MSPNetworks Blog

We get it: you’d expect to read the statement “AI is everywhere nowadays” as a science fiction story about the enslavement of humans by the very machines they’ve created. We aren’t quite there yet, but more and more humans are coming to rely on artificial intelligence to automate a lot of different tasks inside their businesses. Let’s take a look at what people are actually using AI for. 

Automating Repetitive Tasks

One of the most significant contributions of AI to businesses is its ability to automate repetitive tasks. Machines equipped with AI algorithms can effectively perform tasks that would otherwise require significant time and effort from human employees. AI systems can automate data entry, invoice processing, and inventory management, eliminating the need for manual intervention and reducing human error.

Improved Decision-Making

With the vast amounts of data generated by businesses on a daily basis, decision-making can become a complex and time-consuming process. However, AI-powered analytics tools can quickly process and analyze massive datasets, providing valuable insights and recommendations to business leaders. By automating data analysis, AI enables businesses to make informed decisions in real-time, saving considerable time and resources.

Enhancing Customer Service

Exceptional customer service is a crucial aspect of any successful business. AI-powered virtual assistants and chatbots have become increasingly popular in providing round-the-clock customer support. These AI systems can handle a wide range of customer inquiries, assist in troubleshooting, and even make personalized product recommendations. By promptly addressing customer needs and automating support processes, businesses can significantly reduce response times and enhance overall customer satisfaction.

Predictive Maintenance

In industries that heavily rely on machinery and equipment, AI plays a vital role in predictive maintenance. Traditional maintenance practices often involve scheduled inspections and repairs, which can be time-consuming and costly. However, AI algorithms can analyze real-time data from sensors and machines to detect potential issues before they escalate. By predicting maintenance requirements, businesses can proactively address equipment failures, minimize downtime, and save significant time and costs.

Optimizing Supply Chain Management

The efficient management of the supply chain is crucial for businesses across various industries. AI-powered algorithms can analyze historical data, market trends, and customer demand to forecast demand accurately. By optimizing inventory levels, businesses can avoid stockouts and overstocking, saving both time and money. Furthermore, AI can automate the routing and scheduling of deliveries, ensuring efficient logistics operations and timely deliveries.

AI is evolving extraordinarily fast and will create more places in which businesses need to consider investing in the technology. For more information about how to leverage AI for your particular business needs, give the IT experts at MSPNetworks a call today at (516) 403-9001.

Small manufacturers and distributors operate under a whole separate set of conditions than their larger competitors. This is because they don’t have the available capital to have any noticeable inefficiencies, and if they do have some, they are going to definitely affect their ability to compete. One solution that these organizations can lean on is a logistics platform. 

What Is Logistics Technology?

Logistics is the act of using information and technology to improve the efficiency of your business’ supply chain, procurement, and overall operational efficiency. With so much depending on a business’ ability to deliver products and services in real-time, having the data needed to make that a reality is important.

How do you go about doing this if you don’t have the massive capital to spend on a large logistics platform? It can be difficult to get started, but as the business world has shifted away from the station-to-station model and embraced a more mobile-centric model, logistics not only is extremely important, it is easier to come by than it once was. Let’s take a look at some of the options SMBs have when it comes to integrating logistics platforms into their business. 

Work with Logistic Vendors

One of the best ways to get a logistics platform for a small business is to partner with like-minded companies. Many businesses have the budget restrictions your small business has and since most logistics companies set rates based on volume, you may be priced out if you are only doing a small amount of business with them. Teaming up with another company could deliver the cost-effective price point that will allow you (and your partners) to meet both of your logistics needs. 

Try Logistics Services from Major Providers

Another great option for smaller businesses is to use a small business logistics service that is run by an enterprise logistics company. Nearly every single one of these companies offers solutions for small businesses. This includes UPS, FedEx, DSL, and more. You may end up paying less than you would if you choose to implement a standalone logistics service and you’ll have some of the best companies in the business backing you up.

Look for Industry-Specific Options

Depending on what your business does and what market you do business in, you may find hiring a logistic provider that dedicated themselves to your market to be the best option. Logistics providers that do business in a specific vertical will know the ins and outs of how to handle procurement, distribution, and all the other parts of logistics that can be difficult for a small business. 

Managing Your Supply Chain Doesn’t Need to Be Difficult

Regardless of what you choose to do about your supply chain management and logistics platform, there are many different solutions that cater to the small business. If you would like to have a conversation about getting a logistics platform for your business and what you need to do to operate more efficiently in the changing business world, give the IT professionals at MSPNetworks a call at (516) 403-9001.

The Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, has put together a Safeguard Rule to help establish guidelines for how businesses store and interact with customer information. Enacted in 2003, this rule was recently revamped in 2021 to stay relevant with the latest technology used by businesses. Let’s look at some of the policies and procedures that your business needs to know about the FTC Safeguard Rule.

What is the FTC’s Safeguard Rule?

The Safeguard Rule is a mandate put in place to protect personal information. Those impacted by this rule include financial institutions like mortgage lenders, payday lenders, finance companies, mortgage brokers, account servicers, check cashers, wire transferors, collection agencies, credit counselors, and other financial advisors, tax preparation firms, non-federally insured credit unions, and investment advisors that aren’t required to register with the SEC.

Compliance with the FTC Safeguard Rule involves applicable financial institutions writing out their information security program and having it address specific metrics. This plan must also be appropriate for the size and scope of the business, and it must be tailored to the specific type of information that the organization is responsible for.

With the Safeguard Rule in place and governing how businesses manage sensitive information, it should technically address challenges such as the security and confidentiality of customer information, threats to the integrity of this information, and protection from unauthorized access, theft, or destruction of that data, as well as any problems it might cause for the customer.

You Can Build an FTC-Compliant Security Platform Too

When you get into the details, the reality is that there is nothing in the FTC Safeguard Rule that you shouldn’t already be doing for your customer data. Here is a quick rundown that the FTC recommends for businesses that want to make sure their networks are FTC-compliant.

1. Designate a qualified individual to oversee organizational data security.
2. Conduct a comprehensive risk assessment.
3. Design and deploy necessary safeguards outlined in the risk assessment.
4. Monitor system and regularly test it.
5. Train employees in best practices of data security and privacy.
6. Oversee any third-party’s access and control.
7. Regularly update the security program to keep it current. 
8. Create a written response plan for necessary continuity. 

Need a Hand?

MSPNetworks knows network security and compliance laws like the back of our hands. To learn more about how we can support your business’ efforts, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

While extremely useful, there are plenty of potential frustrations when using technology for your business. From extended downtime from broken technology to hackers trying to steal your data to tools that don’t really fit the specific needs of your business: managing a lot of technology can be difficult. In this blog, we are set to discuss three things you should focus on to get out in front of potential technology problems.

Choose the Right Tools

This can extend to hardware, but let’s focus on software for the time being. There are quite literally dozens of different applications to choose from for all different parts of your business. This can make it a little difficult to know exactly what to look for in the applications you ultimately will roll out for your employees. It is crucial that you choose the right software, and the right type of deployment, for your business’ specific needs. 

The thing that makes choosing software difficult is that there is no clear pathway to a rapid ROI based on the marketing materials put forth by the developers. Every piece of software developed for business use will claim to make your business more efficient, effective, and extensively better. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case and a business can waste a lot of money on software that doesn’t do what it needs it to do. 

The key to finding the right software (and the right deployment method) for your business is to look at what needs to be done. What are your pain points? Can you find organizations that have similar pain points? This will help you identify whether or not the software you plan on rolling out will actually set you up for a solid return, or just months of headaches before you spend more money moving off of that platform. 

Patch and Update Systems

I don’t know how many times in our initial assessment with a prospective client that we’ve found blatant vulnerabilities in their computing systems because their software is not patched and updated. Remember, these systems run your business and with so much data being pushed through them, they need to have the proper security patches and updates in place so as to not become a major problem.

Nowadays, zero-day threats are pretty commonplace. That’s scary enough. By utilizing software that hasn’t been updated regularly you are just opening up your business to attack. A data breach is a complete nightmare for any organization, but if you are an SMB, it could be a situation that you can’t rebound from. Besides, a lot of times you may get some useful new features by updating away from old versions of software. Keeping software updated is a win-win.

Get Knowledge from Professionals

IT can be confusing. It is not only difficult to completely manage, but it can also be a giant headache if it isn’t deployed correctly. That’s why it is essential to get the proper perspective when looking to set up new technology, or just get the right technology for your business’ needs. Unfortunately, many SMBs simply don’t have the resources to have the in-house expertise needed to properly deploy the technology, maintain it, and manage all the things that go into keeping it running effectively. 

At MSPNetworks, our knowledgeable technicians have years of expertise, training, and experience integrating new technology into a business, effectively managing it, and keeping it maintained. If you would like to pick our experts’ brains about your business’ technology, give us a call at (516) 403-9001.

Unfortunately, technology is just a tool. It can do so much for your business, but there are times when your technology is getting older and it stymies the amount that you can produce. This degradation can have a stark effect on your organizational productivity from downtime, cost, and more. Let’s look at how you can identify variables that tell when your technology has to be replaced.

We know that implementing new technologies can be expensive and time consuming. It can hurt productivity in the short term and can be problematic for longer stretches if it isn’t remedied. This adds stress to an organization. This is why it is crucial that you know how to confront aging technology. 

How Can You Tell It’s Time for an Upgrade?

If you don’t know how to tell it's time for an upgrade, look for the following signs: 

Your Systems Slow Down

One of the telltale signs that you are going to need to buck up and invest in new technology is when your current systems start slowing. Applications might take longer to load, or they might just fail. Programs may not install and system resources may be eaten up by seemingly small processes. 

You Are Dealing with Significant Downtime

Everyone knows that downtime is costly. It’s worse than that I’m afraid. It’s extraordinarily costly and serves to keep employees disengaged with their work. If downtime is causing massive swaths of waste for your business, it is already past time to start shopping for new technology. 

Too Much Inefficiency

Even if your computing systems aren’t critically failing, they can be inefficient. If you can’t deploy new communication and collaboration tools, or the ones you have sputter and give employees a hard time, you probably need to start thinking about refreshing your technology. 

New Software is Incompatible

Software developers are always working on new updates, features, and patches to ensure that their products work for businesses. If you are using hardware that doesn’t run a certain type of upgraded software, or if you are using legacy software for things, you need a plan to upgrade. 

Your Customers Are Questioning Their Commitment to Your Product

No sign is more telling that you need to make some changes than an obvious loss of revenue. Obviously technology isn’t the only reason customers will fail to continue to do business with your company, but a lack of innovation is often cited by consumers as reasons to go shopping. One study found that 9-out-of-10 customers would consider shopping around if the company they traditionally did business with had poor technology. 

Let Go of Old Technology

If you would like to learn more about getting a much-needed technology upgrade at a price that you can afford, give the IT professionals at MSPNetworks a call today at (516) 403-9001.

In today’s business, the more robust an IT network is the more risk there is of system failure. This comes down to what is known as Murphy’s Law, which states anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. That’s why when coming up with a defense strategy, you need to mix smart IT management decisions with overwhelming redundancy to have a chance. In this week’s blog, we will outline some of the most common reasons for system failure and why you need a data backup solution.

Reasons for System Failure

Before we start listing reasons that your information systems might see critical failure, we should state that by having a strategy to confront each of these possibilities, you are going a long way toward protecting your business against the costly downtime that these events can cause. Let’s start with outside threats first:

Malware Attack

Nowadays, the threat landscape is getting more and more concentrated with possible malware threats; some of which are really problematic. Malware can come in many different forms and can cause a vast array of different negative impacts to an organization. Some of the worst malware attacks are considered ransomware. This is not only a devastatingly thorough malware, but also an extortion plot aimed directly at your reliance on your IT. 

Ransomware can quickly encrypt and lock down entire computers or your whole network and presents the administrator with a choice: either pay the demanded ransom to get your data back or refuse and risk that information be deleted and/or shared. Most businesses hold a lot of sensitive information, whether it is business-related intellectual property or customer-related personal data, so they are frequent victims of these types of scams. A ransomware will take your whole system down and create a lot of confusion. Maintaining a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy with training, testing, and the deployment of various updated tools at its center is crucial to keep malware from being a problem for your business.

Ineffective Power Management

One frequent problem organizations face is weather; and, it can be a bigger problem for some organizations than others. You see, your technology needs power to run and if it isn’t sufficiently protected, a brownout or a surge can completely decimate your onsite IT. This can destroy critical components and cause data loss.

The best way to combat this is to use a device called an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). This device is powered by batteries so when a power surge happens (typically when the power goes out), it doesn’t affect any of the internal components of your technology. It also has enough power to power down your technology, so that there aren’t any abrupt cuts of power that can render the power supply of your workstations and servers inoperable. 

Poor Policies and Training

In order to keep your business’ IT infrastructure secure, you need your staff to do a lot of the heavy lifting. You also need to put them in a position to succeed. The fact is that the majority of business-altering security problems come from end-user mistakes. It makes it extremely important that you have a workforce that is both cognizant that they will need to be aware of how attacks are levied and what to do to ensure they don’t become organizational problems. 

This can be greatly mitigated by having a comprehensive security training regime in place. You will want to train your people on the best practices of creating passwords, how multi-factor authentication works and why it is important, what variables to look for in their messages to be able to spot phishing attacks and other scams, and why complying with cybersecurity efforts can work to make it much easier for IT administrators to control the security of the information systems they manage. 

Why Data Backup is So Important

These three variables are essential to keeping threat actors at bay, but they are only part of the overall puzzle. One of the most important parts of a data security strategy is to have a comprehensive backup and recovery plan. Not only do you need to have a data backup that is updated regularly (and incrementally if possible), you also need it to thoroughly meet the wide variety of data restoration needs.

Consider for a minute the number of reasons a system can fail or data can be lost. There are quite literally dozens of different reasons why you would need to restore your data. You need a data redundancy plan that addresses the immediate needs of data restoration, longer term outages that could put your organization into flux, as well as the unlikely scenario that your hardware is compromised and destroyed and you need data redundancy that is able to restore from offsite. 

At MSPNetworks, we offer our Backup and Disaster Recovery service that not only provides you with an incremental backup platform inside your business, it also uploads that data to the cloud to ensure that if something happens to your hardware that you still have access to your business’ crucial data. The fact is that disaster is usually not a situation that happens over time. Problems arise quickly and you need to have solutions to any problem at hand just as fast. 

If you would like to learn more about how our technicians can help you build the technology you need to be successful, or how we have a contingency for all types of business technology problems, give us a call today at (516) 403-9001.

All successful businesses want to grow and better themselves, as growth is a direct indicator that you are doing something right, from providing better services to your customers or servicing more customers. If you’re not ready to adapt to this growth, you’re in for a difficult time. Here are three ways you can keep your business operating even when you’re experiencing unprecedented growth.

Prioritize Flexibility

If things progress too quickly with your business’ growth, then you’ll want to be prepared to adjust your strategy accordingly. Therefore, if you are expecting to experience growth, you’ll need to have the flexibility to adapt your practices in real time. You’ll also need to acquire additional resources, should the need arise, to scale services and allocate funds. For technology, the cloud can help you be particularly flexible, especially for controlling costs and resource access.

Keep Spending Under Control

It’s always stressful not knowing if your current level of growth is sustainable with your current staff, especially if you’re unsure if your budget can handle onboarding new employees. Payroll can be challenging, and if you aren’t careful, you could over-anticipate your staffing needs and break your budget. You can use technology to help control costs. For example, a CRM can be used to track customer interactions and collect valuable metrics from which you can make educated decisions.

Make Security Your Priority

With all of the exciting things going on with your business, it’s easy to put your blinders on and forget that the more your business grows, the more opportunities there are for security discrepancies to cause trouble for your company. Cybercriminals will generally pick easy targets, i.e. those that don’t properly protect themselves, so the more difficult it is for a hacker to infiltrate your systems, the less likely they will be to follow through on the plethora of tactics they could employ. Don’t put your business at risk by allowing it to grow so big you cannot protect it. Plan for growth and adjust your security measures in accordance to that growth.

MSPNetworks can help your business implement technology solutions designed to scale and grow alongside your business, no matter what your work might be. If you’re ready to start the conversation about your business’ technology infrastructure, then we’d be happy to help you learn more. To get started, contact us at (516) 403-9001 today.

Smartphone applications are in high demand from both a consumer and a business perspective, so it stands to reason that these ecosystems are large in scope, encompassing millions of apps on both the Google Play and Apple App stores. Have you ever wondered how these companies ensure that the apps found on their stores are secure and legitimate?

The Current State of App Store Security

You’ll be happy to know that Google and Apple take measures to protect their users from malware, but it is admittedly not a perfect system, as there is a very real chance that malicious apps can find homes on the storefronts. This is dangerous because most people tend to trust the apps they find on the app stores, and criminals will use these presumptions to steal data, deploy malware, or spy on individuals.

Google Play has a system which effectively limits the amount of dangerous apps on the platform, but despite this, it still has the highest record for troublesome software available for download. The Apple App store does have fewer issues here, but note the word “fewer,” as this doesn’t mean that there are no problems to be found at all.

That said, even if most apps are safe to download from app stores, there will always be outliers that skirt the system to do evil.

App Stores Don’t Guarantee Safety or Security, Unfortunately

App stores generally have very strict guidelines for what they allow on their storefronts, preventing most malicious apps from finding their new homes on their distribution platforms. Unfortunately, there are always cases—even unlikely ones—where malicious entities are able to distribute their malware to unsuspecting users.

What Are the Potential Problems?

If you think you might have downloaded a malicious application, then you could see issues related to these problems:

• Ad fraud: Ads are nothing new—after all, developers need to make money somehow—but fraudulent ads could run in the background and reroute your clicks to various websites, thus eating up your battery and using your phone’s resources.
• Browser hacking: Malicious apps can also take over your web browser and make it open websites that could leave you vulnerable to data theft or fraudulent promotions.
• Data theft: Some apps are installed for the sole purpose of stealing your data, and if you’re not careful with the permissions you grant, you could wind up having a serious problem on your hands.

What Do You Do?

There are ways you can fight back against malicious apps. Here are just a few of them:

• Don’t jailbreak or sideload apps onto your phone: Downloading apps from other parts of the Internet and not from your app store (a term known as sideloading) on a jailbroken device gives malicious apps more control over what they can do with your device. Just avoid doing this at all costs.
• Update your operating system: Like all other software you might use, for work or otherwise, you’ll want to keep your operating systems updated to ensure you have potential vulnerabilities shored up.
• Do your research: Reading up on the reviews for any applications you are potentially planning to download could save you a lot of trouble. Furthermore, only download from trusted sources if you can help it.

MSPNetworks can help your business maximize security on all fronts, mobile included. To learn more, call us today at (516) 403-9001.

IT support is a must for the modern business. Whether you have an internal IT administrator, a team of technicians on staff, or you outsource your management, you need to ensure that your business has the support and service needed to keep your business’ technology running efficiently. 

The technology that organizations use for business hasn’t really changed much over the past few decades unless you count the emerging technologies that some organizations have rolled out recently such as AI tools and dynamic IoT technologies. In this week’s blog, we will go over how organizations have shifted their IT support structure to get more value for their business.

A Little Background

For decades businesses that depended on technology had three options: They could hire technology professionals to help deploy tools and manage the organization’s technology; they could wait until their technology breaks and get it fixed by an outside break/fix vendor; or they could just have their regular employees troubleshoot problems as they arise. Let’s go through each option to see why demand has grown for affordable outsourced IT support.

Hiring Internal IT Professionals

This option is still used by a lot of organizations. Frankly, if your organization can afford it, it is never a bad idea to have an internal IT professional at the ready to help you fix problems, create strategy, and onboard new tools. But, there's the rub: can you afford it? The average IT technician makes over $50,000 per year, with some with years of useful experience getting paid 50-to-100 percent more than that. It can be a major expense to hire new IT talent and even then you only have one person handling all the technology issues. It can be a bit much.

Waiting for Technology to Break

This was the preferred method for many organizations for years. Basically, technology will work great for a while, then it will break. It isn’t much different today. Once there was a broken computer/printer/router etc., you would take it to a break/fix vendor and then get it back in the rotation after a few days away. This seems reasonable, until you take into consideration the money you aren’t making as you wait to get your technology back. Downtime can cost any business a lot of money, and do so very rapidly. By waiting to get your technology back, you are basically succumbing to the downtime your company has to deal with. No good.

Employee Troubleshooting

Probably the riskiest strategy of them all is to allow your staff to troubleshoot problems on their own. This not only will surely cause a lot of downtime, but it will likely have lasting impacts on your business’ ability to effectively do the things it needs to do to generate revenue. This subset of businesses is the most likely to have devastating technology issues bring down their whole company. 

A Better Strategy

For the past decade many businesses have taken advantage of a better strategy: Managed IT services. This service effectively replaces your IT management strategy with a team of technicians that work remotely to manage your business’ IT with state-of-the-art monitoring and management software. The benefit of this is to have your technology constantly monitored for threats and underperformance so that technicians can fix issues with these systems before they can become profit-sapping problems. 

This form of proactive IT management is only one of the numerous beneficial services that come with a comprehensive managed IT services contract. Some of the other features include:

• Expert technicians - You know those technicians making $80-to-$100K per year because of their field experience? Those are the level of technicians that typically run proactive services at managed IT service providers. You will get to work with a team of technicians and consultants that know how technology fits into your business, and what needs to happen to get it to that point. 
• Budgetable monthly payment - With Managed IT, you know exactly how much your technology support costs are beforehand. 
• Vendor management - You may be surprised just how much time away from your business your vendors cause you to take. Knowledgeable consultants can manage your IT vendor relationships for you to ensure that you have a professional perspective working for your business.
• Backup and Disaster Recovery - The BDR service backs up your company’s crucial data and applications to ensure that if something goes wrong, you have an up-to-date backup of the data you need to keep your business running.
• Hardware support - If something goes wrong and our technicians can’t fix it remotely, we will come onsite to ensure that your hardware is fixed and you can get back to business fast. 

The whole point is that managed services providers do things remotely and proactively so that you don’t have to see massive maintenance costs. If you would like to learn more about getting your business the technology support and management it needs, give MSPNetworks a call at (516) 403-9001.

We are always writing about how useful technology is, but it’s surprising how little even the most committed techie knows about the options that are available to them. In this week’s blog we decided to go through three features in the Windows OS that can be a big help. 

Built-in Dictation

One tip that not many people know about is the built-in dictation feature in the newer versions of the Windows operating system. All you need to do is type Windows key + H. This will open the dictation toolbar. This allows you to use speech to fill out any text field inside of windows.

Focus Assist

With so many distractions it's not a surprise that we keep getting interrupted from our work. Notifications are built-in to almost every app, and they can be a little much sometimes. Windows offers the Focus Assist feature that will work to keep you focused and on track. 

Simply go to Settings > System > Focus Assist.

Once open, you can configure the software to automatically turn on during certain times. In the Focus Assist settings you can fully customize the priority of the notifications so that important messages come through but that notification from Amazon about the tent you want to buy can be tabled for later. 

Use Multiple Desktops

One really neat feature that Microsoft has rolled out over the past few iterations of Windows is the multiple desktop feature. It allows users to separate whole projects from one another and allow them to move between them seamlessly. 

To access this feature you can right-click on the taskbar and go to Taskbar Settings. Once there you need to toggle on the Task view option. This will create a Task view icon just to the right of the start icon on the taskbar. Push it and you can create a whole new desktop environment (with its own background) to help keep your work organized.

Windows has long been one of the most important business tools and with Windows 10 and Windows 11, Microsoft has created operating systems filled with cool features and resources. If you want to learn more great tips and tricks, visit our blog again soon.

Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur, largely because there’s a lot that can pop up and cause problems that need to be addressed. Let’s discuss how successful business owners rally through tough times to help attain this kind of success.

Starting a business is a huge risk, which pretty much always means that there’s a lot of hope involved. Entrepreneurs move forward under the assumption that they can take something in the world and make it better or reinvent it entirely. As a result, there is the impression that a business owner will need to push their boundaries, or fail.

Of course, there’s taking risks, and then there’s being foolhardy. It’s all about balancing between playing it safe, and putting a little bit out on the line. Let’s discuss a few ways that you can make it easier to step out of your comfort zone a little.

Acquire Information

If you’re going to accomplish any of the goals you set for yourself and your business, you're going to need data. How does your business work? How is payroll handled? How are your business’ taxes paid? What are your acquisition and inventorying processes? Are you in a good relationship with the vendors you rely on? Are you in compliance with any and all applicable regulations?

The list of things you need to know to successfully open and operate a business, as they say, goes on and on.

Plus, this all gets more complicated as your business grows. Knowledge is indeed power, so make sure you are as knowledgeable about your business as possible.

Accept the Responsibilities of Your Role

While it would certainly be nice to just wake up one morning to find yourself the CEO of the most successful, expansive, and profitable business in history, that’s simply not how it works. If you are going to grow your business to any degree, you need to have the right goals in place, as well as the processes to allow you to strive towards these goals. Figure out how to work more efficiently, either by cutting through red tape or by adopting modern equipment that enables automation. Seek out new hires who have proven their worth in their previous positions. Will it take time and effort (and a bit of financial investment)? Sure, but everything that’s worth it tends to do so.

Furthermore, you need to be able to hold yourself accountable when things don’t go as planned. It can be too tempting to cast blame on anyone or anything else—an approach many less-than-admirable managers follow—so you need to commit to honest self-evaluation, regardless of whether your business’ efforts are trending up or down.

Maintain Forward Momentum

So, you’ve managed to expand your business’ comfort zone and embraced more opportunities as a result…time for a break, right?

Wrong.

Complacency is a dangerous thing, especially when you take into account how quickly things can change for a business. Millions of businesses suddenly had to make some very drastic changes a few years ago, and those that didn’t shut their doors after a while. While this wasn’t their fault, per se, their lack of preparedness and adaptability led to their failure.

As a business owner, you’re likely pretty used to pushing your own boundaries. Starting a business, or even taking up the mantle, is a real challenge. It takes grit, and that same grit is required if you plan to advance the company you are in charge of—and, as you’re the one in charge, it is your responsibility to make things better for your customers, employees, and vendors.

Yeah, building a business is hard, but we can at least make any IT concerns a lot easier. Reach out at (516) 403-9001 to talk to us about what we can do for you.

The Internet is used for a great many things in business nowadays, but some may not realize just how much Internet speeds have changed over time. This week, we thought we would take a brief look at the evolution of Internet speeds and what today’s speeds allow businesses to do. 

Before we get started it’s important to understand how internet speeds are measured. The speeds are measured in megabits. 1,000 kilobits (technically 1,024 KB) is equivalent to 1 megabit and 1,000 megabits (technically 1,024 MB) is equivalent to 1 gigabit. 

Dial Up

It has only been about 25 years since Internet connections have become commonplace in the office and the home. When the Internet was first introduced to the mass market, the main way people would access the web was through their phones. If you were on the Internet in the 1990s, people would often have one telephone line for both home and their computer. As the now antiquated model of telephone long distance was in place, many people would have to pay huge phone bills because their Internet service provider was accessed through a long distance call (even if that call was to the next village over or in the same city). 

The typical modem around the year 2000 was 56 KB/s which means that when the modem is working optimally with an uninterrupted signal, a one megabyte file could be downloaded in about 20 seconds. Obviously, those speeds wouldn’t work in today’s mobile world where people are getting over 10 GB/s in some places. This connection made instant messaging possible, but any media—including all the media we take for granted today—would take days and weeks to transmit over a dial-up connection.

DSL

Around the turn of the century “high-speed” Internet became popular. Using cable connections, ISPs were able to transmit data much more effectively. This is because the bandwidth of a cable wire has substantially more data transmission capabilities than a telephone wire. Called a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) connection, this is, to this day, the lion’s share of the connections that you will find available. A DSL connection delivers internet at speeds up to around 100 MB/s but it’s more known to sit in the 5 MB-to-20 MB range. 

In this range, users can do a lot of more complex tasks. Today’s cloud-hosted email services require these speeds as do music streaming services and solid website browsing. The widespread use of DSL around 2010 began to spur on application development that is a major part of today’s computing ecosystems. While video streaming is relatively new—and resource intensive—standard definition video (think early YouTube) is capable through a DSL connection.

Fiber Optic

Many of today’s high speed connections are run through fiber optic cables. Fiber optics uses light to transmit data, making it much faster than DSL connections. Most DSL cable systems would lose speed and performance the longer a signal would have to travel through wires. With fiber optics, however, Internet speeds and bandwidth grow exponentially. Today, there are fiber connections that are capable of tens of gigabits per second. 

With mobile computing growing in popularity every year, and more and more people relying on Wi-Fi signals to keep from going over mobile data caps, people now rely on these faster internet speeds. Fiber has created an environment of innovation that is driving the on demand computing resources that businesses and individuals rely on. This has made mobile computing more possible and has fueled the work-from-home revolution, online schooling, real-time data collection, telehealth, and communication and collaboration tools including video conferencing. 

If you want to quickly determine what your current internet speed is, you can use any number of speed test applications that are available. A good standard is https://www.speedtest.net/. These will give you an idea of what your current internet speed for downloads and uploads are. If you need help ascertaining what type of speeds you need for your business, you should contact the IT professionals at MSPNetworks today at (516) 403-9001. 

There are further innovations in the works that will push Internet speeds faster and faster, with less latency. This type of technology can completely revolutionize the way we view the world. In this new digital landscape, expect to see more and more work to be done on this front in the near future.

Business technology has grown so much over time that it’s practically unrecognizable compared to some of the original solutions. The Internet of Things has given businesses more opportunities to automate processes and build efficiency into their IT infrastructure, and in more ways than one. Let’s look at how businesses use the Internet of Things and what you might accomplish with it.

Mobile Productivity

When you implement an IoT policy, you need to have clear protocols in place for how smartphones and other smart devices will be governed by your network. Access control is important for any technology, especially remote access, and small businesses need to have solutions in place to manage it all. In other words, plan for mobility; worst case scenario, you plan for something that you use sparingly.

Inventory Processes

You’ll need a way to track inventory for your business, whether it’s for internal devices or external products that are hitting store shelves or consumer pockets. You’ll want to ensure that you have systems in place that can keep track of inventory processes so that you get an accurate count of your resources. This also goes for the products which go into making your products.

Staffing and Human Resources

The IoT has made it easier than ever before to stay in touch and connected with your consumer base, providing opportunities for automated chatbots to answer frequently asked questions for your neediest clients. Automation can also help you on the human resources front, whether it’s tracking time spent in the office or other important metrics.

Customer Expectation and Service Management

The Internet of Things makes great use of automated technology and service management, as it can be tied directly into customer relationship management, too. You can use the IoT to track consumer and business patterns so you can address their needs in a more timely and efficient manner. The IoT, therefore, provides more opportunities to generate value for your consumers, which inevitably leads to greater sales and satisfaction numbers.

Data Analysis and Management

The cream of the crop, so to speak, is data analysis and management. All of the numbers and statistics you use each and every day can be valuable, and the IoT gives you a mechanism to analyze and process it all. You can measure it all to make meaningful and lasting change for your business, whether it’s adding new products to your service offerings or making more intelligent decisions about how you run your company.

MSPNetworks can equip your business with the tools needed to make the most out of the IoT and other technology you might find in the modern office. To learn more, call us at (516) 403-9001 today.

With technology playing such a massive role in modern business processes, having someone in the higher ranks to oversee it is a huge advantage. This is the role of the Chief Information Officer—the CIO—which makes them an integral part of the modern C-suite.

So, what kind of thing does the CIO (or your business’ equivalent of it) need to know and consider in order to fulfill their role? 

Let’s go over a few of the priorities the CIO will need to have in the coming year and years, and what skills they’ll need to have.

What Does Your IT Leadership Need to Focus On?

There are a few key areas that the person taking the lead on your business’ IT should devote their attention to in the coming year.

• Budget Defensibility - With the signals we’ve been seeing as far as the economy is concerned, budgets are bound to be pretty tight for businesses. This puts the often resource-intensive IT department in the crosshairs for cuts...even though these cuts could negatively impact the business as a whole.
  
  As such, it will be important that a company’s IT leadership has a good handle on how much return the department is seeing on the company’s investment into it, and that they have empirical data to support these conclusions. Focusing on value will help you to communicate this more effectively.
  
  
• Data Security and Protection - The unpleasant reality is that cyberattacks aren’t going to go away. Why would they? Economic and geopolitical struggles often go hand in hand with cyberthreats—many of which can and will target businesses of any size—which only adds to the current need for improved cybersecurity across the board.
  
  
• Adaptability - The world learned the hard way how effective remote (or “distributed”) work can be just a few years ago, despite many resisting it for as long as they could. Despite distributed work quite literally keeping many companies from going under, a considerable number of these companies have been quick to pull their employees back into the office. For many of these employees, it has been an unhappy return.
  
  Today’s CIOs need to understand and embrace remote work as the net benefit that it is, creating a strategy that allows the business to take full advantage of its employees’ skills, wherever they happen to be working.

We Can Help Your Business, Supporting Your CIO (or Even Stepping Into the Role)

As a managed service provider, we have the capability to work alongside your Chief Information Officer to ensure that their plan for your business’ IT is properly implemented in a way that is both effective and fiscally responsible for your business’ situation. Don’t have a CIO? No problem—we can also serve as a virtual CIO for you, taking the lead on your business technology strategy.

Learn more about the options you have with MSPNetworks by giving us a call at (516) 403-9001!

The holiday season is getting busier and busier every year and with less and less time afforded to shopping and getting ready for the holiday, you may have overlooked that special someone on your holiday shopping list. This week, we give you three gadgets that would be really nice last minute gifts for that technology lover in your life

Levitating Plant Pot/Lamp

We’ll start with a couple of cool pieces that just about anyone will find fascinating and fun. Using magnets, several manufacturers have created products that seem to defy the laws of physics; and they are perfect for the desks of technology lovers. 

The levitating potted plant is a succulent that floats above the base, while the lamp is a LED light fixture that floats beneath the arm of a desk lamp. There are different versions of the lamp with the most expensive ones providing a wireless charger in the base. Overall these are cool items that can be purchased online for under $100 and shipped to you fast.

The Couch Console

In today’s age of video games and streaming media, people spend a lot of time in front of the television. One problem with this is that controllers, remotes, phones, and all manners of other devices (and often a lot of garbage) can accumulate in the nesting spots we choose to relax from. One awesome gift is called The Couch Console. It is a modular place to store your remotes, your phone, and even a drink and a snack while you relax on the couch. 

Made from lightweight foam, the Couch Console comes with a no-spill cup holder, a place to store your remotes and can even come with an optional battery pack so that you can charge your devices. The Couch Console starts at $80 and will be a great option for just about anyone. 

A Power Bank

We add in the power bank because today everyone uses devices that need charging all the time. How many times have you gone someplace and someone asks you if you have a charger they can use so they can keep their devices alive just a little bit longer? Gifting a power bank eliminates the need to scramble around to find juice for their favorite device; they’ll have it on them already.

Essentially, a power bank is a backup battery that can be used to charge devices that run out of juice while you are on the go. There are all types of power banks available: from ones that will change your wireless earbuds to devices that can power a laptop for hours at a time. The ones that make great last-minute gifts will be able to sufficiently recharge a smartphone and a pair of wireless earbuds on a single charge. For this reason they are a great gift for just about anyone. 

What do you think? Are there any specific technology gadgets that you would suggest to add? Leave your thoughts on our social media and have a Merry Christmas!

Magnets are often portrayed as the bane of technology’s existence, especially in media where data must be scrubbed from devices through the use of a magnet. How true is this representation of the relationship between magnets and technology? We’ll examine this in today’s blog article.

Science Says Magnets Aren’t Necessarily the Problem

Scientifically speaking, magnets are not great for your computer or your smartphone. That much is indisputable. However, there are a lot of other factors in play, especially the duration of the exposure and the strength of the magnet.

Think about the weak magnets you use to pin your kids’ drawings up on the refrigerator. They are magnets, but they are nowhere near strong enough to cause measurable or permanent damage to any of your devices. Magnets in this context are generally designed to be as strong as they need to be, and no more, specifically so they don’t cause unforeseen issues.

If you want to cause some real damage to a device, you need the heavy-duty, industrial-sized magnets. They are the ones you need to watch out for.

How Dangerous Are Magnets to Your Technology?

If you aren’t working in an industry where you are constantly exposed to such technology, then you should have little to fear from magnets actually causing damage to your technology. Such magnets are often turned off when not in use, as well, as there is no need for them to be functional all the time.

Here’s a fun fact: magnets are actually a crucial part of your current workplace, as they are used in hard drives to read and write data. To put this into context, the aforementioned fridge magnets are nowhere near as powerful as the ones found in a hard drive, and solid state drives don’t utilize magnets at all. There is no chance that such weak magnets could ever damage your average business technology solutions unless you are trying VERY hard to mess things up.

Smartphones, though, are a different story. Smartphones are made with magnetic materials, and as such, are somewhat susceptible to issues from magnets, but problems should disappear after the exposure ceases. Smartphones don’t store data on magnetic disks like with hard drives, so if these devices are exposed to magnets, certain functionality could be disabled temporarily, but it’s not a permanent problem or even a remotely serious one. On the same token, so many smartphone accessories like smart keyboards, cases, and other peripherals use magnets, and don’t affect the longevity of the device at all. 

Ultimately, You Shouldn’t Really Worry That Much

All in all, the big thing to keep in mind regarding magnets is that you shouldn’t bring your technology around heavy-duty, powerful magnets. The average user has virtually no chance of suffering serious or permanent damage from your everyday magnet. Still, we will caution you against testing this yourself.

We hope you found today’s article interesting! Be sure to let us know what other topics you’d like covered in future blog articles.

The Internet of Things, or IoT, has grown to over 14 billion connected devices as of this year, and this number is expected to exceed 20 billion devices by the end of 2026. With such a shocking number of devices, you might wonder what types of devices are out there and what they mean for your business. Let’s look at the IoT and what you need to know to keep it at the top of your mind this upcoming year.

You Use the IoT More Than You Think

Even if you don’t have a specific plan in place to handle IoT devices, you already use them in some capacity for your operations. Employee smartphones are perhaps the most well-known IoT devices. Whether your employees use their personal devices or company-issued phones, they use these devices to perform work-related tasks both in and out of the office.

Just think about how you use your own smartphone. You might perform research into a product before buying it. Most people use their smartphones for this same purpose, looking into products before committing to them. Other uses include business communications, administration of business, and even productivity.

Other IoT devices might use your business’ network, even if you are unaware of them, like employee-owned wearable devices, smart utilities solutions for controlling HVAC systems, smart lights, and so on.

Growing Your IoT Usage

Many businesses understand that the IoT is something that can yield great benefits with a little smart investment. Some of these benefits can come from smarter systems, like inventory management, which can document additions or subtractions from your systems to ensure that you always keep an adequate supply of resources. Specialized IoT devices can do this automatically without the need to dedicate human resources to them, reducing costs.

Improvements to the Customer Experience

The IoT can bolster the customer experience, giving you more ways to represent your business in the realm of ecommerce. If you can make your customer experience operations as transparent and user-friendly as possible, you can provide a better experience as a whole, making customers more likely to stay and for new customers to jump on board.

Data Sharing

Sharing data is important to businesses of all kinds, whether they are trying to integrate IoT devices into an existing infrastructure or building an infrastructure with IoT devices in mind. Furthermore, the real-time data collection offered by IoT devices can be invaluable in making both long-term and short-term decisions regarding your operations.

The Internet of Things can be a helpful way of making meaningful changes to your operations and infrastructure. To learn more about how we can help your business use the latest and greatest technologies to your advantage, reach out to MSPNetworks at (516) 403-9001.

Do your employees have a hard time with the technology that you’ve provided them? Are your digitization efforts lagging behind? Are the systems your business is using coming up on their end of support date? Old technology can cause major problems for a business. In this week’s blog, we go through some of the signs that you may need to upgrade your business’ technology.

Your Technology Is Slow

One of the most frustrating things any employee can deal with is a work computer that takes significantly longer than their personal computer to load up and function. The longer a computer is used, the slower it will become. If your computer is approaching the five-year mark and the person using it is constantly complaining that it is a hindrance to their ability to be productive (not to mention run more advanced applications that your business may use), it is probably time to consider an upgrade of that particular machine. 

For more centralized computing, you should keep in mind that we recommend that you start considering your server refresh at the four-year mark. While you can probably continue using that technology for years after that, you need to start considering a server upgrade because it takes some time to pull the trigger on large technology expenses and services. 

Your Company Is Growing Fast

If your company is experiencing a boom in growth, getting technology into your employees’ hands comes with the territory; and, it can start to become an issue. Not only do your employees need different types of technology, as your business grows this will become an even bigger issue, as presumably the array of different job-related tasks will diversify. 

Another issue is that if you’ve found success with older software (often called legacy), you may find it more difficult to purchase new hardware that is compatible with the older software. Of course, there are options to rent server space in the cloud to accommodate this demand, but there are other issues you then have to consider. Most businesses that maintain an upward trajectory find ways for their technology to grow with their business. 

You Have a Remote Workforce

Managing a remote workforce is a lot different than managing people that come to a central location five days a week. It becomes an issue to get everyone on your team the technology they need. In this case, obtaining resources in the cloud makes a lot of sense. Today, you can get nearly any computing your company needs through cloud-hosted offerings. 

Since the average cloud platform cuts computing and support costs by around a third, it creates a situation where an organization that has distributed employees will prioritize cloud computing due to the ease in which they can deploy required resources, the ability for access from nearly anywhere, and the built in management and support that you get when you purchase SaaS applications.

Ultimately, new technology can allow you to do more, build a more efficient and productive business, and do so with whatever workforce you feel comfortable utilizing. At MSPNetworks, our IT experts can help you procure and integrate your new technologies and help you manage your entire business IT infrastructure. Give us a call today at (516) 403-9001 to learn more.

There’s no beating around the bush with this one; moving data from one place to another, also known as data migration, is critical to get right the first time. If you create and follow a migration strategy, evaluating here and there to make sure it’s all going according to plan, you’ll see great success in this effort. Let’s go over how you can make it happen.

The Process of Migration Testing

When testing your data migration process, it’s important to make sure you take action to plan it out long before the process begins, as well as what happens after the migration. If you evaluate your process before, during, and after the migration, you’ll have key insights into specific metrics that can help you gauge the success of the endeavor. Of course, there are plenty of things that can go wrong, and keeping an eye on things throughout the process will help you catch them before they cause too much trouble.

Also of note is that data migration requires some pretty technical skills and know-how, so it’s advisable to have professionals on hand to help you with the process. MSPNetworks is happy to assist you with this complicated process.

All that said, we can now take a look at what you need to know before, during, and after a migration.

What Should You Do Before Your Migration?

First, we recommend that you look at how much data needs to be migrated to establish a frame of reference for the success of the migration. It’s also crucial that you take measures to protect your data while you migrate everything to a new location, and be sure to back it up just in case of a worst-case scenario.

Furthermore, be sure that your team is aware of the proposed timeline, and make sure that your budget can cover this timeline in a sustainable way. The last thing you need to do is cut corners. Doing so could potentially put you at risk of doing it poorly, or even leave you subject to fines and other compliance issues if the system you’re migrating to is not adequate.

What Should You Do During the Migration?

As the migration occurs, you should break up your data into smaller batches so that testing is more efficient and easier to pull off. You can also take the opportunity to set access permissions according to the roles of your employees.

What Should You Do After the Migration?

Once you have finished the migration, you should go through and test your new solutions to make sure that they all work correctly. This involves making sure that the data have made it to the new system in the correct format. Checking the system performance should also be a priority, as well as various security assessments like stress testing, penetration testing, and others.

Need a Hand with Data Migration?

MSPNetworks can help your business with its data migration needs. To learn more, call us today at (516) 403-9001.

We talk a lot about different types of technology, securing your technology and your accounts, and a lot of other technology-related issues on this blog, but because of the generalities of whatever technology (or strategy) we’ve chosen to write about that day, we never confront the thing that is most important to a business: How does any technology fit into what we do here? What value do we get from any type of technology? Today, we thought we’d talk a little bit about what you need to do to find the right technology for your business and how to come up with those decisions. 

Is Technology the Answer?

If we are asked by a new business to come up with a technology plan for their company, it may take a little bit of time but ultimately we could put together a comprehensive plan of technology and strategies to get that technology to work best for your organization. Similarly, if an established business came to us to get an assessment of what technology changes they would need to make to get the innovations built into new tools, we could tell them after some monitoring and an audit. 

The problem, however, is when a business comes to us with a plan of attack, investments made in technology, and operational problems abound. This is problematic because a business has already made the decisions they would need consulting on, and regardless of what we find and what tweaks to their operational and management procedures we suggest, they will need time to be able to implement them on the scale they would require, which typically would be some time away. 

The technology consultation process starts with questions; lots of questions.

You see, we can take a look at your infrastructure, your cache of software, your practices, policies, and procedures, and your budget; but we can’t know what your goals are unless you tell us. All that information goes into our opinion. You see, we may be the best IT consultants in New York, but we’re only as good as the information we have. 

Where we excel, and are a huge benefit for your business, is in the design, procurement, implementation, deployment, monitoring, and support of business technology. This brings us to the main benefit of hiring a managed IT services firm to assess and revamp your business’ technology: We have decades of in-house experience with the purchasing, setup, management, governance, and maintenance of the technology that businesses depend on to succeed. 

The truth is, our consultants and technicians can provide your decision makers with a comprehensive plan forward for your business technology; and, it may involve technologies you’ve never even considered. 

This is why you should give us a call at (516) 403-9001. We will work with you to find the technology that can help you generate the most revenue for management costs. If your plan is to turn a profit, technology can sure make a huge difference.