MSPNetworks Blog

Every business relies on technology to function. Some wouldn’t be able to deliver any value to their customers without it, while others would be severely hindered if they suffered a data breach. For this reason, cybersecurity has to be a priority. In today’s blog, we will discuss five issues that business owners run into that can muddle their cybersecurity efforts.

IT support is essential for businesses, but traditional on-site support can be expensive and inefficient.

Thankfully, remote IT support, such as that offered through managed services, is now available. This is a game-changer for small to medium-sized businesses. Let's explore the benefits of remote IT support.

Information technology—IT—is a necessity for the vast majority of modern businesses to function. For the sake of these businesses and their operations, it pays to optimize this IT by any means available.

Let’s go over the benefits that a relationship with a managed service provider gives businesses, particularly regarding the overall efficiency these businesses see as a result.

As a small business, we’re sure you want to improve your profit margin so that you can offer more exciting and innovative services or products. One way that many businesses bleed capital is through their IT expenses. While it might make sense on paper to address technology challenges only when they present themselves, the truth is the exact opposite.

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) face the challenge of managing complex IT systems with very limited resources. Enter managed service providers, or MSPs, the guardians of IT that can help your business stay ahead of the game. An MSP's approach to IT support delivery offers many benefits that traditional IT support and even an in-house team might struggle to match.

Let's delve into three compelling reasons why our innovative approach is best for your IT support needs, especially if you want to scale up and streamline operations.

Technology frustrations can cause major setbacks for today’s businesses. IT challenges of all kinds can disrupt operations and impact productivity. Fortunately, managed IT services can help solve these common business IT headaches. Therefore, businesses can access a team of experts ready to tackle these issues head-on by outsourcing their IT management to a managed service provider.

Today’s businesses have more technology involved in their processes than ever, making it essential to have access to the support that will keep them in operation. Nowadays, that kind of support is best obtained through a relationship with a managed service provider.Now, I feel it is appropriate to acknowledge that all this is coming from a managed service provider… but that’s just because we feel strongly enough about the benefits of managed services to offer them over the traditional approach to business IT support and services.

With technology being so important for all businesses in at least some capacity, it’s no small wonder that effectively using it (and having someone on-hand to manage it all) is tremendously valuable for any company. This is where a managed service provider (MSP) can be helpful, even for businesses that have a dedicated IT department. All small businesses benefit from working with an MSP.

Operational Benefits Aplenty

An MSP can help your business achieve greater operational efficiency in the following ways.

Proactive Maintenance Leads to Fewer IT Issues

Stopping problems from occurring in the first place is much easier than responding to them when they disrupt operations. An MSP will monitor your network to ensure that any telltale signs of problems are addressed quickly and efficiently. This will minimize downtime and keep your business profitable.

Indeed, the best way to see an MSP’s true value is to look at what you don’t see: technology problems. If they are doing their job right, it will be like they aren’t even there.

Guidance on Technology Implementation

You started your business to provide a good or service that you are an expert in to your clientele, but if that good or service doesn’t include technology, it’s easy to feel like you don’t have the expertise to succeed in this realm of your business.

MSPs can help you overcome this deficit by providing an expert technology specialist for your organization’s needs. They can optimize your technology, work with your vendors, and manage technology over time to ensure that it’s working for your business, not against your operations.

Focus on the Here and Now, But Also the Future

If you want your business to succeed in the future, you need to start planning for it now. An MSP can help you identify what’s working well now and what might pose a challenge for your business in the future. Additionally, they can help your business stay on top of trends and developing technology solutions that will prove crucial moving forward.

How to Choose Your MSP

We think you’ll find our services helpful, but we want you to come to that conclusion yourself. Here are some aspects of an MSP to consider for your company’s needs:

• A dedication to security: You don’t have time to spend on securing your business and ensuring that all regulatory compliance requirements are met. An MSP can keep your business safe while ensuring adherence with industry regulations so your business can focus on profitability.
• Offers educational resources: Security extends to your employees who need refreshers every now and then on how to keep the business safe. A good MSP will invest time and resources into ensuring your team knows how to navigate the often-confusing world of technology.
• They might as well join your team: You might expect an in-house IT team to know your infrastructure inside and out, and an MSP can deliver on this expectation without actually being on your payroll in the traditional sense. A good MSP will be invested in your business’ success considering important factors like your budget and priorities when thinking about technology-related issues for your company.

Ready to get started with an MSP? We know the best in town (hint—it’s us!). Call us today at (516) 403-9001 to get started.

There are significant benefits to be had by businesses that choose to seek out IT services and assistance from a managed service provider like us. We’re very aware that our word isn’t going to be super convincing on its own, of course, so let’s review what a managed service provider can do and how working with us can help your business.

Let’s begin by breaking down what we are as a managed service provider, and what we provide as such.

What are Managed IT Services, and What Makes Them So Different Than Typical Computer Support?

Managed services are the handling of a company’s assorted IT needs by an outsourced consultancy, staffed with subject matter experts who work proactively to prevent any possible IT issues before they interfere with a client business’ productivity. On top of this, true managed services also involve the active optimization and improvement of the business’ technology—not just preventing issues, but actually counteracting them through increased productivity that’s supplemented by on-demand technical support for a business’ employees.

Just a few short years ago, the term “managed services” was relatively niche. Today, the various attributes that MSPs—managed service providers—offer as an element of their business model have proven beneficial enough that the idea has become more noticeable, if you know where to look.

How to Spot an MSP

First of all, if you’re reading this, you’ve found one of the best options for managed services in New York. However, if you’re one who likes to do their due diligence, a real MSP will generally offer some version of the following services:

• MSPs commonly work remotely, only coming onsite when there’s a need that requires hands-on mediation. This not only cuts down on in-office distractions and interruptions, it allows your issues to be resolved much more quickly.
  
  
• While many traditional IT companies would operate on a piecemeal basis, the ongoing services of an MSP make the subscription model a much better option. Not only does this allow you to more confidently predict your IT maintenance costs and budget appropriately, it also gives the client clear expectations through a pre-arranged service level agreement.
  
  
• Relatedly, rather than offering their services in catch-all blocks, an MSP can customize their services and prices to more exactly fit the needs of a client. Then, if those needs ever change, the MSP can adjust to meet them. This eliminates the tendency for companies to either overinvest beyond their needs, or miss out on clearly beneficial services because the price is too high.
  
  
• Critically, most MSPs offer all-hours support and remote maintenance services, so regardless of when an issue needs to be resolved, someone is there to work toward a solution.

In addition to these services, many MSPs can step in and actively boost your existing in-house IT department. Let’s say you have a few legacy systems that are on their way to being replaced and upgraded, but still need to be supported in the meantime. An MSP is motivated to keep their team educated so they will be able to offer that support if you lack a team member with the required knowledge.

Alternatively, your existing team may not be sufficient to handle both the maintenance of your existing systems and also serve their equally important function of strategizing improvements for the future. With the help of a managed service provider, either one can be taken off your internal team’s plate, allowing them to more effectively serve their role.

Plus, MSPs regularly communicate with assorted vendors to obtain services for their clientele. In these cases, you and the rest of the MSP’s clients effectively join the MSP as part of a cooperative, as an MSP often has access to better deals due to their regular business that can then be passed to you. 

Do the Services of an MSP Sound Beneficial to You?

Now, I know you likely have options to consider, but my team and I would love the chance to talk to you more directly about your needs and challenges so we can better roadmap an approach that would work best for you. Of course, if you aren’t ready for that yet, we’re also here to answer any questions you may have regarding our services.

In either case, give us a call at (516) 403-9001 to learn more.

Across the board, modern businesses rely on no small amount of technology to support their operations, making it key that you, one, have the technology your operations require, and two, have the means to keep this technology operational. Fortunately, managed services help you by providing both. Let’s review what managed services are, and how they work.

Managed Services are the Next Level of Outsourced IT Support

Traditionally, a business seeking assistance with its technology would either have to rely on any internal team members to fulfill their needs, or turn to an external provider to do so by coming in to service their equipment. Nowadays, there’s a third option.

Managed services shift the focus of IT maintenance away from repair and instead focus on mediation, working proactively to prevent issues whenever possible through modern remote monitoring and maintenance activities. As a result, the downtime that was inherently a part of the other methods can be largely avoided.

For a predictable monthly fee, you’ll have an entire team keeping an eye on your business’ technology, catching issues and spotting signs of impending threats before they manifest. This translates to increased productivity and employee efficacy.

A managed service provider also assists a business in its future technology planning, considering where its technology currently stands and designing a strategy focused on improvement and growth over time.

In a Very Real Way, This Makes Managed Services an Easy Way of Expanding Your Business’ Capabilities

To be honest, we’ve barely scratched the surface of what managed services can do for your business, and we’d love to have the opportunity to discuss it with you in more detail. Please give us a call at (516) 403-9001 to learn more about the benefits of a managed service agreement.

As we’re in the midst of Q3 of 2023, common wisdom says that now is about the time that small businesses should be planning their budgets for the next fiscal year. As such, if you haven’t already done so, it’s time to give managed IT services some serious consideration.

Let’s review what it is that makes managed services so budget-friendly.

First, Managed Services are Designed to Be Inherently Scalable 

One great way to eat through your IT budget is to invest in more than your business needs—maintaining more subscriptions to various services than your staffing requires, for instance. A managed service provider can help you avoid this kind of overinvestment by ensuring that you have precisely the resources you need, working with your vendors firsthand to ensure that you are limiting your overspending, and even negotiating better deals for your business. 

Second, Managed Services are Very Inclusive, in Terms of Their Offerings

By virtue of their business model, a managed service provider is motivated to fulfill as many needs as possible. In addition to offering you comprehensive remote and in-person support as circumstances demand, most managed service providers will interface with your vendors on your behalf, taking advantage of the combined needs of their entire client base to get special deals… passing the savings on to you.

That’s not all, either. Many MSPs will work with you to develop a roadmap for your technology to follow as your needs change and your company ideally grows, helping you grow your business without spending capital on unnecessary investments.

Third, Managed Services are Convenient, Which Adds Value

Time, as they say, is money. The longer any number of your team is prevented from working at their highest level of productivity, the more money you’re watching go down the drain. This is what makes the all-hours accessibility of your MSP so invaluable. You have the comfort of knowing that your network is being watched at all hours, allowing you to focus more of your work time on other tasks, and your personal time on your own rest and recuperation.

Plus, managed services allow your team members to quickly and conveniently access IT assistance whenever it may be needed, to any degree. This means that your team will no longer need to wait around for assistance when they need it—they’ll have a trusted provider waiting in the wings to help.

Fourth, Managed Services are Proactive, Which Helps Eliminate Additional Spending

Which sounds like a better way for your team to spend their time: constantly calling support for assistance with frustrating little issues, or simply getting their work done without issues interfering with their productivity? Hopefully, you answered with the second option, which is precisely what the proactive nature of an MSP’s services help to facilitate.

The better your technology is maintained, the longer it will ultimately last and assist your business, with fewer repair costs and not needing replacement nearly as often. When all is said and done, paying a consistent and predictable cost to keep your IT working will always be simpler to budget than crossing your fingers and paying as issues arise.

If It Wasn’t Already Clear, We Recommend that You Consider What Managed Services Could Do for Your Budget

We’re more than happy to answer any questions you may have about our services, too, and how they could prove to be a more friendly option where your operational costs are concerned. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at (516) 403-9001 to learn more.

With technology playing such a massive role in modern business processes, having someone in the higher ranks to oversee it is a huge advantage. This is the role of the Chief Information Officer—the CIO—which makes them an integral part of the modern C-suite.

So, what kind of thing does the CIO (or your business’ equivalent of it) need to know and consider in order to fulfill their role? 

Let’s go over a few of the priorities the CIO will need to have in the coming year and years, and what skills they’ll need to have.

What Does Your IT Leadership Need to Focus On?

There are a few key areas that the person taking the lead on your business’ IT should devote their attention to in the coming year.

• Budget Defensibility - With the signals we’ve been seeing as far as the economy is concerned, budgets are bound to be pretty tight for businesses. This puts the often resource-intensive IT department in the crosshairs for cuts...even though these cuts could negatively impact the business as a whole.
  
  As such, it will be important that a company’s IT leadership has a good handle on how much return the department is seeing on the company’s investment into it, and that they have empirical data to support these conclusions. Focusing on value will help you to communicate this more effectively.
  
  
• Data Security and Protection - The unpleasant reality is that cyberattacks aren’t going to go away. Why would they? Economic and geopolitical struggles often go hand in hand with cyberthreats—many of which can and will target businesses of any size—which only adds to the current need for improved cybersecurity across the board.
  
  
• Adaptability - The world learned the hard way how effective remote (or “distributed”) work can be just a few years ago, despite many resisting it for as long as they could. Despite distributed work quite literally keeping many companies from going under, a considerable number of these companies have been quick to pull their employees back into the office. For many of these employees, it has been an unhappy return.
  
  Today’s CIOs need to understand and embrace remote work as the net benefit that it is, creating a strategy that allows the business to take full advantage of its employees’ skills, wherever they happen to be working.

We Can Help Your Business, Supporting Your CIO (or Even Stepping Into the Role)

As a managed service provider, we have the capability to work alongside your Chief Information Officer to ensure that their plan for your business’ IT is properly implemented in a way that is both effective and fiscally responsible for your business’ situation. Don’t have a CIO? No problem—we can also serve as a virtual CIO for you, taking the lead on your business technology strategy.

Learn more about the options you have with MSPNetworks by giving us a call at (516) 403-9001!

Depending on the size and complexity of your organization, managing technology can easily become a full-time job. If you are only calling a technician when you are dealing with a computer issue, then you might be sitting on a ticking time bomb. Whether you have internal staff responsible for managing your IT, or you rely on a third-party, you’ll want to make sure the following tasks are getting done.

Windows and Server Updates

Microsoft pushes out security updates and product updates for its operating systems regularly. Traditionally, these updates come out on the second Tuesday of each month, but additional updates and patches may be released on a different schedule. On top of that, if you get behind on your updates, sometimes it can take longer to apply them all, or there may be conflicts that prevent you from being able to automatically run updates. These updates are critical, and you shouldn’t rely on your individual users to keep their own laptops or workstations updated.

Software Updates and Patches

While Microsoft has a pretty regular schedule for updates, the other software that drives your business might not. Your IT department will need to be aware of everything being used, and how to check for and apply updates, and in some cases, have a testing bed to run updates on so they don’t disrupt day-to-day business.

Antivirus Definition Updates

Virus definitions are updated on a very regular basis, and for your antivirus to fully protect you, it needs to have the latest definitions applied, and it needs to be kept updated as well. This is usually an automatic process, but the end user can sometimes delay it from happening. Having a centrally managed antivirus solution can help remedy this, but even still, someone needs to be monitoring it, and making sure scans are run regularly and that the utility is doing its job properly.

Daily Backup Checks

You wouldn’t believe how many IT “professionals” skip this. It’s absolutely critical. If your company’s backup device isn’t properly taking backups, it’s not doing you any good. If something were to happen that causes you to need your backup, it would be a nightmare to only discover then that you haven’t been running backups for several months.

It’s important to review backup logs and check for corruption and audit the entire backup regularly. If this isn’t getting done, you may as well assume you don’t have a backup in the first place.

At least once a week, the daily backup check should also involve a random restore to make sure the process is working and that files and directories are actually being backed up properly. Each month, this should be done even more thoroughly. 

Check Event Logs on Servers

This is another daily task that needs to be done, and can catch a lot of potential issues before they start affecting your staff and your bottom line. Server logs will often pick up on problems that are about to become bigger, so reviewing these daily will allow IT to make proactive adjustments and decisions to prevent downtime and solve issues before they escalate.

Check Disk Space Across All Mission Critical Devices

Done for both servers and active workstations, a full hard drive can bring your network to a stop and cause some pretty ugly issues depending on the device and how the drive is utilized. It’s a very quick check if your business has the right monitoring tools in place, and it can save you from a lot of hassle, especially in cases where you can’t simply free up storage and need to physically add more storage to a device.

Review Wi-Fi, Firewall, and VPN Access Logs

It’s important to know who or what is connecting to your network. Understanding network behavior and looking into traffic spikes and other unexpected events can often find problems before they get too big. Not only can this data be used to prevent network slowdown and other bottlenecking issues, but it can potentially detect fraudulent activity on the network and hopefully allow techs to stop it before it turns into something devastating.

Provide Technical Support For Your Staff

This isn’t an exhaustive list by any means, but on top of all of the critical IT tasks above, your IT department (or IT person/company/agency) needs to also be able to handle day-to-day support requests so your staff can continue to do their jobs without getting caught up with computer problems. 

These are just some of the regular tasks that our techs perform for all of the businesses who entrust us to manage their IT. There’s a huge difference between just having a computer person on call to fix issues as they arise, and having a company contracted to fully manage your IT. If you feel like your technology isn’t getting the TLC it deserves, give MSPNetworks a call at (516) 403-9001 today.

We hate to be the bad guy, but we’re certain that you cannot multitask nearly as well as you think you can. Multitasking is just not how the human brain works, and whether or not you believe in the psychology of it, we think you stand to benefit by outsourcing some of the tasks on your plate to a managed service provider.

Managed services are effective to help you spend less time on your IT and more time on your actual job duties and responsibilities.

The Proof is in the Proverbial Pudding

To put things in perspective, only about 2.5% of people can effectively multitask, so it’s highly unlikely that you are in the minority who can do so without compromising the quality of your work.

What you think is multitasking is really just your brain switching gears over and over, and the more complicated these tasks are, the less effective it is at switching between them. Your performance is sure to suffer if you can’t keep up.

How This Shows Up in the Workplace

It’s difficult at best to do multiple tasks at the same time, so let’s take a look at some of the tasks that might be pulling you away from your important work:

• Managing employees to ensure they are reaching your organizational and operational goals.
• Managing the public face of the company, including how you appear to the community, clients, and vendors.
• Ensuring compliance with laws and regulations.
• Managing the sales and marketing efforts of your organization.

Notice how we haven’t even mentioned IT on that list yet; it’s a whole other beast to tackle.

Managed IT Removes Some of the Burden on Your Business

Really, you shouldn’t be managing your technology anyway—you should be relying on a professional like MSPNetworks. Give us a call today and we can discuss how it’s beneficial for you to work with us.

Burnout—a psychological process that can impact an employee and lead to stress, exhaustion, depression, and frustration—is a serious threat to any workplace. However, have you ever considered the potential harm that could be done if your IT-focused staff members succumbed to these feelings? Let’s examine the phenomenon of IT burnout, and how we can help fix it.

First, let’s dive a little deeper into burnout itself, and then apply it to your business’ IT team.

What is Burnout, and Where Does It Come From?

Burnout is a complicated animal, as it involves a lot of different feelings and phenomena that vary from person to person. Bill may become cynical about his role and be easily frustrated in the workplace, whereas Olivia may more frequently call in sick and feel depressed when she is in the office. Laura may make uncharacteristic errors in her work. Oliver may seem disconnected from his role.

All of these individuals could be feeling burnout, and just be exhibiting it in a different way. According to a 2018 Gallup survey, nearly 25% of employees felt burnout… and that’s before the concept of the workplace became a lot more complicated and, in many ways, stressful.

In short, burnout is a form of psychological exhaustion brought on by conditions in the workplace.

The reasons that people feel burnt out are just as diverse as the way that these feelings are displayed. While most people might assume that burnout is related to an employee’s workload (as it often is), other reasons can contribute to these feelings as well. If an employee is unsure of their role, for instance, or they feel they are not being adequately represented or treated fairly in the office, they could easily feel burnt out. Maybe they feel they don’t have the time or the support to accomplish what they are meant to accomplish. This is another source of burnout that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Lately, IT Professionals Have Been Hit Especially Hard

While this perhaps isn’t such a surprise, information technology professionals have recently shown particularly high levels of burnout. So much was proven in a global survey conducted by Yerbo, a mental wellbeing platform.

In this study, The State of Burnout in Tech -- 2022 Edition, Yerbo collected 32,644 survey answers from IT professionals from 33 different countries between January and September 2021. We encourage you to review the study’s conclusions for yourself, but we’ve assembled a few highlights here:

Burnout Leads to Four Major Issues for Employees, Each with Their Own Impacts

Based on the study’s findings—which had an entertaining facade put over them reminiscent of the famous cabinet arcade game Pac-Man—their Burnout Index identified four symptoms frequently felt by those suffering:

• Exhaustion often impacts burnt-out IT professionals, with 62% feeling drained physically and emotionally after the workday and 56% being unable to relax once back at home.
• Self-Inefficacy, which can develop into chronic procrastination and Imposter Syndrome, was shown to impact 51% of those surveyed to make them feel as though they were underachieving, and 33% feeling inefficient at work.
• Cynicism builds walls between a burnt-out employee and the rest of their team, causing diminishing engagement amongst 43% of those surveyed and causing 27% to lose sight of their purpose in the workplace.
• Depersonalization, or the emotional shutdown of the burnt-out IT professional, led to 26% of respondents reporting fears of growing harsh with their teammates and a lack of sympathy amongst 22%.

Ultimately, the survey concluded that almost half—42.1%—of the IT employees they surveyed faced a high risk of burnout.

So, How Can You Help Reduce Burnout Amongst Your IT-Focused Employees?

Fortunately, there are a few ways to actively fight against feelings of burnout in your workplace and the team members you’ve hired to work there—including the people who make up your internal IT department.

Eliminate Stress Wherever You Can

Perhaps this is a little bit obvious, but if you can make their jobs even a little bit easier and express your appreciation for their efforts, you can go a long way toward reducing your team’s feelings of burnout. By giving them more specific objectives to meet, providing them with the training they’ll need as time goes on, and otherwise creating a more supportive and comfortable workplace (including sufficient time off), you’ll take away a lot of the stress that burnout feeds on.

Giving Your Team Some Autonomy

Let me ask you something: when was the last time having someone hovering over you, breathing down your neck, motivated you to do something?

I didn’t think so, so why would it ever help motivate your team members? Giving them a degree of self-management and reasonable flexibility will help to keep them engaged and motivated to do their jobs to the best of their ability. Paying them at a rate that reflects this autonomy will help as well.

Provide Them With the Support They Need

If your IT team is feeling overworked by the responsibilities your business presents them with—particularly if it’s to the point that they are working extra hours to keep up and don’t have the opportunity to keep up on their certifications—burnout is certain to set in. We can offer our services to help support your team by taking over some of their workload. Think of us as adding a bunch of employees to your existing team for a single monthly cost. We’ll let your internal IT team do what they do best and pick up whatever is left over, allowing them to succeed, which translates into greater benefits for your business.

Give us a call at (516) 403-9001 to discuss your options with us today!

Since it first entered the mainstream in the mid-2000s, cloud computing has become a cornerstone of businesses of every size and shape. The big question that remains, however, is what your business could lean on the cloud to do. Let’s go over the multitude of options that the cloud opens up for a business.

To start, we’ll establish just what exactly we mean when we reference “the cloud.”

The Cloud is Just a Decentralized Network of Resources

That’s really the long and the short of it. The cloud is simply a network that many computers and workstations can access and connect to in order to collaborate and share the data stored within. Whether you need software, data, or raw processing power, the cloud delivers access to these resources and/or the infrastructure to host them.

Convenient? Absolutely… as well as cost-effective, and conducive to collaboration.

Of course, to get the maximum benefit from your cloud implementation, it pays to approach it correctly.

You Have a Lot of Options When it Comes to the Cloud

The cloud comes in numerous forms, and can be used to accomplish various things. In terms of the cloud options you have:

Public cloud - The public cloud is that which is provided by a third-party provider, with all the computing resources maintained and delivered by this provider for the business to use. As a result, the business gets all the advantages of the cloud’s solutions without any of the responsibility of upkeep.

Private cloud - The private cloud is one that the business owns and maintains for themselves, using infrastructure that is stored in-house to host and run the services and applications they rely on. While this puts the onus of maintenance and support on the business, it also helps keep data better protected.

Hybrid cloud - A hybrid cloud approach is one that combines private and public clouds, taking advantage of the benefits of each to fully optimize a business’ IT strategy.

You can use any of these cloud models to fulfill a variety of business needs, like:

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) - Rather than paying up-front for each version of an application—and over again each time an update is released—SaaS ensures that you have the number of software licenses you require, fully updated and ready to go.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) - IaaS gives you access to the infrastructure needed to support your IT, similarly to purchasing the servers and other networking equipment, but removing all the responsibility for upkeep and maintenance from you.

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) - Subscribing to PaaS gives you access to everything your business will need—from the software to the infrastructure to the specialized tools. This option gives you everything you need, fully managed by your provider.

Interested in implementing the cloud into your business’ IT? We’re happy to help. Give us a call at (516) 403-9001!

It’s safe to say that businesses have had a difficult time lately. In addition to the issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, companies have also had to deal with supply chain issues and other challenges related to their data. How does your company manage its mission-critical technology solutions?

Managed Services Can Provide Modern Businesses with a Reprieve

It’s not much of our business, but we can’t help but wonder how you pay for your IT services. Depending on the business model, you might be paying in a way that is not sustainable over time. If you pay for your IT on a case-by-case basis, for example, you could very well be losing capital in the long term.

The issue with pay-as-you-go IT services is that there’s no motivation for the provider to solve issues in the long term.

If you think about it, you will never get the IT services you deserve from an organization whose business model relies on your failures. If you don’t need them at all, then they will go out of business—it’s as simple as that.

Managed services are designed to address this shortcoming. Instead of focusing on problems as they arise, managed services work to actively prevent and deter issues from becoming problems in the first place. It’s like changing the brakes on your car before they get worn down entirely, causing a crash that could total your vehicle. With a comprehensive managed services agreement, your technology can be maintained in a way that prevents catastrophe from striking in the first place.

This Predictability is Something that Today’s Businesses Need

In such uncertain times, the last thing you need is to worry about whether or not your technology will work tomorrow when you go to the office or remote into your desktop. This uncertainty can lead to many challenges when managing business technology.

By making the switch to managed IT services, you can make considerable strides toward making your technology management practices much easier and more predictable. It can give you more of an ability to budget for IT challenges, as issues that would normally incur severe costs will instead be covered by your managed services agreement.

MSPNetworks can help you take the next step toward taking back control of your IT budget. To learn more about how you can achieve this, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

With more people than ever working from home, their ability to receive the support they need to keep their devices in top working order is crucial. As a result, many businesses have turned to managed IT service providers to maintain their employees’ computers. MSPs like us utilize a tool called remote monitoring and management software (RMM). Let’s discuss what it is and why it is so useful for managing your company’s IT. 

Consider the following scenario from the perspective of one of your employees:

You’re working from home, trying to get your tasks done for the day. There’s still plenty to do on your schedule, and you’re swiftly approaching deadlines for many of your responsibilities. Suddenly, your trusty laptop starts crashing, and try as you might, you can’t seem to get anything working.

So, what do you do?

This is obviously a challenging situation on numerous levels. Not only are you unable to get any work done, you’re also isolated away from whatever support resources are usually present in the office. As a result, any issues you may encounter are made much more challenging to resolve.

However, this fortunately doesn’t have to be the case.

By working with a managed service provider like MSPNetworks, you can benefit from the improvements that modern solutions can provide to the IT support process. Rather than encountering a problem and waiting around for it to be fixed, you can continue working, confident that the MSP has any challenges handled.

Using the technology at our disposal, we can remotely keep track of your computers, even while your workforce is working remotely. Should an issue arise, our team of trained IT professionals will detect it and do everything within their considerable abilities to mitigate it. Often, we can have the issue sorted before you even realize that one was present, all thanks to our use of remote monitoring and management software.

Of course, to leave the benefits at that would be to sell an MSP short. In actuality, the nature of remote monitoring and management can provide a much wider range of benefits, such as:

• Low-profile RMM solutions can be configured ahead of time and installed in the background, doing even more to preserve productivity. Once installed, our software can help protect the data of both your clients and your employees by ensuring that critical patches are professionally installed, and that a technician is always just a few clicks away.
• The management portion of our software can be used to attend to assorted support matters beyond troubleshooting, enabling us to install and manage the software that your users will need, such as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol telephony), productivity solutions, and other business-essential tools.

At MSPNetworks, we can assist you with all of your IT needs, regardless of where your employees are currently stationed, enabling your team to accomplish more during a time that would once have made work impossible. To learn more about our services, give us a call at (516) 403-9001.

It is important that you have a handle on the technology that your business utilizes, which will require you to maintain comprehensive documentation regarding it and its support. Here, we’ll go through what a managed service provider includes in this documentation, as well as how it is used.

What Does This Documentation Include?

In short, everything there is to know about every piece of technology you rely upon to function. This can easily be divided between your hardware and software resources:

Hardware

This documentation covers all the information about the physical devices you use.

Serial/Model Numbers — This allows for simple identification of the technology that needs support, as well as the kind of device it is for your support team’s benefit.

Purchase Dates — Knowing when a piece of hardware was acquired can help you to make decisions when weighing the cost benefits of repairing or replacing it if something were to go wrong.

Warranty Information — Knowing whether a piece of equipment is still under warranty can also help the above decision-making process. After all, why buy something new if you can get it replaced or repaired for free?

Installation Dates — Again, like the purchase date of a piece of hardware, knowing when it was installed can help with the troubleshooting process if it were to need support.

Physical Locations — Knowing where a piece of IT is located not only helps your support team to service it more easily, it enables you to keep better track of where your assets are.

Device Names — Standardized technology deployments can make it challenging to confirm if the right device is in the right spot. Naming the device helps to differentiate it from the others just like it.

IP Addresses — Much like it helps you to know the physical location of each device, knowing the IP address simply helps you to identify a device on your network.

Support Information — Finally, keeping your hardware documented makes it easier to locate the appropriate support information, should it ever be needed.

Software

Meanwhile, this documentation covers all the critical information about the software you possess.

Product Licenses — This is effectively the same as the serial number on a hardware solution. This tells you the individual identification number of the copy (or copies) of the software you are able to use.

Purchase Dates — Again, knowing when you acquired something is an invaluable data point concerning its support, as it helps define if your solution is under warranty and other important variables.

Install Dates — Similarly, knowing when a software solution was installed can provide a variety of important information, particularly involving any weaknesses in its programming.

Subscription Details — Or, in other words, how many of a software’s capabilities are you able to use, and for how long? This is vital to know if you want to keep these tools available to your users.

Usernames — Speaking of your users, you need to define who can access each software title with their username. This will help you keep track of each user’s capabilities and permissions.

Version History — Finally, keeping track of the current version of each of your software will allow you to know if an update is called for, or if there are any vulnerabilities that you need to be concerned about.

Of course, you should also maintain documentation on the proper procedures to maintain all these solutions, as well.

What is the Benefit of All This Documentation?

With the help of a managed service provider like MSPNetworks, these in-depth records immediately become worth the effort. In addition to simply keeping this documentation up-to-date, an MSP will also refer to it as a resource.

Let’s assume that one of your hardware solutions begins acting up. It doesn’t really matter which, as the MSP working with you has up-to-date records of all of them. So, as your desktop/router/server is acting up, the MSP not only has a historical record to help them shape their approach, they have additional data to help guide their decision.

For instance, if this piece of technology has required you to spend excessive time on it over a given timeframe, you will have that data tucked away in your documentation. As a result, the next time an issue arises, you will be able to determine if it is more economical to replace said technology than it would be to continue repairing it.

In many ways, documentation simply serves as a better alternative to relying on memory.

If you’re interested in learning more about how working with MSPNetworks can benefit your business processes through improved documentation and so many other means, give our team a call at (516) 403-9001! 

For a moment, I want you to stop and consider something: Who do you turn to when your business’ toilets suddenly stop working? Who do you call for when the lights stop working? Most likely, an expert… so if you turn to the pros for these needs, why would you do anything different for your IT?

Here, we’ll present the value of turning to the IT experts that we have here at MSPNetworks for your business’ technology needs. These values can effectively be broken down into three essential qualities that our services - known as managed services - are built around.

Predictable Productivity

Regardless of a business’ size, this is a primary concern: are they able to sustain their operations at a rate that means that they can remain open? This is one of the reasons that productivity is such a big buzzword in IT - the influence a given solution can have on a business’ productivity can easily make or break it over time. Try asking your employees how much they can accomplish if their computers don’t work - they’ll probably tell you how important an operational solution is to your business in no uncertain terms.

With a managed service provider (or MSP) like MSPNetworks managing your solutions, you can be sure that your technology is maintained. This way, your employees won’t find themselves stymied by technical issues out of their control.

Protection

Let’s face facts for a moment - business owners today have a lot to worry about. Once upon a time, a business could be protected by storing their documents in a safe and keeping the combination a secret. However, in today’s increasingly collaborative world, the safe has been made impractical. This means that your data needs to be both accessible to those who need it to meet the productivity standards we discussed above, as well as secured against cyberthreats and other risk factors, like data loss.

An MSP like MSPNetworks can implement the various solutions needed to ensure that this balance is achieved, allowing you the security to focus on your business. With the confidence that our services and solutions--including integrated security measures and business continuity with backups--can provide, you can breathe easy, knowing that your data stores are secure.

Professionals Pulling For You

As you may have noticed by now, most of the qualities of an MSP’s services that we’ve discussed thus far revolve around you receiving the managed support that gives providers like MSPNetworks their self-explanatory title. However, that only scratches the service. When your MSP’s team is made up of experts like ours is, you not only have professionals providing your business with support… you have professionals supporting you.

Unlike many other IT service options, the more successful our clients are, the happier we are. After all, that means that our solutions worked for them, only reinforcing the proof that our options are the right ones to leverage. Furthermore, you can be sure that if you do experience a problem with your business technology we’ll come correct to fix it. Again, our success is determined by yours - so if something doesn’t work, that’s a problem for us… and frankly, our professional egos aren’t going to let us overlook a problem like that.

It only makes sense to turn to an expert for issues that you want taken care of correctly, for these reasons, and many more to boot. This is only more apparent when your information technology is involved. The “expert touch” is a real thing, and can make a real difference.

Interested in finding out the difference that an expert touch can make for your IT services? Reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.