Ask and You Shall Receive

When it comes to making the most of your technology, here are some important questions to ask that can directly impact your bottom line:

• What kind of connectivity do I need?
• If security fails, what redundancy should I expect?
• How can cloud solutions impact my company?
• Are reports and status updates provided?
• Are there formal escalation and ticketing procedures?
• Where can I save money?

Don’t have the time or expertise to answer these questions? By talking with a managed service provider you get all the facts and gain a better understanding of the cost associated with each potential decision. We’d like to help you by offering a free, no obligation IT cost reduction assessment. We’ll take a look at your current infrastructure and make suggestions to help you save money. If we can’t save you money, we’ll give you $100. Contact us today.

Having a clear understanding of your vulnerable points makes it easier to assess and understand the total impact downtime has on your organization. From there, you can take steps to minimize and even prevent it.

Top Three Causes of Downtime

Hardware Failure—No technology is completely foolproof. Servers get old and slow you down. Hardware can fail at any time and there’s nothing you can do to prevent it.

A managed service provider (MSP) has the tools to monitor the health of hardware devices and pinpoint potential issues to take action before a device fails and causes a major outage.

Configuration Errors—When we think of disasters, for most, storms, fires and cyber hackers come to mind. But, an Avaya study found that 82 percent of companies surveyed faced network downtime due to human error.

Using a change management policy and network change management tools can prevent unauthorized changes and employee mistakes.

Routing Issues—Many organizations have large and complex networks, making it difficult to troubleshoot and resolve problems on your own without taking up too much of your valuable time.

Partnering with an MSP to implement route monitoring will alert you about path changes, router state changes, prefix changes, prefix floods or any routing behavior that leads to downtime so it can be addressed before work gets disrupted.

We’ll Get to the Root Causes

The cost of downtime can quickly and easily exceed the cost of preventing it. But, you can avoid those high costs by investing in a managed IT service provider like us to protect your data, monitor your technology and support all of your critical applications. We’ll identify your most vulnerable areas and recommend options for proactively preventing downtime. Contact us today to learn more.

Small and medium-sized businesses face unique challenges when it comes to managing and keeping up with the latest technology. Teaming up with a Managed Service Provider (MSP) like us can solve many of them:

The Cost of Managing IT  

All businesses are looking for ways to keep costs down and some start by cutting costs on their internal IT team. This only hurts your business more by leading to new IT problems and, with less hands on deck, those problems can quickly snowball into larger ones. Working with a managed service provider gives you 24/7 access to a team of highly skilled professionals without the costs of hiring, retaining and training an entire in-house IT department.

An Overworked IT Team  

The job of managing IT is diverse and never ends—from fixing daily hiccups, continuous updates and timely backups to security and staying on top of new technology so you’re always competitive. Most of these activities are reactive and consume the majority of your IT staff’s time—leaving them little or no time to focus on technology strategies that could help you grow your business. An MSP can simply ease the load on your existing IT resources or handle everything IT. In fact, a survey conducted by Channel Insider revealed that 60 percent of respondents said their managed services engagement is a collaborative arrangement with their internal IT department. Either way, our primary goal is to understand your needs and deliver the solutions that best fit the way you work, your goals and your budget.

Excessive Downtime

SMBs experience downtime for a number of reasons—hardware failure, software corruption, cyber attacks, power outages, operator error and more. Simple preventative measures such as a disaster backup and recovery plan along with a business continuity plan ensure that in the face of downtime, your information is safe and you can continue working as usual. This also results in better performance, fewer glitches and practically zero downtime.

Get Back Your Business with Help from a Trusted IT Partner

These are just a few of the challenges that and MSP can help you with. And, we’d like to help you take the first step to focusing on your business without the hassles of managing your own technology. Now through the end of July, we’re offering a free IT assessment with the ability to get up to three months free on IT services. Contact us today to learn more about our services and this free assessment.

The cloud is an essential part of every organizations IT strategy given that it delivers simplicity, easy scalability, effortless collaboration, increased productivity and more. But, these benefits don’t come without risk. Here are five cloud security threats you need to be aware of to keep your data and assets safe.

Permanent Data Loss

A data breach does more than damage your reputation and hackers have been known to permanently delete cloud data. Cloud data centers are also just as vulnerable to natural disasters as any facility.

Inadequate Diligence

The CSA warns that organizations that embrace the cloud without fully understanding the environment and its associated risks may encounter a myriad of commercial, financial, technical, legal and compliance risks.

Cloud Service Abuses

Some hackers have the ability to use cloud computing resources to break an encryption key to launch a cyberattack.

Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks

DoS attacks have become more notable thanks to cloud computing, slowing your system down to a crawl or timing out. They consume large amounts of processing power and can be high-volume or asymmetric, application-level attacks, which target Web server and database vulnerabilities.

Shared Technology, Shared Dangers

Cloud computing uses shared infrastructure, platforms, and applications. If a vulnerability arises at any of these points, the entire environment is exposed to potential compromises and breaches.

We’ll Keep You Safe in the Cloud

You don’t have to rethink cloud—just how you manage it.  You can count on our cloud computing experts to stop these threats before they cause harm. We’ll identify potential risks and recommend options for resolving any vulnerabilities. Contact us today for your free assessment and get 10% off cloud services through June 30, 2016.

How much of your day is consumed with worrying about the next IT outage? When your technology isn’t working, your people aren’t productive, sales aren’t closing, customers aren’t being serviced and products aren’t being delivered.

It Costs You More Than Sleepless Nights.

Downtime, or even the occasional hiccup, isn’t just frustrating, it’s expensive. On average, small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) lose up to $8,000 each month due to downtime. Who wouldn’t lose sleep with that kind of hit to the bottom line?

What’s Your Ideal IT Scenario?

What would it be like to offload all of your IT tasks and worries to an expert? Someone you had complete confidence in to keep all of your technology up-to-date, secure, available and running at peak performance. Even make sure you’re prepared in the event of a disaster.

Consider Managed Services.

Many SMBs look to Managed Service Providers (MSP) to handle all the day-to-day IT to-dos, including backups, hardware and software problem resolution, secure access, remote monitoring, network management and more. When the unexpected happens, which it will, preventative measures are already in place to automatically switch over to a failover server, meaning the risk of downtime is minimal or non-existent.

Real Peace of Mind.

Working with a reliable IT partner means you can breathe easy knowing that, no matter what happens, your technology is covered. [MSP name] is here to give you the peace of mind you need. Contact us today to get a free IT assessment and receive up to three months free of IT support.

Streamline Your Business With Office 365

Office 365 is all about communication and collaboration that can happen anywhere at any time. Today, business is not always conducted in an office. Your team is continuously on the go, which means they need to securely access company documents and data to stay productive and on top of business. Office 365 matched with a reliable managed service provider (MSP), simply betters your business.

Keep Costs Low: With Office 365, you only pay for a subscriber fee based on the number of users. That sure beats having to buy the on-premise versions of Exchange, Microsoft Office, SharePoint, and Lync, along with the servers, and the support people to manage them.

Simplify Maintenance: Office 365 doesn’t require a large IT team on staff.  Partner with an MSP, and we do all the work for you as part of your subscription costs.

Make Updates Easy: Managing all the updates for on-premise versions of Microsoft products is time consuming and decreases your productivity. With Office 365, Microsoft commits to regular automated updates.

Gain Reliability: Office 365 is financially-backed with a 99.9% up-time guarantee. When matched with an MSP, you get 27/4 remote and on-premise support to help work through any issue you may have.

Office 365 + MSP = a Win-Win for Your Business

Choosing Office 365, along with a managed service provider, is a no-brainer decision for businesses who are looking for business agility, efficiency, productivity and a better bottom line. It’s a simple, yet reliable solution that’s easy to manage and maintain. From simple updates to ongoing, continuous support, we handle it all, saving you time and money.

• Easily add and managed user accounts
• Implement a new web-based management portal specifically designed for SMBs
• Connect with everyone in your office with instant messaging
• Share files and documents anytime, anywhere
• Stay away from installing on-premise servers
• Pay no attention to managing software licenses
• Spend zero time worrying about securing your system

Ready to learn more about how Office 365 can help you simplify and save? Contact us now for a free assessment and to qualify for 50% off your first month of IT services.

Sometimes, there comes a point when it’s simply time to move on. Things are just not like they once were. Your business has matured, and you now have new business needs that must be met.

Change never comes easy. But if switching to another Managed Service Provider (MSP) will benefit your business, then maybe that’s a great option and the new direction you must take.

However, before you take that leap, you need to evaluate where you are and how you want to grow. Consider the following:

• Has your current service delivered all that it promised?
• Is it proactive when there’s a problem?
• Do you experience too many outages and lengthy downtime?

When you pick up the phone, you need to know the person on the other end is there to help you and is looking out for your best interests. If you have lingering issues that keep coming up, and they can’t find the root cause of the problem, that’s a sign you need to move on and find someone who has the proper, proactive solution.

At times, when things aren’t running smoothly, everyone in your business is affected. Not just your customers, but also your staff. It’s frustrating and difficult to try to complete a task with excessive lag time that slows down overall productivity.

When your company’s productivity decreases, the overall moral of the business also takes a hit. Making the change for a better system is a sign that you care about your staff, and, in turn, they can focus on creating more and higher client satisfaction.

Another sign that it may be time to make the switch is that you have simply outgrown your current MSP.

• When you were a smaller company, did you choose a less expensive option just to get started?
• Are there services you need now that your MSP does not offer?
• Is there room for your business to grow even more with your present MSP?

For every 30 employees, it takes one IT professional to ensure that everything will continue to run smoothly for your company. So, maybe when your business was starting out, you didn’t need a ton of help. But as your business grows, so should your IT support.

Keep in mind that businesses aren’t all the same. You need support that’s specific to your industry and business needs. It’s also important that your provider maintains technology that is up-to-date.

Finally, your business is growing (and that’s a good thing!). Be aware of how much you will grow in the future. Even if some of the services an MSP offers won’t be used in the short term, it’s a good idea to know what they are and how they can benefit you in the long run.

It’s all about finding the right fit for you. You not only need a Manage Service Provider who can accommodate your business needs, but also one that you share a future with: an MSP that can grow with you as you become more successful.

Let’s find out if we’re a good match for you. Contact us about our free IT Security & IT Cost Reduction Assessment (a $499 value). You can also qualify for 3 months of free IT support. This might be the match you’ve been looking for all along.