Category Archives: Manage Service

How Can Your Managed Service Provider (MSP) Help You Prepare For the Future?

Manage Service, ,
20160512

MSPs provide the necessary foresight to success.

Business 2 Community recently came out with an article discussing how a high-quality Managed Service Provider (MSP) can work like a superhero for your company.

The benefits of MSPs include an in-depth understanding of your network and IT infrastructure, and the intelligence and skill that they apply to your IT solutions. They can also fix many of your problems and keep things running without having to make regular on-site visits or take up your time.

The article describes an additional important benefit in the following way: “They can predict the future.”

How can your MSP help you prepare for the future?

Although MSPs aren’t fortune-tellers, they can still anticipate important changes that your company will need to prepare for and respond to. Their ability to predict future changes can save you money in the long run and give you an edge over competitors. As poorly prepared competitors scramble to react to changes last-minute, you’ll already have the necessary plans in place.

Let’s consider some examples of changes MSPs can help you anticipate:

  • Because they’re regularly following cyber security news, MSPs learn early on about emerging threats and potential vulnerabilities in various hardware and software solutions. They can help you calculate the risks posed by a given threat; these calculations will inform your decisions about the best cyber defenses for your company.
  • Networks are becoming considerably more complex, as an increasing number of devices develop Internet capabilities. These collections of smart devices that can share data with each other are called The Internet of Things. MSPs can anticipate how the Internet of Things will affect your industry. They’ll advise you on optimizing your devices and network, increasing your business productivity and keeping you ahead of competitors. They’ll also predict security vulnerabilities that arise when numerous Internet-enabled devices communicate with each other.
  • New IT solutions are emerging all the time. For example, businesses have a variety of options for backing up data. They can use local devices, cloud-based platforms, or frequently some combination of the two. What new solutions are becoming available and what are their strengths and drawbacks? How will you accommodate a growing volume of data that you need to protect and back up? MSPs help you plan for these changes. They will evaluate new IT solutions, predict the use of future technologies, and consider what will best benefit your company.
  • MSPs can predict what you’ll need based on your business objectives. If you want to shift direction in the next few years and dramatically boost your online presence, for example, MSPs can tell you what you’ll likely need now and in the future. The relevant solutions include responsive websites and secure e-commerce platforms.
  • An important part of IT maintenance is predicting when you’ll need to replace certain hardware and software. Even if you aren’t planning to make radical changes to your IT configuration, you’ll still need basic equipment replacement and software upgrades. Certain programs will expire, and you’ll need to renew software licenses or switch between providers. Your MSP can stay on top of all of these changes and work within your budget.

Without the foresight of high-quality MSPs, companies struggle to take full advantage of IT developments. They also leave themselves more vulnerable to cyber attacks and various IT failures, such as equipment outages and poorly performing software.

Don’t hesitate to contact us for the variety of manage services we offer. There are always new developments in IT, and many possibilities in the future for IT solutions that can transform your business operations and help you more easily achieve your objectives. MSPs can provide their services unobtrusively and round-the-clock, offering you guidance and support and ensuring that your IT decisions align with your company’s goals.

Four Reasons IT Monthly Management Reporting Benefits Your Company

Manage Service, ,
20160429

Monthly IT management reporting can help your business maintain a proactive approach and better communicate IT needs.

A reliable way to assess progress and review the strength of your network and computing devices is to complete monthly reports. IT monthly management reporting gives you a clearer idea about the state of your IT health.

These monthly reports can show you what’s currently working well, along with issues that need to improve. They also offer an opportunity to review expenses, lay out specific goals, and discuss solutions.

The following are four major benefits that IT monthly management reporting can bring to your company.

1) It’s part of a proactive approach to IT support

A recent article from Info Security discusses a problem many companies face: reactive IT support. With a reactive approach, IT personnel will often hear about a problem from other employees first. They’ll wait until a situation is already problematic and possibly urgent before acting on it.

In contrast, a proactive approach involves continuously monitoring your company’s system to detect existing and potential problems. The emphasis is on prevention and on catching problems quickly before they intensify and become more serious.

A monthly management report can contribute to a proactive approach. Reports provide an overview of your IT health. You can use them to assess potential problems, such as outdated equipment and software, inadequate defenses against an emerging cyber security threat, and inefficiencies in your company’s IT help desk. The reports give you a clearer idea of what needs improvement and allows you to prioritize based on the level of urgency and on your budget. You can also use them to highlight successful past solutions to IT problems, giving you a better idea of what can work well for your company.

2) It contributes to transparency and communication

There’s a common assumption that because IT personnel work with tech, they’re operating in their own realm, and that people who haven’t undergone the same training or education shouldn’t get involved. However, it’s important that you understand what your IT personnel are doing and ensure that they’re serving your company’s needs.

A monthly management report gives your IT personnel an opportunity to communicate with you intelligibly, free of jargon and obscure explanations. Even if you don’t know all the technical details, the monthly report should still provide you with a clear idea of IT activities and progress on various projects. Your IT personnel should never work in secrecy.

3) It fosters collaboration

Ideally, your IT activities will align with your business needs and goals. A monthly report is an excellent way to ensure that your IT personnel and company leaders are all on the same page, working towards the same ends. The feedback you offer on these reports can help your IT personnel adjust their activities to respond to your needs. They can also make suggestions that will potentially improve your productivity, give you a competitive edge, save on costs, and improve your company’s defenses against cyber attacks.

4) It makes your IT activities concrete

The only way to measure progress is to quantify it or otherwise discuss it in terms of concrete objectives. For example, let’s say you need to update your network security defenses. Discussing this goal in general terms won’t help you achieve it. You need to lay out what new defenses you’re looking into, the costs, the level of urgency, the deadline you’re working towards, the risks you incur with a delay, any workable alternatives, and the progress towards meeting your goal.

IT monthly management reporting is a powerful tool for solutions tailored to your company. Using the data from the report, you can act on problems before they worsen, understand your company’s IT activities, better align your IT decisions with your company’s goals, and evaluate your progress and solutions in concrete terms. Please contact us to further discuss the tangible benefits of a monthly report.

Five Benefits of Contracting with a Managed Service Provider (MSP)

Manage Service, ,
20160402

A managed service provider can eliminate the stress and hassle of having to manage your own IT department.

Outsourcing in general has the effect of boosting productivity and saving money while taking care of a business’ tedious tasks. This is especially true when companies outsource their information technology (IT) to a Managed Service Provider (MSP).  Progressive business leaders have long realized the power of delegating essential aspects of their business that simply don’t make sense for them to handle personally.  The same is true in the area of an organization’s IT services.  Through outsourcing the management and in effect, augmenting their IT capability with experts in the IT industry, a business can now compete directly with the big players in their organization’s field.

IT management “is the discipline whereby all of the information technology resources of a firm are managed in accordance with its needs and priorities.”  Your IT department consists of a complex environment of hardware, software, and computer networks that allow you to execute  important business operations such as accounting and financial processes (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), email, and document creation. Your business’ success depends upon being able to use these functions reliably and efficiently. An essential element for an IT department is credibility with your sales force, administrative staff and employees.  They need to trust that the IT staff  is capable, interested, invested and equipped to deliver their IT requirements.  Without the right set of skills and standards, this user trust can be easily eroded.

Ask yourself, with such vital imperatives, is it really feasible and cost efficient for your company to take on the tasks and responsibilities of running an in-house IT department?  Training your IT staff, maintaining and keeping your business’ IT infrastructure up-to-date can be significant burdens.  In most cases, the benefits of outsourcing far outweigh any perceived advantages of managing and funding an in-house IT department.

  • Cost Control: By contracting with a Managed Service Provider, your IT costs will remain constant even as you take advantage several IT needs such as scalability when necessary. Moreover, you have access to efficient and expert technicians that maintain your total IT environment, as well as keep current with new technologies and ideas. Additionally, most Managed Service Providers offer other services, such as cloud-hosted environments and essential IT hardware that is continually monitored. All of this means your IT investment would be substantially reduced and controlled.
  • Core Competency Focus: Your core competencies or main strengths lie in those specific areas of capabilities that allow you to be competitive in the marketplace. Unless you are an IT organization, your main strength will not be in Information Technology. Every company has limits to its resources and by making the decision to contract with a qualified MSP and outsource your IT, you will be able to concentrate all your efforts in areas that provide the greatest return.
  • Current Technology and Expertise: A qualified and creditable MSP will bring first-class expertise and best practices to your organization’s IT on a continuing basis. Your company will be able to use technology and information that you may not have previously considered, as well tools and techniques you may not be able to afford or possess if you fund and house your own IT department. By outsourcing your IT management, you will have a wide variety of IT professionals with diverse talents and qualifications to call on for each situation that arises.
  • Monitoring and Risk Minimizing: When you outsource your IT needs, there are qualified technicians monitoring your IT environment constantly. Yes, that means monitoring 24/7 and 365 days. Your IT is their focus, your issues are serious to them and they have the staff, tools and expertise to monitor, predict problems and anticipate your every need. Your IT environment is kept up-to-date and safe from unpredictable circumstances, such as back-up and hardware failures, software crashes, data corruption, and intrusions from malware and viruses.

Running your own IT department can not only be a headache, but can cost your business time, money and unnecessary resources. Contact us, and let the experts take care of these things so you can focus on critical business functions.

Receive Security Up-Dates with IT Monthly Management Reports

Manage Service, , ,
20160331

IT Monthly Management Reporting can provide up-to-date and comprehensive protection for your entire business.

There are best practices for everything in business, software coding, sales management, and human resources, just to mention a few. IT monthly management reporting is a best practice with the purpose of keeping executives and owners informed regarding the health of their business’ information technology (IT) network.  A report will let you know what is working and what isn’t, what needs your immediate attention and those things that can be taken care of “down the proverbial road.”  A significant feature of IT monthly management reporting is the security aspect of your IT system.

Certainly, as a business owner or executive you are flooded with reams of data and business intelligence, such as sales numbers, inventory information, financial reports, facility records and so on. However, it would be an oversimplification to say you only care if your network is secure. After all, what does “secure” really mean?

Everyone has their own definition of “secure.”  It is a difficult thing to quantify, but you really do want to know if your business environment is safe from all risks. Security is not a state of compliance.  It’s not a condition of being happy with a certain level of perceived safety. Nor is it the knowledge that no known intrusions have taken place. Many organizations end up getting themselves into trouble by being content with this last bit of information. It’s no secret that organizations are failing at early vulnerability and breach detection. In fact, according to a Data Breach Investigations Report, over 92% of breaches go unnoticed by the target organization.

The science of security originates in the tools that quantify security events: number of breaches and viruses, what was blocked, what got through, the damage caused, and the staff hours and resources used to support security.  Effective IT reporting is the art of interpreting this raw data into forms that educate and influence decisions, translating the information from “geek-speak” into what you need to make informed decisions regarding the security of your business’ IT structure.

Every business has different cultures, operations and expectations. Regardless of these differences, organizing your IT reports, especially the security aspect of the information, into easily understandable intelligence, will go a long way in informing, educating and influencing your decisions. By tracking the changes in the monthly reports you can see the progress made in remediating problems affecting your overall security environment. In addition, rather than just conveying information, the statistics and trends the reports contain allow you to make necessary adjustments in your business’ policies and procedures that have to do with your IT communications, user information and other aspects of IT security.

An IT monthly report will include information regarding the day-to-day services that maintain your organization’s security stance and lessen or lower risk. What does that include?

  • Controlling access to systems through such things as remote access tokens or keys
  • Maintaining firewall rules
  • Responses to external threats such as viruses, worms, ransomware, and other maleware
  • Recovering from security incidents
  • Rehabilitating compromised equipment
  • Discovering and Preventing vulnerabilities

Each report should contain two types of information, assessment and activities. The assessment aspect should answer your main concern, “Are we secure?” It should be short and simple, and essentially coded into area such as: “problems,” “concerns” and “satisfactory.” It should answer questions like: “Do we need additional employee training and quality assurance?” A goal of the assessment report is to highlight items that need your attention.

The activity aspect contains details regarding the assessment. How many intrusion attempts were deflected? If a threat gained access, what was the cost of recovering from system compromises? This aspect should contain information regarding routine tasks such as password resets, and access token issues. It is here that your IT MSP should provide you with tangible evidence that your investment in their services is of value to your business.

Contact us, we don’t just monitor your system, we manage every aspect and provide you comprehensive information about the health of your network on a monthly basis.