Monthly Archives: July 2015

Partner of Choice: Why Chorus Communications Provides the Best Telecommunications Products for You

Combined with our IT services, Chorus Communications can provide business communication systems that consolidate rather than complicate.

Combined with our IT services, Chorus Communications can provide business communication systems that consolidate rather than complicate.

Our personal partner of choice here at SystemsNet is Chorus Communications, a technology solution company here in Philadelphia that’s been nationally recognized for their sense of quality. They’re particularly noteworthy because they provide customized communication solutions to companies big and small. They understand, as we do, that all companies are different and need specific types of telecommunications that fit their business structure.

With two decades of renown behind them, the above is just one reason why we associate with Chorus Communications to provide telecommunications products to our clients. They have a long list of products that you should think seriously about acquiring in your company to keep yourself competitive.

In today’s business world, you can’t afford to fall behind in telecommunications because of the increasing competitiveness in every field. No matter what industry you’re in, there isn’t any question you’ll have multiple competitors trying to take away your business. You need the best technology available in order to keep communication between your employees going every day.

Ultimately, the more you communicate with the proper technology, the better you can all be on the same page when working on a critical business project.

Take a look at what Chorus Communications offers and why, combined with our IT services, you’ll be ready to compete in a much fiercer business climate.

Unified Communications Products

Chorus Communications is one of the best in the nation when it comes to providing superior unified telecommunications products that manage to consolidate rather than complicate. They manage to do this thanks to their top-notch cloud services and providing all of your communications in one inbox.

When you need to have better phone services, they provide a feature-filled Hosted PBX system and even VoIP. All of these get managed through the cloud and give you so many features, you’ll be amazed at what’s available.

All of your other communications get consolidated in one place so you don’t have to visit multiple online locations to find everything. This means that in the box where you read your emails, you’ll also be able to see all of your faxes, hear your voice mails, and have company directories all together.

You’ll appreciate this when you have to travel on international business trips since you can access all communications on any mobile device. As a result, you’ll have easy communication management while saving money because you’re not paying for separate services.

While in the middle of an important business project, this is essential so you get a leg up on your competition. Communication with all of your employees is simpler this way without having to worry about lack of quality time discussing your project in person.

It works the same with business associates where one feature allows you to see whether they’re available online or not. Then you can decide what the best method of communication is to reach them.

How Does This Work with Our Services?

Combining our managed services here at SystemsNet with technology from Chorus Communications provides you a complete package of business efficiency. We know that when technical mishaps occur, you need a good management team to keep things running optimally. Through our managed service packages and excellent help desk, you’ll never have confusion with any piece of technology you use.

Using our managed service tiers, most problems get solved remotely without constant need for an in-person visit.

Contact us here at SystemsNet to find out more about our services and why Chorus Communications is the true leader in providing telecommunications equipment to leading Philadelphia companies.

“Good Morning IT, I think I lost my phone” Avoid the worry when situations like this arise

Where did I have my phone last?

Where did I have my phone last?

It’s a Monday morning and this is your first phone call: “Good Morning, I think I lost my phone over the weekend. It has all my corporate email including patient information, on the device. I’ve looked everywhere for it.” What’s the first thing IT will do? Wipe the device in order to protect corporate data to avoid a data security breach.

Now it is Tuesday morning and that same employee calls, “Good Morning, I found my phone under the couch. Can you restore it? I have a video of my daughter’s first steps on there.” Too late—there is no way to get that data back. Now you have an unhappy employee who will think twice about ever calling IT when a device is lost (or misplaced). Let’s not forget the effect this will have on other employees hearing about this event.

So what’s the solution? You need a BYOD solution that leaves data off the device and allows employees to maintain control of their personal data. That is exactly what ZixOne does.

ZixOne is a mobile email app that allows employees access to their corporate email. Data is never downloaded to the device so IT departments never have to worry about managing multiple copies of the data. With just one click, access to their email can be stopped. So when an employee loses (or thinks they’ve lost) their device, or even leaves the company for another job, you can simply cut off access to corporate email.

Here’s the other great part—because there is no corporate data ever on the device, the phone never needs to be wiped. If the employee finds their phone after they believe it to be lost, all of that information will still be there.

You also eliminate any corporate legal liability associated with having insight into employees’ personal information. If you can prove you can’t see their personal data, how can they hold you liable?

ZixOne is a solution that meets everyone’s needs and it is built by the industry leader in email encryption, Zix, and they know email security.

With so many businesses implementing BYOD, there needs to be tools in the IT help desk to protect a companies data.  For more information about ZixOne, please contact us today.

How Easy is it to Obtain Malware When Installing Software?

As many as 1 million malware threats get released every day, often on third-party sites offering software for download.

As many as 1 million malware threats get released every day, often on third-party sites offering software for download.

Malware is still a vital enemy of any business that wants to avoid downtime. Much like hackers, it seems that those who create malware are eerily several steps ahead of those who create ways to stop it all. According to the most recent reports, 1 million malware threats get released every day in the online world. Last year alone, there were 317 million pieces of malware created, which is just astounding at the level criminals go to in obtaining personal information.

While many businesses choose to turn this kind of information off, it’s even more problematic when downloading software off the net. Even if you usually avoid such downloads, you may need a particular program at the eleventh hour, despite not being sure about its background. This becomes even more of a problem if one of your employees downloads a program you’re not aware of and ends up infecting your system with malware.

Unfortunately, third-party sites offering software is where criminals often place their malware, and it could essentially shut you down in an instant. Some malware could bring extended downtime to your business and cause serious financial harm.

With some astute awareness, however, you have ways to check those online programs so you know they’re safe before you download them.

Finding Information About the Software You Need

Any program you want to download from the net about safety is easy to research on Google. Never download a program instantly without doing that research first since you’re basically doing cyber Russian Roulette. It’s imperative you let all your employees know how to research a program before they go and download one they need in a hurry.

Keep in mind, though, that a third-party site you once trusted before to download software could get impersonated by a cyber criminal. All it takes is just one letter change in the URL, and you could end up on a faux, identical website. Once you start downloading malware, there isn’t any way to stop it.

Your best move is to just download the software directly from the publisher’s main site. You know it’s legit going this route. Still, if you haven’t heard of the program before, do an online search to see what people are saying about it and whether it’s truly safe.

Scanning Software Before it’s Downloaded

You can always use virus software and scan the program for malware if you’re still not sure. Even better is having a managed service provider watching over you for these threats in the first place so you know everything downloaded is safe. An occasional flaw in some virus software is that it may give a false positive on malware. This doesn’t mean the software isn’t safe, yet it’s best to avoid it if your virus software says something is there.

The good news is that when virus software thinks malware is there, it tells you what the malware program is. Just look it up on Google so you know it’s a real threat and not a mistake.

Much of this is easily dealt with when using a managed service like ours here at SystemsNet. Through our Vita, Vita Plus, and Vita Pro packages, you’ll have complete management of your entire system so malware doesn’t become an issue.

We quietly monitor your network remotely so we’re aware of any threats before they even happen. In the event you do get malware unleashed on your computers, we’re there to remove it in minutes so it doesn’t shut you down.

Contact us to find out more about our comprehensive IT services and how we’ll help you overcome the most dangerous cyber threats facing businesses today.

24 x 7 x 365 Proactive Monitoring of Network Infrastructure-Your Business Safety Net

Without a safety net in the form of proactive network monitoring, you run the risk of costly outages and other potential disasters.

Without a safety net in the form of proactive network monitoring, you run the risk of costly outages and other potential disasters.

Picture the scene. A hush falls over the crowd as they crane their necks to see the small sequin-clad figure of a girl walking a tightrope high above the stadium floor. She walks sure-footed for a few steps and then, unexpectedly, she begins to wobble. Something has gone wrong, though the crowd cannot discern just what is it from their vantage point on the floor. She tries to correct her balance, and a collective gasp of horror rises from the audience as she loses her balance and falls for what seems like an eternity before hitting the carefully positioned safety net below. She bounces once, twice, and a third time before flipping easily down to the floor, unharmed. She raises her arms to show the crowd she is all right. The crowd erupts in applause. While the crowd will forever remember the girl, the unsung star of the event is the safety net.

Just like that girl on a wire, your business processes run day by day with seemingly sure footing. However, what happens on those occasions when something goes amiss? Where is your safety net? 24 x 7 x 365 proactive monitoring of network infrastructure can keep your business from the disastrous results of a network failure.

The key to the success of this type of monitoring lies in its name. It is proactive. Rather than waiting for a failure to happen and then stepping in with a sometimes complicated, time and labor-intensive fix, proactive monitoring anticipates the failure and moves to address potential issues before they become critical. Thus, catastrophe can often be avoided entirely. As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

How does this monitoring work? All day, every day, data is collected regarding the performance, health, and status of your network infrastructure. Based on data received, optimization features are triggered, which increase the productivity of your system and ultimately, the profitability of your entire enterprise.

Imagine the security of knowing that someone is watching your systems day after day to ensure every component of your network is working optimally at all times. While in-house IT support can provide a good level of care, it is likely that your business does not have around-the-clock coverage with on-staff IT professionals. The expense of maintaining 24 hour in-house support is often prohibitive. But the fact is that you need 24-hour-a-day support, because system failures do not historically occur just during regular business hours.

Proactive monitoring can often be paired with proactive maintenance support as well. This means that your network is maintained at optimal levels on an ongoing basis. Monitoring and associated maintenance ensures that backups take place at regular and appropriate intervals and that any security patches needed to keep your system up-to-date are handled in a timely manner.

Just as you expect your in-house IT staff to be knowledgeable regarding current issues that might impact your network infrastructure negatively, proactive monitoring ensures that emerging threats can be neutralized as quickly as possible.

Does proactive monitoring slow down your business processes? The simple answer is, no. This type of monitoring is completely unobtrusive, allowing you to proceed with the every day routines of your business workflows and processes without hindrance. Tweaking your system as needed, proactive monitoring provides peace of mind for you and your staff, optimal performance of each and every component of your network infrastructure, and increased productivity that comes from a reduction of downtime caused by random system failure.

If this sounds like something that would benefit your business, please contact us today. We can show you how proactive monitoring can work best for your enterprise.