Given the hazardous nature of the present economic conditions, it is prudent for small businesses to cut down the costs wherever possible. There is one effective way to do this is to use some of the free software that is offered in the market today. There are various free tools available in the market, including web analytics tools, helpdesk, endpoint protection, and solutions for network monitoring.

Web Analytics tools

Web analytics tools are the software applications that retrieves the data from one or more business systems and combine them together to be reviewed and analyzed. By using a free, real-time web analytics tool, you can easily come to know exactly who is coming to your websites, at what time, and by what channels. From the point of view of a UX, the heat map analytics help you in identifying what will work for your business and what not. Also, web analytics tools are a great way to improve customer retention. So, remember to make sure that you choose a solution that completely respects your confidentiality and provides you with total control to your customer’s data.

Helpdesk solutions

Helpdesk software is a computer program that allows customer care operators to keep track of user requests and deals with different customer care issues. Some helpdesk helps allow your organization to operate a complete help desk with an unrestrained amount of operators; however, there is generally a limit on the technicians that can be included. However, free helpdesk solutions is an inordinate option for small and medium companies who wants to cut down their costs and expenses in the short term. Precisely, the best helpdesk tools enable involuntary ticket assignment, as well as mechanical notifications and warnings.

So, incorporating automation in your helpdesk, you can abridge your helpdesk’s mean time to steadfastness. You should ensure that your helpdesk tool provides automated notifications; so that you can keep your IT personnel and end-users knowledgeable about the updates in the ticket, comprising of resolution and closures.

Endpoint protection

It is evident that today, more people work remotely as compared to earlier. Therefore, it is necessary to have an adequate endpoint protection tools. However, nowadays, there are several solutions available in the market that can help people in managing their employees’ devices from a central location. Many endpoint protection tools are free for many mobile devices and desktop and easily run in the cloud.

Network monitoring

The network monitoring tool helps in protecting all your devices on your network for free.  Therefore, it is essential for you to choose an appropriate network monitoring tool for your company. In monitoring the network, the IT personnel first sets thresholds for critical network parameters, and these parameters are ever breached than an alarm will go off. With the help of these tools, your system administrator can easily visualize all the data of your network on a single screen. These screens, or Network Operations Center view, makes identifying discrepancies easier and lowers the meantime to resolution.

Ping tools

Small and medium companies can build a strong IT infrastructure with the help of ping and traceroute tools, as it allows administrators to ping their servers, routers, switches, and websites. There are several free ping tools in the market through which you can easily learn about the performance of your website and servers. Also, it helps you to assess the round time trip of your device and the time it takes for them to go live.

Log analysis

A log analysis tool helps in protecting your organization’s sensitive data by auditing your perimeter devices’ logs. It also helps in auditing all user activities and server account changes. Besides, these tools provide you with the vision into your potential threats and allow you to recognize them before they turn into an actual attack.

Password Management

Password management is an essential requirement in today’s world, as there are several hackers. So, to ease your work, there are various free enterprise-level password management software solutions in the market that allow you to protect all your passwords and store your docs in a secure vault. These solutions help your IT personnel to avoid password fatigue. They can also help your organization in meeting regulation compliance, such as SOX and HIPAA. Additionally, these tools can video record of the organizational activities, so that you can avoid any activity of inappropriate files.

There are several instances where small businesses struggle to cut down the company costs and navigate disruptions. Therefore, they can use several free tools from different solutions providers to reduce the expenses. The above-mentioned seven free tools will help you to make your network safe and functioning without any additional expense.

Source – Small Biz Daily