BEI Blog

Regardless of what your business does, there is a good chance that it relies pretty heavily on technology. When that technology falters, so does your business. Sure, this might be for a couple hours at a time, but it all adds up and has a major impact on the success of your business. Many organizations have outsourced their IT support and management, but could benefit from a more proactive approach than the one they currently employ. Today, we will take a look at some of the priorities that businesses should consider when choosing an outsourced IT provider.

Adobe Flash, once one of the most utilized pieces of software on the Internet is being retired by the software giant. Support will stop on December 31, 2020 and like any other piece of retired software, you should remove it from any systems you have that still run it. 

If you’re seeking out an IT resource to assist your business in maintaining its all-important technology resources, you’re almost certainly seeking out the option that will give you the greatest return on your investment in terms of value. There is no denying that we are biased in our opinion, but that doesn’t change the fact that—dollar for dollar—the investment you make into managed services will always be the best choice.

Only a few months into the year, it has been made abundantly clear that 2020 will be considered one of the tougher years for business in recent memory. With a pandemic leading many, many businesses to scale back drastically (if not shut down outright), there are many things that are bound to change. To give your own the best chance of survival, there is perhaps no more appropriate time to consider a change over to a managed approach to IT services.

The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most remarkable situations that will happen in our lives. Unfortunately for businesses, mandated stay-at-home orders for non-essential workers have pushed a lot of the work that typically was done in the office to employees’ homes. This has necessitated many businesses to make a quick digital transformation.

To make any business decision, you must weigh the pros and the cons of your options. This includes when you may be considering managed services as your support method. As we are admittedly biased in favor of you adopting managed services, we wanted to review just a few ways a managed service agreement can help you optimize some critical business considerations.

Your business runs on technology of all types. That’s why it is so important to have knowledgeable and reliable IT technicians whose job is to keep that technology running effectively. Finding the right IT support for your company’s needs isn’t as straightforward as you may think. There are costs, reliability, and coverage variables to sort through and after those determinations are made, it is up to business owners and managers to ensure they are getting value from their choice in IT support. 

“Memes” have entered the common language in a very real way, as everyone - from politicians to people on Facebook to yes, businesses - use them to communicate their messages… but why? Today, we’ll go over why the Internet meme has become so common, as well as share some of our favorite IT memes.

While most businesses need the same basic technology to support their operations, some industries have additional, more specific needs that require a more specialized tool to accomplish. As we leave this series behind, let’s briefly consider how a managed service provider can be a valuable resource for a business operating in one of these industries.

Modern businesses can now make use of increasingly powerful technology solutions… as long as they have a means of obtaining and incorporating these solutions into their operations. The services that a managed service provider can deliver include procurement assistance. To wrap up our series on the value that managed services can provide, let’s discuss this aspect.

It wasn’t too long ago that in order for business technology to be fixed, or to undergo general maintenance, it either needed to be brought to a specialist’s location or for the specialist to come to yours. Nowadays, this isn’t so much the case. As we continue our blog series on the benefits offered by a managed service provider, let’s consider the support options available.

Take a moment and consider the data that you have collected during your business’ operations. How valuable is it to you? What would it mean if it were to leak out of your business’ control?

Businesses need a lot of services to stay ahead of the competition. The “as a service” model allows businesses to save a lot of money in the long run by making previously inaccessible services much more affordable for the average small organization. We’ll walk you through the value you can take advantage of thanks to the “as a service” model.

Considering Managed Services
In essence, managed services are outsourced services that your business can take advantage of to supplement technology management. Some examples of this could be outsourcing the management of your business’ servers to a third party who hosts them off-site on their own infrastructure. One of the major benefits of doing this is that you take the responsibility and costs of managing and maintaining servers off of your business’ shoulders. It might not seem like such a major change, but we ask you to consider just how much time and resources you might commit to this task.

Let’s say that your technicians spend half an hour on server maintenance every day, perhaps even more in the event that there is a serious issue. That is at least two and a half hours spent on maintaining servers every week (and we’re being optimists) that could be better spent on other tasks. Imagine what can be done in just that small amount of time. If your infrastructure is prone to problems, you ultimately waste even more time managing and maintaining servers.

Outsourcing eliminates these responsibilities and gives the time back to your staff for other mission-critical tasks that may have been previously overlooked. Perhaps your in-house IT department could then focus on providing adequate help desk support to your organization’s employees or dedicating more time toward discovering and implementing new innovative solutions to boost your organization’s bottom line. They simply don’t have the time to do this when they have so many other responsibilities related to operations.

If you don’t have an internal IT department, outsourcing is even more helpful. Being a small business has its advantages, but one major shortcoming is often the size of the budget. You might not be able to hire as many technicians as you would like, leading you to supplement IT support with untrained employees who have other responsibilities not relating to IT maintenance. This can be a dangerous practice, as solutions and maintenance implemented improperly can lead to multiple failed attempts and a considerable amount of downtime.

Managed services take out the unpredictability of solutions that your business can’t manage in-house by outsourcing them to professionals. BEI wants to show you the power of managed services. To learn more, reach out to us at (844) BIZ-EDGE.