Tag Archives: MSP

Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Machine Learning

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Partnering with your managed service provider is key to setting your business up for success.

There are so many IT innovations and trends that are being introduced and followed, and many of them are catching the attention and imagination of Managed Service Providers(MSPs). One of the advances that is capturing the attention of Managed Service Providers is machine learning due to its ability to automate a variety of processes and operations at different levels.

When machine learning is used in business, it can significantly help businesses enhance their overall scalability and improve their overall business operations. Machine learning and other artificial intelligence tools have continued to grow in popularity in the business analytics industry. Machine learning has also seen a growth in popularity due to several factors, including the following:

  • easy access to data
  • faster computational processes
  • an increased volume of data
  • more access to affordable data storage

As a result of these factors and the popularity of machine learning, businesses can now use machine learning and implement it into their business strategy. Machine learning can help your business or organization extract vital information from a large set of raw data. If you are able to implement machine learning the right way, it will be an overall better solution to many of the challenges and problems your business may have, and you may also be able to predict some of the challenging behaviors your customers may have.

There are several ways machine learning can help your business, including the following:

Predictive Maintenance

Many businesses and organizations follow preventive maintenance strategies and practices, and these are often rather costly and ineffective. However, with the arrival of machine learning, companies and organizations in the manufacturing industry can use machine learning to locate relevant insight and connections in their factory data. This can help reduce any chance of risks that may be associated with unforeseen mistakes or failures. Machine Learning construction or planning can be created using the following:

  • historical data
  • visualization tools
  • analysis environment

Recognizing Spam/Malware

Did you know that machine learning can be used to detect spam? It has actually been used to detect spam for a significant amount of time now. In the past, email service providers have used various filters and tools to remove spam. Today, there are different rules and guidelines that need to be followed as far as spam filtering. Neutral networks are now being used to locate spam, malware, phishing, etc.

Enhancing Cyber Security

In addition to recognizing spam and malware, cyber security can also be used to increase security in a business or organization to a greater extent. Machine learning will allow providers to create better and newer technologies. These technologies can be used to detect hidden threats.

Picture Recognition

Face recognition or image recognition has the ability to produce various types of information from the images that have been captured and the data that has been captured. Image recognition involves a variety of things, including the following:

  • pattern recognition
  • data mining

Image recognition through machine learning is a vital asset and it has been used by companies and organizations across multiple industries.

Enhancing Customer Experience

Machine learning can play a huge role in enhancing the customer service experience by increasing the number of satisfied customers. Machine learning can be used to obtain previous email records, call records, etc. Machine learning can also be used to analyze the behaviors of customers. As a result, customers will be assigned to the customer service representative or executive that fits the customer’s needs. This can significantly reduce financial costs and the amount of time that it takes to effectively manage a relationship with customers.

Are you currently using machine learning in your business or organization? If you are planning to implement machine learning in the future, what do you hope to achieve through machine learning? Machine learning is growing at a fast pace and it is currently being driven by new technologies.

Managed Service Providers continue to look for bigger and better solutions to the problems that customers have. Not only are they looking for new resources and technologies, but they are also looking for services that can help them overcome the challenges and obstacles they are facing across various industries. There is a strong belief that MSPs can have greater success by adopting new security solutions that use machine learning and other capabilities.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to us today for more information on machine learning and how it is being used by Managed Service Providers.

10 IoT Implementation and Management Tips for Businesses – Part 2

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IoT Implementation and Management Tips for Businesses

Welcome back to the second half of our article about integrating new IoT technology into your business network. Last time, we covered the basics of IoT in the office including how to choose your hub and set up your first routines. Today, we’re here to discuss how to secure your IoT so your business network is safe while these devices communicate constantly with the internet. Join us as we pick up where we left off.

Secure IoT Setup

Your next concern, after deciding the hub and devices you want to start with, is to make sure your IoT network is secure. IoT devices are notorious targets for hacking. Some older models are very poorly designed for defense and even modern business IoT devices with good security are still under-secured by the companies that implement them. Here’s how to properly secure your IoT:

5. Create a Separate Wifi Network for IoT Devices

First, create a completely separate wifi network for all IoT devices. Not a spin-off or a subnetwork, but completely security-separate. This way, if even one IoT device is hacked, it cannot possibly provide the hacker with access to your internal business network. A separate wifi network is your first and last line of defense. Hackers (and their malware) will not be able to reach your employee workstations, your servers, or customer data because they will find nothing but other IoT devices if the IoT network is hacked.

6. Rock-Solid Firewalls and Virus Detection Software

Along the same lines, equip that separate network with the strongest firewalls and virus detection software available to you. Be sure to take the time and customize the settings on the firewall to be sure that only IoT activity is allowed through. This is another line of defense that will keep your IoT devices safe from opportunistic hackers. If it’s too difficult to access your network, hackers will generally seek greener pastures.

7. Change Default Login Credentials for Each Device

Finally, be sure to change the admin login credentials for every single IoT device you integrate. Many devices don’t make this easy or offer to help you change these credentials, so many IoT devices are still accessible through their factory-set credentials. Hackers then learn what the default credentials are which can grant them direct access to any IoT device that has not been secured.

 

Improving IoT Performance

With everything else secured, you may want to put some thought into improving the performance of your IoT Devices.

8. Check Wifi Strength in Device Locations

One of the problems businesses have had in the past with IoT is weak wifi signal. IoT devices like lightbulbs and security cameras are sometimes placed high up and away from where employees use the wifi on a regular basis. Your wifi signal may have trouble reaching the locations where you want to put them.

One way to help your office is to check the signal strength of each location before you place the device. Signal boosters and repeaters may extend the wifi range so that you can have more far-flung IoT devices.

9. Prioritize Security and Streaming Bandwidth Use

IoT functions are sometimes demanding in wifi bandwidth, but some functions are more important than others. Work with your network admin to prioritize the security, communication, and streaming bandwidth use while de-prioritizing less important functions and features that can wait their turn for bandwidth.

10. Integrate Mobile Control

Voice control is the primary focus of IoT smart devices, but mobile control should not be underestimated. The ability to control your business IoT devices through manager and employee mobile devices is incredibly powerful. Devices can be controlled or communicated with by someone out of the office, by any employee inside the office, or with greater precision using the right mobile app. Consider mobile control integration potential for your business when optimizing your company IoT.

IoT is the future of business technology, but integrating it with your business naturally requires some amount of effort and care. With the help of skilled IT professionals, you can quickly have your business IoT plan in place, secure, and ready to use. Contact us today to find out more about the best implementation strategies for IoT in your business.

10 IoT Implementation and Management Tips for Businesses – Part 1

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Implementing IoT in the Office does it have a place in the office?

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a trendy term for an incredibly useful new type of device: Smart devices. Devices that respond to Wi-Fi commands through web portals and mobile device. And they have an undeniable place in the modern office. The uses for IoT range from turning off an entire floor of lights with a word to remotely managing building security. With specialized business IoT devices, your office can likely do even more than the basic applications that have been imagined. Particularly if IoT is combined with “Smart Home” voice hub technology.

This article will outline the top tips for implementing and managing a network of IoT devices in your business.

 

Implementing IoT in the Office

Bringing IoT into the office starts with your choice of IoT technology.

1. Choose Your Hub

The first step is to choose the smart hub you want to use. While you can manage your IoT devices through individual portals and apps, the most complete and useful experience comes from something only offered by a hub that can use ‘skills’ to manipulate all of your IoT devices on command without worrying about which brand made them or which app controls them.

Alexa is winning the race for Smart Home hubs, and more devices respond to Alexa than other hubs. However, Microsoft is quickly dominating the market for a business IoT hub through Azure. The important thing is that you choose a hub that works with the devices you want to use and interacts in a way that works for your business.

Whatever hub you choose, you’ll need to place a hub speaker anywhere you want commands to be heard.

2. Start with Smart Lights

If your business is new to IoT, the best place to start is smart lights. It is cool to turn one light on and off with a voice command, without walking to the switch. It’s an efficiency miracle to turn on or off an entire floor of lights without running from switch to switch. Smart lights can improve your energy efficiency and save loads of time for anyone who opens or closes each day. Not to mention the ability to control brightness and the occasional use of party colors.

3. Create Helpful Routines Anyone Can Use

An IoT routine is a group of device commands enacted by a single trigger. For example, you can set every single light on a routine and turn them off by saying “Turn Off All Lights” or you can separate the routines floor by floor with commands like “Turn On Finance Lights”. Of course, routines can do much more than that. You could, for example, set up a routine called “Good Morning Office” that turns on the lights, starts the smart coffee pot brewing, warms up the printer, and unlocks the smart lock on the front door as well.

Be sure to create a few routines that everyone in the office can use on command, like lights or coffee pot controls, to make your office more responsive and intuitive overall.

4. Specialty Routines for Business Purposes

You will also likely want a few specialty routines known only to the teams meant to use them. IoT security, for example, does not need publicly available routines but the security team may be able to do some interesting and useful tasks with voice-command cameras and other IoT Security devices.

Of course, installing IoT in your office is only the first half of the process. As any IT security professional can tell you, the cost for all that accessibility is an increased cybersecurity risk. Fortunately, IoT can easily be secured by following the right separation and recovery steps which we’ll be covering in the second half of this article. Join us next time for part two where we’ll talk about how to ensure your new IoT gadgets are not a security risk for your internal business network. Contact us today to find out more about adding IoT functionality to your business!

It’s Better to Use Managed Service Providers

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Are you ready to outsource your IT needs?

It’s natural to want to save money wherever possible — and what smart businesses don’t do this? Relatively small businesses whose owners happen to be tech-savvy can get away with managing their own computers and equipment. However, for larger types of businesses with several computers, it’s not practical to manage their own IT even if the owners are tech-savvy. This is due to the fact that large businesses consume too much time via administration or other ways to be able to effectively manage their own IT infrastructure — and this isn’t even factoring in stress. To run a large business and attempt to manage the computer infrastructure on top of that would make life pretty dull — and exhausting. What satisfaction comes from a large business when it’s owner attempts to run the whole show themselves? There really isn’t any.

This is why using managed service providers is a novel idea. Instead of the owner, manager, or employees attempting to manage the computer infrastructure, they can focus on business productivity and leave the tech stuff to professionals. Outsourcing routine management of computer systems to service providers not only helps save time, but it saves potential disaster. Many successful businesses have suffered great losses due to their computer systems not being properly managed — when devices stop working, repairs are often attempted by those who are not familiar enough with the systems being repaired, and in some cases cause more damage than the original problem being fixed. For small computer systems or networks where productivity disruption is not a big issue, self attempts at repair are generally more acceptable — but not with relatively large businesses. Data preservation and restoration in the event of disasters or breakdowns in and of themselves can be sophisticated without even getting into device repair or maintenance. Let’s expand a little bit on some points above.

Stress

So your business just received its first major payoff. All the planning, hard work, sweat, and tears are paying off and the prospect is looking bright. The bucks keep rolling in but there never seems to be time to enjoy the fruits of the labor due to the desire to save as much money as possible — by attempting to self-manage the computer infrastructure. It’s great that the talent to achieve such a task can be retained, but let’s not forget why we start businesses in the first place — it’s aspiration toward freedom from the general boundaries of an average employment. By attempting to manage every aspect of the business, the joy of starting the business in the first place can be easily negated.

Time

This point sort of goes back to what was discussed about stress. However, although more time spent toward managing a business can increase stress, managing computers steals time away from the productivity side of the business. Take the following as an example: An important business associate is on phone and content of certain E-mails are being discussed — then, suddenly, access to E-mail goes down postponing the productivity of the phone call. Whether the E-mail connectivity went down due to postponed maintenance or something breaking down, the business is on the hook to take care of the broken E-mail in addition to — hopefully — resuming the productivity of the lost phone conversation.

Risk

Self-management of computer infrastructures carries risk through various means. Some of those are loss of productivity, lost time, and lost money — all due to inefficient attempts at repair, maintenance, backup and restore, and perhaps physical illness due to being overstressed. Imagine performing a routine backup of customer data and when the time of year comes around to reach out to customers via E-mail marketing, it’s discovered that the entire customer-information database has been wiped out and unrecoverable due to an overlooked detail in the backup system.

Examples of risks are numerous and can generally be avoided by outsourcing to managed service providers. SystemsNet has sufficient experience and manpower to deal with the needs of large businesses. Please contact us to discuss how we can help your business.