By John Sikaras, Fulton May Solutions
Looking Back at 2025: A Turning Point for Business IT
In 2025 technology conversations shifted from maintaining basic operations to building a secure and resilient foundation that supports growth. Rising cyber threats, a tighter labor market, and pressure to do more with fewer resources pushed leaders to rethink how they use technology and choose partners.
At Fulton May Solutions we serve growing and mid-sized businesses across the United States from our headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois and additional offices across the Midwest and Northeast. Across construction, healthcare, manufacturing, legal, and other professional services, a few clear themes emerged this year about what works and what does not in IT strategy.
This review highlights the most important IT lessons from 2025, what forward-looking leaders changed, and how you can apply those insights as you plan for 2026.
Lesson 1: Treat Cybersecurity as a Business Risk
In 2025 security stopped being only a technical topic. Ransomware, phishing, and business email compromise increasingly targeted organizations that did not have dedicated security teams. Regulators, insurers, and customers raised their expectations for how data must be protected.
We observed three practical shifts among leaders:
- Security moved into executive conversations. Owners and executives began asking concrete questions about operational risk. They wanted to know how long they could operate if systems were down, what their exposure would be if a cloud account was compromised, and how quickly they could recover.
- Human behavior became a top priority. Many incidents we investigated started with a single click in an email or the reuse of a weak password. Organizations that invested in ongoing phishing awareness training and dark web monitoring significantly reduced their risk.
- Layered defenses became the standard approach. Firewalls and antivirus alone were not sufficient. Firms combined email security, endpoint detection and response, multifactor authentication, and secure backup and recovery to protect data end to end.
Entering 2026, high-performing organizations are treating cybersecurity as an ongoing business program that is measured, funded, and reviewed regularly instead of as a one-time project.
Lesson 2: Operational Resilience Is More Important Than Uptime Metrics
Historically IT success was measured by uptime and ticket closure rates. In 2025 leaders asked a different question. They wanted to know how quickly the organization could resume critical work when something failed.
Several trends drove this change:
- More work and data moved to the cloud. Organizations adopted Microsoft 365, line-of-business SaaS platforms, and cloud storage at a rapid pace. This increased accessibility and also created new dependencies on internet connectivity, identity management, and third-party providers.
- Downtime became more costly. Even brief outages could halt production, pause patient intake, delay legal filings, or disrupt construction schedules. Leaders wanted clear recovery time and recovery point objectives for critical systems.
- Business continuity planning matured. Clients stopped treating backups as a checklist item. They wanted practical, documented steps to operate if a key system or location went offline.
The organizations that performed best in 2025 tested restores regularly, verified that cloud data was truly protected, and tied technical recovery plans back to real-world business processes on the plant floor, at the jobsite, and in the office.
Lesson 3: The Right IT Partner Eases the Talent Shortage
Hiring and retaining experienced IT staff remained a challenge in 2025. Competing with larger enterprises on salary and benefits made it hard for many companies to build deep internal teams. Internal generalists were often stretched across support, projects, and security tasks.
More organizations embraced partner models and used Fulton May Solutions as a full-service IT department or as an extension of a lean internal team. Key outcomes of that shift included:
- Coverage that matches expertise. Clients relied on our team for consistent help desk support, timely on-site services, and senior-level strategy without hiring multiple internal roles.
- Standardization to reduce crisis events. By standardizing on proven platforms such as Microsoft 365, Cisco networking, and modern backup tools, organizations reduced complexity and made it easier to support remote and on-site workers.
- Co-managed IT as a long-term approach. Organizations with internal IT leaders used our services for after-hours support, specialized security, or major projects like cloud migrations. This allowed internal staff to focus on business-focused initiatives instead of routine maintenance.
If building a full internal IT team is not cost effective, a managed IT partner can provide depth, continuity, and specialized skills that are difficult to assemble in-house.
Lesson 4: Industry Needs Require Tailored IT Decisions
Even though Fulton May Solutions serves a broad range of sectors, 2025 showed that industry context matters for IT planning. The same technology stack can produce very different results depending on regulatory requirements and operational workflows.
Across our clients we saw distinct priorities:
Construction. Jobsite connectivity, ruggedized devices, and secure file sharing for drawings and change orders remained central challenges. Successful firms prioritized reliable remote access and simple collaboration with subcontractors and partners.
- Healthcare. Compliance and patient privacy drove decisions. Providers looked for managed security, encryption, and access controls that met regulatory expectations while avoiding disruption to clinical workflows.
- Finance. Similar to healthcare, strict regulatory standards and the absolute need for data privacy were paramount. Firms focused on secure client communication, protecting transaction data, and maintaining rigourous audit trails to satisfy compliance requirements without slowing down deal flow.
- Manufacturing. Protecting production systems, industrial controls, and intellectual property became more urgent. Segmented networks and strong backup strategies were crucial to reduce the impact of any incident.
- Legal and professional services. Secure remote work, document management, and email protection were top priorities. Firms also focused on client expectations around response times and confidentiality.
The lesson for 2026 is to make IT choices that reflect your industry workflows, rules, and client expectations. Technology that looks similar on paper may behave very differently in a clinic, factory, office, or jobsite.
Lesson 5: Data-Driven IT Turns Technology from a Cost to a Growth Enabler
In 2025 organizations that moved from reactive support to data-driven planning gained clearer visibility into performance, risk, and opportunity.
We saw tangible value in the following areas:
- Dashboards for IT health. Metrics such as ticket trends, asset age, patch compliance, and backup success rates gave leaders a factual basis for budgeting and prioritization.
- Leveraging Microsoft Power BI for operations. Beyond IT, businesses used Power BI to combine operational, financial, and customer data. This helped them identify bottlenecks, measure productivity, and forecast capacity.
- Aligning projects to measurable outcomes. Leaders began to ask how each IT initiative would reduce risk, improve efficiency, or support revenue. This shifted approval from technical merits to business impact.
Organizations that tie technology plans to business metrics and then use those metrics to guide continuous improvement will outperform their peers.
Lesson 6: AI and Automation Moved from Hype to Practical Utility
For the last few years, Artificial Intelligence was a buzzword. In 2025, it finally became a standard business tool. The conversation shifted from “Will AI replace us?” to “How can AI remove the friction from our daily workflows?”
We saw AI and automation become “a thing” in 2025 not through flashy new robots, but through the software businesses already use every day.
Embedded Intelligence. AI capabilities became standard features in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Tools like Microsoft Copilot allowed staff to summarize Teams meetings, draft emails, and analyze Excel data instantly, turning AI into a productivity engine rather than a novelty.
Automating the Mundane. Mid-sized businesses began using low-code automation to bridge gaps between systems. Simple workflows—like automatically saving email attachments to specific SharePoint folders or routing invoices for approval without manual data entry—freed up hundreds of hours of staff time.
How Fulton May Solutions is Approaching AI As we look toward 2026, Fulton May Solutions is taking a “Security-First” approach to AI for both our own operations and our clients. We are treating AI not just as a new tool, but as a new layer of infrastructure that requires governance.
Going forward, our strategy focuses on three pillars:
Internal Efficiency for Faster Support. We are integrating AI-driven automation into our service desk operations to categorize tickets and automate routine maintenance tasks. This allows our technicians to spend less time on administration and more time solving complex client issues.
Data Governance Before Deployment. We are helping clients prepare their data environments before turning on tools like Copilot. If your internal file permissions are loose, AI can accidentally surface sensitive HR or financial data to the wrong employees. We are prioritizing permission audits to ensure AI is safe to use.
Advising on Practical Use Cases. We are committed to cutting through the noise. We will continue to test emerging AI tools and only recommend those that offer tangible ROI, security, and reliability for the industries we serve.
Actions to Prepare Your Organization for 2026
As we close out 2025 the most prepared organizations are taking a few concrete steps now. If you are planning your 2026 IT roadmap focus on these priorities:
- Reassess your cybersecurity posture. Confirm multifactor authentication is enabled, filter email threats, and gain visibility into compromised credentials. Establish clear policies and training for your team.
- Validate your backup and recovery strategy. Know where your data resides, how often it is backed up, and how long it would take to restore critical systems. Test restores on a regular schedule.
- Clarify roles between internal staff and partners. If you have internal IT resources define ownership and identify where a managed provider can add capacity or specialized skills.
- Align IT investments with business goals. Tie your 2026 IT budget to initiatives such as opening new locations, supporting remote work, improving client experience, or meeting regulatory requirements.
- Document and standardize. From onboarding checklists to vendor lists and network diagrams, documentation reduces risk when staff changes or when an incident occurs.
- Establish an AI Usage Policy: Whether or not you have officially adopted AI, your employees are likely using it. Define acceptable use cases for public AI tools and identify where you need enterprise-grade data protection.
How Fulton May Solutions Can Help You Build a Stronger 2026
Since 2005 Fulton May Solutions has helped growing and mid-sized organizations modernize IT, strengthen security, and support business growth. As a full-service managed IT provider we combine help desk support, on-site services, cybersecurity, cloud solutions, and strategic consulting into a single partnership.
Our team serves clients from multiple locations across the Midwest and Northeast. We focus on long-term relationships, responsive customer service, and practical solutions that fit real budgets and timelines. Whether you need a fully outsourced IT department or a co-managed model that supports your internal team, our objective is to make technology work for your business.
If you see gaps in security, resilience, or strategy, now is the time to address them. Organizations that act early in 2026 will be better positioned to handle whatever comes next.
Next Step: Schedule a 2026 IT Strategy and Security Review
Start 2026 with a clear, practical plan for your technology, security, and support.
Schedule a complimentary IT and security assessment with Fulton May Solutions. We will review your environment, identify vulnerabilities and bottlenecks, and recommend actionable steps aligned to your business goals and budget.
Request your IT assessment today and build a more secure, resilient, and efficient foundation for the year ahead.
