As a business leader, you might be hesitant to make a change with what you’re doing with IT because you don’t have the technical background needed to compare different managed IT service companies. If your goal is to augment your internal IT team, there will certainly be some technical questions that your IT manager will want answered. However, whether you’re looking for a co-managed or fully outsourced solution, what you, as an executive, really need to determine is: As you gather the information that will answer these two questions, you’ll be able to paint a picture of what it will […]

When your business runs on technology (and whose doesn’t?) you need to be confident that your IT team has the expertise and bandwidth to do everything that needs to be done. Whether you have an internal IT manager and staff, or someone “good with technology” overseeing IT, there can come a time when you’re not convinced that what they can provide is enough. This puts your organization in a precarious position because when the balls start to drop, you’re going to suffer the impact. Impacts like downtime, employee and customer frustration, loss of competitive advantage, and even cyber-attacks. The good […]

The starting place for technology strategy is a mindset. It’s an awareness that IT is more than just overhead, an awareness that IT is not only integral to keep business operations humming along, but that it can be used to move the business forward. While technology strategy includes the utilization of best practices to create and scale high functioning IT systems, there is no cookie cutter template that you can use to create IT strategy. Strategy sets out a path to take you from where you are today, to where you want to go tomorrow and that’s unique for every […]

Wondering if your small business needs the benefits of a managed IT service provider is like asking if you need a guide to scale Mount Everest. Theoretically, you could do the climb yourself but how many years would it take for you to gather all the knowledge you need about the terrain? And how long would it take to get your technical skills up to the level that they need to be? And what’s it going to take to manage the whole expedition? By the time you get it all together you might very well have missed your chance to […]

The term “Managed IT Services” isn’t new but unfortunately, there are a lot of companies that say they’re “managed” but they’re really not. How can you tell the difference and how do you know if that’s what your organization needs? Start by asking yourself, “Is IT serving our business?” Here’s what we mean by serving your business. Imagine that you hired someone to take half the workload off your plate. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Now imagine that instead of decreasing your work, it doubled because that person couldn’t do what you wanted them to do without your constant supervision and […]

Effective help desk services are critical during this time of increased remote work. Employees can no longer ask the person sitting next to them for help. Instead, they have to figure out a solution on their own or contact the help desk. Unfortunately they are often underwhelmed by the response that they get. Help desk are often understaffed and overworked, so they focus on closing tickets quickly rather than end user satisfaction. Often companies have their own help desks, but aren’t able to provide those teams with adequate training and support. This results in internal help desks that are often […]