Small Business Can’t Sacrifice Cybersecurity

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For small businesses, it can be tempting to postpone cybersecurity efforts. There are many common excuses: “There’s so much to do,” “There’s not enough budget,” “Our business is too small to target,” etc. But right now, cybersecurity is a must-have for every business.

Think of it like business insurance. You don’t intend to get sued or have accidents, but you have insurance to cover if the worst happens. Similarly, having cybersecurity in place:

  • saves you time, money, and stress;
  • protects your business IT against damages;
  • provides you and your employees with peace of mind.

But small businesses are not only at risk of cyberattack. According to a study released in March 2022 by cloud security company Barracuda Networks, “on average, an employee of a small business with less than 100 employees will experience 350% more social engineering attacks than an employee of a larger enterprise.” That makes small businesses three times more likely to be targeted.

In fact, your business may already have been attacked. The Barracuda study found that one in five organizations had at least one account compromised in 2021. And hackers need only one account to launch from. An attack can spread without you knowing if you don’t have the right detection and protection tools in place.

Advice for small business leaders

Digital attacks are on the rise, and you’re going to need help. A report from Blackberry in February suggested that “one million daily security alerts are seen in 25% of security operations centers.”

But you don’t have a security operations center, right, let alone one that can process a million alerts daily. Investing in cybersecurity gives you access to that type of security reporting, plus much more.

Hackers target small businesses because they expect them to have fewer IT resources. That can mean more weak points for bad actors to exploit.

At least you are keeping your software current and patching vulnerabilities with any manufacturer updates, right? And your business probably also uses antivirus and emailing filtering. Yet, traditional email filters are no longer enough: you need to invest in additional security resources.

Take the target off your back

So, we’re back at the beginning again. Investing in cybersecurity is now on your wish list, but you can’t see how you can afford it right now. But you can’t afford not to really. According to the Australian Cyber Security Centre, “Australia spent approximately $5.6 billion on cybersecurity in 2020, and self-reported losses from cybercrime totalled more than $33 billion.”

Plus, you don’t need to do everything from scratch and buy all the necessary software and hardware yourself. Instead, you can work with a vendor to take advantage of economies of scale. Invest in a cybersecurity partner who will do a full risk analysis to find the main vulnerabilities in your business IT environment.

Partner with someone who works to secure many small businesses like yours. They’ll be the ones investing in supplemental technology with machine-learning security to protect against all types of email. They’ll know how to put the right protection tools in place, and they’ll also have the skills to detect and respond to threats post-delivery.

The damage caused by one compromised account can be devastating for a small business. Don’t risk the worst happening: protect your cybersecurity with the help of a managed service provider. We can identify any weak points in your cybersecurity and help put safeguards in place to defend your business. Contact us today at (515)422-1995!

Picking a PC for Video Editing

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Ready to be the next TikTok breakout? Or perhaps you want a video of your cockatoo “singing” “Amazing Grace” to go viral. Or you may make company promotional videos while working from home. There are many reasons you might be looking for the right home computer to do video editing. This article will help.

Yes, you can make edits on a phone or tablet, but if you want to do your videos justice, invest in the tools to meet the high demands of video editing. Consider processing power, memory, storage space, and graphic cards.

Know your CPU

Whatever your goal with your video editing, you can count on needing a lot of processing power to do the job well. Essentially, you want to get the best computer processing unit (CPU) you can afford.

Some video editing software makes use of multiple cores. You might think of this as one person with many arms to complete tasks. Meanwhile, single-core video software has one arm. If you’ve only got that one arm, it’s best to make it as strong as possible, which requires the highest processing speed you can get.

Adding titles, visual effects, and sound effects require more of your processor. It needs to compile, encode, and compress all your efforts into the final video cut. So, CPU performance matters.

Make memories with RAM

You may be wanting to edit only home videos to share with friends and family. Whether it’s that or you’re creating commercial quality videos, consider memory (RAM).

Think of RAM as the amount of desk space or elbow room you have to do your tasks. Whether you have one or many arms, you’ll need more room to complete a bigger project.

At a minimum, you should be starting with 16GB if you plan to do any video editing. If you are going to be working with long videos or very large files, you should consider 32GB or even 64GB.

Storage savvy

Storage is easily overlooked but very important to video editing.

A solid-state drive (SSD) is essential for video editing. Old “spinner” drives work a bit like a record player. The “needle” needs to physically move to the location where the file is on the platter, which slows things down a lot. SSDs are instantaneous, using flash memory to store data. This makes your work go a lot faster.

The downside? SSDs don’t have as much storage space as old spinners. Generally, we recommend an SSD for working on the video files, and then moving the file to an old, large storage spinner for storage.

Give a graphics card a look

A graphics card is not required but can be useful when editing video. If you’re using beginner- or intermediate-level editing software, you may not need a dedicated graphics card. However, there is a performance gain when you have a good graphics card for video editing. The free DaVinci Resolve and Premiere Pro both do well with AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards.

Build with an expert

The best way to get the right personal computer to meet your particular video editing needs is to work with a PC builder to customize a computer to your specific needs. You can talk about the types of videos you’re editing and the software you use. Our team can optimize a system to suit you and your budget. Call us at (515)422-1995 today.

What an MSP Can Offer Your Business

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It’s not as if the name “managed services provider ” (MSP) is that self-explanatory. You might read that business description and have no real idea what it is an MSP can do for you. We’re providing managed services … OK, but what does that mean? To make things easier, this article outlines the actual IT services an MSP provides.

Most important, an MSP provides preventative services. We detect issues before they become a problem. The mission is to protect your business against costly downtime.

Too many businesses are reactive: they wait for something to go wrong with their business technology, then they look for someone to help resolve the problem. Ours is not a break-fix approach to IT. Our job is to keep your business technology safe and available. We get to know your business. That way, we can anticipate your needs and ensure your IT is always supporting your success.

An MSP proactively monitors, patches, and updates your software. We keep your technology current and optimized. This includes your laptops, desktops, and mobile devices, plus your network and servers. We’ll also keep an eye on your firewalls, switches, and access points. That way, you can focus instead on other elements of your business.

But, wait. That’s not all

This proactive mindset extends to cybersecurity services. Hackers target small businesses, expecting them to have less protection in place. You need to defend your business. The MSP’s security experts review your systems to identify and address vulnerabilities. We can keep up with system updates, software patching, antivirus, and more to shore up your security posture. You can’t keep up with the myriad daily security alerts, because you don’t have the bandwidth. For us, it’s part of our job.

Another beneficial MSP service is strategic advice. You know the ins and outs of your business; we know the finer points about technology for businesses like yours. We get to know how you and your people work and suggest the best tools to meet your needs. We can help you decide on the right technology and the best timeline for your budget. Outsourcing IT management to us, you get a well-informed CIO on your team. That’s without having to take on the burden of recruiting and retaining top tech talent.

We can also manage your business continuity and disaster-recovery strategy. Your MSP will establish a solid data-backup plan. Plus, they’ll regularly audit recovery capabilities. They will ensure everything can be restored efficiently if the worst does happen.

Yet another business burden we take on for you is end-user support. Unless, that is, you like being the one your people call when a printer goes down or they can’t connect remotely. Our personable, professional tech experts can become your tech support team. You gain an on-call support provider responding to your users’ needs.

Get the right services managed

So, now you know what an MSP can do for you. Maybe you don’t need all those services managed by your MSP. That can work too. Many of us offer packages bundling different levels of service or capabilities. The point is that your MSP will work with you to provide reliable, safe, and efficient IT for your business. Find out more today by calling us at (515)422-1995!

Announcement for Users of Gmail

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Gmail users – As of May 30th 2022 Google will disable access to their consumer (@gmail.com) accounts using ‘less secure apps’. What this means for you is; if you have a Gmail address and use something other than the gmail.com website or Gmail app on your mobile device, you may need to make adjustments to continue receiving email after May 30th. Typically, this will be people using some older versions of the Outlook app, Apple Mail app, or a mobile mail app that came with their phone.

At Little Dog Tech, we like to provide some actual information in our newsletters so those who are comfortable with making changes like this have the information to do so. It gets technical after this point, but if reading this gets your head is spinning and you don’t know what to do, we are always here to help!

So, here are some scenarios:

1. If you currently use the https://mail.google.com/ website to check your email, this does not affect you. Close this message and enjoy your day!

2. If you currently use Outlook 2016 or newer, Apple Mail 9.3 or newer, Apple iOS mail 8.3 or newer, these applications offer built-in support for Gmail, but you still need to have 2-step verification enabled on your Gmail account (this is a good idea anyway to help keep out hackers). See below for a link to a Google article on enabling 2-factor authentication on your account if it isn’t already done.

3. If you currently use Outlook 2013 or older, Apple Mail 9.2 or older, Apple iOS Mail 8.2 or older, or any other mail app that came with your computer or mobile device OTHER than the Gmail app, then you should either upgrade the app you are using, just use the gmail.com website, or you will need to enable 2-factor authentication AND create an App Password to put into the older app. See the link below for “How to set up Gmail with a third-party email client”.

Again, if you are a Gmail user and you think that scenario 2 or 3 might apply to you and you don’t know how to fix it, then please don’t hesitate to give us a call and arrange an appointment for one of our technicians to help you through this.

All about ‘less secure apps’ and Gmail

How to Enable 2-Factor Authentication on Gmail

How to Set Up Gmail With A Third-Party Email Client

Is Your Graphics Card Going Bad?

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Whenever you create a graph on your computer, you’re going to need a graphics processing unit (GPU). Without one, you won’t see anything on your computer screen. So, obviously, it’s a problem when it starts to fail. This article discusses signs to look for and what to do.

First, what does the graphics card do? A graphics or video card takes data from your computer’s central processing unit (CPU) and translates it into what you see on your monitor. Every image on your computer screen is composed of millions of pixels. The graphics card is what decides what kind of picture you see.

Many computers have integrated graphics with the main processor. However, depending on how you use the computer, you might have purchased one with a dedicated graphics card. This allows you to see more complex visuals with more clarity and faster. Top-quality graphics cards boast lots of memory and fast processing to translate binary data into images at frames-per-second rates.

How to know a graphics card is going bad

Graphics cards can be physically damaged by incorrect installation, or fail as a result of overheating or a power surge. There may even have been a manufacturing defect there when the card was first installed. You can’t predict why a graphics card may begin to fail, but there are some symptoms of likely failure.

Screen glitches or artifacts

Maybe you are playing a video game or streaming your favorite movie when you notice on the screen:

  • weird colors or shapes;
  • pixelation;
  • frame tearing.

These could be there for only a few seconds. You might move your mouse and they go away. But, you don’t want to overlook these symptoms.

Stuttering

A computer screen freezing up or dropping frames can mean graphic card failure. It could also be due to malware or issues with your hardware or RAM. Still, this is not a symptom to ignore.

Fan overworking

If you’re hearing your fan more than usual, it could mean the graphics card is overheating. This can damage your computer, so act quickly to allow the computer to cool down. If the problem persists, get the device checked out.

Solid screen color

If you get a solid black or blue screen (or with lots of error codes) your video card may be struggling. Graphics card failure may have caused the system to crash, and you’ll be forced to reboot the computer. Crashes can happen for other reasons too. But if this happens when doing graphics-intensive activities, look to the gaming card.

What to do about graphics card failure

Start by determining if the graphics card is the culprit. There are many possible issues that could cause some of the above symptoms.

You can try to repair the card yourself, but it is risky. It can involve updating the motherboard drivers for your chipset and updating display drivers. You might also need to look inside the computer to check connections and clean out any buildup of dust, or the graphics card may need to be reseated because it has come loose.

Our IT professionals can determine what is causing your graphics woes and work to repair the hardware at a much lower risk. Contact us at (515)422-1995 for help today!

Think Before Sharing That Link

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Learning to share is an important early-life skill. Now, you’ve mastered it, and you’re out in the workforce. Happily, digital technology makes it much easier to share business files, but that doesn’t mean you want to do so willy-nilly. Consider these best practices for sharing with both internal and external users.

Cloud sharing makes it simple to share presentations, spreadsheets, documents, and other files. In OneDrive, Dropbox, Google, you can simply click on that document and click “share.” The link is created, and you can copy it into an email, or you can use a pop-up email from the software you’re working in at that moment. That done, you can move on to your next “to do” without thinking about it any longer.

Maybe not.

Unless you’ve set that link to expire, you’ve shared endless access to that file. Plus, you may have set the file up so that anyone with the link can open the file. You may even have given everyone with the link editing permission for that file, which means they can change the data or delete it. That’s today, tomorrow, weeks, months, or even years from now.

Think about that link before you share it. You may not intend that external contractor to have continued access to that presentation. You may want only an internal team member’s input before a client pitch, not in perpetuity, even after they’re no longer involved in that project.

Best practices with shared links

The problem compounds if you share folders. You might start out with a few files in that folder – the ones you wanted to let your client contact see – but, as time goes on, you add more files to the same folder. Do you want that client to be able to see all those files? Forever? Think about this before sending a shared link with broad permissions.

Yes, “anyone with the link can view” links are useful. They can help when you don’t know everyone’s email, or you don’t know everyone (internal or external) who will need access to a file. Still, it’s best to take the permission-based route. Allow only people with emails you know to access that file. You might set the default in your link sharing to “only people in your organization.”

Think twice about whether you want to make them editors, too. Remember that gives them the right to modify and delete that file. You might want only their eyes on the content, so limit what they can do to viewing only.

It’s also a good plan to set your links to expire. This stops the other person from continuing to access the files long after they need to do so. For confidential, sensitive data, choose a shorter expiration date; otherwise, you might go with a month. If the person needs access again after the link expires, you’ll be able to let them in again, but you’ll know you’re doing so.

Worried about unauthenticated access to your files, folders, or software and systems? Work with a managed service provider to enhance your security posture. Our experts are here to help. Contact us today at (515)422-1995.

The Business Risk of Abandoned Domain Names

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When setting up your small business website, you want a memorable name and sleek Web design. You know your website is an important online calling card. Then, when you grow or your business evolves, you might rebrand and add a site. But wait, don’t abandon the old one.

When you set up your Web presence, you select a domain name, and it’s part of all your URLs (FYI: URL stands for uniform resource locator). For example, you have created stylish caps and coats for small dogs. You pick the CoutureCanine.com domain name for your business. Your emails come from TheBoss@CoutureCanine.com. Then, off you go building Web traffic to your cool dog duds.

Maybe you even think ahead and buy similar domain names. You can redirect traffic and avoid losing customers to misspellings or typos.

The domain name, after all, establishes the business and provides you with a foundation to grow. As you build the business, you may expand to new verticals and outgrow the dogs-only website. Or, perhaps you wrap up your line for pups and move on to dressing parakeets. Whatever your reason, don’t abandon those old domain names.

Abandoned Domain Name Security Risks

To keep your domain name, you must continue to pay annual registration fees. If you have multiple domains, that can be a lot of small renewals to track and pay. Along the way, a domain renewal gets overlooked. So, the domain name is abandoned.

Domain names can also get abandoned as a result of a business rebranding or company restructuring. Or you might decide a domain is no longer worth continued renewals.

Your hosting company should tell you the Internet domain name is due to expire. After you stop paying, after a certain grace period, anyone can buy that abandoned domain name.

That doesn’t sound so bad. You didn’t want it anymore anyway, right? But you don’t know who might snatch up your old online calling card. Bad actors buy up abandoned domain names and re-register them with catch-all emails.

What’s a catch-all email? Well, remember TheBoss@CoutureCanine.com? That was you. But maybe you also had distinct emails for accounts, info, sales, support, James, and Shauna. All of them were going through CoutureCanine.com. If someone emails someone at the previous domain owner’s business, it goes instead to the new owner. Having seized control of your old site, they gain access to all incoming emails, and they could see the information you don’t want them to see.

The bad actor could also access online services once used by james@CoutureCanine.com. All they would need to do is reset the password to hijack that account.

Security researchers have seen criminals claim abandoned domains to:

  • access confidential email correspondence;
  • access personal information of former clients and current or former employees;
  • hijack personal user accounts (e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.) linked to old domain e-mail addresses.

What to do with domain names

Especially if you use a domain name for email, don’t let the renewal expire. We didn’t even mention pirates who look for business websites that have lapsed so they can charge exorbitant ransoms to return that domain.

When you move to a new domain address, communicate the change with all your clients and vendors. Close any cloud-based user accounts registered with the old domain email address. Also, unsubscribe from email notifications that might share sensitive data.

Not sure about your domain name registrations, renewals, and what’s set to expire? An IT service provider can handle this for you. Our experts can make sure you don’t abandon domain names. Or we can ensure you close any associated accounts properly to protect your security.

Contact us now at (515) 422-1995.

Psst… What’s Your Master Password?

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All of us like to think we are unique. That thinking extends to our passwords too, right? We’re special and distinct, so no one could guess our chosen collection of letters, numbers and symbols. Well, it’s surprisingly easy for algorithms to determine passwords and to do so extremely quickly. So, a password manager is a smart move, as you’ll have more complex, different passwords stored. Still, it’s important that your master password for that manager be 100 percent original.

Sure, your password may be difficult for a human to guess – it would take forever. But, computers can run through the possible combinations in seconds. Password Depot found that a password consisting of five characters (three lowercase letters and two numbers) can be hacked in 0.03 seconds.

Add characters and the volume of possible configurations increases, and that adds time. A seven-character password (one capital letter, six lowercase letters) will take approximately nine minutes. At eight characters (four lowercase letters, two special characters, and two numbers) things get more complicated. Trying all the possible permutations will take 2.6 days.

That’s a data-driven argument for complex passwords with many letters and numbers. But the problem is that they are so much more difficult to remember, and that’s why it’s a good idea to use a password manager.

The power of a password manager

A password manager offers top-notch encryption to protect passwords. You can use a password manager as a vault for all your passwords. When you want to log in online from your desktop, it can prefill your username and password. Often, there is also an app that allows you to do the same on mobile devices.

Industry-leading password managers also notify you if credentials are weak or get compromised. They may also flag that you are repeating access credentials, which is not a good idea.

Don’t forget your master password

Part of the appeal of a password manager is its zero-knowledge approach. They are set up so that they can’t see your stored passwords. The password is encrypted before it reaches the manager’s server and can’t be deciphered.

This means you have to be careful not to forget your master password. The master password is the one you use to access the password manager. Without it, you’ll have to try to recover your account using several stages of authentication.

Make your master password unique, and don’t use it anywhere else. Repeating passwords, as mentioned above, increases your risk of getting hacked. If the other site is hacked, the bad guys could try that same password on other sites, too. It’s low-hanging fruit for them.

The current best practice as far as passwords go is to use a passphrase with a mix of alpha-numeric symbols. This gives you a length of between 20 and 30 characters. You can use a variety of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Some examples of passphrases include:

  • My_Fave_Person_is_My_Fish_761
  • Mytrip-2-Paris-Was-Magnifique
  • YouRemindMeoftheBabe!!

The passphrase means something to you, so it is more memorable. Yet it isn’t easy for hackers to crack. Also, you’re not using specific personal details that you may reveal on social media (unless you are constantly posting pics of your fish, and its name is actually 761).

Protecting your online identity

Want to know more about protecting your online identity? Need help with setting up security procedures for your home computer and network? Our tech experts are available to help. Call us today at (515) 422-1995!

Understanding the Cost of Downtime

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Business downtime is costly. Research abounds on just how much it can set a business back. Some small businesses can’t even rebound from the expenses associated with downtime. This article outlines the many expenses a business can encounter as a result of downtime.

What do we mean by downtime? There are many reasons a business might experience IT downtime. Say, the Wi-Fi goes down or there’s a simple power outage. Either could lead to a small-scale, short-term downtime.

Worse, you could be the victim of a cyberattack that sees criminals encrypting your data. A data breach or malware infection could force you to take systems offline to solve the problem.

Severe weather events such as tornadoes or hurricanes can also cause downtime. Or maybe the building suffers a gas leak or a fire, and your business isn’t immediately able to get back on-site. If you don’t have cloud-based access to your applications, you could suffer downtime.

Every minute you are without your business technology can add up. Let’s consider the various costs you could encounter.

Loss of business revenue

If your people can’t access business systems or network applications, productivity drops. Your sales team can’t close deals, or your product development team can’t access schematics. Perhaps someone in client development can’t get to their pitch presentation.

Remediation costs

Fixing your business technology after downtime takes extra work, which means added resource costs. You may have to pay overtime to the IT team working round the clock to get you back up and running, or there could be places you need to catch up when you had to spend time doing things manually. This disrupts efficiency and costs money.

Customer dissatisfaction

How often do you hear someone apologize for their computer running slowly? When you call a customer service line it’s a familiar frustration. Imagine telling someone instead, “our systems are down, and we are unable to help you right now.” You will be compounding customer aggravation. They don’t want to wait for your downtime to end to resolve their issue.

If there’s a data breach, customers will worry about personal data or compromise of proprietary information.

Legal and compliance fees

Your business could run afoul of compliance or face legal action. For instance, if you are in the health services industry and are breached, you could be hit with hefty fines for jeopardizing personally identifiable information.

Brand reputation

Say your payment processor goes down, and you’re not able to take any orders. Some customers will get impatient and order from a competing website. They may end up switching to that company permanently.

There’s also a misconception that any press is good press. But you do not want your business to make headlines for having fallen victim to a cyberattack.

Employee engagement

Every business owner recognizes the importance of retaining motivated and skilled staff. Employees frustrated by downtime may start looking elsewhere.

Morale and your business culture could decline. Turnover could rise. You’ll need to invest time recruiting, training, and retaining fresh new hires.

Key takeaway

Don’t think business downtime can’t happen to you. When it comes to technology, threats are ever-evolving. Keep current with updates and software upgrades, and be vigilant about fresh threats.

Partner with an MSP to develop backup plans. An IT vendor can help move systems to the cloud to ensure mobile access. MSPs can also be proactive. They perform preventative maintenance and help cut your cybersecurity risk.

We can’t promise downtime won’t happen, but we can make sure you are resilient and able to bounce back more quickly should problems arise. Contact us today at (515) 422-1995.

Onboarding an IT Provider: What’s Realistic?

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When you hire a managed service provider, you want instant results: you want all your technology to run faster and more smoothly, and everyone to be more productive. And there will be no problems again, ever, right? But that’s not realistic. Managed service providers are pretty great (even if we do say ourselves), but we’re not miracle workers. So, let’s discuss what you might realistically expect when onboarding a new IT provider.

Sometimes, quick wins are achieved. The managed service provider (MSP) may be able to immediately get that server powered up again or fix that printer on the second floor that’s only been taking up space for the past three months. Yet there is no magic wand that allows these IT experts to solve every issue instantly.

What should you expect?

If there is a pressing issue, the MSP will start there by looking into what has gone wrong. Then, they’ll be able to make plans for addressing the concern. Maybe a part failed, or your hardware has reached the end of its life. They’ll look into how you use that technology and provide suggestions to make a fix.

Otherwise, if nothing is immediately wrong, your MSP will begin the engagement by learning about your business tech. They’ll want to talk with your stakeholders to discover:

  • where you are now;
  • where you want to be the future;
  • how you use your IT;
  • what your IT budget looks like.

In getting up to speed, this outsourced IT team should be making a great impression on you. This is the beginning of your relationship. They have won your business, but you can expect them to be proving that you made the right choice. Still, this doesn’t mean they can get everything perfect right from the get-go.

The timeline depends on the context.

There could be issues that will take longer to resolve. They may need to do diagnostic work to get to the root of the problem. Solving the issue could take creative problem-solving and a lot of research legwork.

We’d love to say that every business we work with comes to us with pristine IT. Everything is in great shape, and we can immediately step in and make everything work even better. But there can be lingering or unidentified concerns. The business may not have the IT depth to recognize the problems that the MSP will quickly diagnose. Perhaps you’ve been ignoring security warnings or network errors or you’ve been bombarded with access requests from malicious IPs. The MSP is going to have to take on those outstanding concerns.

Again, there is no magic wand. The MSP can’t instantly turn the ship around if it’s been sailing toward a massive iceberg for the past year.

Expect to give your MSP team some time to learn your business and get up to speed with your IT. However, don’t give them forever. If it has been six months, and they’re still “figuring it all out,” you may want to reconsider that partnership. But be aware that cutting those ties means starting from scratch to build a relationship with a new MSP.

The better approach is to expect ongoing, informative communication from your new MSP. They should be letting you know what they are learning about your technology needs along the way and making suggestions to improve usage, boost security, increase productivity, and drive efficiency.

One thing you can realistically expect? Your MSP will make a real contribution. These experts should be more than a vendor and more like a partner in your business success.

Contact us at (515) 422-1995.

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