MSPNetworks Blog

For business managers, it can sometimes be difficult to create policies and procedures that allow for the efficiency that they’d like to see from their business. Business growth leads to more complex situations which in turn demand more complex procedures. This enhanced complexity can not only get constant in that you need to alter the way things are done, you also could fall into the trap of mistakenly putting productivity roadblocks up that can alter the way your business operates.

In this blog, we will discuss why creating a bureaucracy in business can often be inevitable, yet counterproductive nevertheless.

Bureaucracy is Meant to Provide Structure, But Can Often Detract from Essential Flexibility

The idea behind forming any kind of organizational hierarchy is generally one of efficiency. The thought is that the purpose of bureaucracy is to generate operational efficiency by keeping processes unambiguous and consistent. That being said, bureaucracy can often lead to rigid processes and inflexibility, which creates more inefficiencies through all the hoops that people need to navigate and jump through. It’s all a question of how much oversight a given bureaucracy relies on, and how that oversight is practiced.

Efficiency Produces More

In order to properly paint a picture of why too much oversight is a bad thing for your business all you have to do is look at how governments work. The more bureaucracy any government has, the less efficient it will be. The same goes for businesses. If you have too much in the way of middle management, progress can grind to a halt as workers will need several people in supposed authority to sign off on any of them. This only becomes a more prevalent problem as a business grows in size and operational scope. So, what can be done to focus on your efficiency without taking on these negative ramifications?

There are a few things:

Establish (and Continuously Evaluate) Consistent Systems

We’ve already mentioned that the entire bureaucratic system is intended—at least partially—to establish some level of consistency in an organization’s processes, which helps to ensure an acceptable quality of service is maintained. Issues arise, however, when these systems are followed so fanatically that no adjustments can be made…even when these adjustments would offer significant benefits over the existing process.

To avoid this outcome, it is important that your systems are designed to be adjusted as the need arises, or even altered as larger circumstances change.

Encourage New Ideas and Methods

On a related note, the kind of rigidity that we’ve been discussing often comes from an aversion to stepping up and taking risks, particularly if there has already been a pattern of new ideas being smothered or even punished. Let me ask you this: if you were berated each time you identified a problem for not doing so sooner, how long would it be before you simply gave up on identifying them? Encouraging your team members to try and come up with new solutions and giving them the freedom to make mistakes as they do so will empower them to more effectively improve upon the business.

Implement Training and Policy that Reflects Your Commitment to Improvement

Sure, it’s all well and good to list off these platitudes as though they mean something. It will do you no good, however, if your actions don’t line up to what you claim you want for your organization. Don’t be afraid to start teaching your team members to question existing processes and keep an eye out for opportunities to improve them from the very beginning. If the opportunity arises, keep these behaviors in mind when a role opens up that needs someone to be promoted to fill it. Rewarding the mindset you want to encourage is a very effective way to signal what it is you hope to see from your team.

This May Help with Your Organizational Efficiency…We Can Directly Help You with Your Technological Efficiency, Too

In order for your team to make the most of its time, it is also important for them to have reliable access to the right tools for the job. That’s our specialty. Give us a call at (516) 403-9001 to learn how our managed services can directly benefit your operations.

All successful businesses want to grow and better themselves, as growth is a direct indicator that you are doing something right, from providing better services to your customers or servicing more customers. If you’re not ready to adapt to this growth, you’re in for a difficult time. Here are three ways you can keep your business operating even when you’re experiencing unprecedented growth.

Prioritize Flexibility

If things progress too quickly with your business’ growth, then you’ll want to be prepared to adjust your strategy accordingly. Therefore, if you are expecting to experience growth, you’ll need to have the flexibility to adapt your practices in real time. You’ll also need to acquire additional resources, should the need arise, to scale services and allocate funds. For technology, the cloud can help you be particularly flexible, especially for controlling costs and resource access.

Keep Spending Under Control

It’s always stressful not knowing if your current level of growth is sustainable with your current staff, especially if you’re unsure if your budget can handle onboarding new employees. Payroll can be challenging, and if you aren’t careful, you could over-anticipate your staffing needs and break your budget. You can use technology to help control costs. For example, a CRM can be used to track customer interactions and collect valuable metrics from which you can make educated decisions.

Make Security Your Priority

With all of the exciting things going on with your business, it’s easy to put your blinders on and forget that the more your business grows, the more opportunities there are for security discrepancies to cause trouble for your company. Cybercriminals will generally pick easy targets, i.e. those that don’t properly protect themselves, so the more difficult it is for a hacker to infiltrate your systems, the less likely they will be to follow through on the plethora of tactics they could employ. Don’t put your business at risk by allowing it to grow so big you cannot protect it. Plan for growth and adjust your security measures in accordance to that growth.

MSPNetworks can help your business implement technology solutions designed to scale and grow alongside your business, no matter what your work might be. If you’re ready to start the conversation about your business’ technology infrastructure, then we’d be happy to help you learn more. To get started, contact us at (516) 403-9001 today.

Lots of businesses are facing a financial crunch as the margins they operate under continue to shrink. This unfortunate trend has led a lot of businesses to outsource elements of their operations to try and cut costs. One part of the business that is either outsourced or cut out entirely has been the human resources department. 

What Does the Human Resources Department Do?

HR is responsible for recruiting employees, their training and progress, and handling records. Many organizations have their HR department handling other administrative tasks, payroll, and benefits as well. These are crucial parts to running a business, so when there aren’t resources for an HR department, there is a giant hole left in an organization.

Businesses Getting Value out of Outsourcing HR

When a member of your organization doesn’t present obvious revenue generation, that position is apt to be outsourced. Many businesses are now getting immense value out of outsourced HR plans. Today’s outsourced HR platform can do about anything that an internal HR professional can do, but it will be done much less formally. 

The change isn’t just for cost savings. Studies have shown that HR departments are guilty of the following:

• Reports of toxic work environments
• Lazy and underwhelming recruiting
• A total lack of employee development
• No dedication to building a positive company culture
• A complete lack of coordination between business leaders and HR

This is why many decision makers have looked to get out from under their HR staff. Today, Human Resources-as-a-Service (HRaaS) platforms make it easy to get value out of outsourced HR.

About HRaaS

Since HR departments have very specific things they need to do, and do well, HRaaS platforms have been built around those things. They give business managers the ability to track their HR progress through a dedicated dashboard. Many more expensive options have expansive features that allow a company to integrate payroll, benefits, and more. HRaaS can help your business get a budgetable platform that can help you:

• Attract and develop talent
• Maintain regulatory compliance
• Provide benefits and payroll administration
• Provide necessary employee training platforms

At MSPNetworks, we can help your business be more successful through the use of technology. If you would like to have a conversation about any of the technology platforms that we can recommend, or talk to one of our IT experts about systems like HRaaS, give us a call today at (516) 403-9001. 

Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur, largely because there’s a lot that can pop up and cause problems that need to be addressed. Let’s discuss how successful business owners rally through tough times to help attain this kind of success.

Starting a business is a huge risk, which pretty much always means that there’s a lot of hope involved. Entrepreneurs move forward under the assumption that they can take something in the world and make it better or reinvent it entirely. As a result, there is the impression that a business owner will need to push their boundaries, or fail.

Of course, there’s taking risks, and then there’s being foolhardy. It’s all about balancing between playing it safe, and putting a little bit out on the line. Let’s discuss a few ways that you can make it easier to step out of your comfort zone a little.

Acquire Information

If you’re going to accomplish any of the goals you set for yourself and your business, you're going to need data. How does your business work? How is payroll handled? How are your business’ taxes paid? What are your acquisition and inventorying processes? Are you in a good relationship with the vendors you rely on? Are you in compliance with any and all applicable regulations?

The list of things you need to know to successfully open and operate a business, as they say, goes on and on.

Plus, this all gets more complicated as your business grows. Knowledge is indeed power, so make sure you are as knowledgeable about your business as possible.

Accept the Responsibilities of Your Role

While it would certainly be nice to just wake up one morning to find yourself the CEO of the most successful, expansive, and profitable business in history, that’s simply not how it works. If you are going to grow your business to any degree, you need to have the right goals in place, as well as the processes to allow you to strive towards these goals. Figure out how to work more efficiently, either by cutting through red tape or by adopting modern equipment that enables automation. Seek out new hires who have proven their worth in their previous positions. Will it take time and effort (and a bit of financial investment)? Sure, but everything that’s worth it tends to do so.

Furthermore, you need to be able to hold yourself accountable when things don’t go as planned. It can be too tempting to cast blame on anyone or anything else—an approach many less-than-admirable managers follow—so you need to commit to honest self-evaluation, regardless of whether your business’ efforts are trending up or down.

Maintain Forward Momentum

So, you’ve managed to expand your business’ comfort zone and embraced more opportunities as a result…time for a break, right?

Wrong.

Complacency is a dangerous thing, especially when you take into account how quickly things can change for a business. Millions of businesses suddenly had to make some very drastic changes a few years ago, and those that didn’t shut their doors after a while. While this wasn’t their fault, per se, their lack of preparedness and adaptability led to their failure.

As a business owner, you’re likely pretty used to pushing your own boundaries. Starting a business, or even taking up the mantle, is a real challenge. It takes grit, and that same grit is required if you plan to advance the company you are in charge of—and, as you’re the one in charge, it is your responsibility to make things better for your customers, employees, and vendors.

Yeah, building a business is hard, but we can at least make any IT concerns a lot easier. Reach out at (516) 403-9001 to talk to us about what we can do for you.

We all know the importance of IT maintenance and management when it comes to effectively running a business, but it’s really hard to ensure that your technology is being properly maintained when your staff have one foot out the door. A new survey from Gartner suggests that IT employees are more likely to leave your business than other non-IT employees, and this puts a heavier burden on you to make sure technology is properly taken care of.

What Do the Numbers Say?

Gartner’s latest Global Labor Market Survey indicates that only 29.1 percent of IT employees have solid plans to remain with their current employers. This number seems to be quite low, especially considering the important role that technology plays in most businesses. Depending on where you are looking, the numbers can get even more dire. According to the survey, only 19.6 percent of IT workers in Asia plan to stick with their current jobs. Other numbers include New Zealand and Australia at 23.6 percent, Latin America at 26.9 percent, and Europe at 38.8 percent.

So, as you can see, even the most optimistic numbers are still quite high, with the global average of 10.2 percent of IT staff being less likely to stay at their current job compared to non-IT employees. It’s thought that these numbers have come about as a result of employees reassessing their career choices and priorities in the post-pandemic world. Naturally, they should not be faulted for doing so, but it does put your organization in a bit of a bind, especially if your organization relies heavily on IT, as many do.

Why Does This Matter for Your Business?

Simply put, considering the higher rate of turnover for IT workers within businesses, it makes sense that you would want to eliminate as much of the unpredictability as possible. Therefore, we recommend that you work with a managed service provider like MSPNetworks to ensure that you are not left without the IT talent to keep your business running effectively.

When you work with MSPNetworks, you get several benefits. For one, you remove the task of recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding IT staff, meaning that you basically get all of that time back to be productive with your own tasks in the workplace. You also remove the time you might spend without a technician should your current staff decide it is time to jump ship and move on to greener pastures. A lot can happen while you are working to replace a missing employee, and you want as little turnover time as possible. Essentially, what you get is predictability and the reassurance that there will always be someone there to help your organization with IT, no matter what happens in this crazy, chaotic world we live in.

To learn more about our services or how you stand to benefit by working with us, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

Running a business can be stressful, and if you can’t find time to juggle the countless variables that are at play every day of the week, you’ll quickly find yourself falling behind what needs to be done. Technology is one such area where falling behind is easy, especially when it comes to purchasing and implementing new tools. Unfortunately, your IT budget is not limitless, so how can you make the most of it? Let’s take a look.

Identify Inefficiencies

When you need to make your investments count, it can often be difficult to make large purchases without a little bit of reticence. You should first determine where your business could benefit from technology spending, then make implementing these solutions a priority. If you can address inefficiencies in your operations, you’ll be more likely to gain more from your technology and, thus, make the investment worthwhile.

For example, if you have ten employees and two of them have two displays, then these two employees are likely getting more work done than the rest of your employees. If you can invest in eight more monitors, then you can exponentially increase productivity for the entire crew, making the investment an excellent way to reduce inefficiencies. There are tons of other ways your business can use this principle to make the most of its technology budget—you just have to think a little outside the box and examine the baseline operations of your infrastructure.

Invest in Training

You can invest in technology, but you can also invest in something which is less likely to break down and require replacing eventually: training. If you purchase new technology or equipment, your employees will need to know how to use it. By ensuring that your employees are properly trained, they’ll be more likely to yield a return on investment for your new technology solutions.

What it really boils down to is that the better your employees are at doing their jobs, the more money they will save you in the long run. By training your employees, you are giving them access to knowledge and tools that will aid them while going about their duties. In fact, according to a study conducted by the Association of Talent Development, companies that invest in comprehensive training programs see 218 percent higher income than those that don’t.

Furthermore, today’s threat landscape is so advanced that your employees will need all the help they can get to avoid falling prey to a hacker or other advanced cyber threat. If you invest in security training now, you can save money by preventing security breaches in the future. Plus, it will help you maintain customer relations; nobody wants to work with a business that doesn’t take security seriously, after all.

Outsource

Outsourcing can be an effective way to take advantage of goods or services you wouldn’t otherwise have access to. It effectively gives you access to more for less, and it helps to control costs in the budgeting process. In particular, outsourcing technology services can be an effective way to keep your IT in proper working order. Through managed services like those provided by MSPNetworks, you can utilize all kinds of technology solutions that you might otherwise have difficulty implementing with limited resources at your disposal.

One common way that businesses outsource is with their cloud platform, but the cat isn’t out of the bag yet in regards to how much ROI you actually get from implementing it. Still, the fact that outsourcing gives you access to solutions you wouldn’t otherwise be able to manage is more than enough reason to consider it. Outsourcing your cloud, for example, gives you the ability to scale your services per user or per GB used, so you can still leverage the services according to your operational needs.

If you partner with a company like us, you can take advantage of several services designed to help your business thrive and gain value from technology. Here are some examples:

• Comprehensive backup and disaster recovery
• Remote monitoring and proactive management of all IT
• Best in New York technology procurement
• Dynamic cybersecurity tools
• Patch and licensing management
• Vendor management

And more. 

Even without a huge IT budget, your business can be successful and innovative. To learn more about how you can accomplish this, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

It might be an understatement to suggest that things don’t always go smoothly in business. The truth is that when one problem is solved, another is often created. This is why we lean on our technology. These “solutions” are intended to fix many of the speedbumps, but that doesn’t mean that choosing, deploying, and supporting these systems don’t come with some problems as well. Today, we look at three reasons an IT project could fail. 

Failure to Align to Business Needs

Incorporating technology to make things more efficient is typically the goal, but in many instances, management and technology deployment aren’t working in concert. This can lead to IT projects that fail because of friction that is caused when there isn’t any unity in the direction things are going. In order for IT projects to work as designed, there needs to be some cohesion between planning and practice. 

A good strategy to avoid situations like this is to set ground rules about when a major IT project can start. Not only should any project have full clearance from decision-makers, but it should also include regular status updates to keep everyone abreast of any changes or delays that may happen. Typically, new IT deployment will result in some downtime, so having the blessing of everyone that could be affected is a good plan. 

Runaway Costs

Not every project is going to run smoothly. One could say that most projects deal with some inefficiencies and even redundancies that increase costs. Most major IT projects require substantial investment and if there is a lack of commitment it can cause projects to fall flat. Of course, many IT investments are earmarked when a budget is set and therefore can be subject to alteration due to other financial factors affecting the business. 

To avoid having the IT project tablecloth ripped out from under your china, you should be pragmatic about your IT investments. This means once you’ve decided to invest in something, complete it since most IT investments will end up providing quicker returns. Go full steam ahead or don’t go at all. 

Communication Issues

When we cite “communication problems,” we aren’t talking about problems with your data plans or email server, we are talking about keeping lines of communication open between all the people that have a stake in the project being a success. That means everyone: production workers, administrators, and everyone in between. Obviously, most projects are handled by the project manager and it is his/her responsibility to disseminate information as required. 

Today, there are some pretty impressive and easy-to-implement tools that will allow project managers the ability to quickly send correspondence to various people, create chats with teams of people involved in the project, quickly start video meetings, and more. The better equipped your project manager is to be an effective communicator, the more smooth a project will likely go.

Poor Project Management

That brings us to the last point, but it may be the most crucial. A solid project manager will do things that will make for successful IT projects. A good PM will manage the expectations of stakeholders, demands of the staff, and make it look easy. It’s not, but for some people being in the middle of a major project is exactly what they were built for. The good PM will not only understand the needs of the project team, the underlying problems that the project is trying to address, but also do it in a way where people who need information won’t have to go and search for it. A good project manager is a great delegator, a great prioritizer, and a great communicator. 

At MSPNetworks, we have plenty of experience running point on New York businesses’ IT projects and would love the opportunity to talk to you about your next IT project. For more information about anything IT support-related, give us a call today at (516) 403-9001.

The COVID-19 pandemic is still in full swing, and while many companies buckled under the pressure put on them to maintain operations, others have managed to adapt through the use of remote technology solutions. Businesses have put into place policies surrounding this remote technology, many of which are both helpful and harmful.

Let’s take a look at some of these policies, as well as what you can do to make the most out of your remote technology.

Team Management Tools > Heavy Management Practices

Look, we understand that you want to make sure that your staff is as productive as possible throughout the workday, and there is something to be said for operational efficiency, but nobody likes working with someone else breathing down their neck. If your employees feel like they are constantly being monitored, they may start to feel stressed or, even worse, violated. If employees are not happy with the way that your organization utilizes remote monitoring tools, they might decide to try their luck elsewhere—and when there are more remote jobs now than ever before, trust us when we say that they won’t have a problem finding work that is more accommodating to their preferred management style.

Instead of monitoring everything that your employees are doing, you can use a project management platform to help keep each other accountable for the tasks that must be completed. You can see at a glance who is doing what, and when they are not meeting expectations, you can have a conversation about what the problem is and what can be done to resolve it.

Remote Work Communication Tools Are Still Great for In-House Work

Those remote communication tools you implemented for when your employees are out of the office, like your unified communications platform, are still incredible for when your employees return to the office. Just because it is designed for teams to collaborate in real time without being physically present does not mean that they are not just as effective, or even perfectly fine alternatives, for when they are.

Imagine being able to hold a meeting without the need to corral your entire workforce into the conference room, or the ability to swiftly get in touch with someone through the use of an instant message. There is considerable value in a communications platform like Slack, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams, even for in-house workforces. These are particularly valuable if you plan to continue remote operations post-pandemic in at least some capacity, a la a hybrid model.

Zero-Trust Policies Create More Comprehensive Security

The remote office made it abundantly clear that security should become an absolute priority, and with so many devices accessing company data at any given time, it becomes critical that employers know who is accessing data and why. This is where the zero-trust policy comes into play.

A zero-trust security policy means that each individual device accessing data must be verified and confirmed with the organization before being allowed to access that data. You can see how this is helpful not just for remote operations, but for in-house as well. It never hurts to have an abundance of caution, especially in today’s age of ransomware and other dangerous threats.

MSPNetworks can help your business with any aspect of its remote or hybrid workplace setup, from technology procurement to monitoring and maintenance of that technology. To learn more about how we can help your organization not just survive during these difficult times, but thrive, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

Businesses use technology to varying degrees, but even small businesses have a lot of technology that must be tracked on a daily basis. With so many devices floating around the office, how are you making sure that you know who has which device, when it was issued, and how it’s being used? We suppose the question is not “how” you are keeping track of it all, but “if.” For this task, we recommend implementing an inventory tracking system for your business’ technological assets.

Do I Really Need One?

In short, yes, and for a number of reasons. Even small businesses have a ton of technology that is constantly being assigned, reassigned, and taken out of the office. Take, for example, the average employee. They might have a work desktop that stays at the office, a company-issued laptop for working remotely, and maybe even a company-issued smartphone to stay in touch while out and about. It makes sense to track who is in possession of which device from both a logistics and security perspective.

That said, your tracking system will be made up of two different components: the tracking method itself and the records you keep. You could, of course, keep a paper leger of technology, complete with manual sign-in and sign-out, but this system is just begging to be replaced by technology. Paper records are much less secure and prone to user error, so we encourage you to use one of the following methods for tracking your business tech.

Tracking (Barcodes, RFID)

There are two ways that your business can track inventory coming into or out of your organization. The first is through the use of a barcode scanner system. In this case, you assign each piece of technology, be it a laptop or smartphone, a barcode. When the device is assigned to someone, you simply scan the barcode. This records in the system that the device is “checked out,” so to speak, along with all other necessary details (which we will get to in a moment).

The other notable method of tracking your technology is to use what’s called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. The difference between the two is that unlike barcodes, which are just pieces of paper with a pattern printed on them, RFID uses microchips attached to the device. There are two types of RFID technology that can be used: passive and active. In an active system, the microchip is tagged when the device moves through a reader (kind of like a scanner in the aforementioned system). In a passive system, the microchip is tagged when it enters or leaves a specific radius.

Electronic Record Keeping

Whichever method you decide to go with, it should be hooked up to automatically populate information into an electronic record keeping system. As for what information should be included in said system, you will want to know who is taking the device, what the device is, what the device will be used for, contact information for the employee taking the device, and any other information that you might find pertinent. Essentially, what you should be aiming for is enough information to be able to track down the employee should you need to retrieve any assigned devices.

Need Help Getting Started?

As you might have guessed, this kind of tracking system can be used for much more than just technology. MSPNetworks can help your business get set up with an inventory tracking system that will help you reduce waste, increase your bottom line, and improve redundancy. 

When we work with a business, we track every device we implement or touch. That way, we can track the overall history of support over the lifespan of the device. We’re big on documenting and linking all of our documentation to the device and user, because it helps us streamline and provide the best support possible.

To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

For a worker, one of the most maddening things that can happen at work is when there is a lack of consistency with the leadership. It can throw a figurative wrench into everything that you are trying to accomplish. Some examples of people not being consistent include:

• Not doing something when they say they will. 
• Not showing up to meetings on time or at all.  
• Creating business processes without announcing changes and then expecting people to know what to do without being briefed.
• Promising new services without checking if the company can deliver.
• Guaranteeing success without a plan to do so.

Inconsistency can cause turnover, inefficiency, poor customer service and support, and many other poor results. It affects workers, customers, and even potential customers. Today, we thought we’d take a look at how consistency is important. 

Consistency Shows Respect

We might as well start at the most troubling part of being inconsistent when you run a business: it shows a complete lack of responsibility. As a business owner, your staff has to take your lead and your customers make commitments based on your word. If you are just flying by the seat of your pants in every situation, the lack of consistency will be apparent. 

Many people take an inconsistent approach, especially one that shows a lack of interest in the issue at hand, to be a giant slap in the face. The best leaders are the ones that lead by example. Doing the right things for your staff and for your customers will be reciprocated at a very high percentage. Building trust has to be on the short list of any organizational leader’s to-do list, so setting the tone and being consistent can really help establish trust. 

Consistency Creates a Culture of Accountability

When you work with other people, there has to be some accountability taken by each member of the team, especially in a management capacity. If you are managing people and they have inconsistent results, you wouldn’t say they were doing a good job, would you? The same goes for when you are managing people. If you bring inconsistent leadership, you will get mixed results, inflated costs, and a general lack of productivity. 

Consistency Allows for Useful Analysis

One often overlooked reason to prioritize a consistent approach is that if things are done consistently then you can get reliable metrics for any analysis you are going to do. It may take some time to build consistency with new platforms, but after some time (at least three months), if the issue you are trying to measure has been carried out consistently, after a pretty short period of time it will give you the notion if it is working or if it isn’t. 

Consistency Defines Your Business

Nowadays businesses do more to manage their reputation than at any other period in business history. They have to, they are exposed in ways older businesses weren’t. If customers and workers get a fair shake and find that your business’ processes are carried out consistently, the negativity will be muted. Consider a Major League Baseball Umpire. His job is to call balls and strikes, and he may have a wider or taller strike zone, but if he constantly calls the same pitches a strike, hitters won’t complain too much.  Your business can still be innovative and do things outside the box, but if you change things repeatedly with no warning, people are going to get frustrated. 

How consistent is your business? What do you think the most important part about being consistent is? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below and return to our blog for more great business and technology advice.

Making solid business decisions can sometimes be confusing. Not that you try to make anything other than good decisions, but a lot of business is, and has always been, trial and error; and, you may know this from experience, error happens to be a big part of it. Today, we thought we would discuss what goes into good technology decisions and how many times it comes down to the results. 

How to Make Good Technology Decisions

Making the right decisions in regards to your business’ technology has to do with multiple factors, but one sticks out: What do we do? It seems simple enough, but when you are choosing technology you are probably going to run into technical people that don’t speak your language or salespeople who speak your language a little too well. This will confuse the vast majority of people. It’s not as if there is a guide that can help you match the specific technology to your business; you will have to rely on people to help you do that.

Our consultants at MSPNetworks understand that there is a balance that needs to be considered when advising our clients on how to make the right technology decisions for them. The balance is between cost/complexity and effectiveness at meeting the goals you’ve set out for your business. Here are a few tips that can help you make the right technology decision, regardless of the situation.

Start with Security

Like any highly guarded place, all technology that you add to your infrastructure has to pass through security clearance. You should start every IT decision with the notion that you need to have the tools in place to protect it. If you don't, any decisions you make probably won’t help as much as they will hurt. 

Be Optimistic, but Prepared

Why else would you make strategic IT investments if not to improve your ability to turn a profit? In that regard, any IT investments you plan should be targeted to solve a problem your business currently faces. That’s not enough, however. To ensure any IT purchase you make works for your business, you need to protect it. That’s why we suggest that if you don’t have a dedicated backup and recovery platform in place, you need to prioritize that before you spend another cent on your business' IT. A backup system that builds data redundancy and has a cloud-hosted option is the best. Our BDR service utilizes both network-attached backup with a device that uploads your backed up data to an offsite data center. This will help you be prepared for any eventuality and will make any IT investment that much stronger. 

Work to Build a Knowledge Base

Another consideration that will help you make the best IT investments is to understand what you are getting into before you get into it. By researching solutions to your business problems you will be able to ensure that any IT decisions you do make are made for the right reasons and that you are getting technology that fits into your business plans. The more knowledge you have about the processes you need technology for, the better and more sound your decisions will be. 

Technology can solve a lot of today’s most pressing business problems. If you would like to talk to one of our knowledgeable IT professionals about what technology you should be targeting, how to successfully implement it with the technology you already have in place, or if it’s time to retire a piece of technology, give us a call today at (516) 403-9001.

There is no question that the COVID-19 pandemic has had no small impact on the way that business is conducted. A considerable part of that impact is directed toward the technology that powers these businesses. One way or another, the way that businesses use their technology is bound to be influenced before all this is over.

Let’s go over a few technologies that have come to the fore, and a few that will likely fade away somewhat.

Hardware

As one may anticipate, fears of germ transmission will likely run rampant amongst many of your employees, making them hesitate to use the equipment that’s in the shared space within the office. Furthermore, there’s the challenge present in allowing people to work from home if it requires them to haul their desktop back and forth each time they come back.

As a result, Bring Your Own Device is likely to rise even more in popularity, as employees will have the security of using a device exclusive to them and that they are more comfortable using. On a related note, mobile devices and laptops are likely to become even more of the office standard, as this hardware is inherently easier to bring around and work from anywhere.

Infrastructure

Likewise, cloud solutions are also likely to come to the forefront over on-premise solutions. Not only does this potentially simplify your employees’ access to their resources, it can also make the management of your IT so much easier for your business. After all, if there was to be an issue in your IT infrastructure when people aren’t in your office, it becomes far more difficult to resolve it. With a cloud provider, that is less of an issue, as maintenance and management is their responsibility.

Cloud solutions are also far more scalable than on-premise infrastructures, so that’s a considerable benefit in and of itself.

Collaboration

While in-person conferencing solutions were once all the rage, the moratorium on meetings and other gatherings have necessitated a shift in focus to solutions that can virtually bring people together. This will require both the hardware mentioned above and specialized software solutions to facilitate this cooperation.

One way or another, the means that businesses operate are bound to see shifts from this point forward. Embracing the IT solutions that will support these shifted operations will be important for businesses to prioritize. MSPNetworks can help you put these solutions in place and support your team as they put them to use.

Give us a call at (516) 403-9001 to learn more.

For the months that COVID-19 has been around, everyone has done all they can to hold on to their business. They have closed down, they have closed their offices and forced their employees to work from home, they have borrowed money and scaled back or eliminated their 2020 plans. It would be nice if all that sacrifice would pay off, but the frustrating reality is that there is going to be a lot of sustained discomfort for a lot of business owners. Let’s take a look at some things small business owners should consider as they reopen their businesses. 

Navigating the New Normal

Small businesses make up a large percentage of today’s functioning companies and employ a moderate amount of the workforce, so their importance to the economy is unquestioned. The problem facing many small businesses today is a lack of capital to meet the expenses their operations demanded before people started getting sick and the stay-at-home orders came down. There isn’t the demand, there are health questions, and ultimately, not enough money to go around.  

Most small businesses have already canceled their planned investments for the year. This alone has an effect on the whole economy. Vendors, who may or may not work for small businesses will feel the pinch. Recessionary business is not easy to navigate for anyone, but there are things you should do if you want to navigate the economic downturn.

Honest Assessment is the Key

The ability to take an honest look at where your business stands will be the most important factor to getting the help that you need. Familiarizing with your profit/loss statement and how it compares to 2019 should be your first step. Hard numbers may lack nuance, but they tell most of the story. Take a look at your business’ assets and the operational costs that go along with them. Unfortunately, big drops in revenues mean that you will ultimately have to take a long look at your human resources. When everything is on the table, the next steps will hopefully become clearer. 

After everything is laid out, assess the damage the pandemic has caused your business. Can you afford to sustain your business the way it was before the shut down? If so, good for you, your business is in the minority. In fact, according to the NFIC only five percent of small businesses have prospered during the pandemic. Apparently, they make masks, toilet paper, and hand sanitizer. 

Get the Help You Need

A big part of navigating this period for the small business is getting the help you need to stay afloat. Most governments have some sort of economic relief package in place for small businesses to utilize. In the US, the Cares Act has made several programs possible including the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which provides low-interest loans of up to $10 million to eligible businesses. If there is help to be had, it is a business owner’s responsibility to seek it out.

If your business doesn’t qualify for government assistance, it can be really difficult, and if you are initially denied funding, you need to keep looking. There are many places to get the help you’re going to need. Long nights are a part of owning a business, and today it’s important that you work on mitigating risks to your business’ future.

Use Automation to Your Advantage 

The worker’s “worst enemy,” automation can and probably will be a big part of your business for years to come. Your business probably already has the tools in place to be able to use automation in some way. When you automate some of the repetitive and menial tasks, your staff can focus on revenue-generating endeavors, improving productivity. The technology professionals at MSPNetworks can help you decide where automated tools best fit in. 

Your business is going to have to adjust and you are going to make some hard choices to get through the pandemic in one piece. If you want to talk to New York IT experts about how technology can play a big role in the sustainability of your business, give us a call at (516) 403-9001.

If you’re in business today, there are three words that are critical for you keep in mind: Cybersecurity. Is. Important. As such, every business needs to have taken the time to put together a cybersecurity policy--a set of guidelines that instruct the business how to proceed with the highest level of security possible. We’ve taken the liberty of suggesting a few guidelines for your business to follow as you do so.

Establish Definitions 

When you’re putting together a cybersecurity policy, there cannot be any uncertainty in what you are referring to at a given time. It is important for you to make it clear: if one of your policies references a “cyber incident,” what kind of situations could that apply to specifically?

This makes it imperative that you clearly establish what certain terms you use in your policies refer to, relatively early on. Take the “cyber incident” example: does that refer to an attack by a cybercriminal, or does it refer to an internal mishap or equipment failure. If it does refer to an attack, does it describe a limited scope, or do all attack vectors (phishing, man-in-the-middle attack, et al.) fall under its umbrella?

Remember, the person referencing this document will be a relative layman, so you need to make sure that these definitions make it clear to them what situation they are encountering and how to proceed.

Establish Processes

When you are putting together a cybersecurity policy for your business to follow, the fundamental idea is to make sure everyone is on the same page in the event of some major issue, event, or need. Therefore, you need to make sure you create standards that apply to a variety of circumstances, such as the need for remote work to take place, what qualifies as acceptable use of the Internet, and the modern demand for improved passwords and other forms of authentication. You also need to remember that various regulations and other compliance requirements could come into play, and adjust your standards accordingly.

As you document them, these procedures themselves should include:

• What protections are in place (and what they protect against)
• What backup policies are in place
• What the updating/patching process looks like regarding your protections

... among other key pieces of information that would come in handy if recovery from a cybersecurity issue was ever a concern.

Establish Accountability

Once your processes are devised, refined, and finalized, you need to make sure that they are properly documented and that your staff is trained to follow them… otherwise, the effort you made to put them in place is rendered redundant.

The importance of this particular aspect cannot be emphasized strongly enough. In fact, part of your new policy should address how much harm an employee can do to the business’ well-being and outline how your employees need to conduct themselves as they go about their work. There are many ways that you can--and should--do so.

Education is going to be key, of course, as your established protections will only do so much if one of your employees doesn’t recognize a threat when presented with one. Phishing is incredibly popular for a reason.

Just as important is to keep in mind that accountability can often be shared, especially when a cybersecurity issue has transpired. Sure, an employee may have fallen for a phishing scam, but could that have been because the training they received to avoid them was inadequate or outdated? When was the last time you held a training session? In order for your business to properly secure itself against threats, the whole business must be involved.

MSPNetworks can get involved, too. Our professionals have the experience needed to ensure that your business has the security it needs, with the policies in place to support that security. Find out more by giving us a call at (516) 403-9001.

Generation Y (or Millennials, as they are more commonly known) have a rough reputation in the business world. Whether they’re being blamed for the death of entire industries or mocked for their fondness for avocado toast, it isn’t often that millennials are taken seriously - especially in the workplace. However, if nurtured correctly, this group has the potential to produce some of your top performers. Here, we’ll get into how to do so.

Millennials are swiftly becoming the majority of today’s workforce. As such, there has been plenty said and written about the differences between them and the other workers that you have employed. Generally speaking, the millennials you have on staff will be the ones with the most education, and as a result, will also be under considerable (if not ludicrous) debt. The degrees that cost these millennials years of their lives and tens of thousands of dollars will often only qualify them for an entry-level job.

While this might not sound like the ideal situation for a millennial, it can be just as much of a problem for a business. Generally speaking, millennials are known for seeking challenges in the workplace, striving for rapid vertical movement. If this isn’t the environment that their workplace offers, a millennial typically isn’t afraid to seek opportunities elsewhere, and can sometimes become disengaged with their current employment and create operational wastes.

Why Millennials Can Be Difficult

While the negative characteristics of millennial employees have been written about extensively, they aren’t inherently a massive issue for employers. Having said that, some behaviors that are fairly typical of this group are often frowned upon by employers. For instance:

1. Millennials are notoriously connected. While some level of connection can be beneficial to a business’ operations, there is definitely the opportunity for this connection to become a distraction. Whether its social media, some interest-based website, or the news, millennials can certainly be susceptible to the distractions of the Internet.
2. Millennials can be overconfident to the point of entitlement. As referenced above, millennials are enthusiastic about vertical movement within their organization. It isn’t unusual for these employees to overestimate their value to the business, at least early on, and expect unrealistic perks from their employer.
3. Millennials are opportunistic, sometimes to your disadvantage. Generation Y is notorious for seeking upward mobility, and if that isn’t something that you can offer them, they likely won’t have an issue seeking employment somewhere that can - assuming that they ever stopped seeking other opportunities in the first place.
4. Millennials demand a healthy work/life balance. In addition to finding fulfillment with their employment, Generation Y also needs the opportunity to step back and recharge through their own interests - and “needs” is the right word. One of the most important considerations for a millennial is finding someplace that enables them to exercise this balance.
5. Millennials expect to use technology. As the first age group with Internet access for the majority of their lives, constant access to information through their smartphones, and automation to make many of their processes easier (if not effortless), millennials have come to take this access to technology for granted. Lacking access to this technology in the workplace can easily be enough to send Generation Y elsewhere in their search.

How to Better Leverage Your Millennials

Business owners need to find employees that are committed to the company’s goals, without bringing in potential issues. There are enough examples of overconfident (dare we say arrogant) and uppity millennials out there that many of the stereotypes associated with the generation are at least founded in truth. Having said that, there are just as many - if not more - examples of millennial workers who want to contribute to your business and its team.

If you find yourself needing to manage this group, we’ve provided a few tips to help you do so:

• Give them a culture to get behind.  Millennials tend to be purpose-driven employees, who want to see their work contribute to something. Creating a company culture that acknowledges their efforts and hard work will help to show them just that.
• Be flexible in work and life. While millennials may be known for committing to leisure activities, they are just as willing to commit time to work as well. Offering remote connectivity, integrations, and other forward-focused solutions allows your staff to work as they do best.
• Be a leader. Millennials need more than just a boss to bark orders at them… they are looking for a mentor to guide them. Instead of micromanaging them and making them feel as though their efforts are unappreciated, give them some autonomy in their workday.
• Provide them with technology. Millennials are used to working with technology - since they were raised with it, it’s their preferred method. If you aren’t giving them the tools they work best with, they’re apt to find someone who will.
• Give their work purpose and transparency. With the right leadership, millennials will work tirelessly to build a better organization… all they want to see is that they have a place in this organization moving forward in their career. Remaining open with them is crucial to building trust.

Millennials are making up more of the workforce all the time. Understanding these workers will only help your business adapt to working with them, and adopting the opportunities that Generation Y has to offer.

What are your workplace experiences with millennials? Share them in the comments!

The act of “yak shaving,” also known as “bikeshedding,” is a specific kind of procrastination that can hold you back from getting the most out of your workday. This week’s tip is dedicated to explaining what this nonsensical phrase means and why it’s beneficial to keep your employees on track.

What Does Yak Shaving Have to Do with My Business?
Yak shaving is just another way to define semi-defensible procrastination. It uses the following scenario to make its point: you need to complete a proposal, but you might be tired from a long day of work, making concentration difficult at best. You start to look into the best kind of coffee to get into a productive mindset, and your research yields potent results. The best coffee beans in the world come from a remote island, and they can only be harvested by a yak. So, now you need a yak. You take a trip to the Himalayas to acquire said yak, but the yak can’t take the temperate climate of the island with the coffee beans. In order to bring the yak to the island, you’ll have to shave its long fur off. Once that’s been done, you can take that yak to the island, harvest your coffee beans, and brew that perfect cup of coffee for flawless productivity to finish your proposal.

Basically, it takes a normal problem and uses a ridiculous and overly elaborate method to resolve the issue, but this in itself creates complication to get away from doing the less desired task. Everyone has been in this position before, where a particular task is so unappealing that they would do anything to get away from it, but the fact remains that the task needs to be done, whether you want to do it or not.

How to Identify (and Overcome) Your Hairy Yaks
The first thing to do if you think an issue like this arises is to notice how you tend to react to them. Consider all of the tasks you need to complete; how many of them actually have to be done to reach your ultimate goal? There’s no doubt that looking for excuses will lead to procrastination rather than productivity.

Imagine all the time spent earlier looking into the yak and the island with the coffee. What if you invested all of that time and energy into completing the task? Instead of wasting time, you could have already completed the task, rendering the need for the yak obsolete. Granted, the problem-solving skills you’ll acquire might seem valuable, and they are to an extent, so it’s not a complete waste--just not a great choice in the first place.

Think of the Task as an Investment
Time is money, and time-consuming tasks can be a waste if they aren’t being handled as well as possible. Think about it like this; you’ve already invested a considerable amount of time and effort into one solution, so why not simply go all the way with it and finish it, if the alternative is to waste even more time?

Overall, you need to remember that successfully completing a goal should outweigh the frustration of having to do it. The results are what matters primarily, but if you have only been working on something for a couple of moments, don’t be afraid to change it up.

The technology you use will play a considerable role in the way you complete a task. To learn more about how you can use it to benefit your business, reach out to MSPNetworks at (516) 403-9001.

In order to build a profitable business, productivity has to remain consistent. If your business offers a service, and you are having a hard time managing all its moving parts, professional services automation (PSA) software may be right for you. Today, we will give a quick overview of what exactly a PSA is, and how it can serve as an extremely useful tool for businesses who operate in the professional services space.

What are Professional Services?
Does your company offer customized, knowledge-based services? Typically, vocations such as lawyer, accountant, auditor, as well as consultants of all types would be labeled professional services. Professional services, up until recently, have been invoiced on a billable hours basis, but more and more vendors, like MSPNetworks, have moved to a fixed price model to provide more value.

What is Professional Services Automation?
Being able to successfully automate tasks has become a major point of emphasis for nearly every business over the past few years. After all, the faster and more reliably you can do the important, but tedious tasks that every professional services company has to do, the more effective the service is to clients. Professional services automation software allows companies to oversee and manage projects, schedule and manage resources, handle expenses and invoicing. Most importantly the PSA will track time. Since time will either be used to bill your customers, or be used to create products that will drive operational effectiveness, tracking time is essential.

The PSA
There are different types of PSA tools. Some are hosted on your company’s in-house infrastructure, while some are made available through a hosted cloud server. Typically, SaaS is the way most companies use it to give their resources remote capabilities (since most professional services firms don’t necessarily have the technology resources that other organizations might have).

The three main functions of any PSA are:

• Resource management
• Project management
• Time and expense management

Tracking time efficiently is an important part of the PSA’s job, so being able to know that resources are providing reliable time figures provides a company to set its service rates.

Automation
You may be wondering what exactly the PSA automates? Traditionally, project management, managing resources, and tracking time and expenses are detailed processes with a lot of moving parts. By simplifying these tasks though the automation of some of their most tedious parts, projects move forward seamlessly by tracking time and expenses, rather than tracking variables separately.

The main benefit of the PSA is that it gives project managers a comprehensive tool for auditing ongoing or completed projects. They can quickly ascertain what went right, what went wrong, and where their company can improve to be as effective and efficient as possible.

To run the best version of your business, you’ll want to know how to improve it. At MSPNetworks, we can help any professional services firm find the software it needs to be the best version of itself. Call us today at (516) 403-9001 to learn how our IT professionals can help you build your best business.

Technology has fundamentally altered the capabilities of businesses. Cloud computing has provided access to enterprise-strength computing at small business costs, and now IT providers are more able to provide value than simple repair-and-replace services. The name of the game is value, which is why the value-driven IT services of tomorrow are here to stay.

How IT Has Changed
In the past, the IT service industry was pretty homogenous, with break/fix repair services provided as needed. However, software was developed that, by leveraging automation, could be used by a remote technician to identify and resolve technology issues proactively. As a result, businesses were able to avoid downtime and get more done with their technology.

Within the last 10 years, this approach to IT has experienced considerable growth. By the end of 2019, this market is expected to reach $200 billion, and is now seeing growth in North America, Europe, and Asia. Estimates by ChannelE2E put the number of active IT service providers at 20,000. This group of 20,000 work to maintain IT solutions for millions of businesses, and some of the largest companies have included managed services in their service offerings.

Growth Within the Industry
Managed IT providers have benefitted from the (in many cases, justifiable) presumption that the hiring of an internal resource is an expensive endeavor, with that price only increasing with the resource’s credentials and ability. If a business adopts an outsourced service provider, that business can anticipate the same attention directed toward their IT solutions, with the comprehensive access that a managed service provider has to more up-to-date technology which adds additional value.

This is particularly beneficial for the companies that enlist the assistance of an IT service provider, and more companies than ever are using technology in their day-to-day operations. North American and European companies are anticipated to increase their IT expenses throughout this year, budgets increasing by up to 30 percent in some sectors. Small and mid-sized businesses have been able to use the new upfront capital that their upgraded IT has provided them to upgrade them even further, and large organizations have minimized their risk with security updates and upgrades.

Updates and upgrades have long driven IT growth and have caused managed-service-based IT providers to branch out in what they offer. Cloud computing is now all the rage for a business’ communications and collaboration needs, their hardware and software deployment, as well as many other purposes. When it boils down to it, if you can do it with a server, it can be done with a cloud-hosted virtual server - a shift that has granted today’s businesses with a huge amount of flexibility.

Developing Technologies
IT companies have long been trying to assemble innovations into a service offering that catches the eye of an organization of any size, and they show no signs of stopping. Since data is seen more as a valuable commodity than it ever has been, methods of its collection, processing, and analysis have become a key offering for IT companies to include. This is precisely why IT support companies have started to offer services like data warehousing and business intelligence, something that wasn’t practiced much not all that long ago.

Managed IT service providers have also aggressively begun to include managed security services in their offerings, providing many solutions that help protect the businesses that they serve from threats. From user training and solutions monitoring to SIEM (security information and event management) services, data forensics, and threat mitigation that leverages machine learning, the IT company of today can protect your company, and its organizational data, with extreme efficacy.

On top of all this, some IT providers, like MSPNetworks, also help businesses with VoIP and telephony, conferencing solutions, software and line-of-business applications, database management, email, and a whole lot more. Essentially, any technology solution a business might need stand up against competitors.

The End Result
As new technologies emerge, the tasks of the IT company may shift, but their purpose foundationally remains the same: deliver the solutions and support that a business needs to remain productive. Implementing what was just discussed above and much more, the managed IT service provider will prove to be just as (if not more) valuable of a resource to have in your business’ corner in the coming year.

We’d be happy to support you in this capacity ourselves. Reach out to MSPNetworks at (516) 403-9001 to discuss your business and its potential today.

Server units--you’ll find them in most offices out there, but they are all used for different purposes. Since well-maintained data is so essential to the success of many organizations, it’s important to keep your server units in proper working order. Today we’ll discuss the best ways to make sure your servers are in peak performance.

What Causes Server Room Problems?
Even some of the little problems facing server rooms can create considerable trouble for your business. Of course, we are talking about an excess amount of dust and other small contaminants. It’s difficult to control and tricky to clean, as it can be blown all over the place (including into server components). When lots of dust accumulates, it can act as an insulator, increasing the overall temperature of server units by about 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Just like the human body, an increase of temperature like this can be catastrophic.

Other contaminants include particles generated by humans, like skin particles and dander. Wear and tear from the devices themselves can also become a culprit in this regard, as belt debris and metal shavings can accumulate over time. By far the worst culprit is the soles of the feet. It’s estimated that around 80 percent of this damaging debris enters a server room in this fashion.

Mitigating Issues Through Maintenance and Prevention
Imagine how much damage could be done to your business if your server were to fail. All of the data you were supposed to protect is suddenly lost in a puff of smoke, despite your careful efforts to ensure it stays secure from both internal and external threats. Therefore, it’s extremely important your business keeps maintenance and prevention as a priority. This can be accomplished by adhering to strict cleanliness standards and keeping contaminants to a minimum.

Keep Things Clean
If you can keep your server room free of dust and grime, it’s much easier to keep it in proper working order. You should always leave comprehensive cleaning jobs to professionals, but you can take action now to minimize the chance of this dust influencing your server’s operations. For example, if your server room has people frequently coming and going, you can vacuum it to keep the floors clear of any contaminants. If cleaning your server components has you concerned, you can use an antistatic cloth to keep them clean, as well as cans of compressed air to blow dust out of the way of particularly important components.

Minimizing Contamination
You can also take certain measures to ensure the dust and grime that accumulates in your server room doesn’t become a problem. You can try installing air filters, as well as using an entryway room with special mats to keep grime and dirt from getting in. Other measures like hats and booties can be used to minimize the amount of human contamination that makes it into your server room. In fact… that’s the best way to keep your server room clean--just not going in at all.

To learn more about how MSPNetworks can help your business take care of this important technology, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.