MSPNetworks Blog

In business, experience is always useful. Nowhere is that more apparent than when managing your organization’s IT infrastructure. The problem is that acquiring the expertise to do just that can be quite confusing for most business owners. Today, we’ll talk about how technology management experience can produce better business from one end to the other. 

Value of Modern IT

For any-sized business, the use of technology can present huge steps forward in terms of productivity and efficiency. For the business that actively tries to find the right technology to aid its operations, it can be maddening and frustrating. This is because there is seemingly an endless amount of options available, all of which promise to help build a better business. The thing is, not all technology that works for one business, works for another. 

The technology consultants at MSPNetworks work daily with New York businesses to help them get the technology to drive their business initiatives forward. This isn’t just about getting computers set up, it’s about getting the tools into a business that can work to make productivity easier, automate menial tasks, and build an efficient workforce that doesn’t have to struggle to collaborate. 

The value of modern IT can be immeasurable if it is implemented and supported correctly. That’s why having experienced technicians that understand both the fundamentals of supporting business technology and how it works to improve a business’ operational effectiveness is important. 

Experience With Business Technology

As far as delivering the right technology, technicians with experience not only understand how a business can utilize certain solutions to solve operational problems, but they also understand the potential value it has to a business as a whole. The procurement of new technology can be difficult for people that don’t know exactly what is needed to accomplish organizational goals.

Since most businesses have to be diligent about choosing prudent technology investments, having experienced perspectives is a great benefit that can go beyond dollars and cents; it can create environments where workers can be the most productive and allow business leaders to build processes that can bring a level of consistency that isn’t found in businesses that don’t have expert perspective driving their IT investments. 

In business today there are a lot of considerations to be made about IT. Does your business use remote workers? Does it have systems that need more security or more transparency? Most important of all, can it build the dynamic IT infrastructure you need to forge ahead confidently? With MSPNetworks consultants working to help build your business’ technology, you can gain the peace of mind needed to know that you are getting the IT you need affordably. This makes for a more reliable technology environment. 

Experience with Support

Getting the right technology is only half the battle. If it isn’t supported, managed, and maintained correctly, you might as well flush money down the toilet. The key to a reliable IT infrastructure is expert support. This means experienced IT technicians that know what they are looking for/at and that are able to reliably keep your technology up and running efficiently and securely.

Today, there are more threats than ever, and that is before you consider that technology breaks. To ensure that your business doesn’t grind to a halt with technology problems, having experienced IT experts actively working on keeping your IT running effectively is more important than ever. Of course, you can hire IT staff to accomplish this, but if your business can’t afford the thousands of dollars a month that a professional IT technician would command, considering a managed service provider like MSPNetworks is your best option. Not only can you have experienced IT technicians at the ready if something happens, they work proactively to ensure that you don’t have to deal with productivity-sapping downtime. 

Business IT can get complicated, but at MSPNetworks we pride ourselves on being a solution to our clients’ IT problems, not another problem. Give us a call at (516) 403-9001 today to talk to one of our consultants about how we can help you get the most out of your business. 

More businesses than ever before are seeing the value of outsourcing their technology management to a managed service provider (MSP) and it’s easy to see why. With a more hands-off approach to technology management, businesses can focus on delivering quality goods and services instead of worrying about their technology. If you are considering jumping on the MSP wagon, consider asking the following questions to make sure you understand what you are getting from your provider.

What Services Do You Offer?

It helps to know what services an MSP is capable of offering to your organization, specifically because it helps to establish expectations and inform your ability to add or remove services according to your specific needs. For example, if you can foresee a situation where your business wants to move to a more cloud-based infrastructure environment, you want to ensure that your provider offers services like cloud hosting and cloud migration. Otherwise, why would you consider them?

How Experienced Are Your Technicians?

When it comes to your technology, you don’t want some greenhorn handling it. You want a seasoned and experienced technician who has had their fair share of time working with business technology solutions. This is especially the case in a world where security needs to be at the forefront of every business owner’s mind. You want technicians who both know what they are doing and are knowledgeable enough to distill complex ideas into easily-understood concepts.

What is the Service Level Agreement?

The service level agreement, or SLA, is an agreement between your business and the service provider which dictates the services rendered and the costs associated with them. It might include information such as how much you pay, which services are included with that payment, how often you pay for your services, and so on. Basically, asking this question helps to determine what kind of expectations you have from your MSP and the services they provide for you based on what you pay.

Get Started with Managed Services Today

If your business is considering working with a managed service provider to fill the technology skills gap that so many companies find themselves with, we encourage you to think local and work with MSPNetworks for your needs. Our trusted and trained technicians can work with your team to ensure that technology is never a pain point for your business again.

Plus, depending on your specific needs, we can either fulfill the roles of a full-fledged IT department, act as a consultant, implement new technology solutions, operate as a help desk, and so much more. Our services are truly customizable to suit your company’s specific needs.

To learn more about how we can support your business goals, call us today at (516) 403-9001.

It’s easy to use the terms “patches” and “updates” as if they mean the same thing, and they are often used interchangeably within the same context. However, understanding the difference between the two can make a world of difference in terms of how you approach implementing each of them. We’re here to clear things up a bit and help you better understand the patches and updates you deploy on a month-to-month basis.

What is the Big Difference?

Patches and updates are critical to ensuring that your devices and mission-critical software are kept secure from potential threats. Over time, vulnerabilities or operational issues which impact security could arise, and software developers rise to the occasion to resolve them by issuing these patches and updates. The big difference between the two is scope and scale.

Patches are generally used for quick fixes to specific problems which need attention. You can think of it like patching a rip or tear in a piece of clothing. You get a piece of fabric, throw it over the problem, and sew it on for a fix.

Updates, on the other hand, are more structural in nature, and they are generally larger in scope. They might address multiple problems at once. It’s like changing the fabric of your shirt entirely rather than just patching the hole.

Why Should You Care?

In short, the biggest reason why you should care about the difference between patches and updates is that it could very well impact your ability to do your job correctly.

Let’s say you implement a new update. Yes, it solves several problems with the security infrastructure of your software or applications, but it could very well introduce new bugs or operational issues that either affect the way your team gets work done or your ability to perform specific tasks. Imagine if someone updated your operating system overnight and, all of a sudden, the user interface changes, or a critical task you need to perform no longer works the way you expect it to. You have to take the time to adjust to the update or review documentation to ensure that it’s not going to disrupt your operations too profoundly.

Make Patches and Updates Easy to Apply

We know that applying patches and updates can be a bit disruptive to your day-to-day duties and responsibilities. Furthermore, you don’t want to be applying patches and updates on a whim; you need to approach these carefully to ensure they have minimal negative impacts on your business’ operations. This is why MSPNetworks offers remote patching and security update services. We can apply any patches or updates your systems need without the need for an on-site visit. With our management tools, you can rest assured that someone is keeping an eye out for your systems.

To learn more, reach out to MSPNetworks at (516) 403-9001.

Try as we might, we can’t prevent all computer issues from occurring—for instance, there’s not much that we can do if a stick of RAM dies, at least, not remotely. However, if you’re stuck with a broken computer and need to bring it in for repair work, there are a few things we recommend you do.

Pick a Provider You Trust

The hard truth of the matter is that some places are just a better option than others when it comes to your hardware repair needs. There are, of course, differences in the quality of services rendered, but also in how these services are rendered. For instance, it is important that you take the provider’s privacy policies into consideration. Just consider how much data you’re handing over to your provider in the hopes that they’ll keep it secure.

Before you entrust your technology to just any repair service or maintenance provider, do a bit of research and ask a few questions. For instance, what kind of privacy policy do they have? What—in detail—do they do to ensure your data remains secure, and if your data happens to be leaked, what measures will be implemented to mitigate the damage? You need to be confident that your provider is going to provide their services responsibly.

Maintain a Data Backup (Just in Case)

Okay, just to be clear: there is generally a very, very small chance that a repair shop will cause data loss. Saying this, very, very small isn’t zero. This is just one more reason that a data backup is so crucial. Disasters can come in all shapes and sizes, and accidental or unavoidable data loss during maintenance would qualify as such. Abiding by a BDR (backup and disaster recovery) strategy can mitigate the negative effects of these circumstances.

If Possible, Remove or Protect Your Personal Data

Without questioning the overall trustworthiness of any business or organization you choose to work with, there’s once again a non-zero chance that there’s a less-than-scrupulous employee there who might be tempted to take advantage of the data on the device being repaired. If you can, it is always better to remove this data before handing the device over, although storing the data in an encrypted state is also advisable. That way, even if your data is accessed, it won’t do the person responsible any good.

Retain Your Software Keys

Software is critically important for your productivity, so you’ll want to also have the ability to—just in case the repair process removes it—reinstall the software you rely on. To do so, you’ll need to have the software keys to activate it. Keeping these keys will therefore be a form of insurance for everything, from your productivity software down to the operating system itself.

Just in This Case, Make Your Device Easily Accessible

This is the one exception to our typical rule, as you don’t want the support professional to have any more difficulty than they already will have in dealing with the issue. To do this, they’ll need access. Removing the password requirement to log in will help.

On a related note, you might consider writing up a brief description of what the user is experiencing and providing it along with the device. If your device is in a condition that allows it, you can have a file containing this information display upon startup by saving a copy ro the Startup folder (found here: %appdata%\\microsoft\\windows\\start menu\\programs\\startup\\)

Things Break, So It Pays Off to Be Prepared to Fix Them

With what amounts to a guarantee that things are going to break at some point, it only makes sense to be fully prepared to deal with this outcome. The above list is a great starting point. Working with an MSP can make all of this (and more) far easier to manage.

An MSP (or managed service provider) like us can not only assist you in obtaining hardware maintenance services, we can remotely monitor it to detect software and hardware issues and resolve any issues we can preemptively. Working with us could be the difference between an extended downtime incident and a slight hiccup.

Interested in learning more about the benefits to be had from a managed service agreement? Give us a call at (516) 403-9001 today!

When it comes to implementing new technology solutions for your business, there is always a desire to solve some sort of problem. Maybe you are not as productive as you would like to be, or perhaps there is an operational inefficiency that you hope to address or streamline through the use of the technology. Either way, the end result is the same; you are trying to make progress and move forward, not over-complicate your infrastructure.

Believe it or not, businesses of all types have to grapple with issues that implementing new technology comes with, regardless of how much IT support or resources are available. It all boils down to the central question of, “What problem am I aiming to solve with this technology?” If you understand the problem, you can start taking steps toward finding the appropriate solution. Unfortunately for businesses, however, the solution to the problem is not always clear-cut.

For example, let’s say that two companies are looking to increase the accessibility of network resources for remote employees. The obvious solution is to host these resources in the cloud so that they can be accessed from any location, provided the device is familiar and is properly secured. In this case, the problem is the same, but the solution will vary depending on a variety of factors.

For one, in the above scenario, the business’s pre-existing resources will dramatically change the way that this cloud solution is implemented. If the company has the technology infrastructure to host its own cloud server, then that becomes an option, provided that the organization has enough technical know-how to deploy, manage, and maintain said infrastructure. On the other hand, if the company does not have these kinds of resources, then perhaps the best solution for their cloud needs might be to outsource this responsibility to a managed service provider. The provider would then be able to host, manage, and maintain the cloud solution for the company.

Notice how in both scenarios, the companies are examining their problems and potential solutions, as well as the resources that will determine the initiative’s success. This is the key to making progress toward resolving problems with your IT infrastructure; if you can accurately gauge what must be done and what allows you to get it done, you will have a much greater chance of overcoming the issues associated with implementing new technology.

MSPNetworks understands the many pitfalls that organizations can face when implementing new technology solutions, and avoiding these starts with understanding your business’ current needs and the problems that must be solved. We can help you make these difficult decisions through a comprehensive network assessment and infrastructure audit that can identify potential areas of improvement. From here, you can use the information to make informed and educated decisions for your company’s technology needs.

You can count on MSPNetworks to be there for every step of the process, from identifying problems to recommending solutions, as well as implementing said solutions and training your team on how to use them effectively. To get started, give us a call today at (516) 403-9001.

Cloud computing is a monster of a topic in and of itself, perhaps more so than most people might expect. Let’s define what cloud management is and take a closer look at what goes into properly managing your cloud-based resources.

What Does Cloud Management Really Mean?

“The cloud” can mean many things, some of which have different contexts depending on the company and industry it is a part of. The differences come from how they make use of resources and the capabilities their solution can offer, as well as what the solution is used for. Some of the more popular options include the public cloud, the private cloud, or a combination of the two called a hybrid cloud.

In terms of usage, many companies use the cloud for data storage and processing, application hosting and delivery, and improving accessibility of information in a way that would make on-premise solutions blush.

You can see how the cloud can make certain processes easier, but it also comes with its fair share of complications to consider. This is why managing your cloud-based resources is extremely important.

What Tools Can Help You Manage Your Cloud Resources?

No matter how you choose to implement the cloud, you can bet that there are resources out there and tools to use that can help you get the most out of your cloud solution. Depending on your needs, you might need differing levels of resource management tools, scalability, automation, compliance, performance monitoring, and so on.

These needs will generally require different technologies that adhere to best practices. Here are a couple of examples:

• For scalability, your cloud management tools should be compatible with new and improving technology, as well as different networking environments.
• For compliance, you must know who owns the various resources that your organization makes use of, as well as their roles in its management.
• For performance management, you should establish status review measures and automatic scaling according to your resource requirements. It is important that this be done proactively rather than after the fact.

MSPNetworks can assist you in putting your cloud resources to their optimal use.

If you need a hand with managing your cloud solutions, MSPNetworks can help. To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

IT support is a major pain point for small businesses. While they understand that technology is not something to be trifled with, they often have to pass on getting the most comprehensive service out there in favor of saving capital for other parts of business. 

There are three pillars of comprehensive IT support that all businesses should consider when implementing a new service provider or IT resource: enterprise-grade security measures, a focus on proactive maintenance, and a single point of contact for all technology assistance. Let’s discuss why each of these are important for any organization looking to take technology management seriously.

Enterprise-Grade Security Measures

We won’t beat around the bush. Security is absolutely critical for not just large enterprises with high-profile technology infrastructures, but small businesses as well, even those that don’t think they have anything worth stealing. All it takes is one small mistake to send your business into damage control mode, so you must do all that you can to protect your business with powerful enterprise-grade security solutions designed to protect your business in a comprehensive manner.

A Focus on Proactive Maintenance

When thinking about technology, there is a lot that can go wrong. You have software bugs, data loss incidents, data breaches, botched hardware or software deployments, the list goes on. Many of these issues can be addressed proactively before they even become problems, and some even have warning signs that give you a chance to react before they spiral out of control. By focusing on this more proactive method of administering maintenance, you keep yourself from suffering downtime and the hefty replacement costs associated with hardware failure, data breaches, data loss, and anything else that can go wrong over the course of operations.

A Single Point of Contact

IT infrastructures are complex with a lot of moving parts, all of which require intensive knowledge in order to maintain them properly. The last thing you want to do is reach out to your plethora of vendors in order to get the individualized support required for each specific part of your infrastructure whenever something goes wrong. It is much easier to just pick up the phone and call your managed IT provider to handle anything technology-related with a single phone call. This saves you time--time that can be better spent getting back to work and being productive.

MSPNetworks understands the tenets of comprehensive IT support to a great extent. We provide managed IT services that are designed to help your business focus on what it does best rather than worry about managing IT properly. Let us help you take this hands-off approach to your technology today; get started by giving us a call at (516) 403-9001.

All businesses, in some way, shape, or form, exist to generate revenue—whether their profits are retained for their own benefit or dedicated to supporting some other cause. Either way, this balance makes the difference between the investments a business makes and the return these investments see a critical consideration. By using modern technology, today’s organizations can tip this balance to be more in their favor.

Let’s consider three ways that you could leverage technology to ultimately benefit your cash flows.

Improving Operational Efficiency

Let’s jump right into it and acknowledge something: the more you can effectively accomplish with the time, energy, and resources you’ve invested, the better off your company will be. Today’s technology offers a means of doing so through automation.

Rather than having an employee commit time to certain tasks, modern IT can easily carry out these tasks with minimal oversight or interaction. With predetermined triggers to instigate key processes, you and your team can spend less time on busy work and more on tasks that will help to increase your business’ dealings.

Whether you need to track and organize data, send out repetitive communications, or generate insights and reports, there are some means of carrying these out properly.

Subscribe to Business Services

Business technology is, in a word, expensive. Whether you need a specific software suite to support your operations, or improved infrastructure hardware, or more storage space for your team to use, the associated costs are typically substantial if you plan to support it yourself.

Now, today’s technology opens a new option: cloud-based services. These services can be tailored to better fit the situation of the business using them, in terms of the number of users and specific services rendered. That way, you can optimize your budgetary spend to suit your precise needs, eliminating waste and freeing up more of your budget than otherwise possible. Furthermore, these services give you more flexibility overall, as your delivered services can be trimmed to match your precise needs more closely.

Reconsidering IT Expenses

On the topic of cloud-hosted services, the pricing structure these offer can also assist you in optimizing your budgetary spend. Rather than a single, lump-sum price to be paid up front, the cost of cloud-hosted software services is billed per month as a subscription. This helps to make your expenditures far more predictable, assisting you in managing your available budget, while also offering flexibility as your needs change over time.

Furthermore, not all cloud providers and vendors are created equal, and the market is volatile enough that one service might not always be the best option for you at a given time. Therefore, you should regularly go over your available options to ensure that you are investing as much as you can in the ideal choices.

Managed IT services offer many of these qualities, enabling you to squeeze every bit of value out of the technology you rely on. Find out more about what MSPNetworks can do for you by calling (516) 403-9001.

A business’ budget is the biggest authority over it. As a result, each business needs to spend some time adjusting their operational investments to put itself in the best position to reach its goals… a process that a managed service provider’s help can make much simpler. Let’s review some ways that an MSP can help a business get that much more out of its investment into its IT.

To begin, let’s review how you can optimize your costs (particularly your IT-related costs):

• Digitizing and automating your processes to help eliminate waste and boost efficiency.
• Negotiations can be made for services and solutions, allowing you to reduce your costs.
• Streamlined and standardized resources enable more to be accomplished for a smaller investment.

A managed service provider can enable a business to do all three of these things. For instance, here are just a few services that can help you to optimize the technology-related costs that your business generates.

Vendor Management

Vendors are an important player in a business’ operations but interacting with them can take away from the time you need to spend on your other essential tasks. We can take care of these interactions for you, allowing your focus to remain upon your actual operations. This offers a few additional benefits too, as we likely already have experience working with these vendors and can therefore get some better deals with them on your behalf.

Proactive Maintenance

While technology is an insanely valuable tool for businesses, there is no denying that it comes at a high cost to these businesses as they implement it. In addition to the costs required to acquire and implement it, its maintenance can quickly introduce additional and unpredictable costs that significantly add to the total. The proactive maintenance that an MSP provides and the preemptive issue resolution that can be accomplished enables costs to be saved.

Cloud-Based and Remote Services

Today’s business technology is built in such a way that the services and solutions that are available can be more easily scaled to their needs. As a result, a wider range of businesses can use the tools that support healthy operations—with improved support tacked on—in a financially sustainable way. By working with us, these tools can be embraced and used in the most effective way. This ultimately delivers the most amount of value to the business possible.

With MSPNetworks on your side, your business can accomplish more without overreaching its capabilities. To learn more about how our services could help your business function better, give us a call at (516) 403-9001.

Managed services have quickly become the most reasonable option for businesses of any size to use, and based on what we’ve seen recently, will soon be the only real option for most operations. However, when considering the managed service option, you need to make sure you find a provider with the following capabilities and service offerings:

Speedy Responses

Downtime is the natural enemy of any business, regardless of its cause. If work cannot be completed in a timely manner, there are going to be some consequences. If these interruptions continue for a while, they can make your business’ survival much less likely.

This is precisely why it is so important that your provider needs to be able to diagnose and resolve the source of your downtime as quickly as possible. Ideally, your provider would be able to do so remotely, eliminating the need for travel that would only add to your lost productivity. A guaranteed response time is another promise that an MSP can make, but other providers often cannot.

Disaster Recovery Services

You might not always consider how much the term “disaster” can cover while you’re referring to your business, but it goes far beyond the data loss events or physical infrastructure damage that many tend to focus on. Lost productivity also qualifies, especially that which is brought along when an entire workforce is ordered to stay home. Find out if an IT provider can help you to minimize these interruptions and get you back in business (as much as you are able) as quickly as possible after any conceivable disaster event. This means that your resource will need to have considered the impacts that an event could cause and have prepared a strategy to minimize them.

Support Options

With so many employees now working remotely, it is crucial that they have the means to receive the support they may need to deal with any issues that they may experience. Thanks to their remote capabilities, the managed service provider can still deliver dedicated helpdesk services to your team if need be. As a result, productivity is more likely to be maintained, without trying to convince anyone to make a house call.

Proactive Upkeep

Of course, why leave your technology open to issues during a challenging time at all? An MSP can use their remote solutions to proactively monitor your tools, preventing issues from occurring in your infrastructure by catching them early. With the MSP’s support, your team will see fewer interruptions and obstacles overall, and will be able to accomplish more as a result.

Budgetary Flexibility

Again, current events have demonstrated that effectively anything can throw your business’ budget entirely out the window, which makes it all the more crucial for you to have a provider whose services are scalable, and can be adjusted to suit your circumstances. The MSP’s inclusive pricing structure, tailored to meet your business’ budgetary capability, makes it much simpler to sustain your services throughout the year.

With businesses contending with so much, especially now, their IT support shouldn’t be a pressing issue. Working with MSPNetworks can take these considerations off your plate while assisting you in accomplishing more. If this sounds like a better option for your business to consider, give us a call at (516) 403-9001 to discuss all your options.

Between you and me, how is your business doing financially? If you answered with something along the lines of “not great,” you are certainly not alone. Cash flow is an issue for businesses all around the world, as a recent report from Intuit makes all too clear.

Intuit QuickBooks released the results of a study performed to establish where small businesses stand as far as their cash flow is concerned. This study, entitled The State of Small Business Cash Flow, revealed that cash flow issues have had a significant impact on businesses. Having surveyed 3000 small businesses with fewer than 100 employees in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India, and Australia, Intuit was able to identify a few major business concerns.

Common Issues
According to this survey, 61 percent of small businesses have regular issues with their cash flow, with 42 percent of this group having had a cash flow issue within the past year. Of these businesses, 32 percent have been short on capital - rendering them unable to pay for one of their other obligations, like loans, vendors, or even their employees. Over two-in-five small business owners have faced the prospect of being late with their employees’ payments, while 32 percent have been forced to do so.

In the United States specifically, insufficient cash flow has contributed to considerable missed opportunities. Businesses have lost an average of $43,394 by passing on projects or sales thanks to these insufficiencies, more than half having lost at least $10,000.

Clearly, there’s an issue here.

The Underlying Cause
According to the survey, small businesses in the U.S. average a total of $53,399 in outstanding receivables. That’s $53,399, owed to the business, that has yet to be paid. On average, businesses wait 29 days before their payments are received.

It is this delay that causes the major issues outlined above in businesses.

If you’re tired of waiting around to be paid for your services, reach out to MSPNetworks. We have the expertise to identify and implement the solutions you need to efficiently invoice your clients and customers, providing them with flexible payment options. Reach out to us at (516) 403-9001 to learn more!

The IT guy, Jacob left last month: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. He left without an exit interview, and he didn’t seem very pleased with the way the situation played out. You could never tell if Scrooge cared or not. His demands have never wavered. He expected perfection and when mistakes were made, they were approached as catastrophic affronts to the sustainability of the business, even if that wasn’t the reality.

Scrooge, not missing a beat, and never altering his demanding demeanor, laid the responsibilities that were, up to last month, Jacob’s, at the feet of poor old Bob; with, the expectation that Bob would be able to produce more. Bob was ever the diligent worker, and he never complained, regardless of how much unwanted attention and responsibility was forced onto him. As the holidays approached, Bob was looking forward to the respite from work, even if it was for a day. He was going to spend time with his family. You see, Bob’s daughter Grace fell ill and since Scrooge didn’t believe in offering benefits, the burden of keeping her well fell on Bob’s shoulders.

Just as he did the best that he could for Scrooge, he did the best that he could for his family. The problem was that Christmas is tomorrow and there has been no mention of him getting the day off. At about 1 p.m., after he had eaten the soup his wife had made (the same soup he had been eating for five consecutive working days), he went to Scrooge.

“Mr. Scrooge, I was wondering if I could have the day off tomorrow for Christmas?”

“No, Bob,” Scrooge answered immediately, “We just can’t afford it if you missed any time. It’s not fair or convenient to the business for you to miss any time.”

“But Mr. Scrooge,” Bob pleaded, “My wife is making a roast and I am hosting Christmas.” He went on to observe that it was only one day a year.

“Bah! Humbug.” Scrooge crowed, “It’s a poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every twenty-fifth of December! You’d better be here in the morning, or you can find yourself another job.”

Bob, not wanting to put his job in jeopardy dejectedly answered, “Yes, sir.”

Bob went back to work and toward the end of the day, Scrooge emerged from his office, put on his coat and meandered over to Bob’s desk with a box. He stopped, placed the box on the desk and placed his hand upon the box.

“Bob,” Scrooge started, “I was thinking about your request for time off, and I wanted to tell you that since Jacob left, we just can’t have anyone missing any more time, so just tell your family to come after you get out of work.” Bob was upset, but said nothing.

“I’m headed to my club, I need you to stay tonight and install this new router.” Scrooge tapped the box, “I’m having trouble streaming in my office and want this installed and working before you leave for the day.”

Without saying goodbye, the old miser walked out the door and shuffled up the street toward his car. Bob felt crestfallen. He knew his brother and his family would be at the house when he got home, but not wanting to disobey Mr. Scrooge’s demands. He stayed until just after 8 p.m. making sure that the router was installed properly and that it did, indeed provide Mr. Scrooge’s office with the wireless signal he demanded.

After he finished with the router, he locked up the office and meandered down the street toward his car. Since Scrooge has kept both parking spots in front of the office for himself, Bob had to walk a half a mile to the parking garage. As he made his way there he went into the store to buy his family their Christmas roast. Knowing he wouldn’t be around to enjoy the company of his loved ones, he could at least get a beautiful roast.

He started pricing the meat and realized that he couldn’t afford a roast that was big enough for eight people. He checked his balance, and when the numbers came up on the screen he felt like he wanted to cry. He picked up a small roast and a large chicken, paid, and left for his home.

When Bob got home, his entire family was there. The sadness he was feeling melted away and the Christmas spirit that had escaped him returned with aplomb. His brother’s family had arrived a few hours before and so, after tucking their children in for Christmas, the adults sat around the Christmas tree telling stories and laughing, stuffing stockings, and putting out gifts. Bob didn’t know exactly how to explain that his boss wouldn’t give him the day off, but waited to reveal this sad truth for after the pleasantries of the evening were finished.

As he got ready for bed he shared the news with his wife.

“That Scrooge is a real piece of work,” his wife proclaimed.

“He’s a real piece of something,” Bob returned.

The couple talked about it a bit more, said goodnight, and went to sleep.

----

Scrooge, was sitting alone, as was his custom at a table in his club’s bar. His scowl was a solid deterrent to keep people away. He sipped his scotch and water and sat there watching the television that was mounted above the bar. The financial news was on. As the stock prices raced by and the attractive, yet muted 30-something gave the audience the recap of the money that had been made and lost during the day’s trading, his concentration was broken.

All of a sudden a man was standing, drinkless, in front of his table. “Hello Mr. Scrooge.”

“What?!” the ill-tempered codger snapped.

“Merry Christmas.” the man said joyfully.

“Bah!” Scrooge responded sharply.

“My name is Ricky Marine, and I’m with MSPNetworks, and it’s come to my attention that your IT administrator, Jacob, is no longer with your company. I was wondering if you had a few minutes to talk about how my company can help you manage your...”

Scrooge responded, “Let me stop you before you go any further. I wish to be left alone. I don’t know how you know my business and I don’t care, I’ve got it handled.”

The conversation went on like that for a few minutes and Ricky Marine left his card on the table and wished Scrooge a merry Christmas. Scrooge predictably scoffed at the sentiment. In solitude he finished his drink, paid the bill with no tip, and left the club.

When he got home, he locked the door behind him and put on his dressing gown and nightcap. Just as he was getting comfortable in his bed, he heard a tapping, which he ignored. A minute later a banging came from the front room. He got up to investigate, grabbing his cane. Discovering nothing, he returned to his bedroom, only to find Jacob sitting at the small writing desk he had up against the far wall.

“What the hell are you doing here?!” Scrooge said aggressively.

“I’m not here, Mr. Scrooge. I’m not. I am a figment of your imagination.” Jacob stated matter-of-factly.

Scrooge charged at him and swinging his club to accost the intruder only served to break the lamp on the desk.

“How now!” said Scrooge, “What do you want with me?”

“Much” Jacob replied, “but first I have to see that you believe in me.”

“Believe in you?” Scrooge said, “Humbug, I tell you! Humbug!”

Just then Jacob let out a wail that got Scrooge’s attention. He then asked Scrooge to check his account balances, and after a little back-and-forth, Scrooge placated the spectre. The look on Scrooge’s face was of pure terror.

He began to plead, “Mercy, dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me?”

“Your life is tied to your business, Scrooge, but your repulsive avarice has left you exposed; left it exposed.”

Jacob walked up to a terrified Scrooge. “Hear me! Tonight you will be haunted by three spirits.”

“Three spirits?” Scrooge asked, terrified.

“Yes, without their visits you can’t expect to understand the danger your belligerence has caused.”

Just then, the room was silent. Scrooge was horrified. He turned every light on in his house and turned on the television. After at least an hour of trepidation, he finally started to get tired, and even though his home was lit up like a jack-o-lantern on Halloween, he dozed off on his sofa.

----

“Wake Up!” the spirit shrieked.

Scrooge arose from his peace-less slumber quickly and alertly. He took a swipe with his cane, but was rebuked by the large ethereal man standing before him. The ghost was around six-foot-four, but had a golf shirt embroidered with Scrooge’s company’s logo on it tucked into a pair of khakis. Its hair was seemingly an ethereal mist that looked like there was smoke coming up from his glasses. His eyes were ominously white behind thick black glasses.

“Are you the Spirit, sir whose coming was foretold to me?” Scrooge asked.

“I am. I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.”

“Long past?” asked Scrooge who was trembling with fear.

“No, man, your past,” the spirit returned

The spectre put his hand on Scrooge’s reluctant shoulder and led him to the door of his home. Instead of opening the door, they traveled through it only to find on the other side a vision. The vision was of Jacob talking with Bob. They were talking about how Jacob had went to Scrooge, and asked him to consider getting on a firewall installed on the business network.

“You would have thought I asked him to go steady,” Jacob started, “He screamed at me and told me that if I don’t do my #$%^*& job and stop coming to him for money, I won’t have a job to come to.”

“I remember that. He was asking for too much money!” Scrooge said defiantly.

The spirit said nothing and put his hand on Scrooge’s shoulder again. They walked back through the wall they had just come through and this time it was a school. It seemed to be sometime in the 1960s. There was a little boy who was trying to open a padlock with paperclips.

As the lock sprung open, Scrooge growled, “Tommy Hulse!”

The boy opened the locker that was being protected by the padlock and took out a small bag.

“It was him!” Scrooge screeched. He got emotional and explained that he had brought his dad’s watch into school the day before Christmas and he had kept it in the bag. When he returned to the locker that day, it was open and his father’s watch was gone.

“I bet he skinned your hide,” the spirit said arrogantly.

Scrooge, despondent, looked at the spirit, “He died soon thereafter.”

“My time is running short, Scrooge. Let us go,” the spirit said, as he put his hand on his shoulder and walked through the wall.

He was back in the front room of his house. No one else was there. He called out to the spirit but nothing answered. Just then there was a banging coming from the bedroom. He went to investigate and there was a larger spectre standing in front of his bed.

“Scrooge!” the new ghost bellowed. Scrooge turned around and shut the door, only to turn around to see the giant ghastly man. This spirit was nearly seven-feet tall, his head was covered in a hood. He couldn’t make out any of his features, except two glowing eyes that seemed to puncture a hole through him.

“Scrooge! I am the Ghost of Christmas Present.”

“No! No more hauntings!” Scrooge plead. The ghost lifted his right arm and snapped his ethereal fingers. The snap was the loudest noise the miser had ever heard.

Scrooge, who had closed his eyes to avert his gaze from the newest spirit, opened them and found himself alone in a dark room.

‘Where am I?” Scrooge called out. No answer.

He noticed a light coming from an adjacent room. He made his way toward it. As he entered the doorway he could see the ghost standing over what looked to be Jacob, his former IT administrator. Jacob was typing at a computer.

‘Come, Scrooge,” the spirit said in his baritone tenor.

Scrooge walked over and looked on the screen. It was indeed Jacob, he was typing in a chat on his computer. He began to read:

When I bailed on old man Scrooge, I left a hole in the network. Tomorrow, I am going to go in and put this ransomware I just purchased. When he gets back from his Christmas break, he’ll have a surprise waiting for him.

“What is this? What is ransomware?” Scrooge asked the spirit timidly.

“I can’t tell you that, but I can tell you that it is not good for you or your company.” The ghost replied.

“Tell him to stop! Tell him to stop!” Scrooge began pleading.

“No one can hear you, Scrooge.” The spirit said as it walked out of the room.

Scrooge followed, but as soon as he got into the next room, there was no one there. He turned around and seemed surprised to be in his office. He walked through his office door to see the spirit standing over Bob’s desk. Bob was sitting at his desk working away, gently sighing every once in a while and checking his phone repeatedly. All of a sudden his desk phone rang.

“Hello.” Bob answered.

“Merry Christmas to you too...Mr. Scrooge needed me to work today, so I am...Well I have my brother and his family...She’s doing well...It’s okay...I’ll think about it...Have a merry Christmas.” Bob hung up the phone and went back to doing what he was doing.

“He’s a good worker.” Scrooge admitted to the spirit.

“You just couldn’t give him the day off for Christmas?” the spirit asked directly.

“I…I...We’re so short-staffed as it is…” Scrooge stammered. Bob’s cell phone rang.

“Hey...What?!...I’ll be right there,” Bob stood up with a panicked look on his face. He put his coat on and walked out the door without turning his computer off.

“Where is he going? Where is he going, spirit?” Scrooge plead.

The spirit again snapped his fingers and the pair were standing in the waiting room of a hospital. Bob was standing at the desk filling out paperwork. A doctor came up to him and started to talk. Bob’s face succumbed to the pain of the situation.

Scrooge started in, “What is it? What has happened? Tell me what has happened, please?”

The ghost looked at Scrooge with his searing red eyes and said, “His little girl is ill, Scrooge. I’m sure you knew that.”

“Yes...Yes, but what has happened to her?”

The spirit lifted his arm again. SNAP.

The pair were on the front lawn of Bob’s house. A car pulls into the driveway. Bob’s wife got out of the passenger seat. She had clearly been crying. Bob got out of the front seat and made his way around the car. His wife muttered something to him while he opened the back door of the car. Bob lifted his tired and weak daughter out of the car seat and followed his wife in the house.

“Not very Christmasy,” the tall spirit said, mocking a relieved Scrooge.

Before Scrooge could say anything else there was a huge bang and he was back in his home. Feeling tired and emotional, Scrooge sat down on the settee in his front room. He sat there in contemplation for a few minutes. He was worried about the virus that Jacob was going to unleash, he was worried about his business, and about Bob and his family. He realized that he hadn’t treated these people with a lot of respect. Just as he was coming to the conclusion that he had to do something about it the room filled with a blinding light.

Scrooge couldn’t see a thing. All of a sudden there was a high-pitched scream that startled him further. He started to plead:

“Please spirits, no more! I have learned the errors of my ways! No more, I beg you!”

A silhouette emerged in the light.

“Come,” it screeched.

Witless and afraid, Scrooge complied. The spirit was no more than a shadow that moved independently through the ether like bolts of lightning.

Scrooge followed the spirit into the light and emerged in front of a Best Buy. There were giant “Christmas Sale” banners hanging from above the revolving doors. Scrooge walked into the store where he was confronted by himself. He was wearing a Best Buy shirt and tan slacks, staring aimlessly across the vast expanse of the retail establishment.

From the side he spotted Bob walking up to his likeness.

“C’mon Scrooge, get to work,” Bob said as he walked by future Scrooge. He was older than he was by a few years and looked malnourished and feeble.

“No! This can’t be! I am an old man. I cannot work retail!”

As future Scrooge made his way toward the warehouse modern Scrooge followed. Two younger workers were standing near the loading dock as the Scrooges approached.

“What’s the matter, Grandpa? Don’t remember where you should be?” one of the young men said as the other laughed.

Scrooge looked around helplessly as the two younger men continued to snicker and jest.

Just then the light returned, covering everything. It brought Scrooge to a grave marked “Here Lies Scrooge”. Sensing his mortality Scrooge began to wail:

“Stop! Spirit, no! Oh no! Your nature intercedes for me, and pities me. Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me, shadow! I will live an altered life!”

The light returned and Scrooge woke up. He wasn’t on the settee or in the front room, but his bed. He leaped from the sheets.

“I don’t know what to do! I am light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy, I am as merry as a drunken man. Merry Christmas to everybody!” Scrooge cried laughing aloud. Without getting dressed he grabbed his coat and rushed out onto the street. Dawn was just breaking. He saw a young man walking on the sidewalk, he stopped him and asked, “What’s to-day?”

“Why today is Christmas, sir!” the young man replied.

“It’s Christmas day? Of course. Merry Christmas to you my fine fellow.” Scrooge said with enthusiasm.

“A merry Christmas to you, too, sir,” the man replied and walked on.

Scrooge, went back in his home and started making calls, the first call he made was to Bob, telling him to take the day and spend it with his family; and, that he was going to get a significant raise. The next call was to Jacob, who didn’t answer, but Scrooge left a voicemail that said he was sorry and would like to make it up to him. Finally, he called MSPNetworks’s Ricky Marine to tell him that he would be happy to learn more about how he could keep his IT safe and make his business more efficient.

From all of us at MSPNetworks, we’d like to wish you a very merry Christmas and the happiest of holidays!

Even if we’d like it to last forever, business technology can’t possibly do so for a number of reasons. Due to the fact that businesses and their technology are constantly upgrading and changing, it’s almost a certainty that you’ll have to upgrade your technology at some point, whether it reaches its end-of-life event or just simply becomes obsolete for your organization. In fact, failing to update your infrastructure from time to time can have serious negative side-effects for your business.

We’ll show you why solutions eventually reach their EOL and how to handle this event when it arrives.

Why Do Services and Solutions Have an End-of-Life?
All good things must come to an end. For example, you probably can’t remember the last time you used an actual rotary phone (if ever), and there’s a very good reason we don’t carve messages in stone or drive horse-and-buggies around anymore--there are better, more efficient options for these solutions. While they may have been game-changing for the time they existed, there was always an effort to improve and innovate. This process continues for as long as people can dream of making better business decisions and improving their operations. After all, if there’s one thing that all businesses can agree on, it’s that faster and more efficient solutions are better than old, outdated ones.

Technology in general has improved substantially over the past several decades. Computers that used to fill up entire rooms are now dwarfed in power by the devices we carry with us in our pockets. Of course, this change was gradual and occurred over a rather long period of time. The same level of change can be seen in automobiles. The first automobile was built in 1885 by Karl Benz, but it took another 15 years to introduce a proper steering wheel and 24 years for the addition of a radio. 1958 saw the addition of the seatbelt, but it wasn’t until 1970 that it became a front-seat requirement. Considering just how far vehicles have come in this span of time--driving themselves, connecting to space radio services, and warning drivers if doors or seatbelts aren’t used properly--it’s quite easy to see just how out-of-date a revolutionary (at the time) vehicle like the one Benz produced is in today’s society. The same aspect can be applied to business technology.

How to Approach Your Business’ IT
You don’t always have to wait until the end-of-life event for your technology to upgrade it. We recommend taking the following steps for replacing your IT:

• Evaluation: Take a look at your business’ IT from a big-picture perspective. How does your business want to make progress? Is your technology able to meet this progress? An inventory system for your technology helps considerably in this regard, and it can help you keep track of which upgrades are coming when.
• Emphasis: Once you know where your business wants to be in the near future, you need to take micro-steps in the right direction. If the budget exists for this, then you need to consider which equipment should be prioritized, as well as whether or not you can afford them. Consider how many opportunities are being missed due to the upgrade not being done, as well as how close the system’s EOL is. There might even be a warranty on it that is preventing your business from reaching a specific goal.
• Execution: Once you’ve figured out what your greatest needs are and how you can afford them, you’ll have to put your plans into motion. This might mean completing the upgrade process in its entirely or separating it into portions.

MSPNetworks can help your business implement the right technology at the right time. To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

More small businesses today depend on their IT. If that technology isn’t working as intended, it can really stymie an organization’s ability to be effective. Our strategy of managed IT support and services can do quite a bit towards keeping a business running efficiently. Today, we’ll take a look at managed IT to see how proactive monitoring can deliver enhanced efficiency to businesses.

Managed IT
With technology playing a big part of the modern business, ensuring its consistency is essential to keep the business running efficiently. Furthermore, with the security issues that all types of organizations have to deal with, being proactive can be the most solid strategy to keep them from having an effect on your business’ operational integrity.

It doesn’t matter how much you paid for your organization’s IT, the unfortunate truth is that every piece of technology fails. To get the most out of it, you’ll need to help it along by keeping it maintained. At MSPNetworks, that’s what we aim to accomplish with our remote monitoring and management service. By having eyes on your network and infrastructure, your IT remains functional and running optimally.

What’s more, that along with our state-of-the-art RMM tool, our certified technicians know exactly what inconsistencies to look for to keep your IT stable and running as designed. Our expertise with information systems allows us to utilize the powerful management program to ensure that every one of our clients sustain a positive ROI for their technology management investments.
RMM Really Helps a Business
Our RMM platform is so powerful that it produces many benefits for your business. These include:

• More uptime: Your IT remains stable and working efficiently, keeping disruptions to a minimum.
• Around the clock maintenance: By cutting the need to take the hardware someplace to get it fixed, our RMM provides value. With our around-the-clock hardware and software maintenance services we ensure that if components are going to fail, we exhaustedly find solutions that will work to keep your business up and functional longer.
• Streamlined performance: Your business’ IT will perform, period. With this enhanced performance, higher levels of productivity are inevitable.

MSPNetworks can help your business get started with RMM solutions and managed IT services. For more, call MSPNetworks at (516) 403-9001 today.