Business Agility: What It Means & Why It Matters for Small & Mid-Size Businesses

Business Agility (BA) is all about access, and it can be achieved by leveraging collaborative technology to enable organizational flexibility. 

This means that employees no longer need to be “handcuffed” to a physical office, desktop, or on-premises application. Adopting policies and management methods that promote flexibility is a competitive advantage in today’s hybrid working world. 

The Importance of Business Agility 

Business agility means different things for different companies. What matters for large enterprises may not be relevant to smaller companies. So what does business agility look like for SMBs, and why should you care? 

At Entech, we help our clients build business agility through three key pillars: accessibility, security, and recoverability. Together, these pillars provide an effective way to maximize value, increase productivity, and secure peace of mind. 

Accessibility 

Companies are no longer confined to the four walls of their offices. Businesses of any size must build a modern workspace to support the work-from-anywhere trend and provide the flexibility a modern workforce demands. 

Employees must be able to access your company’s systems and data from anywhere at any time to maximize productivity and deliver prompt customer service. The ability to respond on a dime is essential for business agility.

An agile business will enable you to:

• expand your talent pool and hire employees from outside your area,
  
  
• tap into specialized skills to build products and deliver services customers request, 
  
  
• respond to inquiries and collaborate with others while on-the-go to increase productivity,
  
  
• work from home when the office isn’t accessible (e.g., due to natural disasters) to continue essential business processes and minimize costly downtime, and
  
  
• become more competitive in today’s tight labor market by attracting high-quality employees who value location and schedule flexibility to support work-life balance.  

Security 

Data and analytics are the lifeblood of modern organizations — they’re the foundation of any digital transformation strategy. Everyone in your organization must have access to real-time information and data insights to support accurate decision-making.  

However, data can be a double-edged sword. The more information you collect and use, the higher the risk of a breach. Therefore, data protection must be an indispensable component in your business agility strategy to prevent disruptions caused by cyberattacks.

Additionally: 

• You can prevent attacks and breaches that may tarnish your reputation, erode customer trust, require expensive remediation actions, and lead to loss of business. 

• Team members can access business and customer data securely from anywhere to maximize productivity.   
  
  
• You can ensure compliance with industry regulations and standards to avoid hefty penalties. 
  
  
• You can minimize the risk of data loss that could grind everything to a halt and keep your company from functioning for weeks.
   

Recoverability 

It’s not if, but when, an organization will come under attack. Meanwhile, a glitch in an increasingly complex IT system could lead to data loss, impeding critical business processes.

Backing up your data is the first step — but can you also quickly restore the files and IT structure to a functioning state to minimize downtime and the impact of a disruption?

Here are three ways a recovery plan can enhance business agility:
 

1. You can become immune to ransomware attacks by knowing that you can recover your entire infrastructure and data on a dime. 
   
   
2. You can avoid the financial and reputational impact of data loss and prolonged downtime, such as lawsuits, stalled projects, and decreased productivity. 
   
   
3. A comprehensive backup and recovery strategy helps you obtain cyber insurance more easily and economically — essential for protecting you from the devastating impact of an attack. 

Achieving Business Agility

BA is a multi-pronged approach that encompasses many aspects. We help our clients achieve and maintain business agility by responding to shifting market landscapes, workforce trends, cybersecurity best practices, and regulatory requirements. 

Our managed IT services can help you build business agility by achieving accessibility, security, and recoverability in order to:

• Support modern workspace mobility
• Ensure 24/7/365 collaboration through hosted email 
• Implement a centralized communications platform
• Enable real-time file access with hosted applications
• Manage a secure cloud infrastructure
• Enforce the latest data security best practices  

Learn more about our business agility solutions and get in touch to see how we can help you future-proof your business.