The top 7 IT priorities for your SME in 2025

Optimise security

Security may be dull, particularly when you’d rather focus on all the exciting things you are planning for 2025. However, to allow those things to happen and protect your business, you need to ensure that your security is optimised. Cybersecurity is primarily about prevention, but also about having robust responses to attacks if they do happen.

At E2E Technologies we ensure our clients are given all the cybersecurity and safeguarding tools they need to protect their businesses from cyber threats. Those tools vary from business to business, so we provide bespoke packages that are specifically designed to optimise security based on their individual business needs.

Cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated, so it is essential that you protect your business against phishing, malware and ransomware, amongst other new and ever-evolving threats.

Be ready for AI

AI attacks

Yes, we’re still talking about security, but AI (artificial intelligence) deserves a special mention. As happens with every technological advancement, AI has become of great interest to hackers. AI-powered cyber threats can include deepfakes, automated attacks and AI-generated phishing emails and messages. Your IT security should now include tools to detect AI attacks and use behavioural analytics to monitor unusual patterns of activity.

Find out what AI can do for your SME

On the flip side, embracing AI can be beneficial for SMEs. A survey by The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council (SBEC) found that AI can boost efficiency for SMEs by 40%. Tools such as ChatGPT and Microsoft 365 Copilot can introduce efficiencies that are helpful to smaller businesses. Investigating AI tools, and how they can benefit your SME, would be a worthwhile task on your 2025 to-do list.

Test your disaster recovery plan

You may already have a disaster recovery plan in place, but have you tested it lately? It’s not being dramatic to say that losing data can cripple your business, and not being able to bounce back quickly doubles the impact. It affects productivity, service levels, security and your company’s reputation.

Planning a quarterly disaster recovery test, and ensuring you have a robust backup system in place, will give you peace of mind for 2025. E2E Technologies can help you to create a disaster recovery plan that suits your business operation.

Upgrade to Windows 11

If your business has not yet upgraded from Windows 10, it is now vulnerable because various Windows 10 support elements are no longer provided by Microsoft.

Technical assistance, security fixes and free software updates are no longer available which means your business is susceptible to security attacks, and downtime because of technical issues. Make upgrading to Windows 11 one of the first changes you make in 2025.

Use technology for decision making

Technology isn’t just for ensuring systems run smoothly. It can also help management teams to make informed decisions. By leveraging analytics to track various daily operations such as productivity bottlenecks, employee behaviours and downtime, technology can enhance efficiencies across all areas of the business, not just your IT systems.

You can use the data to analyse your cybersecurity and address weaknesses, and improve your return on investment in IT software and equipment. Spending money wisely is a good way to navigate your way through 2025!

Keep up with compliance

Almost as sure as death and taxes is ever-changing compliance around the use of technology and data. It’s a myth that regulatory bodies and government departments have no interest in the compliance of SMEs and only go after big businesses. You need to keep your house in order.

For 2025, it would be wise to set up a system for monitoring compliance changes that could impact your industry and your business. By automating compliance reporting you can save time with your analytics and reduce the number of errors you make.

Scale your IT with your business

If your SME is growing, your IT infrastructure needs to adapt accordingly. The systems you put in place in year one or two may no longer be sufficient to support the expansion of your business.

Scalable SaaS (software as a service) solutions, that can be used to manage areas of the business through remote, cloud based software rather than on local machines, can be introduced to handle increasing IT demand.

Allocate time in early 2025 to evaluate your IT setup to ensure it supports growth and your future goals.

E2E Technologies: your managed IT partner for 2025

E2E Technologies provides managed IT support for SMEs from a range of industries. Speak to our friendly team about your IT plans for 2025 to find out how we can support you.