The Four Myths About IT Support

the four myths about it support

Let’s take a moment and dispel some of the misinformation surrounding IT support ae-itsupport . Here are four myths that you can now discount.

IT support is too expensive and your small business can’t afford it

This is one we hear all the time. This is really more of a worry than it is a thought since it doesn’t make too much sense. Overall, there are two reasons why you can afford IT support. The first is that the service itself is cost-effective. It’s not going to be your biggest expense and the monthly bill is predictable. The second reason is that it lets you concentrate more on your business. Our economy is based off of people specializing in what they do best. Let IT professionals take care of your network and focus on your clients and products.

In-house support is better than outsourced support

While it’s certainly more expensive, in-house support is not always necessarily better than outsourced support. Ask yourself what kind of IT support you need in the first place. If it’s just normal everyday stuff, then outsourcing IT support will be just fine. If you’re asking why businesses would choose to outsource support instead, take another look at the first myth.

Businesses don’t need IT support

If your business only has one laptop, a printer, and a basic wireless network, then you probably don’t need IT support. But once you start adding more devices, you have to start thinking seriously about network security. Plus, there are a bunch of other services like cloud computing and VoIP. Your business needs IT support the same way you need Internet access.

IT support teams don’t listen to businesses

We’ve all brought our car to a mechanic only to be ignored when we suggest what could be wrong. We drive the same car every day, so they should probably hear what we have to say. We keep this same mentality when working with businesses. Whether you have a problem with your data or you need advice about which IP phone to buy, we’ll listen to you before making a decision.

To talk more about this, or anything else, please contact us. Thanks.

IT Support: How a Conflict of Interest Affects IT Expenses

it support how a conflict of interest affects it expenses

 

IT support teams understand the technology

There’s often a conflict of interest when it comes to IT-related purchases. In the end, it all comes down to who’s making the decision and what he or she values to be the most important. Sometimes this isn’t the best option for the entire company.

IT spending should be left to IT teams. They understand the technology best and know exactly what the business needs to upgrade in. Their decisions should be verified by the accounting team, of course. It’s a system of checks and balances that keeps expenses under control.

In some companies, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is in charge of IT spending. This is presumably because they want to decide which marketing software the company uses. A recent CIO article explains how this scenario can lead to a spending catastrophe:

“When CMOs take control of IT spending, then they may well move fast and break something. With budgetary responsibility comes the responsibility for things like security, scalability and performance. The first time the systems go crashing down because they can’t scale sufficiently, or for whatever reason, the CMO is going to have to go looking for help from the CIO.”

If your business doesn’t have an IT team, don’t just put a random person in charge of IT expenses. Chances are they don’t know the equipment well enough to make a prudent financial decision.

If you need advice or consultation, consider getting in touch with an IT support team. They understand the technology and can tell your business what needs to be upgraded and what you should buy. If you already outsource your IT support, then make sure you contact them before making any major technology purchases. All of this is in the best interest of your business.

If you’d like to talk more about this or anything else, contact us. Thanks.

Three Things About VoIP Phone Systems for Office 365 You Should Really Know

three things about voip phone systems for office 365 you should really know

ae-voip If you’re considering a voip phone system for office 365, then you’ll want to make sure you know these three things:

Integration with Microsoft Lync:

VoIP is about to make a huge stride in terms of popularity because of its support by Microsoft Lync. The software makes it convenient and easy for businesses to integrate VoIP. The most important aspect of this is that it uses a Microsoft-styled interface which just about everyone is comfortable with. It’s not a difficult transition for employees since they don’t have to get used to a completely new interface.

Collaboration:

Once they open the program for the very first time, employees will notice one thing immediately: many features of Microsoft Lync have to do with collaboration. Whether messaging or calling, the software makes it easy for employees to communicate with each other. This is especially useful for hosting meetings online. Again, because the interface is rather straight-forward, employees won’t need extensive training to learn how to set up or attend meetings on Microsoft Lync.

Cost-effective communications solution:

On top of all this, businesses will save a lot of money after they switch to VoIP. Although a lot has changed since VoIP was initially developed, one thing holds true for small businesses: it’s an extremely cost-effective communications solution. It’s not uncommon for businesses to have their phone bill cut in half once they leave their landline phone provider and switch to VoIP. This benefit isn’t going to change anytime soon.

If you were thinking about VoIP in the past but decided your business wasn’t ready for the transition, now is the time to reconsider. Unlike in the past, VoIP can now be integrated with office 365. The benefits are still the same, but a lot of the hurdles have been taken away.

To talk more about this, or anything else, please contact us. Thanks.

Start Your Disaster Recovery with an Emergency Services Request

start your disaster recovery with an emergency services request

Disaster recovery emergency services request Sometimes businesses don’t understand the need for disaster recovery until they’re actually in that situation. Some call this learning the hard way while others call it poor business planning. Either way, businesses that don’t invest in disaster recovery are headed down a rocky road.

We understand that some businesses get caught up and unfortunately find themselves in this situation. While we certainly don’t condone this behavior, there’s no sense in punishing a business for not having a business continuity plan. The only thing we can do is help that business restore its operations and then help them form a disaster recovery plan after the fact.

And that’s why we accept free emergency services requests. Some companies are just blindsided by technology failure and need immediate assistance. If your company finds itself in an emergency, you can fill out this form and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. We’ll provide services that fix problems such as:

  • Internet Outage
  • Network Down
  • Server Failure
  • Email Down

The idea is to stop the bleeding as soon as possible and help your business restore its operations. At this time, businesses don’t need lectures as to why they need to plan for this scenario. Every minute of business downtime costs companies money. They just need to restore their operations as soon as possible.

But while we can provide assistance in the aforementioned scenarios, businesses will still hurt from not having a disaster recovery plan. Restoring Internet access or fixing a server failure are important components of disaster recovery, but they won’t solve everything. Businesses need complete plans that covers everything from what their employees should do to how they will restore communication with clients.

If you would like more information about IT support or require assistance in an emergency related to technology, contact us.

A Scam-Free Guide on How to Increase Your Computer Speed

a scam free guide on how to increase your computer speed

If you’ve ever owned a laptop or desktop computer older than a couple years, you have first-hand experience with slowing machines. Computers tend to gradually slow down, so some owners may not even realize how slow their computer is in comparison to its first day of use. If it’s now clicking that your computer is taking longer to start up and load web pages, consider these tips on how to speed it back up.Computer-Speed

Avoid MyCleanPC

We’ll start here because this may be the most important point. Registry cleaners don’t work and because of their questionable marketing tactics, some may even say that they’re a scam. Software such as MyCleanPC will offer you a free diagnosis, list hundreds of problems that probably don’t affect the performance of your computer, and then offer to fix them for a small fee ($39.99). A recent How-to-Geek article explains why this software is useless:

“Temporary files are not slowing down your computer, and neither are browser history entries or cookies. Registry entries are generally not a problem — there’s a reason Microsoft once created a registry cleaner of their own before discontinuing it and advising people not to use registry cleaners.”

Clean up your computer

Now on to steps that your business should actually take. Cleaning up your computer and getting rid of unnecessary files and programs can speed up your computer greatly. To do this:

  • run Disk Cleanup on Windows
  • clean up your Desktop
  • uninstall unused programs
  • reduce the number of programs that load at startup

You’d be surprised how much memory on your computer is used up by programs and files you haven’t used for years. The Disk Cleanup tool will help you find files you probably wouldn’t look for otherwise.

Remove viruses, spyware, and adware

Viruses, spyware, and adware are still very real threats to computers. You should scan your computer from time to time and remove any suspicious files. These may be hurting the performance of your computer.

Choose a new browser

When all of that’s done, pick an Internet browser that’s right for you. Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are fast, reliable, and supported by almost all websites. If you already have one of these browsers and want to keep it, then remove unused plugins to clean the browser up.

It won’t take a long time to carry out all of these tips, but they should have a noticeable effect on your computer. You can check back to this list from time to time to repeat the actions and keep your computer fast.

If you are interested in speeding your computer up, contact us.