Should I Hire An IT Guy Or An MSP?

should i hire an it guy or an msp

Keeping your tech operational is key to helping your business stay on track, and it’s likely you’ve considered a traditional IT team to handle your computer problems. However, sometimes a managed service provider (MSP) can have a lot of benefits over traditional IT. Read on to see if you should hire an IT guy or an MSP.

MSP And IT: What’s The Difference?

Businesses who use traditional IT rely on a person or department within the business to handle any tech problems. Some of their main functions include installing new hardware or software, configuring networks, troubleshooting problems, solving connectivity issues, making sure computer networks are secure, and many other things that happen behind the scenes of your business. IT people are paid members of the staff. One of the main drawbacks of an IT person or team is that their knowledge and time can be limited. 

On the other hand, an MSP puts an entire team of knowledgeable experts at your fingertips. They are always there, whenever you need their services. Unlike an IT team that works on-site at your business, an MSP works remotely. While many businesses may see this as a drawback when it comes to hiring an IT guy or an MSP, but an MSP is usually only a quick phone call away. 

Benefits Of An MSP

There are plenty of benefits of hiring an MSP to handle your information technology systems. For example, they’re always there when you need them. Unlike a traditional IT team, they don’t call out sick or take vacations, which means that no matter when something goes wrong, you’ll be able to get it fixed quickly. And tech problems don’t always happen during normal working hours.  An MSP is often on call 24/7.

One of the biggest benefits of using an MSP, though, is the depth of experience and knowledge they can offer you. An MSP is comprised of professionals who all have different levels of expertise and useful skill sets. They have diverse qualifications and can collaborate whenever it’s required. A traditional IT team just doesn’t have the same level of knowledge that an MSP has. This means they can help you spot problems in your systems before they even arise. They can offer preventative measures, while an IT team may only fix problems after they happen. 

Another great thing about an MSP is that they are an extremely affordable option for many businesses. Hiring IT onto your staff means you have to pay them, even when they have downtime. In the long run, an MSP can save your business money, and they often offer a range of service options, so you can find something that fits into your budget. And as your businesses grow, you can scale up their services to meet your needs. 

MSP – The Right Choice For Your Business?

No matter what size your business is, when it comes to hiring an IT guy or an MSP, an MSP is a great choice. They offer a range of options at the right price and the reassurance that you will always have tech support on hand if something goes wrong.

An MSP can handle all your tech needs so you can worry about making sure your business keeps running smoothly. Before hiring an MSP, make sure they have the right training and certification for their team members. Read reviews online and talk with their team so that you know they’ll be a good fit.

If you’re looking to hire an MSP with the skills and expertise your business needs to be successful, contact us for more information. 

Moving to the Cloud? Nail Down The Contract First

moving to the cloud nail down the contract first
Move to the Cloud Nail Down the Contract

Cloud computing has several advantages for small and medium-sized businesses. It allows easier access to company applications and software while on-the-go. It also frees up small companies to focus on growing their business, rather than getting bogged down maintaining their own technology resources. However, just because a business decides to hire an outside provider to manage their cloud resources, it doesn’t mean they are off the hook when it comes to protecting their most valuable asset — their corporate data.

When interviewing various cloud providers, there are several key points to consider before signing on the dotted line.

Physical Attacks

Just as any in-house servers would be vulnerable to fire, flood, power outages, or a natural disaster, so would the servers of any cloud provider managing a company’s cloud data. Since an organization’s data is the lifeblood of their company, it is critically important to feel comfortable with a potential cloud provider’s plan for protecting data in the case of these types of occurrences.

Security

Of course, it’s no secret that threats to external hackers and data breaches must be addressed, but there are internal threats as well. Just as it is important for companies to limit who is able to access what data within their own group of employees, so it is with any cloud provider they might hire as well. When interviewing potential providers, it’s important for both parties to clearly understand which provider employees will be given access to the client’s data.

A small business should feel comfortable that their cloud provider has strong measures in place to prevent unauthorized access, whether the access is attempted either internally or externally. If a breach or data loss does occur, there must be a clear understanding of what steps the provider will take to recover and correct the situation.

Costs and Flexibility

Of course, it’s very important to have a clear understanding of all the set-up costs associated with transitioning to a cloud provider, as well as long-term billing expectations. Another important factor to consider is whether a cloud provider uses any proprietary technology to service their clients. If they do, it could be difficult to transition to another provider if a small business decides their current provider is not a good fit.

For additional tips about signing a contract with a cloud provider, please contact us.

What Are Managed Services for New York Businesses?

what are managed services for new york businesses
Managed Services

If you are new to owning a business or perhaps have just never considered using IT services you are missing out on a service that could make the operations of your business run a lot more smoothly. AE Technology Group offers managed services to New York and Long Islands businesses. We specialized in providing services to small to medium businesses that don’t want to deal with the hassle of managing IT in-house.

Managed services offer both preventative and on-demand IT support to our clients. The are many benefits to hiring AE Technology Group to provide your IT services. The first is that we always have on-demand support. IT issues are rarely convenient and need to be repaired as soon as possible to keep your business running smoothly. Thanks to today’s technology, almost any IT problem can be fixed remotely. So if you give us a call we can help solve your problem quickly without having to make a trip into your workplace.

Another benefit of managed IT services is that it saves your business money and space. Having your own in-house IT takes up space and hiring full-time IT staff might be more costly than hiring outside support. And an additional benefit is that managed IT services come in packages depending on what you need. You will probably find many of your IT needs fall under one of our packages provided at a low monthly rate.

For more information about managed IT services, contact us today at AE Technology Group.

Making Sure Your Software Is Integrated Properly

making sure your software is integrated properly

Managed Services For New York Businesses: For your business to run smoothly, the various components of your IT infrastructure need to work well together – whether it’s two different software programs sharing data or a reliable connection established between pieces of network equipment.

Managed Services For New York Businesses

One example comes from a recent Business 2 Community article on integrating your CRM and CTI solutions.

CRM (customer relationship management) plays a critical role in marketing, sales, and customer retention, including strengthening brand loyalty, timing email marketing campaigns, and following up with customers who have voiced questions or concerns. CTI (computer telephony integration) refers to solutions for coordinating computer and phone interactions.

The article points out examples of how CRM and CTI software can work together to help you field customer calls more efficiently and maintain more accurate, comprehensive records of call times and conversations.

The result is a better understanding of your customers, why they phone in, and what each call has achieved, such as closing a sale or resolving a problem with a customer service representative. The data provides you with potentially powerful insights that help you cater to your customers’ needs more consistently and effectively.

How can your IT managed services provider (MSP) help?

Your MSP will monitor, maintain, safeguard, and improve your IT infrastructure. These responsibilities include helping you integrate software, ensuring that the programs work together properly. They’ll also respond quickly to any problems and help you avoid costly downtime.

From your MSP, you can also receive suggestions for how to make the most of your software – such as combining your CRM solution with Microsoft Outlook or other programs containing relevant customer information. Your MSP can implement automated processes and other shortcuts that improve efficiency and reduce the chances of human error.

To further discuss what an MSP can do for you, please contact us. Gaining an advantage over competitors means, in part, ensuring that all the software and hardware you rely on work together seamlessly.

The Importance of an IT Services Company for Your Long Island Business

the importance of an it services company for your long island business

Today’s successful businesses require the latest in technology and IT support. An IT services company enables them to function efficiently while keeping up with the competition. Regardless of the size of your business, there are some challenges here including the ongoing cost of managing the cost and having the support you need for maintaining it.

IT services company

One of the main reasons why an IT Services Company is so important for Long Island businesses is they provide you with all the advantages of having IT service while sparing you the high costs of managing your own, internal IT department. With a devoted team of computer engineers, technicians and support specialists monitoring your networks and servers, addressing your needs before they even arise. So, now you can compete with big companies who do all of this in-house, save money, and bring in even more customers.

Some of the various tasks managed services supply you with include:

  • Technical help
  • Help desk support
  • Software training and support
  • Network design and implementation
  • Hardware Design, installation and configuration

 

While it’s popular to have an in-house technician today, sometimes there’s too much work for one person to do it all. After all, they’re responsible for supporting all of the computers, hardware, networks, and infrastructure you use for running your business. At the same time, technology is rapidly changing. When all of this becomes too much, you’ll suddenly realize that you need help, you need managed services.

Once you realize this, then you should also realize it’s time to contact us. We’re here to help!