is my least favorite Avengers film.
