MSPNetworks Blog

Sorry for the loaded title. There’s a lot to talk about, even for those of you who don’t use or even know what Telegram is.

We’ll try to sum this up, because we think there is a lot to say about security and the nature of technology in this, and like all things these days, there’s some odd rabble-rousing about this whole series of events. Who’s up for a wild ride?

Collaboration is at the heart of any effective business. Most organizations today are trying to make the most of their limited resources, and one of the ways to do this is with a solid collaboration strategy. Here’s how you can do the same to avoid siloing tasks and squandering your workforce’s potential.

Effective teamwork is indispensable for business success. Collaboration stands out as an extremely important consideration, yet devising a strategy that expedites project completion and enhances service delivery poses challenges. This week, we get into modern collaboration practices and how technology can help you improve collaboration.

We’ve seen the conference rooms of a lot of businesses, from the modified break-room with stale coffee to immaculate lecture rooms with plush, comfy seats, and everything in between.

A good conference room can do a lot to impress potential clients and customers, encourage collaboration within your team, and leave a great impression on potential employees too. While we’re not going to pretend to be interior decorators, there are definitely some important steps that we can assist with to make sure your conference room is up to the task.

Clear Out the Clutter

First things first, your conference room needs to be neat and tidy. I’ve seen workplaces with conference rooms that often serve other functions depending on the day, and that’s fine. If your office has gym equipment or occasionally converts the conference room into a daycare for employed parents, that is definitely a nice gesture. However, you’ll want to be able to quickly transform the room into a comfortable meeting space without a lot of stuff in the way.

Avoid letting your conference room become the catchall for storage, because this is something that can escalate very quickly. It’s not a room for your staff to borrow office chairs from—you should be providing the comfiest office chairs for the butts that sit at the desks all day anyway. Your conference room should be ready to use for meetings and presentations at a moment’s notice.

Thoroughly Test the Wi-Fi

Anybody working in your conference room is likely going to be on the Wi-Fi. Make sure you have very strong service and direct or very-near direct access to the access point. That might mean installing a wireless access point in your conference room, or adjusting the position of the access point that is nearest to your conference room. 

Either way, imagine the types of real-world scenarios that you will put your wireless network through; your staff is all working on the network, and you have 6 or 8 or more people sitting in the conference room, connecting to the Wi-Fi.

You’ll want to make sure you have a reliable wireless network, and that you segment out the network for guests. 

You can do some creative things to help guests get signed into the Wi-Fi; I’ve seen people simply put up a sign with a QR code, or use NFC chips that you can scan with most smartphones. You’ll likely also want to post the guest password for those who can’t scan QR codes or NFC chips.

Wireless Peripherals to Pass Around

If you have a screen (or multiple screens) to display presentations on, make sure you have some easy-to-use wireless peripherals to control and manage on-screen content. A wireless keyboard and mouse assigned to the conference room will go a long way to make things easier for participants to work together and collaborate. 

Usually, that means having an endpoint (usually a mini PC) connected to the screen, so users can sign in and pull up presentations. If this is a standard endpoint on your network, you will also want to make sure that it is secured and monitored like the rest of your endpoints.

Clear Audio and Video for Remote Meetings

There may be times when you want to host a meeting with participants who can’t physically make it to your conference room. Thanks to the pandemic, these are typically called Zoom Rooms, and they are a great way to have multiple participants on your end meet with clients and teams remotely.

There are plenty of devices on the market that accomplish this task, from conference room phones that sit in the middle of the table, to small tablets that can be moved around. Either way, you’ll want a clear audio solution that everyone will be able to hear and participate in.

Need Help Modernizing Your Conference Room?

Your conference room should be dressed to impress. We can help provide the technology that makes it a place of collaboration for your staff, partners, and clients. To get a quote, give us a call at (516) 403-9001.

Effective communication often operates behind the scenes, yet it serves as a vital cog in the smooth operational ability of business, lending support to a multitude of functions. Consequently, making judicious investments in the right tools can markedly elevate your business. In the contemporary landscape, one such indispensable tool is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

Let's delve into VoIP and explore why it has emerged as the preeminent choice for businesses seeking a robust and feature-rich communication platform. VoIP, in a nutshell, delivers more value for less.

VoIP is a telecommunication method that harnesses your internet connection, removing the necessity for a dedicated phone line to cater to your business' communication needs. This not only reduces ongoing telephone service expenses but also confers access to a host of supplementary features, some of which would typically come at an additional cost or might not be available at all. By leveraging the power of the internet, VoIP offers a broader spectrum of capabilities compared to conventional phone services.

Naturally, VoIP emerges as the optimal solution for modern businesses. Furthermore, it's adaptable for mobile use, with user-friendly mobile applications at your disposal.

If you believe that VoIP could be a valuable asset for your business, don't hesitate to reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

Voice over Internet Protocol, also known as VoIP, has revolutionized the way businesses manage their communications through the use of telephony. Employees who were once tethered to their landlines or their physical locations can now break free of these constraints, and it’s all thanks to VoIP and cloud-based communication tools. Here are some of the best features of VoIP solutions for small businesses.

More Cost Savings

If you want to save costs, then VoIP is the way to go. When you work with a traditional landline telephone provider, they are sure to bundle a bunch of services together that you don’t necessarily want or need for business purposes. Using VoIP means that you’re using an asset and service you already pay for—your Internet connection—so you aren’t paying for anything you don’t already use or need. Additionally, you likely already own all the hardware you need to make proper use of the VoIP solution, as it uses your desktops, laptops, and mobile devices to function. While you could go the route of acquiring more traditional handsets, the flexibility is there for those who want and need it.

Greater Scalability

Running a business comes with inevitable growing pains. Eventually, your business will outgrow its current communications infrastructure, which is a good problem to have, but not for your phone infrastructure. To add new lines or handsets, you might have to knock down walls or use other creative solutions to ensure the networking and routing of the phone infrastructure is sound, creating all kinds of disruptions to your operations and workflow in the process. VoIP is hosted in the cloud and run through a downloadable application, meaning that you are using your Internet connection and a program to access your phone line. This means adding new accounts or numbers is as simple as creating one and downloading the app.

Enhanced Flexibility and Mobility

With VoIP, you aren’t limited to your landline or even your desk. Thanks to the ability to download a hosted VoIP application on your smartphone, you can keep your work phone number on your mobile device for anytime, anywhere access to it. You can take work calls on your work phone number while out of the office, on business trips, or while working out of your home. With this kind of accessibility, imagine how much more work your organization can get accomplished. Your customers will also appreciate your team being more available than ever.

Ready to Implement VoIP?

If you want to commit to improving your business’ communications infrastructure, MSPNetworks can help. We’ll work with your business to integrate VoIP with its technology and collaboration platforms in a way which makes sense for you. To learn more, call us today at (516) 403-9001.

The landscape of telephony for small businesses has changed dramatically. It’s likely that you don’t rely on your phone nearly as much as you rely on other technologies, like your Internet, communications solutions, and email. Still, an antiquated phone system can hold you back, so let’s explore the other viable option for your business: Voice over IP.

Let’s break down why your traditional telephone is no longer viable for your business first.

Adding New Users is a Pain

When you first started your business, you were meticulous about finding the right space for the moment, just to get things off the ground. You may have had to run wires across your office for a specific number of employees, workstations, and handsets. When your business started to grow, suddenly you found yourself limited by the infrastructure you had spent so much time cultivating. Adding new users to your infrastructure becomes costly and time-consuming, which is something that only a traditional telephone business makes you suffer through.

Organizational Communication is Already Challenging Enough

When you use your office landline, you are, for all intents and purposes, stuck behind your desk if you want to use your phone. This is the opposite of what you want to happen; you want your employees to have the freedom to do what they need to do without being tethered to a physical location, and a solution which allows for this means that your company will have more flexibility for remote work and operations.

Your Telephone System Adds Hidden Costs and Services

More likely than not, you’re paying more for your landline telephone than necessary, and it’s all because of bundled services that you have no need for. You might be paying for cable television in addition to your phone service, for example. A service that allows you to customize your services according to what you need is ideal for businesses, particularly small businesses that cannot afford to waste their valuable budget on unneeded services.

There’s No Reason to Suffer with Old Technology

Using your landline is just like using any other old frustrating technology; it’s completely unnecessary. If you rely on outdated technology for too long, you’ll fall behind your competitors, which is something that no business can afford. You can get ahead of the game with a VoIP solution that uses your current IT infrastructure and Internet connection, effectively replacing your company’s landline by turning all of your desktops, laptops, and smartphones into your telephone system.

VoIP Can Be the Solution to Your Communication Troubles

If you are ready to get started with VoIP, then MSPNetworks can help you make the transition. All you have to do is pick up that old dusty handset and use it one last time to call us at (516) 403-9001.

What kinds of communication tools does your business utilize on a daily basis? Chances are that your communication infrastructure can benefit from some of the latest and greatest solutions on the market. Communication is one aspect of your business that you definitely do not want to skimp on, as failing to implement the proper tools can bleed into other aspects of your organization, including operations and, in return, your bottom line.

Here are three technology solutions that all small businesses should implement for their communication infrastructures.

Email & Instant Messaging

We know what you’re thinking—obviously a business needs email to communicate properly both internally with its team and externally with clients and vendors. However, we urge you to reconsider the way that your email solution is currently set up. Do you host it yourself on-premises? Is it properly secured? Can you access your work email on any approved device? Are you able to access it through the cloud? These are important questions to ask for the sake of productivity and efficiency. We at MSPNetworks recommend that you work with us to set up a cloud-hosted email solution so that your business can focus on maintaining operations rather than managing an email server.

Instant messaging is another great tool that modern businesses can leverage to great effect. It’s perfect for moments when you don’t want to wait for a response to an email or for more urgent matters. That said, you need to be careful with how you implement instant messaging, as improper setup and training can turn this great productivity tool into a distraction.

Intranet Solutions

Consider this scenario: have you ever been neck-deep in a project only to find that important documents detailing the process for a certain task simply cannot be accessed for some reason? Unfortunately, this is often the case; documents can get scattered all over, and some employees simply won’t know the needed workflows or how to access certain accounts. This is why an intranet solution is such a valuable tool. 

An intranet solution is a great place to house internal documents for helpful information such as workflows, portals to various services or tools you utilize on the regular, and more. Don’t discredit the value of having a single place you can go to locate just about everything your employees need to succeed in their day-to-day duties. Think about it as the “single point of contact” for any resources your employees need.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)

Similar to email, all businesses have a phone solution that they use for both internal and external communications. The unfortunate truth, however, is that the landline is a tool of the past. Whenever you have to add a user to the network, you have to run new phone lines, hook up new hardware, assign extensions, and so much more. This makes for a solution that is not growth-friendly and can work against your business’ interests.

VoIP has the potential to change the way your organization handles telephony in the workplace. Essentially, it takes your entire phone infrastructure and shifts it to the cloud where it can be accessed on any device through a desktop or smartphone application. This allows you to use your work phone number to make calls on a personal device through the Internet. All of the features of traditional telephony solutions are present here (and completely scalable), including call forwarding, routing, conference calling, and even some features that might not be present in your ordinary landline, such as video conferencing, IMs, and more.

Not sure how to get started thinking about your own business communication infrastructure? MSPNetworks can work with your organization to implement the best tools for its specific needs. Don’t wait any longer; get started with a phone call to MSPNetworks 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.

With all the communication tools that businesses use today, there still is no more important option than the telephone system. Unfortunately for small businesses, the telephone system can be expensive and hard to manage. However, there is a way for you to get a fully featured telephone service with some of the most important tools your business needs, at a fraction of the price you currently pay for your enterprise telephone system.

With that, we’d like to introduce you to VoIP.

What Is VoIP?

VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is a telephone system that uses your business’ Internet connection to fuel its telephone system. Rather than paying the antiquated telephone company an arm and a leg, you can now use your existing Internet connection to host a dynamic and reliable telephone platform. There are different tiers of VoIP, but today’s most cost effective, and popular, is a VoIP platform that is hosted in the cloud. 

Using a VoIP system can frequently provide a business with a variety of operational perks:

• VoIP is easily manageable - Your VoIP solution will either be hosted on your in-house infrastructure or in a dedicated cloud server, making management simpler and reconfiguration possible in just a few clicks.
• VoIP enables mobility - A VoIP system doesn’t restrict your employees to only using their business telephone while physically at their desk. While it will work with a dedicated business phone, your employees can also leverage a mobile device via a dedicated application.
• VoIP provides cost reductions - One of VoIP’s most attractive benefits is how it can scale back your communication costs in multiple ways. VoIP eliminates the need to pay for phone services on top of your Internet service, and most “premium” features are generally included.
• VoIP incorporates integrations - VoIP solutions can be integrated into your other management and line of business solutions. 
• VoIP offers advanced features - VoIP has some built-in options that can really be a huge benefit for your business. These include call waiting, call forwarding, instant and text messaging, and video and audio conferencing. 

Naturally, higher-tier plans will have a greater selection of these features available, allowing you to boost your operations even further.

Would you like to know more about VoIP? Call MSPNetworks and our IT professionals today at (516) 403-9001 to get more information.

For all its benefits, remote conferencing isn’t the easiest means of doing work for many people, as many have found out through experience. With businesses quite literally forced into this approach for some time now, employees are starting to feel the toll. Let’s discuss some of the impacts that long-term remote conferencing has had, and what can be done to minimize them.

Conferencing Can Be Stressful…

…although I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that.

Widespread remote conferencing has been an asset for many businesses for over a year at this point, in many cases allowing them to remain open when they would otherwise have little choice than to close. As a result, many people have remained employed during a time when many simply have not had that luxury.

Of course, there has been a cost—a cost which, for many, has been deducted from their mental health.

Consider the implications that come with mandated remote conferencing: not only are your team members communicating primarily through a screen for most of the day, but there’s also a good chance that most of their social life has been digitized as well. It should come as no surprise, then, that conferencing can lead to something now commonly referred to as “Zoom anxiety.”

Named for the conferencing app that saw significant gains from this time in isolation, Zoom anxiety is more or less what it sounds like: nervous onsets and tics developing in response to perceived challenges and embarrassments while video conferencing. Whether you’re afraid of what your coworkers might hear through your mic, see through your webcam, or even not see or hear due to technical difficulties, Zoom anxiety can have some unpleasant impacts.

The Various Causes and Effects of Zoom Anxiety

Embarrassing oneself in front of coworkers, managers, and clientele isn’t a new phobia. However, with the tendency that many people have to let their guard down in the home, remote conferencing brings those fears from the conventional workplace into the home.

Consider, for a moment, the advertisements that the coffee brand Folgers has been running—where remote employees compensate for stressful situations caused by remote work with a cup ‘o’ joe. These ads, one featuring a woman smoothly using her mug to obscure her curious son from view and the other playing on the classic working-at-home-without-pants gag with brand-accurate red underwear, put a lighthearted face on very real concerns that people have developed.

Apple has taken a similar tack, showcasing their collaborative solutions by telling the story of a team of “Underdogs” who work through the stresses of remote operations to collaboratively build a better mousetrap (or in their case, pizza box).

Amusing as these ads may be to view as an audience member, many remote workers now understand that the anxiety these scenarios cause isn’t something that can be chuckled off—regardless of how funny it was to see Professor Robert Kelly’s kids crash his 2017 interview with BBC News.

This is particularly the case for quieter and less-extroverted employees, who would prefer to primarily be seen in the office, not so much heard. It can also be challenging for those who feel that the theatre of video collaboration puts the pressure on to perform more than they would in person. Many people have become overly aware of their own body language, distracting them from the substance of what is being said.

Numerous gendered issues have been shown to be exacerbated, with the too-common issues of women being spoken over or judged negatively for speaking too much, happening more frequently than in an in-person setting.

The casual office conversations that once fostered cooperation and even helped pave the way to better business relationships and advancement opportunities are gone—and we haven’t even mentioned the tendency for awkward silences to arise, only to be broken by two people speaking up simultaneously and immediately deferring the floor to the other.

Fortunately, these are ways that one’s anxieties can be quelled, regardless of whether they come from technical issues, miscommunications, or simple discomfort with the situation.

How to Reduce Zoom Anxiety

There are a few ways that you and your team can fight back the nerves that come from an overexposure to video conferencing.

Reconsider the Need for Video at All

Before you access a call, ask yourself how important it is for you to be seen in this meeting—or if video is even necessary. Sometimes, a simple call will do the job just fine, and won’t require your team members to put themselves on display.

Get Rid of the Mirror

One of the most common places for people to look while in a remote meeting is actually at the image of themselves that most platforms will provide… studies have shown as much to be true. As you can imagine, this can lead to employees stressing about their appearance and mannerisms far more than they normally would, adding to their distraction and distress. Encourage your team members to disable the self-preview feature in your chosen collaboration solution to avoid self-inflicted criticism.

Cover Your Camera

For privacy’s sake, make sure your team knows that it is okay for them to cover their physical camera. This way, they can enjoy their privacy until the need arises for them to be visible. A piece of tape or a small sticky note can suffice, but dedicated covers are also available for that very purpose.

Have Someone Take Point

One of the biggest issues that remote collaboration can bring about is the perceived lack of structure that a meeting has. Like we mentioned above with the extended silences and overlapped talking, it can be hard for people to gauge when it is the right time to speak up. Assigning someone to chair the meeting enables that person to direct the attention of the group to the person who is contributing.

Grin and Bear It

Finally, it is perhaps most important that everyone in your organization understands that real life is still a thing, especially when someone is working from home. As such, some background noise or other such interruption is only to be expected. Make sure you are open with your team about understanding the realities of their situation and work with them through it.

We’re Here to Help You with the Technical Aspects of Remote Collaboration

Of course, the most positive outlook in the world isn’t going to make your remote interactions any more productive if the infrastructure isn’t there to support them. MSPNetworks can help you acquire, introduce, and manage the solutions you need to take your remote collaboration to the next level. Give us a call at (516) 403-9001 to find out more about what we can deliver.

With how business is conducted today, the capability of your workforce to stay connected while mobile is important. However, it can be equally important that this connectivity doesn’t come at the cost of their manners. Let’s go over a few ways to be more polite as you work remotely using a mobile device.

Sometimes, Your Calls Can Wait

We’ve all been there: in the middle of a commute, a work-related call comes in. While many might be tempted to take the call then and there, it is often best to delegate it to voicemail and promptly return it once you reach your destination. Why?

Simple, to do otherwise could potentially distract you, creating a safety risk for yourself and others. In addition, you might make a wrong turn or miss your stop and further inconvenience those you are working with as a result. As important as diligence and productivity are, safety should always be prioritized.

Be Aware of Your Surroundings

One undeniable aspect of mobile communications is that people inherently assume that you are always available to have a conversation with them. If you are, this isn’t so much of a problem, but there is always the chance that taking a phone call would be rude to those you are around. If you must answer a call, do your best to step away from those you are around so you can devote your full attention to your caller, and keep the call as short as politeness allows.

On That Note, Don’t Text When Inappropriate

While one might assume that you would know this, based on simple politeness, the pressure of work might push people to try and hold multiple conversations at once. Keep your manners in mind and resist this temptation, devoting your attention to the person addressing you directly.

Establish a Good Connection

Noth…can…rupt...a nversati…ke a poor c…ection.

Let’s try that again. As was just demonstrated, nothing can interrupt a conversation like a poor connection. If your calls are being dropped or your messages aren’t going through, reconsider where you are and correct it if possible. If you cannot, let everyone else on the call know about it and offer them the chance to postpone the call until your connection is better.

Return Calls Promptly

Don’t let any missed calls sit without any interaction for too long, whether it’s with a quick response or even an outgoing voicemail message outlining your availability followed by a timely call back. Make sure you keep this voicemail message up to date, as well.

Of course, your mobile device is just one part of your communication infrastructure. Lean on MSPNetworks for assistance in handling the entire thing. Learn more about how our managed services can benefit your professional communications by calling (516) 403-9001.

2020 was a contentious—and for the wireless industry, momentous—year. Marking the official start of 5G networks, 2020’s events amongst mobile providers helped to reinvigorate an industry, while making some considerable shifts in the balance. Let’s consider some of these changes, and how the industry will continue to change for some time moving forward as 5G continues to grow.

How 5G Offerings Have Shaped Up

When 2020 first rolled around, Verizon was America’s largest carrier by far, followed by AT&T with T-Mobile (at the time, trying to merge with/acquire Sprint) trailing along afterwards. In terms of the networks these carriers offered, Verizon was focused on implementing millimeter-wave networks in some cities while T-Mobile was pushing a nationwide low-band 5G option that was very similar to 4G. As for AT&T, they were experimenting with both.

Now, as we begin 2021, Verizon remains the largest carrier, but T-Mobile now leads in the 5G race with the largest network availability and has passed AT&T to become the second-largest provider. Furthermore, T-Mobile has been rolling out a mid-band 5G network with faster speeds and better coverage. AT&T has focused on offering promotions to their customers. Of course, these are just overall nationwide statistics, everything is going to be different depending on what part of the world you live in.

This has spurred on some fierce competition between Verizon and T-Mobile, with both outlining ambitious goals for 2021. T-Mobile intends to expand its network to cover 200 million people by the time 2021 ends with its faster mid-band network. Adding to T-Mobile’s accomplishments, they were first to launch a standalone 5G network… although the other carriers intend to follow suit sooner than later.

Verizon, on the other hand, plans to go all-in on millimeter wave technology. Therefore, their strategy is primarily to focus on improvements to their networks in the cities where it has been implemented already, optimizing its indoor use and performance.

Both are also looking to 5G’s potential where home broadband comes into play. With both companies seeking to expand further into home Internet delivery, there is certainly considerable potential for either… as well as for the users who would benefit from these services.

AT&T, for their part, plans to improve how responsive their 5G network is.

Current Issues with 5G

Of course, 5G is far from perfect. In terms of the low-band network connectivity, all options remain close to 4G connectivity. However, that could be slated to change in the future, with the Federal Communications Commission auctioning off more of the mid-band network and both competitively participating. Regardless, the timeline for any improvements resulting from this auction still places any good coverage coming from the mid-band spectrum at least two or three years from now.

So, while 5G will undoubtedly have some influence on mobile connectivity and its potential uses, we still have some time to wait. What do you think? Are you anticipating or planning for some of the opportunities that 5G might open for your operations? Let us know in the comments, and for assistance in making the most of your business’ networking, reach out to our team at (516) 403-9001.

If your business is like most, you and your team likely rely on a schedule to keep your processes moving along efficiently… while also ensuring that everyone has something to work on at any time. However, this is often easier said than done, which is why there are now cloud-based software options that make your scheduling efforts a little smarter.

Let’s take a few moments to discuss what smart scheduling is, and how you and your team can make the most of it.

What is Smart Scheduling?

Technically speaking, smart scheduling is a specific kind of software intended for use within industries that serve consumers with fluctuating demands and that are strongly influenced by different events that may line up with their operations. For instance, ice cream parlors do FAR better in the warmer months, and anyone who has worked in retail can appreciate how much different the holiday season is from the rest of the year. Smart scheduling solutions help to automate the process of scheduling a team to best fit the business’ need, taking these fluctuations into account.

However, if we look to smart scheduling as a process, rather than as a technology, it suddenly becomes far more applicable to all industries. After all, every industry—and individual business—has those external factors that can and do impact their operations.

Smart scheduling is simply the consideration of anticipated demand and adjusting employee hours and responsibilities to match. It’s knowing that the factory next door is going on lunch break in a moment, and ensuring that there’s an employee at each station of the fast food franchise so that the sudden influx of orders can be filled as quickly as possible.

It’s predicting the most likely scenarios and preparing your business appropriately.

How to Smarten Up Your Scheduling Process

Whether or not you’re using a smart scheduling solution, there are some basic tenets that you can follow to ensure that your business (including the employees that work there) is operating at a sustainable maximum output.

1. Define Your Schedule

Take all of the data that you have, concerning your schedule, and bring it all together. This will make it much easier to balance availability to the workload at any given point. For example: if a large project is coming up, but a holiday is as well, it may make sense to take any employees currently assigned to smaller, less-critical projects and delegate them to tasks on the larger one so it can get done. This makes everyone’s goals clear, which can help motivate your team to accomplish them.

2. Be Open to Communication

Regardless of your industry, communication is an indispensable part of your operations each day. Make sure that your schedule clearly (emphasis on the word clearly) defines where people are supposed to be, when, and what they are to accomplish in that given time. This includes those employees who have indicated that they are not available for a period. Failing to apply that information into your schedule will only cause complications and potentially leave you understaffed for what you planned to do. On the other hand, incorporating these considerations into your scheduling will lead to your staff feeling empowered, while reducing the number of unforeseen absences and tardiness.

3. Implement a Scheduling Platform

Many different software titles now exist that make scheduling your employees a lot easier, whether that means defining the hours they are to come in or assigning the tasks they are expected to tackle throughout the workday. Finding one that fits your needs and implementing it will make the entire process much easier for you and your team alike.

MSPNetworks can help you out with this aspect, as well as any other of your IT needs. To learn more about the solutions we have to offer, reach out to us by calling (516) 403-9001.

Businesses around the world now find themselves in a situation unlike what most have ever seen. With so many trying to keep their distance from one another, many workplaces have deemed it necessary to close down for the time being or to operate remotely in order to reduce the risk they present to their clients and customers… but it isn’t as though these clients and customers are going to expect radio silence from these businesses.

As a result of this, maintaining a presence on social media has perhaps never been more important for businesses to prioritize. Let’s go over why this is, and how you can best use social media to your advantage during any kind of crisis.

How Can Social Media Assist My Business in Times of Crisis?

There are a few ways that social media has benefited businesses—as well as society as a whole—during the COVID-19 crisis that we are all facing. For one, it is a highly effective means to get a message out to the people who are meant to hear it, while completely abiding by the recommended social distancing guidelines that so many people are strictly subscribing to. In the same vein, social media has also proven to be exceptionally effective as an educational tool (for better and for worse) for governments, businesses, and other organizations to use to educate their clientele.

Ideally, this would all be old news to you, and you would be one of the businesses that are currently using social media as the tool it has the potential to be. However, many other businesses have yet to fully embrace the capabilities of social media in a time like this, while others are still resistant to adopting it in the first place or have refused outright. Those businesses are missing out on a significant opportunity to reach out to the people they need to communicate with.

Therefore, if you are in one of the latter categories of business social media use you need to make some significant adjustments to your stance on social media now - before it is too late.

Ways to Use Social Media During a Crisis

Let’s consider how a social media presence can prove useful to a business when a serious issue of any kind is at hand.

Communication

While we don’t wish to be flippant, this one should be tremendously obvious. If people aren’t coming to you or calling you for updates, broadcasting them is the only way that you can reach out. Social media platforms are the perfect place to do that, as they allow you to keep anyone looking at your business page up to speed on how your business is coping. You can share news that explains any changes to your business hours and other pertinent topics in one of the first places many people today look for such things.

Take, for example, restaurants - not technically designated as an essential business - have managed to continue their operations relatively by subscribing to certain practices, like accepting orders for takeout or delivery exclusively, or operating for fewer hours. Other businesses have shifted to largely remote operations. Social media is a great way to inform clients and customers of these measures, ensuring that they know of everything that is going on.

Value and Insights

While it may seem a little silly, especially considering the gravity of the present situation, just keeping a dialogue open on social media can prove to be extremely useful for a business to keep the attention of those that follow them. This can be as simple as, again, simply keeping their clientele aware of how the business is working in response to the situation at hand or doing what they can to provide other kinds of value. While the way this value takes shape is very reliant on what this business offers, there are plenty of ways it can be expressed.

For example, a cleaning company might share useful tips and best practices to staying hygienic and healthy, while a daycare center could offer some fun games and activities for families as they social distance. Any business could simply share some engaging content of what their employees are doing during this time.

In short, social media is just another technology that businesses can and should use to their advantage. MSPNetworks can provide other tools that help your business operate, even remotely, to help you sustain it. Give us a call at (516) 403-9001 to discuss your options.

Social distancing has more or less confined many to their homes, and so many people have begun to adopt remote working to stay busy and to keep their workplaces operational. One way to assist these activities, VoIP (or Voice over Internet Protocol) is a massively helpful tool that many businesses use. Here, we’re going over why this is.

We’ll begin by reviewing the current situation.

As COVID-19 continues to make the workplace too risky to spend time in unless it is absolutely necessary, many people have committed to isolating themselves in their homes. Fortunately, we have the technology today that allows work to still be done in this situation. Thanks to the capabilities of VoIP technologies that lean on cloud solutions, remote work and collaboration become possible.

Let’s explore how:

Remote Work is Easier with VoIP

If they’re going to work from home effectively, your employees will need the tools for the job, just like they would in the office. This includes a workstation, whether it's a laptop that travels with them or a workstation capable of accessing their resources remotely. It could also include a desk phone, which is something that is much more difficult to transfer from location to location, or at least, it once was.

VoIP now allows for this, as it runs the phone through the Internet instead of a separate dedicated line. Thanks to VoIP, your employees can make business calls with the same number they have in the office, without needing to be in the office itself. Software on their workstations, or an application on their mobile device, gives them access to their calling capabilities--along with many other features--even from home.

VoIP Offers Secure Information

Furthermore, it isn’t as though your employees will no longer need to discuss business operations as they are working from home. Communications will still be critical, but residential services just aren’t secure enough to freely talk about these matters over the phone or even a personal Internet connection. Efficiency just isn’t worth sacrificing your security for.

VoIP can help you to mitigate these challenges. By using a VPN (virtual private network) in tandem with your VoIP solution, your conversation will be shielded by a tunnel of encryption.

VoIP Plays Nicely with Other Collaborative Solutions

Many VoIP platforms will incorporate additional communication tools, such as video conferencing, to increase their functionality. Conferencing allows you to have a face-to-face discussion with the other parties involved. This can help reduce the isolated feelings that many remote workers can develop, on top of improving the quality of your communications.

Find out more about VoIP solutions and how you can adopt them yourself! Give MSPNetworks a call at (516) 403-9001 today.

It wasn’t too long ago when the idea of video conferencing was a very complicated one. The technology just wasn’t there to make it a major benefit for companies. As conferencing technology has been innovated upon, however, it now presents a laundry list of substantial benefits. Let’s take a look at some benefits you can see by moving to video-driven meetings. 

#1 - Engagement - Businesses have been using telephone-based audio meetings to their benefit for a while; and, have been successful in doing so. With the technology that is available today, however, allowing for better engagement through video. This isn’t just because meeting attendees can see a presenter, but because each person can now choose to see other attendees. This changes the communication skills that are needed. A well-run and efficient video conference can function much like a meeting where everyone is physically in the same room. 

#2 - It Connects Teams - With many businesses trying to take advantage of remote computing solutions, having a video conferencing platform available allows teams to connect in ways that were just impossible only a few years ago. Workers are happier when they don’t have to travel to a central office, and video conferencing makes it possible to have regular and productive meetings, even if people are out of the office. It also gives organizations the opportunities to cut down on their human resources costs by taking advantage of freelancers.

#3 - Helps You Get to the Point - With better engagement and more structure to the meetings you hold, meetings won’t go on very long and you and your team can hash out the issues they need to address and then get back to work quickly. 

#4 - Employee Satisfaction - As was stated earlier, people like to work from home. Even if they are working the same amount, they feel like their work/life balance is in their control. This is a major selling point for any employee, and can result in less turnover, fewer complaints, and a higher employee retention rate. 

#5 - It’s Efficient and Effective - In-person meetings can take up a large portion of the work day. This is largely because there are tangents that go on in the duration of a meeting that don’t have anything to do with the stated objective of the meeting. Video conferencing can present a great alternative that will keep people on point and working toward the goals of the meeting. 

If you are looking to cut down on your meeting times, while also getting a solution that will work from anywhere with an Internet connection, look no further than the video conferencing options you can get through MSPNetworks. Call our knowledgeable consultants today for more information at (516) 403-9001.

How often do you find a message in your SMS inbox that has clearly come from a business, but you almost have to wonder, simply because the incoming number seems to be randomized? Google has taken notice of this challenge, and so has rolled out a means for businesses to confirm that they are in fact the ones sending a particular message. 

If you are currently using text messaging via the Android platform’s Messages application as a way to communicate, taking advantage of Verified SMS is something that you shouldn’t pass up.

How Does Verified SMS Actually Work?

Take yourself out of the role of a business owner for a moment. Instead, consider the following from the perspective of someone talking to a business as a prospect or customer.

Let’s say that you are inquiring with a business about their services, or a deal you saw advertised, and you are exercising your capability to communicate through text. At least, you hope that you’re talking to the business… each time you have a new conversation, the number it comes from changes. Weird, right?

When a business uses Verified SMS, each bit of content that they send out is verified per message to have actually come from them. Once the message is verified, the user will receive it, tagged with the business’ name, logo, and confirmed with a verification badge.

According to Google, a message’s content is never revealed to them, and all of these communications are secure.

How to Turn on Verified SMS

If you have an Android device, you can turn on Verified SMS to increase your own confidence in your own communications. Doing so is simple:

• Open the stock Android Messages app
• In the three-dot menu, access your Settings
• Access Verified SMS
• Switch on Verify business message sender 

Communication is a key part of any successful business. Find out how MSPNetworks can help you optimize yours! Give us a call at (516) 403-9001 today.

Once thought to just be a cool feature of the Internet--or the entirety of the Internet to your Great Aunt Maddie--instant messaging has a long history on the web. In fact, one could argue that it was the first great Internet-based application. Today, we take a look back at the history of Instant Messaging and how your organization can use it to create a better business.

History of Instant Messaging
In 1988, the development of Internet Relay Chat (IRC) allowed users to connect to networks with third-party software to chat in real-time. This was effectively the first chat program, and is still used today. As the Internet started to get more prevalent, chat rooms were one of the first novelty applications available to users. Being able to communicate with other people on your computer was a complete revelation for users, and it didn’t take long for innovations to make their mark.

In 1996, an Israeli company called Mirabilis launched ICQ. ICQ allowed users to have one-on-one chats, send files, and search for other users online. It quickly became successful and the following year, probably the most successful chat program of the early Internet was developed, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM). AIM added the “buddy list” feature, which was a shortcut to open a chat with other users and a way to see if a person was online or not.

AIM was followed by Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger and for the first part of the 2000s the four competed for the IM market share. As social networks began to innovate and provide their users the ability to interact in real-time, the value of the chat program for personal use was left wanting. While there are still many chat programs, most of them allow users to send SMS messages (text messages) and other files. As of this writing, ICQ is the only one of the first four that still continues to function.

Messaging for Business
As the 2010s began, and mobility was growing very rapidly, mobile-based messaging applications began to completely replace the old IM services. Not only did the new chat services provide more options, but they were attached to popular web-based software. Business use of IM was more of a reaction than a planned implementation. People message other people constantly. For a while, business owners tried to limit this behavior at work, but with the workforce getting younger, it became evident that instant messaging was here to stay.

Today, the instant messaging application is a major part of most business’ communications strategies. This is because it is cost-effective, convenient, and scalable for almost any device. In some cases it has completely replaced email as the most important communications tool a company has. In other cases it is a nice supplementary collaboratory application that can move projects and tasks along faster. In fact, there have been some innovations in instant messaging technology that are designed for project management.

Collaboration apps, such as Slack and Microsoft Teams are taking instant messaging and adding powerful business-line integrations to help users collaborate more effectively. In each chat, users have the ability to bring in information from outside applications, including project management, customer relationship management, and productivity features that help them build more lucrative conversations. In doing so, these applications are being used by many organizations that have workers that work in different places. Since they are cloud-hosted, team members can access the chat, and the integrated information from more places, improving the speed and effectiveness of the project or task in progress.

For all of the benefits new instant messaging can bring to a business, there are some pretty important detriments to note. One is that it is easy to interrupt people with information that isn’t crucial to the workers’ tasks that can be distracting. This constant distraction, once a major consideration for keeping instant messaging tools out of a business’ cache of applications, is often looked upon as a part of the cost of doing business, with ROI figures providing impetus for continued use of these applications.

Further detriments come in industries that have to meet regulatory compliance. For example, businesses that need to meet the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act have to have a solution in place to properly log and archive instant messages in order for them to be put in reports as needed. This presents complications and additional expense for a business.

Instant messaging can be a great addition to any business’ communications strategy. For more information about instant messaging and the role it can take in your business, call MSPNetworks at (516) 403-9001 today.