Monthly Archives: April 2020

4 Data Disaster Types that Cloud Backups Protect You From

Cloud Backups concept. Security and safety of cloud computing

Moving to a hybrid type backup system with onsite and cloud retention policies is the best disaster recovery solution available

Data disasters are a fact of life, but like natural disasters, they are events that most businesses think will never come for them. You never see the software update that corrupts all your data coming. You never expect the rains this week to flood your building and drown your servers. It’s easy to think that malware attacks happen to other businesses, but somehow yours won’t get hit. But data disasters happen and businesses rarely see them coming.

Fortunately, you don’t have to see them coming. You just have to have a backup plan. That’s why backup-recovery plans are essential. Taking backups gives you a way to partially or completely restore your data from a save-point, like a video game where you can die and reload. And the best backups today are those stored on the cloud. Cloud backups are not on any one server that can be destroyed are damaged. They are distributed over several servers throughout the world and therefore can be retrieved no matter what happens to your company’s local servers or even cloud servers in a particular location.

Let’s take a look at four completely different types of disasters that cloud backups can protect you from.

Local Software Failures and Data Corruption

Software updates are always the type of data disaster that takes a company by surprise. You’re confident in your tech stack and are working with good software, but updates don’t always work. Especially if you’re updating from several versions behind. Data needs to be altered and updated to align with any changes made in the software, but this can result in corruption. Some companies have experienced complete data loss because their data was corrupted in a software update.

Updating the software on your local or dedicated cloud servers can corrupt all the data on your normal servers. But cloud backups mean you can bring back that data at any time in the original form. You can try the update more carefully or import your old data into a fresh install of the latest version without the disaster of servers-full of corrupted data.

Fires, Floods, and Hurricanes

Natural disasters and human-made disasters can do a number on your office building. If you’ve ever seen a glass tower wrecked by tornadoes or hurricanes or seen streets flowing like rivers with rainwater, you know that office buildings are not impervious from the elements. Your basement full of servers can flood in a storm or the windows might blow out with equipment destroyed within. Your building might catch fire from lightning or faulty wires or a forgotten space heater and the whole interior can go up in flames.

Whether part of your building and equipment is damaged or everything in your workplace, your cloud backups are safe. You can rebuild your data and your entire business infrastructure by loading those backups into new computers in an undamaged location.

Sudden Building Relocation

Speaking of setting up in a new location, that’s another great capability of cloud backups. Whether natural disaster or sudden logistics requirement, cloud backups make it possible to set up a new business location anywhere with any computers. You can build off a new location by cloning your backups into a new set of computers. Or you can quickly relocate, rebuilding your business from scratch if necessary if the truly unexpected or disastrous happens. That’s the great thing about cloud backups, you can load them to and from anywhere.

Network-Invasion Type Malware

Finally, cloud backups keep your data safe in the face of localized malware. There are several types of malware that specialize in invading your business network. Like some ransomware, these malware types invade one computer on your local network, then spread to other devices on the network. Your entire local computer system can be infected in minutes, which is most easily eradicated by wiping everything to factory settings and reinstalling from scratch.

Cloud backups allow you to do this without worry or delay. If your tech-stack is prepared for quick redeployment and all your data is backed up on the cloud, then a network-wide infection can be recovered in hours, not days.

Is your business ready to fully restore your data from a cloud backup? If you’re planning to build or improve on your backup-recovery system, contact us today! Our team is ready to make your data immortal.

IT Help Desk: Facing Your Customer Support Challenges (Part 2)

Confident female operator with a headset is working with colleagues at desk in an IT help desk call center

Having a team of IT Specialists available, allows an MSP to handle complex problems with ease

In our previous blog post, we discussed customer service and some of the issues that can arise during your attempt to provide the highest level of customer service. We discussed the importance of having a system in place that can help your customer support team address some of the common customer support problems you may have in your workplace.

The key issue we discussed in the previous blog was the lack of data reports. Due to the variety of data that your business or organization collects on a daily basis, you will need to be able to maintain the data that you are generating. The right IT help desk system will allow you to collect the data you need and generate reports that will allow you to analyze the data.

Another issue that you may face on a regular basis is the amount of time it takes to resolve a customer’s problem. If you are discovering that your customers are not satisfied with the resolution time, what can you do to deliver a faster response time?

Customer Support Problem #2: Issues Take Too Long To Be Resolved

Today’s customers expect their problems to be resolved in a timely manner and many customers do not want to accept a slow resolution time. Many customers will not accept that there were errors or other problems as it relates to internal problems. Your customers will want an answer to their problems and they will want it quickly.

If your customer support team does not have the proper tools to assist them, everyone on your team will struggle to resolve the problems your customers are facing. Your customers do not want to be consistently told that their issue is being transferred to someone else on the support team. If your customer support team is constantly struggling with who should be responsible for a specific ticket, you will need to reevaluate your internal processes.

Solution #2: Improve Internal Flow

Have you set aside any expectations and goals you want to have for your business? Once you establish the particular goals you want to have in your business, you will be able to share those goals with your customers so you can inform them of the expectations you have for them. When members of your support team fail to meet the expectations and goals you have set you can ensure they are aware that they did not meet the goals.

You want everyone on your support team to be on the right page so your entire business will not be set up for failure. Everyone needs the proper resources and tools to effectively identify the purpose of a ticket being created and what can be done to resolve the problem. Everyone on your team should be aware of their responsibilities and the responsibilities of their team members.

When you have an effective process in place, all members of your support team will be able to meet the team goals and the individual goals that have been set for them. When you want to meet the goals you have set for your business and the goals you have set for your team, we encourage you to face your challenges from the start. Using the right metrics and indicators will give you a better chance at success in 2020, in addition to using the right help desk and customer support software.

We understand that customer support is not predictable because your customer support team has no idea what type of problems customers will experience on a daily basis. At SystemsNet, we understand the importance of an effective IT help desk and tools that can be used to improve customer service.

For more information on how an effective IT help desk can be used to solve the customer support or customer service issues you have been facing, please do not hesitate to contact us today.

IT Help Desk: Facing Your Customer Support Challenges (Part 1)

Two collegues diceussing customer support challenges in a IT help desk meeting

An MSP has tools to provide analytical data back to the help desk in real-time

In your mind, you already have an excellent customer support team that has the level of commitment you need to provide all of your customers with a high level of support they need at all times. While you will always have the best intentions to be one of the leaders in customer service, sometimes you are not always able to properly execute your strategy.

If you have a support team that is filled with determined individuals, you will likely run into several challenges along the way. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being determined and ambitious, but it generally means you will face more obstacles along the way as you attempt to achieve your goals.

Every business today is distinctive, but businesses that are continuously growing will generally place a high priority tag on customer service and the customer experience you provide. Unfortunately, these businesses will generally have some of the same customer service problems.

Customer Support Problem #1: Lack of Proper Data

Today, businesses in all industries are discussing the importance of data and analytics. Businesses are learning what it means to be data-driven due to the influx of data. However, using that data and making it work for you is often one of the biggest challenges that today’s businesses are facing. If your business does not have the proper tools in place, how will you be able to collect data and organize the data you have accumulated about each of your customers?

Will you have the data you need to learn about who your customers are and what type of experience they have had with your business in the past? We understand how difficult a task this can seem to be, especially for businesses that have more data than they can handle. The more data a business has, the more difficult it can be to pay more attention to the data that is the most important to the goals you are trying to reach.

Over 50 percent of businesses will struggle to make wise data-driven decisions. If your business does not have the ability to make decisions based on data, you will be making wild guesses when it comes to your customer service strategy. One of the things you can do to solve this is by using the proper customer analytics strategy.

Solution #1: Generate The Reports You Need

We encourage you to set aside some time to list all of your goals. Once you have established your list of goals, you will be able to make a wise decision about the data that can help you meet those goals. The only indicators or metrics you should heavily focus on are the ones that will help you meet your goals. While there are other indicators and metrics you may want to focus on, they may lead to a long list of challenges and distractions.

For many customer service teams, the indicators or metrics you will need to pay close attention to will be related to the feedback you receive from customers and the feedback about your customer service agents. After you have determined the metrics you want to use, we encourage you to find a solution that will make it less challenging for you to collect all the data you need to have. When you have a comprehensive dashboard that consists of everything you need to have, you will be able to generate the relevant reports you need.

When everyone on your customer support team has access to the proper indicators and metrics, your business will be able to make better decisions using the data you have obtained. You will no longer have to make guesses as it relates to your decisions because you will now have the tools and resources you need to determine how your customer support is being viewed by your customers.

Contact us today for more information on how an effective IT help desk can help solve some of your biggest customer support challenges.

This concludes the first part of a two-part series. Come back for the second part of this blog where we share more customer support challenges and solutions.

How Is Your Relationship With Your Managed Service Provider (MSP)

Business woman at her desk, on speaker phone with her managed service provider

Having a trusted relationship with your MSP is key in having a solid relationship with your MSP Provider

Challenges in relationships can happen to any couple, and sometimes they can happen when you least expect it. Challenges in relationships can also happen between businesses. It can certainly be frustrating when a provider makes promises to solve your problems, but you eventually discover that the provider is not able to fulfill those promises.

As the owner or manager of a business, you will seek the services of a Managed Services Provider(MSP). You may not have enough time to tend the technology that is used to help you operate your business. IT has become the foundation of businesses all across the globe. If you do not have IT, then your business does not have a reliable foundation. Your business is basically operating on shaky ground.

A business that experiences consecutive periods of downtime will discover that the business will lose revenue as the days go by. Like the revenue you will lose when your business is down, you can drain your business’s resources each time you are waiting for your equipment and other technology resources to meet the expectations you have set.

You need a Managed Services Provider(MSP) that works hard to work with you, but if you are partnering with an MSP that is not helping you elevate your business, it will leave you wondering if it is worth it to continue with the relationship. Here are some questions you should ask yourself to help you determine if your MSP is providing any benefits in the relationship.

Can You Trust Your MSP?

If you do not have reliable IT services, you will find yourself on the outside looking in it comes to your competition. If your business uses programs and hardware on a daily basis, it is important that your programs and hardware are functioning at all times. Regardless of the type of system you are operating under, you will need to have reliable IT services.

If you begin to discover that recommendations are being made that do not fit your business system or if your services and other functions are being cut, you will discover that your situation will become worse. If your MSP is making decisions that you do not trust, this is not a good sign in your relationship.

Does Your MSP Communicate With You?

When you first partnered with your MSP, you believed that the MSP would be effective communicators. However, if your MSP is making mistakes and not acknowledging those mistakes, this could be another sign that there is trouble in the relationship. If you have problems that your MSP is not resolving because it is difficult to reach them at any point in the day, your MSP is not an effective or reliable communicator.

If you find yourself demanding that the provider come to your location and repair the services, it may be time to leave this relationship and enter a new one.

Is Your MSP Reliable?

If you are facing one or more technical difficulties, how long can you wait for your system to be repaired? If your MSP is not reliable, you will find out really quickly. A Managed Service Provider(MSP) can be seen as reliable if it offers quick delivery of services and if it provides you with high-quality system performance.

An MSP can also be seen as reliable if it is available around the clock. An MSP that offers around the clock services will ensure that your business sees as little downtime as possible. A reliable MSP also is responsive and effective when it comes to communication. If your MSP is not excelling in any of these areas, your relationship and your business can go downhill in a hurry.

We understand how challenging it can be to choose a Managed Service Provider that can fulfill your needs. There are so many things that you will need to consider, and this can make it a very frustrating process. It does not matter what route you device to take when you are searching for an MSP, but we encourage you to be aware of what you should look for in an MSP.

Is it time to leave your relationship with your current MSP? Contact us today for more information on how to reevaluate your relationship with your MSP.