Tag Archives: managed service provider

3 Factors to Consider When Choosing a Managed Service Provider

Manage Service, ,
20160916

A managed service provider should be able to provide you the high-quality services you need now and as your business grows and changes.

There are many different options to consider when choosing the systems to run a business and how to manage them. Making the best decisions comes from being informed on all the options, or at least the ones that fit each business’s situation. In this regard, let’s look at 3 factors to consider when choosing a managed service provider (MSP).

 

 

      1. Provides the Services Need
      2. Room for Growth/ Services and Products
      3. Customer Service and Values

Provides the Services Need

Not all MSPs are the same, and some may not be suited for your business. Examine their services and the products they partner with; are these services and products what your business needs? Maybe an IT Help Desk service is what’s needed, or existing system management and support?

A business needing hardware repair and/or installation on-site, will want an MSP within their region. For instance, SystemsNet is located in Horsham, PA, and has a service area stretching across the tri-state area. If on-site IT services are needed from a MSP, this is a large factor in deciding which one to choose.

Businesses should consider if the MSP provides fitting solutions when it comes to: cybersecurity, software support, installation, and integration. The main benefits of outsourcing IT services are: robust cybersecurity, data backup recovery, system monitoring, risk and compliance, minimal downtime with quick repairs (remote or on-site), software upgrade and support, and having a 24/7 IT help desk. How does the MSP address the services your business needs?

 

Room for Growth/ Services and Products

Now look at who they’re partnered with, and what software they support. Does the MSP support and partner with the solutions your business needs now or in the future? Basically, this factor involves thinking ahead and forecasting business needs. For instance, does Microsoft Office 365 and Act! CRM software leave room for growth? Or, is a completely cloud-based system in the future for your business?

Choosing a MSP is an important decision, because changing MSPs later is an unwanted hassle. At a certain point in business growth, outsourcing IT services is a wise choice for most SMBs; the complexity of technology needs expertise and experience to navigate profitably. Avoid unwanted hassles by choosing a MSP that fits your business’s needs and values.

Customer Service and Values

This is the subjective factor to consider, when choosing an MSP for long-term IT services. Finding a MSP that understands your business’s values and goals is important for a meaningful business relationship. What characteristics and values does the MSP have? Do these match your business’s values and objectives?

Outsourcing part, or all, of your IT department to a MSP, requires trust – fostered by a unified understanding through solid communication channels. A trusting and respectful business relationship is the best combination, because a close working relationship is needed to solve IT issues, either emergency or with proactive strategies. Talk to multiple people who make up the MSP, to see if their personalities and values match your business.

Summary

Outsourcing IT services should be a profitable move, one that creates efficiency in a business’s systems. If a business chooses the right MSP for their business’s needs, productivity is sure to increase with a decrease in effort and risk. The investment, at a certain point in a business’s growth, becomes worth the cost of outsourcing the IT dept.

These three factors to consider are meant to help businesses choose the correct MSP for their specific needs. Not all MSPs are the same, therefor, choosing the right one is an impactful decision on a business’s profit and sustainability. All the effort involved in choosing and working with a MSP, will be worth it when streamlined processes and upgraded solutions drastically reduce workflow inefficiencies. Please contact us to learn more.

Five Questions to Ask About Proactive Monitoring of Network Infrastructure

Manage Service, , ,
20160623

Proactive monitoring of network infrastructure is a critical strategy that can help you prevent problems before they develop. It’s important to ask questions!

Neglecting to monitor your network infrastructure is a fundamental mistake that significantly increases the chances of a successful cyber attack and impairs your network’s performance.

As discussed in a recent article from Beta News, companies need to acknowledge that they’ll not only face cyber attacks, but that some of these attacks will likely get past their initial defenses. While it’s important to use anti-malware programs and other first-line defenses that can initially repel many cyber attacks, you need to realize that you’re never guaranteed 100% protection from unauthorized intrusions.

As such, it’s important to maintain layered defenses and actively monitor your network for suspicious activities that could indicate a successful intrusion. Proactive monitoring of network infrastructure is a critical strategy that can help you prevent or detect various problems before they develop into crisis situations.

Keep in mind that while IT disasters can result from an external cyber attack, there are also other sources of IT emergencies, including equipment and connection failures. So not only is network monitoring a critical part of your cyber defenses; it’s also essential for preserving the general health of your IT infrastructure. Network monitoring enables you to respond to a problem in a prompt, effective way without waiting to first hear about it from frustrated or panicking employees who find that they suddenly can’t get their work done.

Ask your Managed Service Provider (MSP) about monitoring services

When you hire an MSP to manage and advise you about your company’s IT activities, make sure to ask them about the kinds of monitoring services they provide for your network infrastructure. The following are five important questions to ask:

  1. Will they provide proactive monitoring of your company’s network? Sometimes, IT personnel take a purely reactive approach to IT problems. They swoop in to try and fix an issue only after employees have started noticing it or business operations have slowed down or come to a halt. Make sure that the MSP you work with offers proactive monitoring.
  2. How frequently will they monitor your network? Ideally, proactive monitoring will take place round-the-clock, every day of the year. It’s not enough to only sometimes scan your network or devices for problems, or limit the monitoring to business hours. Your MSP should offer you a 24 x 7 x 365 service.
  3. How will they respond to problems? Let’s say there are signs of trouble in your network, suspicious activities, or an outright emergency. How will your MSP respond? Who is actually responsible, and what will they do? Are there limits to what their monitoring service can detect? While you don’t need to know all of the technical details, you should get a clear sense of how they will use network monitoring to act effectively and swiftly.
  4. Will they let you know what’s going on? It’s important to establish clear communication between you and your MSP, including protocols for when they notify you about problems. Even when there aren’t any problems, they should give you regular reports about the state of your IT health, along with recommendations for changes to improve the security, productivity, and cost-effectiveness of your IT set-up.
  5. What kind of information will they give you? Ideally, your MSP will use the information they glean from network monitoring to give you a strong picture of your IT infrastructure, its strengths, and its potential weaknesses. They should provide you with advice for how to strengthen your network’s performance and security. Instead of just doing the bare minimum to keep your network going, they should actively contribute to its strength and development, with an eye towards supporting your business goals and activities.

Please contact us for further information about our round-the-clock proactive network monitoring. We’re dedicated to improving and maintaining the health of your IT infrastructure.

Your Managed Service Provider (MSP) Can Strengthen Your Company with Scalability

Manage Service, ,
20160603

Bolster your team with the support of a MSP.

When you hire a high-quality Managed Service Provider (MSP) to handle your company’s IT activities, you’re getting more than just IT support. You’re also receiving services that will help you anticipate the future and sustain your company’s growth.

An important quality that companies need in their IT activities is scalability. Given the rate of technological change, and the fact that companies often need to expand to accommodate larger scale operations and more employees, scalability is critical to supporting business growth.

How can your MSP contribute to scalability?

Your MSP will provide your company with scalable IT solutions, helping you succeed as your business develops and new technologies emerge.

A recent article from eWeek lists scalability as one of ten best practices IT professionals must bring to their work. It’s vital for your company’s development and growth. Imagine that you need to launch a new operation but find yourself getting held back by unexpectedly limited capacities or resources. This could prove devastating to your company’s success. Scalability allows for rapid changes and gives you the flexibility to undergo new developments, whether it’s your need to grow, to scale back, or to direct your company down a new path.

What are some activities that demand scalability?

  • Hiring new employees. With new employees, you need to accommodate new devices, expanded software services, and a greater amount of data getting generated in the course of business operations. Employees often use multiple devices, such as desktop computers, laptops, and smartphones. Can your IT solutions readily encompass these new devices and the data they process and transmit?
  • Managing data. Your company’s activities produce enormous quantities of data, and the volume can continue growing at a rapid pace. Data needs to get managed well: stored, protected, backed up, and organized, particularly when it’s critical data. Your data management solutions must be scalable. You need to always have enough space for your data, and that space must remain secure against cyber attacks and other IT disasters.
  • Keeping your company secure. Cyber criminals are always looking out for vulnerabilities in your devices and network defenses. Strong cyber security involves round-the-clock network monitoring to detect suspicious activities. Scalability is a key quality for your cyber security plan. No matter what new devices or programs you incorporate into your business activities, your cyber security solutions must cover them immediately.
  • Determining software usage. Certain kinds of software you need throughout the year, while in other cases a program may prove necessary only for certain weeks or months. Scalability allows you to govern software usage in a cost-effective way, so that you’re paying for services only when you need them. Scalability also lets you quickly give new employees access to your software, and remove their access or privileges when necessary.

The benefits of scalability

In addition to sustaining your company’s continued development, scalable IT solutions can save you money in the long-run; you don’t waste money on hardware or software that you don’t need. Because scalable solutions can accommodate rapid changes, they also help you stay productive, free from unnecessary downtime. And they remain responsive to your needs, both short-term and long-term. You remain better prepared for whatever changes your company faces in the future.

Cultivating and maintaining scalability is a challenge, and only a high-quality MSP can help you meet it successfully. To further discuss scalability, please contact us. When we work as your MSP, we provide you with IT solutions that are tailored to your company. We’re always on the lookout for new technologies that enable you to benefit from scalability in a cost-effective way. You won’t have to worry about IT solutions that are unnecessarily inflexible and keep your company from reaching its full potential.

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

Manage Service, ,
20160512

MSPs provide the necessary foresight to success.

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

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

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

How can your MSP help you prepare for the future?

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

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

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

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

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