Outsourcing to an MSP: Custom-size Your Partnership

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When it comes to business technology, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. Managed service providers (MSPs) know this firsthand. That’s why you’ll find they make it easy to partner with them for different levels of outsourced IT. This article outlines the three tiers of MSP outsourcing typically available.

Small and mid-sized businesses share many challenges. They need to manage resources, follow regulations, and combat cyberthreats. At the same time, they grapple with constant changes (e.g. growing workforce mobility). Yet for all these commonalities, the technology used in each business can vary, and so too can the level of in-house expertise to manage and maintain IT.

So, many businesses turn to MSPs to get to know their IT infrastructure. The MSP can act as an IT watchdog, offer specific value-added services, or replace an in-house IT team.

MSP as IT Watchdog

This level of MSP engagement is for the business that wants expert backup support. The MSP watches over the business infrastructure and makes sure everything runs smoothly.

The MSP will use remote monitoring to keep tabs on the IT environment. They won’t make any changes if an issue arises – that’s up to the business – but they’ll help detect concerns to avoid any business disruption.

Many businesses don’t have the personnel for around-the-clock IT monitoring. This basic level of MSP service is a good way to track critical networks, systems, and databases 24/7/365.

MSP’s Menu of Services

MSPs also offer a menu of value-added services on top of the monitoring. The added tasks outsourced can depend on your expertise, budget, and desire to be hands-on with IT.

Value-add services MSPs offer include:

  • taking responsibility for installing software updates;
  • fixing security vulnerabilities as they are detected;
  • suggesting current, reliable, and secure technology solutions to improve your operational performance;
  • handling data backup and disaster recovery;
  • serving as your IT help desk for employees.

Partnering with the MSP for these services can save the business time and money. Consider data backup: The MSP may have its own data centers for all its clients, which might mean a better rate on essential data backup thanks to economies of scale.

MSP as IT Team

Other businesses can benefit from handing over all IT to a trusted MSP. For one thing, this saves the business from having to recruit, train, and keep its own IT team in a tight labor market.

The MSP continues to remotely monitor and manage the IT infrastructure, but they now have full responsibility. It’s not a matter of picking from the services available on the a la carte menu above. All those tasks are the MSPs responsibility.

Many internal IT teams are reactive, as they don’t have the bandwidth to act otherwise. Yet with an MSP in place of an overwhelmed IT staff, you gain a proactive partner. The MSP secures applications and networks, manages mobility, and handles any incidents. They keep your business running by avoiding disruptions leading to revenue loss, customer churn, and reputation damage.

Putting an MSP in charge of IT can concern some business owners who are reluctant to give up control, but an MSP brings the benefits of specialized experience with technology (and, ideally, your industry). They have the tools to provide data analytics, improve cybersecurity and continually better your business.

An MSP Partnership to Suit You

On any of these three levels, you want to work with an MSP that will become an extension of your business. The right MSP becomes a trusted partner looking out for your business’s best interests. Contact us today at (515)422-1995.

4 Advantages of Managed IT Over In-House IT

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It’s tempting to hire an in-house IT technician to take care of your network and set them up with a cozy office just down the hall, but is it the right decision for your business? If you’re like most businesses, you’re always on the lookout for ways to save money while improving results. Sometimes this means expanding your staff to include a team of tech specialists at your beck and call, but this can often be an unnecessary expense that leaves you with highly paid employees twiddling their thumbs all day. For SMEs who are looking for the best of both worlds, we recommend Managed IT services.

Put simply, Managed IT is our solution which gives you that team of specialist technicians and network experts, without the ‘quick, look busy’ element – and at a fraction of the cost. Naturally, you’d rather see your IT budget working to support your growth and kept as low as possible. That’s our focus too, and why we don’t simply maintain and repair your systems, we proactively monitor to avoid downtime and work with you to ensure your IT increases productivity and efficiency. Whether you already have in-house IT and are auditing the value, or are curious about what having IT support might be like for your business, we’ve put together a few factors to consider before making your choice:

Availability: Most employees work 9-5, but what happens if something goes wrong with your systems outside these hours? Your in-house technician won’t appreciate being woken at 1am and called in for emergency repairs. It’s more likely that they simply won’t answer the call (or hear it), or if they do, expect some hefty contract renegotiation come 9am. Managed IT is very different as we can better handle problems after hours and have support technicians available to help. We know that every minute of downtime is affecting your revenue, plus your business reputation, so we prioritize getting your systems up and running asap. That being said, with our Managed IT these types of disasters are rarer as we’re constantly monitoring and correcting problems before they occur.

Total cost: One of the things that may attract you to having an in-house technician is the cost. But while you may be able to pay them a lower hourly rate, there are extra costs like hiring, training, an office space, healthcare benefits, and retirement. After all, you’re not going to be able to pay a good systems administrator $12/hr. Once you start adding up the cost of an in-house technician, you might find it’s eating up your IT budget and leaving you scrambling to fill gaps you didn’t expect. Upgrades get delayed, opportunities missed, and IT expenses become a sore point. In comparison, Managed IT is one fixed monthly rate delivering enormous value, including access to specialists across all software applications and technology.

Ongoing Training: Putting aside the fact your technician will often spend entire weeks away upgrading their skills and leaving you scrambling for support while they’re gone, those training costs quickly add up. With a salaried technician, you’ll need to pay all ongoing training and certification costs plus travel costs for industry conferences. We know how important it is to remain current, certified, and skilled in new technologies. So, we spend the money to invest in ourselves so we can serve you better. We’re part of industry related communities and attend multiple conferences each year, all at our own expense.

Different goals: For most employees, a higher wage is the goal and many will job-hop to achieve that. A salaried tech may be looking for the first opportunity to leave and get paid more, often leveraging all the training you’ve just provided. In these modern times, switching jobs regularly is expected, with an average of only 3 years in each position. Considering how much it cost your business to acquire, train and upskill your technician, 3 years is an unreasonable ROI. Our goals couldn’t be more different – we only aim to keep you a happy customer for as long as we can!

In the end, your business needs to find the right balance between profit and expertise. When you partner with our Managed IT, you’re securing availability, ever-increasing expertise and commitment to your success. We work closely with you to provide the very best support and protect you costly disasters, taking preemptive action to keep you safe and operational. There’s no doubt Managed IT is a better decision than hiring an in-house technician, and we’d be delighted to prove it to you.

How to Maintain Your Computer (Without Lifting a Finger!)

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For a device that’s supposed to make life easier, computers sure do involve a lot of work! There’s so much to keep track of that it’s no wonder most people push ahead and forget the routine maintenance until something breaks. Of course, the problem with being reactive is the damage is already done. Photos and files get lost forever in a crash, and information gets stolen in a hack…by then it’s far too late. It’s a bit like closing the gate after the horses have already fled. This is where proactive people come out on top. Thousands upon thousands of homes around the world are using managed services to put computer problems firmly behind them. It’s a done-for-you maintenance program we offer, and here’s why it’s the best choice.

You’re always up to date. It seems like every second day there’s some new and urgent update waiting to be installed. Whether they’re patching security flaws or adding new features, they seem endless. Sometimes, it goes beyond inconvenient, it gets overwhelming! Even if they do install automatically, they tend to do it at the worst possible moment, leaving you to wait up to 30 minutes when all you wanted to do was quickly check your email. Using our special managed services software, we can make sure your computer’s updates are all finished and done – before you sit down to use it. As part of our service, we also make sure all updates are compatible not just with your hardware, but also with your other software. After all, updates are supposed to make your experience more secure and more enjoyable!

You’ve got super anti-virus. The best anti-virus is the one that’s up-to-date and running, yet you’d be surprised how many people switch it off or never let it update. While you might be in the habit of scanning files and browsing safely, others in your home might not have the same priorities. Having managed services ensures your anti-virus is always running and dealing with any viruses it finds. As soon as a new virus becomes known, we make sure your system is actively protected against it. We also monitor for cyber-attacks and can alert you before they become a problem.

Your hardware stays healthy. While a reactive person is always suddenly stuck without a computer when hardware fails, proactive people with managed services have already had the problem fixed. Our special software monitors the health of your hardware, eg, your hard drive, looking for early warning signs of failure. If detected, we can let you know in advance. This means you’re able to get it repaired at your convenience, making sure no files are lost and no other hardware is damaged in a domino failure.

You never miss a backup. The worst part of a crash or hack isn’t the financial cost, it’s losing your files forever. Many people have their entire collection of photos stored on their computer, plus important family files, most of which can never be replaced or recreated. Whether it’s a report just created, a recipe handed down for generations or a novel you’ve been working on for longer than you’d care to admit, managed services ensure your backup is working correctly. Backed up files are ready to go when you are, and losing files to corruption, failure or theft is a thing of the past.

Support is a phone call away. Just got a new printer and it won’t play nice? Got a weird error popping up? Your laptop won’t talk to the Wi-Fi? Our remote support team can help with whatever technology issue has been bugging you and wasting your time. No nonsense advice is just a phone call away, and our team can remotely connect to diagnose and fix many problems. This means you can likely skip the cord shuffle and carting your computer into the shop, and still get your most pressing computer issues fixed.

You’re always optimized. Whether your computer is actively playing up or not, our monitoring service can keep in touch with your event logs, services and processes and look out for anything that needs correction. This means we’re effectively stopping problems before they get to you, making sure that when you sit down to use your computer, it’s doing exactly what you want.

3 Tech Tips to Make You a Better Business Owner

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There’s no doubt about it, business can be tough! You’re juggling employees, customers, suppliers, stakeholders…the list is endless. You’re also operating in a competitive, high-tech economy that keeps trying to speed ahead without you. It’s no wonder you’re craving ways to get ahead of the competition, cut costs, boost productivity and dreaming of a vacation. Here are 3 tech tips that will make your life easier – and maybe get you closer to that ‘World’s Best Boss’ mug.

Consider a commuting policy

With better technology and faster internet connections, remote working isn’t just a possibility now, it’s an expectation. Clearly, not for every job (virtual burgers anyone?), but there are a lot of computer tasks in your business that could be done from home. Even if you offer a split week with 1-2 days at home and the remainder in the office, this can be a huge boost to your productivity.

From your perspective, remote employees can be more efficient without the distractions of yet another birthday sing-along, they have fewer absences and stay in the job longer. From the employee perspective, they don’t need to waste time commuting, get their work done faster, and generally feel happier and healthier.

But, how do you make sure your employees are getting their work done? Micromanagement is not the best way to handle an employee, but you still want to make sure they are using the time you are paying them for productive tasks. We recommend providing to them a company computer, and then installing a management agent on it to track what sites are visited. We can then run reports that you can analyze to determine whether or not your employee was doing what they said they were!

Don’t cheap out on technology

Unsurprisingly, a tech newsletter is advising you to invest in tech, but hear us out. Technology is rapidly becoming the backbone of most businesses, yet we still see people who try and get by with the bare minimum investment and maintenance. And by ‘see people’, we mean they’re our most frequent repair and data recovery clients.

When you take shortcuts with your tech you’ll always get higher failure rates, more downtime, and employees who can’t do their job even though you’re still paying them by the hour. When businesses keep old tech longer than they should, thinking of the immediate cost saving, they usually end up paying more in the long term.

At a minimum, we recommend investing in business grade equipment, using business grade management software, and employing a tech to keep watch over the systems to catch problems before they occur. You may be surprised at how inexpensive this actually is in the short term, and especially the long term!

Embrace the cloud

Many of your existing software packages have a cloud version, which would allow multiple people to access it at once and give added backup or synchronization benefits. Your remote workers, mobile staff, accountant or CFO can all view the same reports without anyone having the trouble of sending out separate copies. Also moving your software away from a on site server can have cost benefits be reducing equipment that has the be maintained and replaced.

Cloud technology is also perfect for notetaking and collaboration using software like Evernote, OneDrive, Exchange hosted email, or SharePoint. You and your employees can think of ideas while out and about, make a few notes on a mobile device, and have it all synced perfectly to your desktop when you need it. You can all share a constantly up-to-date mailbox, or collaborate on a shared calendar or project. You can even scan in paperwork and have your entire filing cabinet in your pocket. The disassociation of location with productivity can be a huge boon to productivity and profit!

Managed IT Can Help Save Your Business

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When it comes to running a modern business, technology is always a growing line item in the budget. Costs seem to creep up every quarter, along with a new learning curve for simply keeping everything running along smoothly. It’s no wonder then that budget restrictions for tech were recently found to be a universal concern for small/medium business.

You’re balancing the outlay of maintenance with replacement, plus securing against a steady stream of threats – all while making sure every dollar gives maximum return on investment. It even sounds exhausting! What typically happens is the tech budget gets stripped to a bare minimum, hoping nothing unexpected pops up and everything keeps moving along nicely. After all, everything is working just fine and that money could make a real difference elsewhere… except as soon as an IT emergency strikes, that tiny budget is obliterated and you’re left to either limp along with insufficient tech or dip into another budget area.

Now imagine if budget wasn’t an issue. Imagine all your tech expenses were predictable and you got everything you needed without resorting to financial magic tricks. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Put simply, that’s how a Managed IT Service works. It’s a service designed for businesses with a limited budget who don’t have time for tech issues. For a certain price each month (which is no doubt less than you’re thinking), you get a team of IT technicians actively monitoring your systems in order to catch issues before they occur, repairing problems on the fly, and ensuring your business is always as secure as possible. Included as part of your Managed IT Service, you also get expert business consulting around the solutions you need now, which solutions will help you rapidly scale, and which technology you don’t need. All for one predictable price each month. It gets better:

You’ll reduce downtime and associated revenue loss.

Forget scrambling while systems are down, with Managed IT Services you’ll know what technology is failing and can proactively repair or replace it before it impacts your business. Downtime is planned/minimized and your staff are working uninterrupted by tech drama.

You’ll skyrocket efficiency.

You’ve probably been responding to your IT events in ‘firefighter mode’, essentially dealing with problems as they arise and switching to new, improved tech only when you must. With Managed IT Services, problems are automatically reported and optimal solutions designed in advance. Even the small issues that have been slowing your business down and limiting progress come to light, ready to be solved for greater efficiency.

You’ll secure against data loss.

Whether you’ve been following the news and worrying about the next cyber-attack, or you’re working with confidential customer or proprietary data, Managed IT Services have you covered. Our technicians can secure your business against attack using the latest technology, full backups, software updates and leverage every drop of their know-how to keep your valuable data safe.

Learn more ways Managed IT Services can benefit your business – give us a call at 515-422-1995.

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