MSPNetworks Blog

Managed IT services are well known for being an incredibly useful service for a business as it helps offset the cost of keeping their technology up and running. What they aren’t as well known for are all the other services that they do to add value for their customers. 

Your Business Technology

The first thing that people new to managed services should understand is that, yes, IT support is our number one function and most of our services are bundled because it is the best way for our clients to experience close-to-optimal operational continuity at a price point that works for them.

That doesn’t mean that we are fixing computers all day.

In fact, in the scope of things, fixing computers is just one of the myriad of things we need to accomplish every day to ensure that our clients’ IT infrastructures are working as intended. Today, we thought we would take a look at some of the services we provide, and how collectively, the service can absolutely pay for itself. 

Remote Monitoring and Management

The first thing you’ll need to know is that we find that when our technicians are at your business, that productivity slows. Having IT technicians poking around onsite can be distracting. Besides, we aren’t trying to react to IT problems, we are trying to keep them from happening in the first place. How is that possible? With secure, remote technology.

We’ve invested in enterprise-grade, cutting-edge technology to constantly monitor your entire IT infrastructure and network to ensure that if any piece of equipment is not working as intended that it is fixed before it becomes a problem. This proactive nature to IT is the most valuable part of our offering. We fix issues with your IT before they can be profit-destroying problems. Think about how much downtime hurts your bottom line. 

If you could curtail your exposure to situations where IT problems cause your downtime and do it at a fraction of the cost of hiring a team of IT experts, you’d consider that value, right? Most decision makers would, which is why MSPs today need to deliver more. Let’s take a look at some of the other services we provide that are meant to add to our value.

Regular Reviews

One of the issues with technology is that as soon as you get a piece of technology there is something better (or worse, more suited to your needs) coming right behind it. This means that if you are going to look outside your door for IT support and services, you need them to keep you in the loop.

At MSPNetworks, we adhere to regular reviews because we want your business to be the best it can be. Around every quarter we will schedule a call or meeting to go over what your goals and priorities are for the upcoming months. Not only does that give us the ability to help you plan your technology investments, it allows us to follow up on any issues we may have had in the weeks leading up to the meeting. 

Vendor Management

Vendor management is a relatively simple service, but it can make a big difference. Think about how much time you spend dealing with your technology vendors in a given month. They follow up all the time and try to upsell you. Sometimes those investments make sense, but often they are just trying to make sales. 

Our vendor management service basically removes this responsibility from you and your staff. We will be the point of contact for all of your technology vendors. This not only puts a technology professional in place as a point of contact, it also allows you to separate yourself from those relationships that take away time and attention from your ultimate goals for your business.

Patch Management

Software is a major part of every business’ operational strategy, and if it isn’t updated regularly, it can actually expose your business to risk. Unpatched software often leaves your network vulnerable to outside attack. Today’s hackers only need one opportunity to get into your network and steal your data or infect your business’ IT with malware. With patch management, you never have to worry about that again.

Backup and Disaster Recovery

Another massive value we provide comes in the form of a backup and disaster recovery solution. We offer full and partial backup programs that meet industry best practices. You will get a network-attached BDR that you can use to quickly restore from if need be, but you also get incremental backups stored in the cloud should something more severe happen. With your data protected from loss, you can have the peace of mind that if something happens, your business’ continuity will be strong.

Fix Computers

While we try to maintain every piece of your IT infrastructure, sometimes machines fail. It goes without saying that should the need arise, our professional technicians will fix your hardware onsite. 

If you would like to learn more about our professional managed IT services, or you would just like to have a conversation about your business’ technology goals, give us a call right now at (516) 403-9001.

With tax season quickly reaching its crescendo, accountants and CPAs face increased threats to their data security. Your clients' financial information is too good for a cybercriminal to pass up. Now is the time to prepare yourself to fight a cyberattack. Learn how managed IT can support your business in a variety of ways.

Is Your Data Secure for Tax Season?

Cybercriminals are well aware of the stress most accountants and CPAs face during tax season. They also know that with stress comes mistakes and opportunities for them to attack. The reality is most businesses, regardless of size or industry, usually have cybersecurity protocols that are underpowered. Cybercriminals know this and wait for predictable moments of distraction to target a company. What’s more predictable than tax season, and what’s a better target than a CPA or accountant?

Why are Accountants and CPAs Targets?

The answer should be obvious: these industries are most likely to have access to the type of data cybercriminals are most interested in: financial. However, it is also important to remember that with the ascendance of ransomware, the cybercriminal’s MO has evolved. These days cybercriminals are more likely to hold your accounting firm’s data/computers hostage than to try and steal your client’s data to resell on the dark web.

As you can imagine, a cybercriminal would be able to exert considerable pressure on your business if they gained control and locked you out of your system around April 15th, rendering you unable to file your client’s tax returns electronically. How much damage would your business suffer, and how much would you be willing to pay to regain access to your data?

Finally, even if you’re a smaller business, chances are you are linked to larger organizations. This connection makes cybercriminals treat you as the weakest link and will use you as a way to gain access to the other businesses you are connected to. It should be apparent that losing control of your data could well cause enough damage that your business may not be able to recover.

How to Protects Your Data

The most effective way to protect the data your accounting firm is responsible for, is with a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery plan. A ransomware attack can only hold your data hostage if you cannot regain control of it. Your backup is going to be the solution to this problem. A data backup and recovery solution in the form of a business continuity strategy should be a prominent part of the foundation of any well-designed managed IT plan, regardless of your business or industry. 

We also manage and maintain your network to prevent threats from coming in.

Why Managed IT for Accountants Is Essential For Business Growth

While it's evident that managed IT can benefit your firm’s data protection, it can do so much more. Due to the wide range of solutions provided, managed IT should be considered an essential service for any business. Due to their services' nature and the data they are responsible for, accountants and CPAs can benefit from the full suite of managed IT. 

While during tax season, it makes sense for accountants and CPAs to request that their managed service providers (MSP) focus on cybersecurity (however, cybersecurity is a 24/7, 365 issue), the benefits of partnering with an MSP stretches beyond cybersecurity protection. Managed IT can provide your organization with increased protectivity, stability, collaboration, and communications, all of which can benefit your company's bottom line.

Some benefits managed IT brings to your accounting firm include:

• 24/7 Monitoring - We watch your network to identify and prevent incoming threats.
• Patches and Security Updates - By having us keep your software updated, your team can work without interruption.
• Less Downtime - Solving problems preventatively will reduce the amount of time that users can’t get their work done.

Are You Ready to Embrace Managed IT?

Managed IT’s wide range of services allow your firm to leverage your technology into a resource and not a liability. MSPNetworks can help you accomplish this with the solutions that your firm needs to boost productivity while developing best IT practices to stop your technology from holding back your growth. A managed IT partner allows you to stop worrying about your technology.  

Call (516) 403-9001 today to schedule a free IT consultation, and learn how our personalized, proactive IT support for small and medium-sized businesses can be of service.

Most business owners that rely on their IT have heard about managed It services. Many already subscribe to some form of outsourced IT service. It is one of the best ways to cut down your business’ operational costs while gaining value through the use of services that, if they were to be purchased intermittently, would cost a lot more. Today, we thought we’d list some of the most important variables you should consider if you are looking to choose a managed IT services provider.

Fast, Fast, Fast

If your business is going to use a service over hiring your own IT professionals,you have to know that the service provider can provide you with the reaction speed necessary to do the job. At MSPNetworks, we can do you one better. We use some of the most cutting edge management software available to monitor and maintain your hardware and network’s integrity, patch your software before there are problems, and do all of this proactively.

You need an IT service provider who can return your IT to an acceptable standard of working order as quickly as possible, but if it’s always working as intended, that would be better, no? Get proactive and forget downtime. 

Disaster Recovery

Many business owners don’t know how to identify a disaster, let alone have a disaster recovery platform in place. With a comprehensive IT services platform from MSPNetworks, you will. Not only does our managed IT service offering come with comprehensive backup and disaster recovery built in, it comes with the experience of our certified technicians who have seen everything and can get your business back up and running quickly after any type of disaster, whether it be malware, user error, or full-scale disaster. 

Employee Support

Your staff is going to have computer issues. It goes with the territory. Sometimes they lose their passwords, sometimes the printer won’t print, sometimes the computer they’re using sounds like a small prop plane. No matter what the problem is, MSPNetworks offers a comprehensive help desk platform. Giving your staff direct access to certified technicians can provide the answers they need or the remote help required to deal with 98-out-of-100 situations. 

Budget Planning

As mentioned above, our people have seen it all. Our consultants can help you plan out your IT budget for the year, to the dollar. In order to get control over your IT budget, you will need to have a strategy to not only support your staff, service the machines that you have in house, and handle your cloud and software vendor agreements, you will need a plan for the future. We can help you plan out every single aspect of your business’ IT, and do it cost effectively. 

MSPNetworks Managed IT: Peace of Mind

The bottom line, if you don’t have managed IT services, you should really consider it, and if you do have managed IT services, you should know that not all companies deliver equal services. At MSPNetworks, we take pride that our New York clients are better for having trusted us to look after their business’ IT. 

 If you would like to learn more about what we can do for your business, give us a call today at (516) 403-9001.

2020 was… well, 2020… so it really isn’t any surprise that those businesses that made it to 2021 aren’t quite out of the woods yet. The many difficulties and challenges that 2020 brought will carry over into this year, many of them pertaining to information technology and how businesses utilize it. Let’s take a few moments to anticipate how these IT challenges will manifest this year.

Where Work Can Be Done

In the recent past, remote work was almost seen as a taboo subject—many businesses either discouraged it or neglected to implement any organized policies in the first place. Even amongst those businesses that did adopt some form of remote work, only 20 percent or so of their employees were able to work remotely.

2020 changed this considerably, as many businesses hastily adopted remote work as a means of remaining operational. Some businesses—if they were able to do so—completely transitioned to remote work.

These shifts have necessitated numerous changes to be made so that businesses can ensure their workforce’s productivity and safety simultaneously. These changes won’t go away anytime soon if projections are to be believed.

Moving forward, companies will need to ensure that the correct security protocols are implemented, and processes carried out, particularly because many users will likely be working on their personal devices. This means that implementing remote monitoring and management solutions will be an important step for businesses to take from here on out.

Fighting Burnout and Downtime

With the prospect of remote work preserving productivity, it becomes important to protect it from other negative influences. The fight against downtime should be a matter any business takes very seriously… after all, its clients will expect 100 percent uptime, and anything less than that will quickly erode the trust they have.

After the year we’ve all just experienced, that trust is something no business can squander.

In addition to having trustworthy technology, businesses must also make sure that their team members are receiving the requisite TLC. Technology solutions aren’t the only component of your business subject to downtime: fatigue and burnout can each have a considerable impact on morale and output. Considering this, these factors also need to be addressed.

Budgeting

The past year flushed many business’ budgets down the proverbial toilet, which will carry over into this year by some measure. Money is bound to be tight. As a result, any proposed investments need to be scrutinized for the return they provide to the business.

We predict that this will lead many more businesses to the cloud as a means of acquiring the services and solutions they need. In addition to this, we expect automation and tools like it to be given much more consideration.

One way or another, 2021 will see some considerable changes to how businesses do their business. MSPNetworks can be here to help you see them through, and beyond. Learn more about our solutions and how they can benefit you by calling (516) 403-9001 today.

With more people than ever working from home, their ability to receive the support they need to keep their devices in top working order is crucial. As a result, many businesses have turned to managed IT service providers to maintain their employees’ computers. MSPs like us utilize a tool called remote monitoring and management software (RMM). Let’s discuss what it is and why it is so useful for managing your company’s IT. 

Consider the following scenario from the perspective of one of your employees:

You’re working from home, trying to get your tasks done for the day. There’s still plenty to do on your schedule, and you’re swiftly approaching deadlines for many of your responsibilities. Suddenly, your trusty laptop starts crashing, and try as you might, you can’t seem to get anything working.

So, what do you do?

This is obviously a challenging situation on numerous levels. Not only are you unable to get any work done, you’re also isolated away from whatever support resources are usually present in the office. As a result, any issues you may encounter are made much more challenging to resolve.

However, this fortunately doesn’t have to be the case.

By working with a managed service provider like MSPNetworks, you can benefit from the improvements that modern solutions can provide to the IT support process. Rather than encountering a problem and waiting around for it to be fixed, you can continue working, confident that the MSP has any challenges handled.

Using the technology at our disposal, we can remotely keep track of your computers, even while your workforce is working remotely. Should an issue arise, our team of trained IT professionals will detect it and do everything within their considerable abilities to mitigate it. Often, we can have the issue sorted before you even realize that one was present, all thanks to our use of remote monitoring and management software.

Of course, to leave the benefits at that would be to sell an MSP short. In actuality, the nature of remote monitoring and management can provide a much wider range of benefits, such as:

• Low-profile RMM solutions can be configured ahead of time and installed in the background, doing even more to preserve productivity. Once installed, our software can help protect the data of both your clients and your employees by ensuring that critical patches are professionally installed, and that a technician is always just a few clicks away.
• The management portion of our software can be used to attend to assorted support matters beyond troubleshooting, enabling us to install and manage the software that your users will need, such as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol telephony), productivity solutions, and other business-essential tools.

At MSPNetworks, we can assist you with all of your IT needs, regardless of where your employees are currently stationed, enabling your team to accomplish more during a time that would once have made work impossible. To learn more about our services, 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.

If you’re trying to minimize your operating costs to improve your budget, it is important to keep in mind that sacrifice isn’t your only option. Instead, you also have the option of streamlining and minimizing some of your larger expenses by enlisting a managed services provider and the more sustainable business model we adhere to.

What follows are a few ways that support costs can inflate, and how recruiting an MSP can provide superior services at a reduced cost.

How Support Costs Inflate

There are various reasons that acquiring support for your technology can quickly become an expensive investment:

• Your technology may be inherently expensive to repair, or if need be, to replace.
• Repair fees factor in additional fees and travel costs, on top of the charge for the actual service.
• Repair services tend to only focus on solving the immediate problem, with no consideration for the future. This leaves the possibility of the issue recurring, or even for the fix to create more problems in the future—either of which would often require another billable visit from the provider.
• The responsibility ultimately falls to you to call in a technician to fix any issues that do pop up and schedule a time for them to come in, potentially leading to significant downtime and the lost revenue that comes with it. This lost revenue can be considered an additional cost and therefore adds to the total bill you’re stuck with.
• These expenses are effectively impossible to accurately plan for, considering how variable each support bill will be. As a result, it is very easy to over-budget or under-budget for your annual IT support needs.

This is all the case if you were to rely on the more “traditional” method of obtaining technical support, rather than subscribing to an MSP’s services. Let’s go over how the MSP is far-and-away going to provide better value for your investment:

How an MSP Prevents Cost Inflation

There are various ways that the MSP eliminates the challenges that the traditional provider’s services present.

• In addition to remaining up-to-speed on best practices regarding repair and remediation, an MSP will have formed business relationships with a variety of vendors who offer them better prices for the technology you need.
• Rather than requiring a member of their staff to travel to your location, your MSP will utilize remote access tools to diagnose and mitigate everything that doesn’t require hands-on intervention, resolving issues more quickly. Any additional travel time and associated costs included in the agreement are also covered by the monthly fee.
• When needed, the MSP goes beyond fixing the symptoms of a problem. Instead, they’ll use their access and monitoring tools to identify the source of the issue and resolve that, helping reduce the likelihood of further action being needed.
• Using their toolkit, an MSP is also capable of monitoring your network and systems for errors, inconsistencies, and other signs of a problem… even identifying potential, not-yet-realized issues. As a result, they can proactively prevent obstacles from interrupting your workflows.
• As an MSP operates similarly to a subscription service, budgeting becomes particularly simple as your financial commitment is made much more predictable. This also makes it simple to adjust your agreement to meet your needs, as your fee is simply adjusted to match whatever your business requires.

To learn more about what a managed service provider can do to benefit your business and its operations, reach out to MSPNetworks! Give us a call at (516) 403-9001.

Remote monitoring and management software helps businesses of all sizes avoid issues of equally variable sizes, which is why it is a key facet of the managed IT service model. We wanted to review some of the ways that it benefits the managed service provider, and as a result, benefits our clients.

First, What is RMM Software?

RMM (Remote Monitoring and Management) software is a solution that allows an us to--as it says in the name--remotely monitor and manage a client’s systems. By installing a small software application (known as an agent) into the various components of a business’ infrastructure, we are able to keep an eye on the business’ technology. When we detect an issue via that software, it can be identified and resolved without interrupting the operations of your business, oftentimes before you have any idea that an issue is even present.

How Does RMM Software Help Us?

There are a lot of ways that using RMM software is to our advantage:

• It collects data about your systems, including the status and health of your devices.
• It simplifies the process of updating and proactively protecting your systems.
• It enables us to care for your systems without sacrificing travel time.
• It allows for concurrent mitigation and resolution of IT issues.

So, why should any of this matter to a business? Simple--the benefits that we gain from these tools directly translate to benefits for you. For instance:

• With additional data collected about everything on your network, we can better understand and care for these systems more effectively.
• With updates and proactive protections applied more easily, you can enjoy a more secure computing experience.
• With the need for us to travel reduced, you could see your issues and challenges resolved much more efficiently.
• With IT tasks across an infrastructure resolved simultaneously, you could see improved results in less time.
• With issues detected in their infancy, they can be resolved before they escalate into a larger problem.

Interested in Learning More About RMM?

Reach out to the team here at MSPNetworks. Our expert consultants can help you determine your business’ needs and recommend the IT solutions that best fill them. Give us a call at (516) 403-9001 to get started.

You’re likely aware that we have a Help Desk for our clients to leverage, but not all companies handle their support the same way. Here, we wanted to share a few reasons that we are confident that our approach to support is better for our clients.

This is, in part, thanks to the tools we use. While they are intended to make our jobs easier, the result is ultimately improved support for you. What follows are a few of the features that help us, help you.

Improved Organization

In most businesses, there is no shortage of requests received from their clientele. Rather than requiring an employee to record and organize all of the information that one of these requests contains, businesses today can leverage an automated process to create their tickets. As a result, these requests can be delivered to an appropriate resource faster, without the risk of being overlooked, lost in email, or incorrectly scheduled by a human being.

Furthermore, with help desk software assigning tickets to a particular resource, you are less likely to encounter instances of multiple resources attending to a given issue, which adds to the confusion and can slow down the process.

With our help desk, a ticket is generated for us once you submit your issue, and it is assigned to one resource for them to take point on it, bringing on other resources for assistance, but generally remaining your sole point of contact. As a result, all communications and updates can be found in one place, keeping us all on the same page.

Flexibility

There are a lot of ways that you can reach out to us - from our website, emailing us directly, or calling us. This not only makes it easier for us, as we can be sure that there is always some way that our clients can reach us, it also assists you.

Consider it - what if your VoIP system was on the fritz? Or your email wasn’t working? By ensuring that, again, our clients always have some way to reach us, we ensure that we can always be made aware of an issue - and that’s assuming that we didn’t spot it through our remote monitoring.

Accuracy

Let’s face it, even the kind of professionals that MSPNetworks hires can occasionally make mistakes - we’re only human, after all. However, by using the full capabilities of our technology solutions, we can make sure that - through automation and documentation - the possibility of human error is minimized. With fewer mistakes made, and the time-intensive tasks on our end minimized, your issue is resolved faster, allowing you to return to productivity.

Our team hopes that you have acquired some additional insights as to the value that a help desk can bring you. If you are interested in learning more about implementing one, give us a call at (516) 403-9001.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and with all the work done,
The office was closing for some holiday fun;
Their coats buttoned up, they had all saved their files,
Everyone’s face creased in a big, toothy smile.

Colleen from finance had handed out treats,
Fresh homemade cookies, hand-frosted and sweet,
So, with smiling mouths filled with sugary tastes,
All had made their way home, arriving with haste.

With Santa Claus starting his gift-giving flight,
The office was dark, with minimal light.
The monitors sleeping, the servers were quiet,
All was at peace, no cause for disquiet.

For the office was shielded by a steadfast guard,
A managed service provider, of highest regard -
And thank goodness it was, for early that day
An emergency threatened to cause a delay.

In early morning hours, December 24,
The servers were running their nightly backup chores.
The MSP realized the problem at hand,
Their disk space was filled up, an issue unplanned.

Luckily, the office had wisely signed on,
To have their IT watched over to avoid denouement,
Remote Monitoring and Maintenance protected their assets,
As the MSP caught and resolved any threats.

From malware and spyware, to issues of all kinds,
Attacks and vulnerabilities, and all of their signs,
The MSP acts, and the MSP delivers,
Acting as a business’ IT caregivers.

So, when the MSP realized the disk space-based issue,
A solution was deployed so the backup could continue,

By deleting some outdated backups to free up space,
The MSP reported the problem to the workplace.

But the MSP did more than just issue a report,
The professionals there explained why the backup fell short,
And recommending to the business more space to save data,
The MSP helped keep their storage pro rata.

How happy the business was to have this service -
To know that they had little reason to be nervous!
To trust that any problems of theirs would be addressed,
Without breaking the bank or leaving them stressed.

So, the staff of the business was free to relax,
Without worrying that problems would fall through the cracks.
So, without any remnants of their after-hours plight,
A Happy Christmas was had by all, and all had a good night.

The act of “yak shaving,” also known as “bikeshedding,” is a specific kind of procrastination that can hold you back from getting the most out of your workday. This week’s tip is dedicated to explaining what this nonsensical phrase means and why it’s beneficial to keep your employees on track.

What Does Yak Shaving Have to Do with My Business?
Yak shaving is just another way to define semi-defensible procrastination. It uses the following scenario to make its point: you need to complete a proposal, but you might be tired from a long day of work, making concentration difficult at best. You start to look into the best kind of coffee to get into a productive mindset, and your research yields potent results. The best coffee beans in the world come from a remote island, and they can only be harvested by a yak. So, now you need a yak. You take a trip to the Himalayas to acquire said yak, but the yak can’t take the temperate climate of the island with the coffee beans. In order to bring the yak to the island, you’ll have to shave its long fur off. Once that’s been done, you can take that yak to the island, harvest your coffee beans, and brew that perfect cup of coffee for flawless productivity to finish your proposal.

Basically, it takes a normal problem and uses a ridiculous and overly elaborate method to resolve the issue, but this in itself creates complication to get away from doing the less desired task. Everyone has been in this position before, where a particular task is so unappealing that they would do anything to get away from it, but the fact remains that the task needs to be done, whether you want to do it or not.

How to Identify (and Overcome) Your Hairy Yaks
The first thing to do if you think an issue like this arises is to notice how you tend to react to them. Consider all of the tasks you need to complete; how many of them actually have to be done to reach your ultimate goal? There’s no doubt that looking for excuses will lead to procrastination rather than productivity.

Imagine all the time spent earlier looking into the yak and the island with the coffee. What if you invested all of that time and energy into completing the task? Instead of wasting time, you could have already completed the task, rendering the need for the yak obsolete. Granted, the problem-solving skills you’ll acquire might seem valuable, and they are to an extent, so it’s not a complete waste--just not a great choice in the first place.

Think of the Task as an Investment
Time is money, and time-consuming tasks can be a waste if they aren’t being handled as well as possible. Think about it like this; you’ve already invested a considerable amount of time and effort into one solution, so why not simply go all the way with it and finish it, if the alternative is to waste even more time?

Overall, you need to remember that successfully completing a goal should outweigh the frustration of having to do it. The results are what matters primarily, but if you have only been working on something for a couple of moments, don’t be afraid to change it up.

The technology you use will play a considerable role in the way you complete a task. To learn more about how you can use it to benefit your business, reach out to MSPNetworks at (516) 403-9001.

There will never be a time that we are not committed to improving the security of businesses. To continue striving for this goal, we’re dedicating this week’s tip to describing some solutions that can assist in locking a business and its data down.

Access Control
One of the best ways to ensure the security of your office (and its contents) is to prevent threats from getting in at all. There are many overlapping ways to do so, ranging from a fence around the office to a magnetic door lock that requires both a password and biometric authentication. Controlling access to your resources means that you are more able to protect them from threats.

If something were to happen to these resources despite an access control solution being in place, they will keep a record of who it was that entered, and when, allowing you to narrow your investigation from the start.

Data Security Policies and Practices
Your data is valuable, whether it contains your clients’ financial details, your own business’ affairs, or internal documents of sufficient sensitivity. As such, you need to be sure that you are prepared to protect this data before something happens to it.

This will require a few different activities on your part, as there is a lot of ground to cover.

With the number of cyberattacks and data breaches today, many of which rely on businesses being unprepared to deflect them, you cannot afford for your business to be exposed. Furthermore, your team needs to be made aware of the many ways that an attack can sneak through, and how to properly stop them. As more and more attacks are leveraging human error to their advantage, educating your staff is paramount to your success.

It is also crucial to enforce the policies you put in place, embracing your leadership role. By holding your staff accountable to the rules they have agreed to abide by, you can potentially shore up a few vulnerabilities up front, minimizing the rest through implementing the various best practices we recommend. Reach out to us to learn more about these practices, and how we can help you to enact them.

Review Your Insurance
If you haven’t reviewed your commercial property insurance in a while, take the time to do so. Based on your business’ location and its environment, your data security (and your building itself) could be under threat from a variety of sources. From vandalism to theft to flooding to fire, there are plenty of circumstances that could put your business’ future into question. You may want to consider boosting your coverage against certain events based on your risk of them, but you need to make sure you are insured against the risks that your business would be subject to.

Audit and Identify Risks
One of the most effective ways to improve your existing security is to establish what about it leaves you vulnerable. If you can identify the inherent risks to your business and its data, you are better able to prioritize your upgrades and optimization strategies.

A complete audit of your technology is a great way to do so, as it will shine the light on the facets of your IT that need these upgrades more than others may. You should also audit your existing security policies to both ensure that your employees are following your processes, and if these policies are effective in improving your security. If either answer turns out to be “no”, you have an opportunity to resolve it - immediately improving your security with (ideally) minimal invested time and cost.

Lean on an Outsourced Provider
A provider of professional IT services, like MSPNetworks, can make any of these activities much simpler to complete without sacrificing your internal productivity. Give us a call at (516) 403-9001 to learn more about how we can help.

Tell us, what other IT security tips have you heard? Leave them in the comments!