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What to Do About the Widening IT Skills Gap

June 21, 2022 by Paul Schwegler

The importance of information technology in meeting business objectives continues to grow. Regrettably, the shortfall in professionals who can manage business tech is also growing. Learn what the IT skills gap means for you.

  • Technology helps businesses meet strategic priorities. This includes:
  • implementing new systems or work processes to enhance efficiencies;
  • innovating and cultivating new ideas;
  • identifying new customer segments and markets;
  • launching new products or services.

In CompTIA’s research into the “State of the IT Skills Gap,” the skills disparity is widening. And it’s doing so at a worrying rate. Nearly half of CompTIA’s respondents said the skills gap had grown in scope/depth over the past two years. That’s 46%, indicating significant or moderate growth in their businesses.

That may not even capture the problem accurately. Only 44% of CompTIA’s respondents felt they had the know-how to identify and assess IT skills gaps on their own.

IT skills gap issues

The IT skills gap affects strategy and also impacts staff productivity and customer service/customer engagement. The shortfall in IT savvy individuals also impacts security, particularly:

  • data loss prevention;
  • firewalls/antivirus safeguards;
  • cloud security;
  • network monitoring/access management.

Plus, the IT skills gap can slow the adoption of emerging technology. This sees businesses struggling to upgrade existing hardware and software. They aren’t able to use artificial intelligence, automation, or the Internet of Things.

The shortage also hurts data integration, management, and analytics. Software or app development can also suffer.

How to address the gap

There are many ways businesses can improve the IT workforce pipeline. Providing on-the-job experience through internships or apprenticeships may work, as might encouraging IT employees to pursue new certifications and credentials.

Investing in tech talent is another way to promote your business objectives. Without the right IT support, you could end up buying the wrong technology or struggle to deploy it. Instead of adding agility and efficiency, you’ll slow things down and may compromise security, too.

With the IT environment constantly evolving, it’s difficult for businesses to keep up. Many firms can’t keep up with the rising compensation requirements, keeping internal IT trained is expensive, too. Then, if IT talent leaves, they take their business infrastructure knowledge with them.

The solution? Partnering with a managed service provider (MSP). With an MSP you gain experts that always stay on top of the latest events and are always trained up. Yet you don’t have to pay for their conferences and ongoing training. You typically pay a consistent set fee for the services you need.

Our experts can help update your infrastructure, deploy new systems, and secure IT. Contact us today at (515)422-1995.

Filed Under: Business, Tips Tagged With: business, IT, Professionals, technology

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Turn to Your MSP for Vendor Management

June 14, 2022 by Paul Schwegler

With a managed service provider (MSP), your business expects tech support, infrastructure monitoring, and maintenance. Did you know vendor management is another service you can entrust to these IT experts?

You have vendors – lots of them – probably more so now that your work environment has gone hybrid. Yet managing all your vendors can be challenging. Different departments may even have their own vendor relationships. Without vendor management, there’s no one bridging the siloes. No one ensures cost savings while improving efficiency and productivity.

What is vendor management?

Vendor management centralizes the oversight of different vendors. If each department contracts on its own, you can’t take advantage of economies of scale, and you may also suffer from inefficiencies and inconsistencies. Each vendor may have different processes, services, and price points, yet no one is managing vendor partnerships to see how they impact your bottom line.

Turn to your MSP for expert analysis and oversight of vendors. An MSP can:

  • tackle contract transactions;
  • implement the changes;
  • seek data integration;
  • avoid possible compliance implications;
  • find greater efficiencies;
  • save you money by identifying duplication or finding more competitive bids;
  • increase the visibility of vendor sourcing, management, and payment.

What does MSP vendor management include?

Say you want a new Web host. You’ll spend time identifying vendors, researching possibilities, and deciding who gets your business. Then something goes wrong. Now, you need to get in touch with that vendor to troubleshoot. Plus, you’ll always need to manage that relationship and keep up with payments.

Now, multiply that effort by the many different vendors you have. You likely have antivirus solutions, broadband internet, disaster recovery, and off-site backup vendors, as well as partners providing email security, hardware maintenance, telecommunications, and Web hosting. Different offices or departments might even contract with separate vendors for these services.

Your MSP can provide added value by streamlining your vendor management. A technology- and vendor-neutral MSP can look for the best solutions for your business goals. The MSP’s goal is to find the right alignment with your objectives. That’s where they add the most value to you as a customer.

An MSP may use vendor management software to track and measure. This supports more informed decision-making. Plus, it can automate processes such as expense management, requisitioning, payments, and reporting.

Positively impact your bottom line

Drawing on experience with a variety of vendors, the MSP can simplify your supply chain. The MSP may be able to leverage preferred relationships to negotiate better rates.

Plus, their experts are up to date on the ins and outs of supporting those vendor offerings. Say there is an issue with email security. There could be a faster resolution if the vendor talks to an informed tech professional; that’s easier than a harried accountant who doesn’t know an SPF from a DKIM or a DMARC (and shouldn’t need to).

Let our experts handle your vendor management to centralize and simplify these relationships. Work with the best people and the right technology, and enjoy a better return on investment. Contact us today at (515)422-1995.

Filed Under: Business, Productivity, Tips

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Hardware as a Service: What Is It, and Why Use It?

June 7, 2022 by Paul Schwegler

When IT infrastructure is out of date, you face performance and compatibility issues. Your business spends time troubleshooting faulty computer hardware, and productivity is lost. Yet your business can’t afford to update to more advanced technology. The solution? Hardware as a Service.

Hardware as a Service allows small or midsized businesses to lease needed computing power. The business gets access to new equipment they might not otherwise be able to afford. Plus, you save on operational expenses powering, cooling, and maintaining the tech.

IT infrastructure evolves so quickly, but Hardware as a Service helps you avoid becoming outdated. You no longer have to find the budget to purchase brand-new technology every few years. You simply lease the tech assets from a service provider.

How Hardware as a Service Works

There are different Hardware as a Service model. You might:

  • sign a contract for a provider to administer and maintain the computer hardware it installs in your offices;
  • use Internet Protocol (IP) connections to cloud computing environments and let off-site hardware do the work. This option saves on hardware costs and related OPEX, but also avoids heavy expenditure on IP bandwidth.

How does this solution differ from leasing computers? This is a managed services agreement, and you gain installation, maintenance, and support services, too.

More Advantages of Hardware as a Service

We’ve already mentioned cost-effectiveness and currency, but those aren’t the only benefits of using a HaaS solution.

Simplicity

Your business will pay a consistent monthly or yearly subscription fee for your HaaS. In return, you get systems that are automatically updated. The tech will be compatible with the latest software deployed. You don’t have to do the legwork to buy any hardware, and you avoid having to maintain the technology.

Proactive service

With HaaS, you don’t need an IT team in-house to manage and maintain the equipment. Additionally, the service provider offers value via effective customer service. You can expect the provider to be doing everything it can to ensure a robust hardware service so you enjoy the reliable infrastructure and round-the-clock IT infrastructure support.

Security gains

The IT ecosystem is always changing, and so, too, are the threats to cybersecurity. Your business would be more vulnerable to attack with legacy hardware. Using HaaS, you are working with more secure, up-to-date technology. This can cut the risk of downtime and service disruptions.

Scalability

If your business grows, you need your systems to grow with you. With HaaS, it’s easy to expand or upgrade infrastructure. You don’t have to worry about the huge capital expenditure for new tech; you’ll simply pay more to upgrade your HaaS solution.

With Hardware as a Service, you can affordably replace your technology before it becomes obsolete. Cut costs, and improve scalability and security, all while gaining an expert IT partner. Get in touch with us today at (515)422-1995.

Filed Under: Business, Maintenance, Productivity, Tips Tagged With: business, hardware, infrastructure, tips

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Businesses Beware OF Fake Meeting Requests

May 31, 2022 by Paul Schwegler

Hi,

Important that we meet discuss speerfishing attacks over business comunicatons. We need to make plan about this IMMEDIATELY. Please click on the link [uurl.callender.com] to make an appointment with IT for quick tutorial.

Regards,

IT

There are several things wrong with this email, and hopefully, you noticed them. All are red flags you can look for to avoid fake meeting requests or calendar-invite scams.

Business Email Communication (BEC) scams are not new. For example:

  • Facebook and Google suffered a $121 million BEC scam.
  • Ubiquiti lost $46.7 million to an attack.
  • Toyota transferred $37 million to crooks in a BEC snafu.

In 2020, BEC attacks were the most lucrative scam. The US estimated cybercriminals made over $1.8 billion with this approach. Beyond money, falling victim to a BEC attack also costs your business time and reputation. Here’s what to look for and how to protect against BEC scammers.

How BEC Scams Work

With many more people working from home and meeting virtually, there’s been an uptick in BEC spearfishing attacks.

On Gmail, the bad actor needs only your email address to send an invite that adds to your calendar by default. Then, you might click on what appears to be a meeting link, which actually takes you to a malware site.

Zoom has also become an attack vector. You get an invite to a meeting that asks you to login into Microsoft Outlook. You’ve done it so many times before, except this is a fake login page, and it’s set up to steal your access credentials.

How to Protect Against BEC Scams

Educate your users. As with any other type of email scam, users need to learn to be careful about the links they click. Some indicators to look for, which you can see in our opening example, include:

  • spelling mistakes;
  • urgent appeals;
  • poor phrasing;
  • suspicious links.

Email addresses, links, and domain name inconsistencies are more bad signs. Plus, be wary if something seems too good to be true (a free laptop?) or is an unusual request (transfer $1 million from the CEO’s account).

Google Calendar users can go into General settings, then Event settings, and switch off “Automatically add invitations.” Instead, select “No, only show invitations to which I have responded.” Also, under Events from Gmail, you can stop calendar events auto-generating based on your inbox. Keep in mind, though, that you’ll also be blocking legitimate events.

In these days of the hybrid workforce, we’re used to clicking on links from Zoom, Google Docs, and Microsoft Office as part of our daily workflow. The cyber bad guys know this and are taking advantage of it. Unsubscribing from email lists, keeping your email private, and reporting spam to IT can all help.

Your business might also benefit from working with a managed service provider to use a third-party spam filter. Our experts can also review your cybersecurity posture and identify areas to improve your defenses.

Contact us today at (515)422-1995

Filed Under: Business, Security, Tips Tagged With: business, email, security, tips

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SMBs Can Become a Weapon in Cyberwarfare

May 24, 2022 by Paul Schwegler

Headlines today highlight Ukrainian tragedy or North Korea testing missiles. It can seem far away from your business, yet battles are being fought online, too. Your small business’s IT systems could be weaponized for cyberwarfare.

That statement may surprise you. You’ve heard of cyber targets such as:

  • critical national infrastructure;
  • election and voting organizations;
  • military databases;
  • government communication outlets.

In the days preceding Russia’s attack, 70 Ukrainian governmental organizations were hacked. Messages in Ukrainian, Russian, and Polish warned people to be afraid and expect the worst.

But, why would someone want to target your small business as part of their cyberwarfare? You may be only a stepping stone to help the attackers achieve their larger goal.

How your business can become a target

You could be the victim of a supply-chain or leap-frog attack, or you might have a business partner who is also an accountant to a defense contractor, or your business might be providing heating and air conditioning maintenance to a utility. That connection makes you interesting to hackers.

Attackers use you as a pawn in digital warfare. They expect you have fewer defenses than the highly funded end target, so they infect your network to facilitate their attack. They might send a fake invoice from your business to the target, one that is laden with a malicious payload. The client, trusting your credibility, opens the malware. From there, the attacker has access to the information they were seeking from the outset.

How to shore up your defenses

Increase your cyber vigilance. Don’t think that you are too small to be a target. Instead, create and maintain a cybersecurity plan. Follow best practices to keep your systems resilient, and ensure you have the proper protection in place.

This type of attack often leverages software vulnerabilities, so make sure that all your systems are up to date and patched, leverage antivirus tools, and stay current on the latest threats you should protect against.

Also, remind your employees about the importance of good cyber hygiene, the humans who work for you are often the weakest link. They don’t mean to cause any damage, but they click on that phishing email or go to that website with malware downloads embedded.

Multifactor authentication can also help you combat hacker access. Even if the bad actor does get a user’s credentials, they still need an approved device to get in. This makes it much more difficult to compromise your network.

It’s also a good idea to establish ongoing monitoring of any security events and install remote access controls. Geo-fencing can restrict certain foreign IP addresses, and Certificates can validate trusted computers that remotely access your systems. Then, use the data from those tools to identify any suspicious activity.

A managed service provider (MSP) can help with any of these defense tactics. We don’t want to see you turned into an unwitting weapon in someone’s cyberwarfare. Contact us today to learn more about what we can do to help reduce your attack surface.

Reach to us today at (515)422-1995.

Filed Under: Business, Security, Tips Tagged With: business, MSP, security, tips

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Small Business Can’t Sacrifice Cybersecurity

May 17, 2022 by Paul Schwegler

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!

Filed Under: Business, Security, Tips Tagged With: Budget, business, cybersecurity, tips

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What an MSP Can Offer Your Business

May 10, 2022 by Paul Schwegler

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!

Filed Under: Business, Productivity, Tips Tagged With: business, MSP, tips

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Think Before Sharing That Link

April 26, 2022 by Paul Schwegler

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.

Filed Under: Business, Security, Tips Tagged With: business, security, Sharing, tips

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The Business Risk of Abandoned Domain Names

April 19, 2022 by Paul Schwegler

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.

Filed Under: Business, Productivity, Tips Tagged With: business, domain, tips, Website

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Understanding the Cost of Downtime

April 12, 2022 by Paul Schwegler

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.

Filed Under: Business, Maintenance, Productivity, Tips Tagged With: business, downtime, prevention, productivity

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