Businesses have always relied on technology in at least some capacity, whether it’s hosting an email server or platform or using a word processor for various tasks. Many companies, however, struggle with technology procurement, management, and maintenance for a variety of reasons. Let’s take a look at what some of these reasons are, as well as how managed services can relieve these pressures to create a better experience for your company as a whole.

Businesses often struggle with finding talent, and a variety of factors can contribute to this. Some are limited by their geographic location, although this has been made significantly less of a factor thanks to remote technology, whereas others might be limited by budget. Thankfully, outsourcing is a great way to shore up weaknesses in your organization’s operations, particularly for finding IT talent.

For many businesses, despite the incredible benefits that technology can provide, it is often a source of great stress. This is especially true for the small business owner, who often has much more restrictive parameters to work with, such as a limited budget, workforce, and even the workspace or office. How can organizations like yours stay competitive against companies that have so many more resources available to them? One answer, in terms of technology management, is managed services.

For most of the past years small business owners have been raked over the coals as dealing with sudden economic and political shifts isn’t often great on the budget. In fact, many businesses haven’t made it this far. If yours has, you are almost certainly looking for value in every business investment that you make. There are few investments that you can make for your business that carry more value than managed IT services. Today, we’ll tell you how.

Working in technology can be illuminating. We constantly are coming across situations that we’ve never seen before. Sometimes this is the result of how fast technology moves, and sometimes it has to do with a business’ IT strategy; but, regardless of the issues we are asked to fix, we realize that without our clients, we’d be nothing. That’s why we decided to discuss some of the variables that every business owner should know about managed IT services.

Your organization needs its technology to fuel its day-to-day operations. That means they need to be maintained. Organizations that don’t have an IT department will often look to use different strategies to ensure their IT is up and running. Without the proper expertise, however, keeping this technology maintained can be a major problem. 

Do you have any idea when the last time your copier was serviced? Do you know if the software your business depends on has been updated and patched? If you have no idea about the answers to these questions, you may be staring disaster in the face. This month we thought we’d discuss how you can ensure that your technology is managed and how you can keep your business from being jeopardized by a catastrophic operational problem. 

The COVID-19 outbreak has put a lot of pressure on small businesses. In fact, many have been forced to close down operations until the situation ends. For those that are able to keep operations up and running there are likely to be some difficult decisions that will have to be made. We’re here to help by offering comprehensive IT support and services that will help keep your business up and running efficiently and securely at a time when many of your competitors might be closing their doors.

About a decade ago--when managed IT services were just starting to gain traction--one of the major selling points was that break/fix was expensive, because not only was the machine you needed fixed, broken, your business had to eat the cost of downtime. Now that many businesses have benefited from the proactive approach to IT management, and managed IT services are a big part of business for a lot of companies, one question is left unanswered: What happens when technology breaks under a managed IT services agreement? This month, we’ll answer that question.

We’re always trying to get our message out, sharing how our services can bring value to just about any kind of business - including nonprofits and municipalities - seeing as just about every business today relies on technology to some degree. Here, we wanted to demonstrate how that value can present itself through managed services.

The information technology solutions that are out there for businesses to utilize are constantly improving. While these improvements are beneficial to your operational abilities, you do need to make sure you are staying up to date. This is where a managed service provider can help. Here, in the final part of our series exploring the value of managed services, we’re considering procurement assistance.

Data is of key importance to many modern businesses, and with the help of a managed service provider, it can become even more useful. Here, as we continue our series on the value that a managed service provider can offer you, we’ll focus on the ways that data can be harnessed to your business’ advantage.

The business that manufactures products is first and foremost interested in efficiency. They need their processes to turn out product, be cost effective, and be repeatable. The aim of IT services for manufacturers is to help facilitate efficient and effective processes starting with procurement of resources through to the support of the goods. 

Your employees appreciate when you give them all the tools they need to complete their day-to-day tasks. If you take the time to provide them with everything they need to do their jobs, then they will, in turn, provide you with a higher rate of productivity and work quality. One way you can make this happen is by giving them access to the technical assistance they need to succeed.

Your business’ technology solutions might be a major point of contention for your bottom line, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t create value with it. In fact, one of the best ways you can create value for your business’ IT is by implementing a better way of managing it. We’ll walk you through what it means to shift from break-fix IT to managed IT services, as well as what questions you should ask to expedite the process.

Small businesses with limited budgets and staffing have always had trouble managing and maintaining their technology solutions. Working with limited resources doesn’t have to be a challenge, but more often than not, technology creates problems for organizations that don’t have a dedicated IT support system. What if we told you that it didn’t have to be this way, and that accessible IT management is something that all businesses can achieve?

Chances are that if you are a business owner that has been in business for a decade you’ve seen how emerging technologies have changed the face of business. Technologies like cloud computing have opened up opportunities for many businesses to get the powerful computing infrastructures they need without massive upfront costs. As this trend continues, the IT services has begun to move past core IT management and support and onto providing real solutions for the modern business. Today, we will look at how the Managed Service Provider (MSP) is at the forefront of a data revolution that has no end in sight.

One of the best reasons to implement managed IT services is the value it presents for your business compared to the alternatives. Businesses may have once depended on unreliable and expensive services to keep their IT up and running, but nowadays, it’s more efficient and, in most cases, more affordable than ever before. We’ll explain how managed service providers can create value opportunities for your business.

Managing business technology is not easy, especially if your budget doesn’t accommodate an internal IT department. You want professionals who know what they are doing to be the first ones handling your organization’s technology solutions, but sometimes this simply isn’t possible. While the concept of outsourcing technology management and maintenance to a third party sounds strange at first glance, it sure beats just about any other alternative out there--and for good reason.

How does your organization manage its mission-critical technology solutions? We know that most small businesses have some sort of trouble with this topic, either due to budget constraints or a lack of personnel. Either way, we know that there is a better way to manage your business’ technology, and it’s all thanks to managed IT services.