OK, so you’ve purchased the printers and scanners for the administrators division, the Research and Development group have completely new PCs, and your design editors are working with first-in-class programming. You can sit back, unwind, and won’t need to stress over purchasing any new gear for the business for a good long while.
But is that really the case? While, in an ideal world, it would be much simpler to purchase a solitary piece of hardware and never need to replace or alter it, this just simply isn’t true with current innovations and modern solutions. All things considered, imagine how your business would be working if you were running everything through a 90’s dial-up modem!
In these articles, we’ll investigate a few of the reasons it is critical to keep on top of various kinds of maintenance of systems within a business (and not just PCs!)
Hardware – Software
Alright, I said “not just PCs”, however they are still vital! Maintenance of systems is discussed a fair amount concerning PCs specifically, yet to put it all together, there are two central things to remember with PC maintenance.
Hardware comprises of the actual parts and pieces that make up a PC. Things like hard drives, processors, graphics cards and integration ports (headphones, USB etc) are all considered to be hardware. It can be a little tricky to ascertain the exact physical state of each internal component (regarding maintenance), there are measures you can carry out to guarantee that they stay in excellent condition, for example, cleaning of USB ports, eliminating dust development from PC fans, and ensuring that the PC (particularly “tower”, or personal/desktop computers) can’t be pushed over or moved while it is turned on (hard drives contain disks that turn extremely quick; applying impact shock to a circle turning at 7,000rpm is certainly not a great idea for keeping a hard drive in good shape.
Software, on the other hand, is a lot of on the flip side of the coin; programs and features that are put away on a PC or device that give an interactable capability. Think things like Microsoft Office (Word, Access, Excel, PowerPoint etc), computer aided design programs like AutoCAD, or even some of the simpler things like Notebook or Paint. A ton of programming and software types have processes that permit them to be updated without the need for user input behind the scenes, even while you are dealing with other work; nonetheless, this isn’t something that is always included with every type of software. While things Paint can no doubt be a couple of bug-patches behind and no one will mind, when you apply this issue to things like Finance and Payroll programs, and I’m certain you can see where considering updates and keeping software up-to-date regularly becomes critical in these cases. Look out for update pop-ups while opening work tools, or symbols on the toolbar informing of program and software updates; there’s nothing more annoying than going through days of chipping away at a project while using an obsolete version of the program just to find out in the end that you are the only person that can open or utilize the record due to everyone else using the most up-to-date version!
Fire Frameworks
It’s a given that fire and structures never go well together; irreparable harm to PC frameworks and the considerable risk of loss of information and items is always a critical problem to consider (While of course it remains a secondary concern to the danger to life that it could present). Keeping fire preventative and mitigation systems in good working order isn’t just unquestionably essential, but it is also mandated and required by law and health and safety regulations.
Following the methods laid out by the HSE and Regulatory Reform (Fire Security) Order carried out in 2005, by testing alarm call points, making sure that fire extinguishers are serviced regularly, and rehearsing fire drills consistently, you can keep the systems working as they ought to, so that if a fire breaks out, it can be quickly identified, controlled and managed in the proper way with as little harm to business foundations and infrastructure as possible, and an extraordinarily lessened endangerment to human life.
Watch out for the second piece of this article, where we will delve into a scratch more detail of keeping good security practises and maintenance, as well as looking into audio and visual (AV) systems and how to keep them in good condition.
Also Read: Business Maintenance – The Essentials Part 2
