MSPNetworks Blog

We always hear about how innovation drives business. This has been typically true for the whole of human existence. As businesses have tried to stay profitable among the problems they’ve faced throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we are beginning to see a troubling trend where new products are released with a laundry list of new features, but aren’t really enhancing the customer experience. Today, we look at how businesses have enhanced their marketing efforts to make products that don’t provide the types of innovations that are useful to customers. 

Before we get into the practices that have caused this shift, we first have to come to understand the difference between upstream activities and downstream activities. Upstream activities are parts of a business that allows them to create the products and services that they offer. Things like sourcing, assembling production staff and resources, and logistics are considered upstream activities. Downstream activities are the ones that work in the facilitation of creating a product or service, as well as all the activities that go into selling them. 

Upstream Issues Complicate Things

The past couple of years haven’t been very friendly to businesses. The global pandemic and other issues led to serious supply chain problems that not only raised procurement costs, but also made it difficult to get the components and resources they need to create quality products. Add in what is called “the great resignation” where large swaths of people quit their jobs over potential health and safety issues and wage discrepancies and businesses are finding maintaining effective operations more difficult than ever. 

Running a profitable and efficient business isn't easy to begin with, but with the myriad of obstacles that today’s landscape presents the modern business owner, innovating processes and products has become more costly and more difficult. For enterprises, it is easier to earmark money for research and development, but for small businesses, finding a way to keep your company in the black, while making smart investments that return palatable ROIs has become the norm. 

Marketing Taking the Place of Consistent Innovation

Most of the time the research and development money of any organization dwarfs the marketing budget. Both are necessary, but innovation has always been a driving force of the business, while marketing or advertising has always been looked upon as an expense that is one of the last items in a SMBs budget. This is largely because in order to avoid becoming stagnant—and be competitive—businesses have to continue to grow their offering. 

Large businesses are able to do this successfully and it has resulted in a growing gap between the staying power of businesses. Additionally, it has caused a lot of SMBs to make a choice, go in on a business model with products and services that have brought the modicum of success the organization has achieved, or spend capital they don’t have to try and advance their offering in some way. With margins shrinking rapidly because of inflation, fuel costs, and supply chain interruptions, smaller businesses are turning to their message to try and drum up business rather than focusing on research and development. 

What’s worse, many SMBs are forced to spend less on their sales processes and administrative costs (which include IT, HR, and improving and innovating business processes), while larger businesses have no problem acquiring the resources and talent they need to thrive. Unfortunately, the people that are affected the most are the consumers. 

People are Paying More for Less

Like the business that is having difficulty innovating, many consumers today are spending more money for less. This creates a situation where it may not be viable for consumers to avoid purchasing their goods and services from larger companies. This is a dire consequence for small businesses as they depend on their intimate, customer-first approach to continue winning new business. As SMBs' dollars continue to be spent on operations, their marketing initiatives are the only avenue they have because they find themselves not able to make the future plans needed to ensure their customers (or their workforce) stay around. 

How We Can Help

If you run a small business, you have had to see how your IT costs have started to rise. You may not be getting what you are paying for. At MSPNetworks, we offer a way to reduce your technology support costs with our managed IT services. We can monitor and maintain your IT, back up your data, and consult on your technology decisions to help you get more for every valuable dollar. 

Things are tough out there, but instead of redirecting your capital to try to keep your lights on with a message, make the smart business decision and give MSPNetworks a call today at (516) 403-9001. 

What does your IT budget look like for the remainder of this year? According to Gartner, your IT costs might be increasing. So, we ask you this: are you being intentional with your IT spending, and are you spending your business’ hard-earned revenue on technology which advances your organization’s ability to succeed? Let’s take a look at Gartner’s study to see what we can learn from patterns in IT expenses.

IT Expenses Projected to Rise

Gartner predicts that IT spending will increase globally by about 3 percent this year, totaling $4.5 trillion. While this growth is slower than that of 2021, it’s still significant in that the world is still experiencing issues with the supply chain and technology acquisitions as a result of the global pandemic and ongoing global conflicts. The bulk of this spending is being attributed to cloud services and data centers, which makes a lot of sense when you consider the trends over the past couple of years.

But Isn’t Technology Hard to Come By?

The big question is why there is so much spending occurring, something which John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner, is attributing to higher potential prices moving into the future. IT decision makers would rather commit to new technology now before it gets even more expensive in the near future. In a way, this makes sense, especially with many companies having issues acquiring technology. They would rather take preventative action now to prevent themselves from spending too much later by investing now.

Other notable numbers related to IT spending for the remainder of 2022 include the following:

• An increase in cloud spending of about 22.1%
• An increase in server spending of about 16.6%
• A decrease in PC sales of about 5%

Take Action with Managed Services

Businesses spend a lot of money on IT, but that doesn’t mean that you have to. Managed IT services give you access to more affordable technology management and maintenance options than ever before, and with MSPNetworks on your side, you can increase your bottom line while transforming capital costs into operational expenses.

To learn more about how we can help your business, reach out to MSPNetworks at (516) 403-9001.

Remote work is more common than ever before, but it wasn’t always this way. It’s still a relatively new method of operations, and while there are quite a few benefits for both employees and employers, there are other impacts related to remote work that can have far-reaching consequences.

We want to address some of the positive and negative impacts that this remote work trend has had on society.

Housing Costs and Availability May Balance Out

Big cities might have more opportunities for employment, but the cost of housing often makes it difficult for people to commit to employment opportunities in these areas. There is often a housing shortage in metropolitan areas, and as things stand now, the country is short almost 4 million homes (as of early 2021), with most of this shortage being located in places where these jobs are considered valuable.

Remote work, if the shift to full-time remote work is utilized, means that these jobs can be filled by people without requiring them to purchase or rent a home in these high-cost locations. Someone working remotely could work remotely for a company halfway across the country and live in a place where housing costs are significantly less expensive. Some experts believe that this trend would increase the cost of living in more rural or suburban areas while decreasing the costs associated with big city life.

However, if this is to become a reality, there needs to be a balance between the increased cost of more affordable housing and decreased cost of urban living. One example can be seen in the Tulsa Remote program, where Tulsa, Oklahoma residents are offered several perks—including a $10,000 grant—to all those remote workers who come to live in the city for at least one year. This type of investment means that Tulsa has been attracting new, high-earning residents, resulting in a return on their investment of $13.77 for each dollar spent on remote workers willing to relocate to the city.

The Climate Could Benefit

It’s reasonable to think that a decrease in urban living would lead to more vehicles on the road, as the decrease in public transportation access and walkable amenities would mean more people driving from one place to another. However, what if the opposite were true? What if having more people in these less-urban locations means that there would be greater incentive for these walkable amenities or greater demand for public transportation? The climate would surely benefit if this were the case.

Remote work has also led to a significant decrease in travel for many people, such as eliminating the morning commute, business travel, cross-country air travel, etc. All of these decreased emissions could do wonders for the environment.

Let’s Be Clear—We’re a Long Way from Ubiquitous Remote Work

We’ve discussed some of the obstacles, like changes in housing costs and zoning laws, but some places simply aren’t remote-friendly. Access to the Internet limits remote work capabilities for some people, especially when you consider that much of the country still doesn’t have access to broadband Internet.

Despite these obstacles, however, we are committed to helping your business make a shift to remote work, should you desire to make that change for your organization. To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

Communication solutions are especially important in today’s world of remote and hybrid work, and we are here to tell you that the traditional telephone solution you’ve known and loved for all these years is simply not viable in today’s business environment. Thankfully, a viable replacement is widely available, and it’s all thanks to Voice over IP technology.

What is VoIP?

Your traditional telephone solution involved working with your local telephone company to run lines and cables all over your business’ office and installing handsets for your employees to use. There was a lengthy implementation process that heavily relied on the physical setup of your office and the number of employees your company employed.

VoIP, on the other hand, uses a service you already have—your Internet connection—rather than your traditional telephone infrastructure. Through the use of smartphone or desktop applications, VoIP helps to eliminate barriers of entry for telephony solutions and instead focuses on making services accessible to all types of businesses, regardless of infrastructure or current setup. Since VoIP is a software solution rather than a hardware solution, it is more dynamic and flexible than your traditional telephone system.

What Benefits Does It Bring?

VoIP is notable because it offers comparable services to your traditional telephone system but without the limitations that come with it. Here is just a short breakdown of what you can expect from a VoIP phone system:

• All the features you know and love: VoIP is capable of all the features you use for your traditional telephony system, plus some that you might not normally get, such as video conferencing and instant messaging.
• Quick setup: Instead of running cables and knocking down walls, you just download an application and set up your accounts. Because of this, it’s an easy and efficient way to leverage telephone solutions to your benefit.
• Accessibility and flexibility: Since VoIP applications can run on smartphones or desktops/laptops, you have control over how you choose to use VoIP.
• Cost savings: Oftentimes you might encounter telephone providers who try to lump together services in an attempt to squeeze as much out of their customers as possible. With VoIP, you don’t get any of this—you purchase the solutions you need and nothing more.
• And more!

Don’t Wait Any Longer!

If you are ready to take your business’ communications infrastructure to the next level, we are confident that VoIP will help. To learn more about what VoIP can do for your business, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

There is so much technology to choose from for your business that it can be overwhelming to pick the right tools for your specific circumstances. There are communication tools, productivity solutions, and even mobile options that can enhance and enrich your clients’ and employees’ experiences with your company. As a business owner, you must do all that you can to keep the future in mind when implementing innovative new technology solutions to fit the needs of your organization.

Today’s blog is all about how these neat technologies can be utilized to build a better future for your business.

Hushme

Hushme looks like it might be a little intimidating, but it’s actually a very useful tool for businesses that depend on phone calls, yet don’t have much space. The device wraps around the user’s head and covers their mouth, kind of like a muzzle, and it has noise-canceling headphones attached to it. The user can talk into it and no one can hear a sound—very useful for preserving privacy in a busy environment.

Epson Paperlab

If your company uses a lot of paper or handles sensitive information, you might find that your shredder is a common destination for destroying documents. Epson has put together a machine that is an all-in-one paper recycler. A business can both destroy sensitive information and recycle it in-house, making for a convenient way to dispose of documents. It works by defiberizing the paper, removing all information and color, then reforms the fibers under pressure back into sheets of paper. The machine then cuts the paper to specification, and voila, you have recycled paper!

XGIMI Projectors

Some offices have a projector that they use to broadcast information, but thanks to a company called XGIMI, these projectors are more innovative and incredible than ever before. These devices can broadcast 4K video, all while fitting in the palm of your hand, and some even have theater-grade sound built into them.

XEBEC Tri-Screen 2

Many people prefer their laptop over the heavy-duty desktop, but there isn’t always room on the screen to get all of your work done. With XEBEC’s Tri-Screen 2, you can add a couple of additional screens to your laptop, which is super helpful for increasing the amount of work you can do. It’s a great way to make your laptop workspace just as productive as your desktop.

These technologies might vary in cost, but they may be worth the investment. What do you think? Would you use any of these solutions? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to our blog.

When it comes to procuring technology and working on technology projects, budgeting is a key issue that must be ironed out long before project implementation begins. This process can be troublesome and fraught with all sorts of challenges, but you don’t have to do it alone! We’ve got your back. Here’s a crash course on how you can manage your IT budget for maximum value.

First, we must identify what IT budgeting really is. It’s the process of allocating funds and resources towards your business’ technology, including a roadmap for how to approach the procurement and implementation of new solutions. Depending on the way your current infrastructure is set up, you may have funds allocated toward recurring services, staffing, and other expenses. Businesses tend to work out their IT budgets annually, but some may choose to budget for individual projects as necessary.

You can essentially split your organization’s expenses into two distinct categories: ongoing expenses and project expenses.

Ongoing Expenses

Your ongoing expenses may include those that recur every month or so, such as your staffing and payroll, the operational expenses for any hardware or software your organization uses, and support contracts you have with these companies or service providers. We recommend that you take a comprehensive audit of all your ongoing expenses on a routine basis so that you are not shocked by how much you spend on them, and especially so that you are not throwing away capital on goods or services that are no longer used.

You can think of your ongoing expenses as operational costs.

Project Expenses

Project expenses are the up-front costs you utilize when you are trying to implement a new solution, be it hardware or software. In some cases, you might pay for consulting services as well, especially if technology deployment is not your strongest suit.

It is not a perfect comparison, but you can think of project expenses as capital expenditures.

In general, the more operating expenses you have for your business’ IT resources, the more predictable and manageable your technology expenses will be in the long haul. Remember, capital expenses are those that are large, up-front expenses that are often unexpected. Operational expenses, on the other hand, fit easily into any budget as recurring, monthly expenses. A perfect example of this is working with a managed service provider like MSPNetworks for any and all of your business’ technology needs.

Don’t wait to get started! MSPNetworks can help your business implement an IT budget that allows it to flourish both now and in the future. To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

Most everyone uses the cloud in some capacity, even if it’s not a professional one. Simply put, the value it provides even on a consumer level is astounding, and this is even more so with business applications. The cloud makes it much easier for organizations to manage their resources compared to hosting them in-house, but a problem has surfaced with some companies suffering due to what’s called “cloud sprawl.”

What is Cloud Sprawl?

Cloud sprawl happens when businesses lose awareness of how much they are truly spending on cloud computing costs, leading them to add up and spiral out of control. Maybe you have a project that requires a specific software application, so you sign up for a cloud solution to make it happen. As the project expands and more people are added to the project, more accounts are created. When the project has been completed, these accounts are not canceled immediately, and you don’t find out until a couple months down the road and you’ve paid for multiple accounts for an extended period of time.

It might seem of little consequence, but these kinds of issues can quickly add up and become major problems, especially as the size and scope of projects grow. It’s simply unnecessary and wasteful; all it takes to avoid these kinds of problems is a little foresight and documentation.

To control your business’ cloud expenses, we recommend that you design and map your computing infrastructure, taking into account all of your current and future infrastructure plans, projects, and investments. Once your infrastructure is mapped, you’ll have an easier time adjusting cloud resources according to need.

What is Cloud Complexity?

While the cloud can be cost-effective, the solutions implemented through the cloud are not always Software-as-a-Service friendly. Some applications that are used to store and process sensitive information must be secured in specific ways according to regulations, something which can quickly complicate your efforts to utilize the cloud in this way. It also isn’t helping your cost-cutting goals.

Other times organizations might migrate away from an on-site infrastructure without first taking into account what types of configurations might be required to make the cloud work in the same way. Some companies find that when they migrate data to a cloud-hosted environment, their legacy infrastructures still exist well beyond what they should, something which complicates security, too.

Cloud options are generally unhindered by compatibility and compliance, however. With enough investment, you can select whichever brands and functionalities you would like based on your organization’s needs. That said, these many moving parts must be monitored and observed for the cloud to become a cost-saving machine rather than a greater investment.

What is Cloud Security?

The biggest problem with cloud implementation has always been the limited control that organizations have over the setup and management of the underlying computing infrastructure. While convenient, the single sign-on used by most cloud platforms is cause for concern for many IT professionals who are responsible for securing their organization’s infrastructures.

The fact of the matter is that cloud security is relatively strong and shouldn’t be a bother for businesses using cloud computing. There are certain things you can do to improve the security of these solutions, however. Try the following:

• Backup and recovery - Hackers do attack cloud systems, this much is true, and if something were to happen in your cloud platforms, having a reliable backup and strong data recovery plan in place would take a lot of the heat off.
• Multi-factor authentication - One of the biggest problems with cloud platforms from a security perspective is the single sign-on. Today, all cloud platforms support multi-factor authentication procedures that work to enhance an organization's ability to keep unwanted entities out of cloud platforms. 
• Use encryption - Data is data regardless of where you store it. To protect any data, you will want to use encryption. Encryption restricts access to data and when looking to build secure practices around data, it is one of the best solutions out there.

It’s not an understatement to say that the cloud is a game-changer for businesses. To find out how you can implement the cloud in the most effective way possible, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

What do you do with your old email messages? Do they just sit around in your inbox and collect dust? If so, this is certainly a wasteful practice, as those emails can accrue over time and take up a sizable chunk of space. The question then becomes, what do you do with the emails to keep them from taking up so much space, especially when you might be paying for the space?

When it comes to your old email messages, you can do one of two things: archive your emails for later access or delete them from existence entirely.

The Benefits of Archiving

It’s easy to see the benefits of archiving emails, especially in the business environment where there are often messages that require attention months or even years down the road. There are several benefits to archiving emails, but they mostly boil down to convenience. You free up your inbox by storing your emails elsewhere, usually in a protected storage environment that can be accessed at a later date. Email archival systems generally have features that allow you to search the database for keywords, allowing you to fish out old messages whenever you think they will be needed.

Keep in mind, a single email doesn’t take up a lot of space. It’s when you eventually have hundreds of thousands of emails sitting in your inbox, that it starts to add up.

The downside here is that archiving does still take up space, and there is a chance that you are paying for that space whether you realize it or not. To free up that space, you will need to delete the mail.

The Benefits of Deleting

Let’s be real here for a moment; there are some messages that simply have no business being archived. For example, how many marketing emails do you receive for products that you have no interest in buying? What about newsletters that you don’t even open? When you delete an email, it is sent to your Trash folder, where it will remain for a set period of time until its eventual deletion. If it’s deleted, then it no longer takes up space, so take advantage of this when you can.

Remember, the last thing you want is to archive everything. 

UNLESS! If your industry requires you to keep records of everything, then you really shouldn’t be deleting emails unless you know it is okay to do so.

Where Do You Start?

We recommend that you begin with your inbox. Stop the flow of new messages entering your archival system by first addressing which emails get archived. We recommend that you only archive those that have some use in the future or those of importance, like business communications, receipts, account notifications, anything that might have ramifications later on if you fail to hold onto them.

What you don’t want to archive are messages that have little-to-no value. Messages about sales, newsletters, or regular communications from vendors trying to sell you products are prime candidates for email deletion, as they often do not hold their value. In essence, ask yourself, “Will this email still be important one year from now?” If the answer is no, delete it.

MSPNetworks can help your business manage its email management system and make the hard calls about which messages to archive and which to simply wipe from existence. To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

Have your opinions of remote work changed at all over the past year and a half, or do you still want your employees to return to the office in full force? Many major companies, despite initially advocating for remote work, are sending mixed signals on the topic, including Microsoft. What can we learn from the experiences of these companies?

Microsoft conducted a study over the past year with some fairly interesting results in terms of remote work. Microsoft transitioned to fully remote operations in 2020, and their results show that there were several problems related to the decision. These issues included a decrease in meaningful communication, less socializing between coworkers, and less collaboration as a whole.

These conclusions are a problem, but not exactly unexpected. There is a huge difference between working in-house in an office environment and remote work from a home office or otherwise. Microsoft found that remote work in such a capacity could be harmful to productivity and innovation, and the use of email and instant messaging rather than face-to-face communication made for a difficult time collaborating.

Therefore, while it might be necessary now, the benefits of remote work may stop after a certain point, and an entirely remote workforce could solve problems while creating even more of them.

When you take into account that companies like Microsoft have been pushing remote work solutions like Microsoft Teams so heavily, these kinds of revelations make it hard to know what opinion you should have on remote work. How can you know who to trust?

Ultimately, we believe that there can be some value in looking at what other companies have to say about remote work, but it ultimately depends on the way that you implement work for your business and the policies you put into place. Remember that you are not a large enterprise with thousands of employees; you are a small business with different needs from Microsoft, Google, or any of the other proponents of remote work. Depending on your specific needs, remote work might be able to address specific shortcomings that you have. The option for a hybrid workplace also exists, where employees spend part of their time in-office and part of their time working remotely.

Are you changing your approach to remote work moving forward? Do you want to maintain remote operations or are you hoping for a quick return to the office? How about a mixture of both approaches that let you get the best of both worlds? No matter the choice, we are confident that MSPNetworks can help you achieve your goals. To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

In today’s competitive business environment, you need every edge you can get to one-up your competition and make waves in your chosen industry. One of the best ways you can do so is by strategically implementing technology solutions that can enhance or transform the way your business operates both internally and externally.

Let’s take a look at how technology can enhance your business’ operations and inform your business model. With the right approach, you might be surprised to see such significant changes!

Enhanced Business Productivity

It stands to reason that any technology you implement for your business should have an impact on your productivity, and if it doesn’t, then perhaps there is no need to implement that particular solution. Technology solutions to implement will vary by industry, but the right ones can dramatically increase productivity. Start by considering where your company falls short and then look into services or products that might help.

Greater Customer Satisfaction

Technology can help on the customer satisfaction side of things, too, ranging from the customer services experience all the way to providing adequate methods for them to receive continued support. Sometimes businesses will implement chatbots on their service portals to help direct customers where they need to go, or they may implement automated phone systems that can connect customers to their desired department with ease.

Better Communication

Better communication tools for your business can have profound impacts on the way that you go about your day-to-day operations. Whether technology is changing the way that your teams communicate with each other or the way that they communicate with customers, vendors, or other external parties, you can bet that technology can help provide more ways for people to get ahold of your employees and company as a whole—all of which translates to a better experience for everyone.

Lower Operational and Capital Costs

All in all, technology can eventually get your business to a point where it is spending less on capital costs and instead investing in operational costs. Essentially, what this means is that you are not dropping massive amounts of cash on solutions all at the same time; instead, you are paying smaller monthly fees for services that allow you to be more flexible and efficient with your budget, effectively transforming these traditionally expensive capital investments into lower operational costs.

Don’t let something as simple as falling behind the times in technology hold your business back from achieving its full potential. With the right support and implementation, you too can leverage the latest and greatest technology solutions to your organization’s benefit. That’s where we come in.

MSPNetworks can help your organization implement and maintain any technology. As managed service providers, it is our goal to make technology management as accessible as possible. Our services are a great alternative to hiring a full-blown IT department for your business, so why not give us a call and find out more? All you have to do is call (516) 403-9001.

Most of us take streaming media for granted. Whether you are streaming a movie on Netflix, binge-watching a show on Hulu, or using one of the growing number of streaming television networks to stream sports, shows, and news, there is quite a bit of interesting technology fueling your entertainment. Today, we thought we’d briefly go through some of the tech that makes these streaming services, and their millions of simultaneous streaming feeds, possible. 

Often, Streaming Media is Not Pushed Through the Internet

If you asked the average streaming service subscriber how they are able to get their entertainment on demand, they would answer that the companies that do it simply push it over the Internet. You have to be connected to the Internet to get the content so it stands to reason that they just beam it over the network connection, right? 

As it turns out, about 85 percent of internet bandwidth is streaming video. That’s a lot of data to send across the internet, to the point where it would be wildly expensive to host these services in the traditional sense and expect it to work effectively for millions of users every day.

So how do they do it? The streaming services have spent a lot of time and money building out streaming infrastructure. Think about how you use your streaming services. You file through a catalog and then select something to play. Nearly instantaneously, the title you’ve chosen plays; on any device you want to view/hear it on. The process used to make this possible is called over-the-top (OTT) streaming.

OTT streaming is the act of delivering content to the user on a particular device. It has five steps. They are:

• Video ingestion - This is the process of adding content to the streaming platform. Streaming services are always updating their content to provide users with new entertainment. 
• Transcoding - With so many different types of devices being supported by streaming services, they need to alter the content’s code to play on the device you are looking to stream content on. Video files are wrapped differently for every platform. 
• Management - This process is simply managing the content for users. Some users pay more for 4K video streaming and other options. This process ensures that the users get the content they are eligible for.
• Delivery - Content Delivery Networks (CDN) is the hardware and software behind the service. Typically, the content is delivered through regional data centers to give users the speed and reliability that they demand. Netflix has their own CDN, as does Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. Most streaming platforms utilize third-party CDNs due to the cost to build and maintain. In fact, in some cases, Netflix actually sends an entire server with their content library on it to local ISPs so the video content can be delivered to users as effectively as possible.
• Playback - The end result, the playback of the content. Amazingly, all this happens extremely fast and users typically only wait seconds to get the entertainment they want.

Security is Not Cut and Dry

For streaming services—just like your business—keeping their customers’ personal and financial information secure is undeniably important. In fact, nearly 70 percent of businesses are now investing in some sort of video and audio streaming. As a result, finding vulnerabilities in the video dissemination process can be fruitful for the modern hacker. Moreover, for large-scale streaming services they also run into the issue of people frequently sharing their passwords, which is always a red-flag for cybersecurity professionals looking to keep networks secure.

These companies, like many others, also deal with your standard hacks, but when you consider how many people are lackadaisical about their Netflix or Hulu security, it can be much harder for these organizations. Let’s take a look at some of the hacks these organizations frequently deal with:

• Phishing attacks - Phishing attacks are a major problem for everyone, and with so much demand for streaming media, hundreds of lookalike websites have been established on the Internet looking to take advantage of people who are tempted with free subscriptions.
• Credential Stuffing - As mentioned above, it may not be too difficult to get ahold of people’s streaming media access credentials, this can cause major problems for the service itself.
• Brute Force attack - For those hackers who don’t have access, sophisticated software is used to attempt to login through simple trial and error. 
• Man-in-the-Middle - This is just the interception of account credentials and other information by getting between two communicating parties. This is why it is a sound strategy to utilize VPNs and always utilize the multi-factor authentication feature offered by a company.

Streaming media is one of the most utilized services and the number of people using it is growing rapidly. What are your thoughts on the technology used by streaming media? Do you utilize it regularly? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below and return to our blog for more great technology information. 

Many professionals see the word “informatics” and think of one of two things. First, what the heck is it? Second, isn’t that just computer science? While the two certainly are similar and often used interchangeably, they are quite different. Let’s take a deeper dive and see what the field of informatics entails, how it can be applied to computer science and business, and why it’s important to consider for your organization.

Defining Informatics

Pinning down informatics is a bit of a tricky one, as it is most commonly used when referring to healthcare. In regards to medical informatics, Merriam-Webster defines it as “the collection, classification, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of recorded knowledge.” Now, we know what you’re thinking. Wouldn't that definition be applicable in just about any other context? Well, you’re not the first one to think of this definition in a fluid manner.

The definition of informatics has shifted throughout the years to reflect this more abstract line of thought. Generally speaking, informatics can be referred to as the study of any system, artificial or natural, and how it shares or processes information of some sort. If we zoom out a bit with our definition, you can see how informatics can be applied in many different ways, whether we are discussing natural systems in the biological world (like neuroscience or the study of the brain), or computing systems (like computers or algorithms). By now it should be clear why it is so commonly used synonymously with computing, but what are some of its applications?

Informatics in Computing

In the case of computing, you can boil informatics down to the way that data is shared across either your internal network or across multiple networks (like the Internet). Data is spread out across your network, collected, classified, stored, retrieved, and distributed to workstations as applicable. This happens on a micro level on a day-to-day basis, but the scale and scope at which this happens is very flexible.

One of the best examples for how informatics can be applied to computing is through the use of big data. Traditionally, big data as a term refers to a large mass of data that is too expansive to analyze with traditional data analysis tools but can be used for the purposes of interpretation and extrapolation. Thus, businesses can learn a lot by analyzing their big data; they might even be able to identify trends that can be leveraged for growth in the coming years.

How Can Your Business Benefit?

Too often businesses sit on a treasure trove of data that can be analyzed, extrapolated, and applied to various operations or business functions. MSPNetworks can help equip your organization with the tools to take full advantage of its data, from storage to dissemination. To learn more about how we can help your business, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it no small amount of uncertainty, including amongst business owners who were looking at a very up-in-the-air future. With so many lacking the technology needed to support remote operations—never mind the fact that remote work was a new concept for so many—the learning curve was a considerable hurdle. However, with vaccines being administered and restrictions lifted, it now becomes critical to find a balance.

How Work Needs to Shift

Despite many business owners resisting remote work on principle, it quickly became the only viable option for some organizations to remain open. Most of these businesses and their owners will want to return to the way things were before—but this may not be practical for some time, if ever. A study has revealed that more than 70 percent of employees who needed to suddenly shift to remote operations are hoping to see some of this flexibility carry over—even though half of these employees are also waiting to return to the office with anticipation.

While this may seem strangely counterintuitive, that much is to be expected.

The ongoing global health crisis turned most of the world on its head, including many impressions about remote work. While the escape of sorts from the office may have initially been a welcome change, the reality of the home environment and its additional responsibilities soon set in. While these employees don’t necessarily want to rush back into the office completely, remote work hasn’t agreed with them as well as may have been expected.

This experience has not been consistent for everyone, either.

Many business leaders are having a far easier time than their subordinates are, simply because of the disconnect that often occurs in remote work setups. In an office, it is much easier to pick up on the trend when someone is having a hard time. When a team is working remotely, these kinds of issues become more difficult to detect.

So, to compare…

Decision makers are earning more, enjoying their time more, and are more flexible in their work as they operate remotely, while the people they’ve hired are often overworked, unappreciated, and simultaneously abandoned while being told that a “familial work atmosphere” is important.

Poorly Managed Remote Operations Also Breed Stagnation

Your employees aren’t the only ones who will have a tough time with poorly-planned remote operations—your entire business could potentially see some drawbacks. Operating out of a centralized, shared location just makes it more convenient for team members to collaborate, which increases the quality of their communications and decision making.

Meanwhile, a year’s worth of remote conferencing has many people sick of it, just doing as much work as they need to so it can be considered “done.” In other words, without the face-to-face interaction of the office, many employees might become complacent.

In turn, the business could become complacent as well.

Making the Hybrid Office Work

Let’s look to the (hopefully) near future, when the restrictions that many businesses are subject to can be relaxed somewhat. Naturally, businesses are going to want their team members to come back at optimum productivity, operating from the place of business once again. Some people look forward to this, others, not quite so much.

As a result, many businesses will likely adopt a more hybrid approach to work, allowing greater access to remote work. Sounds pretty good, but it isn’t that simple.

There are a lot of questions that you’ll have to answer to do this. For instance, how many days will each team member be required to come into the office? One study polled executives to reveal that 68 percent of them would like to see their teams in-house at least three days out of each workweek. Workers conversely placed the maximum requirement at three days per week, with each employee’s responsibilities factoring into their requirement.

Globally, there is also a vast difference in how urgent in-office operations seem to different countries. In the U.S., 22 percent of executives see a return to the office as a priority. Similar companies in Canada, Germany, Japan, and China disagree, with fewer than five percent agreeing.

Unfortunately, the only thing that’s certain about this kind of hybrid work model is how uncertain we are about any of it. How will it impact the many metrics that a business is concerned about—from its culture to its productivity to its employee retention? What is the best option?

Frankly, there isn’t any single correct answer, simply because each business has its own unique situation.

MSPNetworks is here to help you balance out your business’ situation with IT tools and solutions so that your team members can perform the way you need them to. Give us a call at (516) 403-9001 to find out what we can do for you.

Data breaches have a tendency to destabilize relationships. With so many data-related problems befalling businesses nowadays, it is important that each side of every data-driven relationship understands their role in the protection of other organizations’ data. Today, we’ll take a look at the issue and how to determine if your partners are putting in the effort required to keep your data secure. 

Are Your Vendors Properly Protecting Your Information?

We’ve seen businesses have a litany of challenges protecting their sensitive data over the past several years, and as threats get more sophisticated it poses more problems. Additionally, many businesses outsource a fair amount of their operational and support efforts and that can have a negative effect on their security. 

So, how do you know that your vendors are protecting your information?

You ask them, of course. 

Before you onboard any new vendor, you should come up with a questionnaire that asks the right questions about how they handle their own cybersecurity, and more specifically (and importantly) how they go about handling your information. 

At MSPNetworks, we do this for all of our clients to ensure that they are partnering with reliable companies that, at the very least, are attempting to do the right things to protect sensitive information. 

Questions You Should Ask Your Vendors

The first thing you should consider when making up some questions to ask your vendors about security is: do you understand the answers? If you don’t know what you are doing, you could just assume any thoughtfully answered response would be sufficient. This is far from true and is a liability, especially in trying to ascertain what risk your business is facing by doing business with a company. We can’t stress enough that if you don’t have someone that knows what they are doing, you need to find someone, as this will serve you much better in times like this.

Let’s go through a couple of important questions you should ask if you do have the competence available to sufficiently measure risk from the answers:

1. Do you collect, store, or transmit personally identifiable information (PII)?
2. If so, do you store your PII onsite or in the cloud?
3. How do you provide users access to the PII you store?
4. Can PII be accessed remotely?
5. Do you constantly monitor all services, systems, and networks?
6. What regulatory bodies does your business operate under? Do you have proof of compliance?
7. What kind of encryption do you use for data-at-rest? Data-in-transit?
8. Do you consistently patch your software? 
9. Do you have mobile device management and IoT management systems?
10. Do you utilize legacy systems that aren’t supported by manufacturers?
11. What cybersecurity tools do you use?
12. Do you have language in your agreements about vendor cybersecurity? 
13. How are your continuity systems?
14. How would you go about the situation in the event of a data breach?
15. What authentication procedures do you use? 
16. Do you train your employees on the best practices of cybersecurity?

There are many more questions you can ask, and you should ask them if you find them necessary. Vetting your vendors is a great way to know if they have your best interests in mind. 

If you would like to partner with a company that not only has your best interests in mind, but also can help you ascertain if your other partners do as well, give MSPNetworks a call at (516) 403-9001 today.

With the future so uncertain, it’s no surprise that many organizations are turning their focus toward business continuity. There are a lot of components that go into making a successful continuity plan, and if you want to optimize your chances of survival in the face of a disaster, you need to ensure that all your bases are covered.

First, let’s take a look at what business continuity means, particularly in a post-pandemic world.

Defining Business Continuity

A lot of things can go wrong when you run a business. From natural disasters like electrical storms, fires, floods, and so on, to not-so-natural disasters like hacking attacks, ransomware, and user error, there are a lot of ways that your business’ operations could be disrupted for extended periods of time. At its core, the business continuity plan is a list of steps that must be taken following such a disaster to keep downtime and losses to an acceptable minimum. It should be noted that business continuity and disaster recovery, while two sides of the same coin, are not one and the same. Disaster recovery is simply one of the many components of a successful business continuity strategy.

The Primary Components of Your Strategy

Before identifying where you should invest your time and effort when planning for business continuity, it’s best practice to run what is called a business impact analysis, which helps to identify critical functions of your organization. Basically, you take a look at which operations would be most costly during a disaster scenario; this helps you shore them up with your business continuity strategy.

The various parts of your business continuity strategy will generally fall into one of these three categories, based on what the above critical functions are for your specific industry:

• Digital resources: Most businesses rely on data of some form or another, whether it is stored on-premises or in the cloud. Making sure that you retain access to that data in the worst of times will be crucial. Data backup systems can aid in this process and make certain that your digital assets are not lost forever.
• Human resources: Your business cannot function without its employees, so you need to account for them, too. Establishing a chain of command and guaranteeing that you stay in touch with any clients or vendors will be critical to ensuring business continuity.
• Physical resources: This includes things such as your office space, physical assets like your hardware solutions, and anything else of the sort that’s needed for your employees to do their jobs in an effective way. Especially if you rely on manufacturers or a supply chain, ensuring that this is not broken is critical to success in the face of a disaster.

At the end of the day, your business continuity strategy should be accessible to anyone who will need it, along with a list of necessary equipment, the locations of your data backups, and contact information for additional resources as needed.

Reinforcing Business Continuity

A business continuity strategy is only effective if it can be feasibly pulled off and it meets your expectations. Imagine going through a disaster scenario only to discover that your business continuity strategy simply does not return the expected results, or perhaps it doesn’t execute well at all. This is why it is important to routinely test and adjust your strategy; you don’t want to be caught unawares. Here are some details to look for when testing your business continuity plan:

• Expected downtime: Does your plan meet the expected minimum amount of downtime and the costs associated with it?
• Ease of implementation: Is your plan able to kick off without a hitch?
• Feedback from staff: Have you listened to key staff who might be able to identify opportunities for improvement?

Need a Hand Getting Started?

The world of business continuity can be a bit daunting, but in today’s business climate, you cannot afford to be passive with it. MSPNetworks can equip you with the tools needed to ensure minimal downtime and disruption in the face of a disaster. To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

With tax season quickly reaching its crescendo, accountants and CPAs face increased threats to their data security. Your clients' financial information is too good for a cybercriminal to pass up. Now is the time to prepare yourself to fight a cyberattack. Learn how managed IT can support your business in a variety of ways.

Is Your Data Secure for Tax Season?

Cybercriminals are well aware of the stress most accountants and CPAs face during tax season. They also know that with stress comes mistakes and opportunities for them to attack. The reality is most businesses, regardless of size or industry, usually have cybersecurity protocols that are underpowered. Cybercriminals know this and wait for predictable moments of distraction to target a company. What’s more predictable than tax season, and what’s a better target than a CPA or accountant?

Why are Accountants and CPAs Targets?

The answer should be obvious: these industries are most likely to have access to the type of data cybercriminals are most interested in: financial. However, it is also important to remember that with the ascendance of ransomware, the cybercriminal’s MO has evolved. These days cybercriminals are more likely to hold your accounting firm’s data/computers hostage than to try and steal your client’s data to resell on the dark web.

As you can imagine, a cybercriminal would be able to exert considerable pressure on your business if they gained control and locked you out of your system around April 15th, rendering you unable to file your client’s tax returns electronically. How much damage would your business suffer, and how much would you be willing to pay to regain access to your data?

Finally, even if you’re a smaller business, chances are you are linked to larger organizations. This connection makes cybercriminals treat you as the weakest link and will use you as a way to gain access to the other businesses you are connected to. It should be apparent that losing control of your data could well cause enough damage that your business may not be able to recover.

How to Protects Your Data

The most effective way to protect the data your accounting firm is responsible for, is with a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery plan. A ransomware attack can only hold your data hostage if you cannot regain control of it. Your backup is going to be the solution to this problem. A data backup and recovery solution in the form of a business continuity strategy should be a prominent part of the foundation of any well-designed managed IT plan, regardless of your business or industry. 

We also manage and maintain your network to prevent threats from coming in.

Why Managed IT for Accountants Is Essential For Business Growth

While it's evident that managed IT can benefit your firm’s data protection, it can do so much more. Due to the wide range of solutions provided, managed IT should be considered an essential service for any business. Due to their services' nature and the data they are responsible for, accountants and CPAs can benefit from the full suite of managed IT. 

While during tax season, it makes sense for accountants and CPAs to request that their managed service providers (MSP) focus on cybersecurity (however, cybersecurity is a 24/7, 365 issue), the benefits of partnering with an MSP stretches beyond cybersecurity protection. Managed IT can provide your organization with increased protectivity, stability, collaboration, and communications, all of which can benefit your company's bottom line.

Some benefits managed IT brings to your accounting firm include:

• 24/7 Monitoring - We watch your network to identify and prevent incoming threats.
• Patches and Security Updates - By having us keep your software updated, your team can work without interruption.
• Less Downtime - Solving problems preventatively will reduce the amount of time that users can’t get their work done.

Are You Ready to Embrace Managed IT?

Managed IT’s wide range of services allow your firm to leverage your technology into a resource and not a liability. MSPNetworks can help you accomplish this with the solutions that your firm needs to boost productivity while developing best IT practices to stop your technology from holding back your growth. A managed IT partner allows you to stop worrying about your technology.  

Call (516) 403-9001 today to schedule a free IT consultation, and learn how our personalized, proactive IT support for small and medium-sized businesses can be of service.

All businesses, in some way, shape, or form, exist to generate revenue—whether their profits are retained for their own benefit or dedicated to supporting some other cause. Either way, this balance makes the difference between the investments a business makes and the return these investments see a critical consideration. By using modern technology, today’s organizations can tip this balance to be more in their favor.

Let’s consider three ways that you could leverage technology to ultimately benefit your cash flows.

Improving Operational Efficiency

Let’s jump right into it and acknowledge something: the more you can effectively accomplish with the time, energy, and resources you’ve invested, the better off your company will be. Today’s technology offers a means of doing so through automation.

Rather than having an employee commit time to certain tasks, modern IT can easily carry out these tasks with minimal oversight or interaction. With predetermined triggers to instigate key processes, you and your team can spend less time on busy work and more on tasks that will help to increase your business’ dealings.

Whether you need to track and organize data, send out repetitive communications, or generate insights and reports, there are some means of carrying these out properly.

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Business technology is, in a word, expensive. Whether you need a specific software suite to support your operations, or improved infrastructure hardware, or more storage space for your team to use, the associated costs are typically substantial if you plan to support it yourself.

Now, today’s technology opens a new option: cloud-based services. These services can be tailored to better fit the situation of the business using them, in terms of the number of users and specific services rendered. That way, you can optimize your budgetary spend to suit your precise needs, eliminating waste and freeing up more of your budget than otherwise possible. Furthermore, these services give you more flexibility overall, as your delivered services can be trimmed to match your precise needs more closely.

Reconsidering IT Expenses

On the topic of cloud-hosted services, the pricing structure these offer can also assist you in optimizing your budgetary spend. Rather than a single, lump-sum price to be paid up front, the cost of cloud-hosted software services is billed per month as a subscription. This helps to make your expenditures far more predictable, assisting you in managing your available budget, while also offering flexibility as your needs change over time.

Furthermore, not all cloud providers and vendors are created equal, and the market is volatile enough that one service might not always be the best option for you at a given time. Therefore, you should regularly go over your available options to ensure that you are investing as much as you can in the ideal choices.

Managed IT services offer many of these qualities, enabling you to squeeze every bit of value out of the technology you rely on. Find out more about what MSPNetworks can do for you by calling (516) 403-9001.

When looking to improve your business via the use of technology, it helps to keep a few basic tenets in mind. Let’s review some strategies to help reinforce their importance.

Consistently Utilize Uniform Tools and Processes

Picture it this way—while it is perfectly possible to transfer data from Microsoft’s solution suite to Google Workplace (and vice versa), it just isn’t nearly as convenient for your employees to do so… and since this transfer is entirely in their hands, there is a high potential for user error and other issues to slip by.

The same goes for how your internal data is handled. Without established storage conventions or an established storage space shared amongst your team, things are bound to go missing or be inaccessible to others who need it. By establishing and enforcing standard operating processes, you better enable your team members to stay on the same page and working cohesively.

Prioritize Security

Your team members all need to have a well-developed appreciation for the importance of data security, particularly when using the tools discussed above. From password requirements to multi-factor authentication to phishing awareness and more, you need to make a concerted effort to keep focus on the consequences a data breach could have and how the security safeguards you have in place can help protect the business and its data.

Numerous other tools and solutions exist that allow you to lock down your business more effectively. However, your team members also need to buy into these ideas. Encourage these practices and policies by performing regular evaluations of your team and giving them feedback based on their responses.

Promote Mobile Solutions

Finally, mobility is an important part of a business’ processes, so the capability to bring your work around with you needs to be promoted throughout your operations. This will help your business to be more flexible, responsive, and productive wherever and whenever the opportunity presents itself.

MSPNetworks can provide the tools needed to enable all of these practices. To find out more about what we can do for you, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

A lot has been made about the newly-remote workforce that has been doing their best during the COVID-19 pandemic. One issue that many ignore is burnout. Sure, it happens in the office too, but there is something unsettling about getting up and going to work walking distance from your bed. Today, we will take a look at at-home worker burnout and give you a few tips to help you keep from suffering the same fate. 

What Does At-Home Worker Burnout Look Like?

It looks a lot like worker burnout always looked like, except there is no place for the worker to escape to. Let’s face it, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot of things for a lot of businesses (and a lot of people for that matter), but nothing has changed as much as asking the same people that have been pleading for the ability to work remotely for years, to now work remotely because it’s mandatory. In this case it isn’t hypocrisy, but that doesn’t stop your staff from viewing it that way. 

That doesn’t mean they aren’t thankful they still have a job, but there have been a few variables that have left many of these newly-remote workers a little salty including the fact that many of the people that were furloughed are getting paid up to four times as much as the person still putting in their 40 hours from home. While this has very little to do with you and your business, it’s possible that some of your staff could project that negativity onto their work. 

The number one variable that leads to remote-worker burnout is the sensation that they are working all the time. Each of your employees have a life to live, and some live it differently than others. The ones that are diligent about most of the aspects in their lives can find it maddening to work from home, then work on their house, their car, etc… They feel like they aren’t accomplishing anything with their time because they don’t have any real downtime to speak of. That leads us to our first tip:

Keep Your Professional Boundaries

If your business has moved its operations remotely, there is a pretty good chance that the hours of operation haven’t changed. This means that if you feel like you are working all the time, you have probably let the boundaries that you typically operate under lapse and are doing more work off the clock or outside of work hours. After all, it is simple to check your email at 11 p.m. and get ready for the next day. Just leave the work until regularly scheduled business hours and enjoy your off hours. 

Another variable that is sure to create stress for the remote worker is the inherent distractions that they have while they operate from home. You may have a spouse or live-in significant other also working from home, you may have children that don’t have much to do since their school year (and all extra-curricular activities) have been canceled due to the pandemic. You may have pets that need a certain amount of attention. You also may be prone to distracting yourself with social media, streaming videos, or video games. We suggest:

Keep Distractions to a Minimum

This may be easier said than done, but if you can, have a dedicated workspace that is away from all of the distractions listed above. You need focus to do your job proficiently and continuing to distract yourself (or continuing to allow yourself to be distracted) is going to cut down on the time you are actually working. This leads to you getting behind and results in much more stress than you’re typically used to dealing with. This can result in you working longer hours to compensate, leaving you with the feeling that you are working all the time.

Finally, when dealing with mental health it can often be a matter of internalizing someone else’s expectations of you. Of course, many employers do have a certain amount of expectations, but they are flying by the seat of their pants too. Do you really think they would have crushed your work-from-home dreams for so long if they didn’t have legitimate concerns about the effect it would have on their product or service? In this case, they may have been wrong. Expecting you to work from home was the only card they could play in order to fulfill their responsibilities to their consumers, while still taking care of the people they depend on to make business happen. You may find that when this situation is resolved that the work flexibility you’ve always wanted will remain. You may also find that you won’t mind going into the office that much. 

Understanding that your employer is doing their best to keep you safe and employed while other small businesses are struggling to re-open, will give you some peace of mind. Here are a couple of tips to help you…

Stave Off Work-At-Home Burnout

• Get dressed - A good practice is to get up and do your morning routine as you would. You don’t have to wear a suit and tie but get out of your PJs and get yourself ready for work. You may not have the long commute right now, but that time can be spent catching up on sleep, taking the dog for a walk, or some other activities that make you less apt to be scurrying around after work.
• Watch your diet and exercise - Stay-at-home orders haven’t been great for a lot of people’s waistlines, but now that things are starting to slowly re-open there will be more opportunities to get out there and enjoy the things you typically do. You will want to make sure to stretch and move around a bit while also watching your intake. Good diet and exercise help your mental health.

Until there is an available vaccine, this situation isn’t close to over. Some companies will reopen and forget they ever had a remote workforce, but many businesses will prioritize the mental and physical health of their employees and keep remote work open until there is a reason to stop it; and, your ability to keep your head screwed on straight will be a big determining factor in the use of remote work in the future.

What do you think about remote work? Do you have any suggestions to help you get through this period? Will you be allowing your staff to keep its remote work flexibility when COVID-19 is in the rearview mirror? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. 

Between you and me, how is your business doing financially? If you answered with something along the lines of “not great,” you are certainly not alone. Cash flow is an issue for businesses all around the world, as a recent report from Intuit makes all too clear.

Intuit QuickBooks released the results of a study performed to establish where small businesses stand as far as their cash flow is concerned. This study, entitled The State of Small Business Cash Flow, revealed that cash flow issues have had a significant impact on businesses. Having surveyed 3000 small businesses with fewer than 100 employees in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India, and Australia, Intuit was able to identify a few major business concerns.

Common Issues
According to this survey, 61 percent of small businesses have regular issues with their cash flow, with 42 percent of this group having had a cash flow issue within the past year. Of these businesses, 32 percent have been short on capital - rendering them unable to pay for one of their other obligations, like loans, vendors, or even their employees. Over two-in-five small business owners have faced the prospect of being late with their employees’ payments, while 32 percent have been forced to do so.

In the United States specifically, insufficient cash flow has contributed to considerable missed opportunities. Businesses have lost an average of $43,394 by passing on projects or sales thanks to these insufficiencies, more than half having lost at least $10,000.

Clearly, there’s an issue here.

The Underlying Cause
According to the survey, small businesses in the U.S. average a total of $53,399 in outstanding receivables. That’s $53,399, owed to the business, that has yet to be paid. On average, businesses wait 29 days before their payments are received.

It is this delay that causes the major issues outlined above in businesses.

If you’re tired of waiting around to be paid for your services, reach out to MSPNetworks. We have the expertise to identify and implement the solutions you need to efficiently invoice your clients and customers, providing them with flexible payment options. Reach out to us at (516) 403-9001 to learn more!