Wouldn’t it be great to have a fully-trained and certified staff of IT professionals sitting in the corner of your office, keeping your technology in line? Unfortunately, small businesses often don’t have the budget required to hire an internal IT department filled with security analysts and network technicians. Even if they do, they don’t have the workforce to handle all of the responsibilities of a full IT department. What’s the best way to handle your organization’s IT?
Technology maintenance and management is one of the major pain points of all businesses, but it comes more easily to large organizations that have large budgets. Unfortunately, small organizations are often left out, placing such an important aspect of managing their business on the back burner. How, then, can you take advantage of proactive IT maintenance without breaking your budget?
Fundamentally, business is simple: if you take in more revenue than you have expenses, your company is a success. There are just so many elements to manage to ensure that revenues outpace expenses that it becomes difficult to ascertain what you can do to cut costs and see a higher degree of profitability for your efforts.
In the natural course of doing business, an owner/operator will have to face many difficult situations, but none of these situations are as difficult as asking them to determine whether or not to close the doors of the business for good. Many problems could cause a business to fail, but it has to hurt the failing owner a little more when the solution for the problem was not only within his/her reach, it was affordable.
It’s a far too common scene in businesses: an employee is working on an important project when their workstation starts acting up. Flustered, they call in the IT department, but they won’t be able to make it up to them for an hour at least. So, what’s a worker to do? Just sit there and wait? With a Help Desk solution, this wouldn't be an issue.
Your business relies on technology to keep operations moving, but your technology relies on you to stay functional. While many small businesses will choose to forsake an in-house IT department in favor of a self-service model, this is a costly maintenance practice that could put your IT in jeopardy. Instead, your organization should invest in our managed IT services, which have the possibility to show your business an entirely new way of managing technology assets.
Have you ever taken a broken-down workstation or server unit to a break-fix IT technician, only to have them resolve the problem and demolish your IT budget with absurd costs? For small businesses that can’t afford to hire an on-site IT department, this is a common occurrence. Thankfully, the SMB now has more options than ever before for how they want their IT to be managed, and it all starts with managed IT services.
Let’s say that your team is deep within the throes of productivity on a major project, and even the slightest hiccup will knock off their momentum and derail all progress. What would happen if the software they need to do their job suddenly became unusable, or settings on their workstation get changed without their knowledge? Without a reliable IT department, you might be out of luck.
It’s nice to do something and feel good that you’re the one doing the work. This DIY approach provides you the satisfaction that you’re doing the job yourself, and that you’re doing it right. If you’re the kind of person who gets nervous about others handling tasks, you fully understand how stressful it can be to have someone you don’t know or trust working on important initiatives; particularly working with your company’s technology.
For small and medium-sized businesses, technology management can be a tricky situation. You want to ensure that your IT doesn't break your budget, but you also want to make using your technology as easy as possible for your end users. Unfortunately, for many employees, your business’s technology conduct and practices could be driving them insane.
You started your business because you have a particular skill set. This is what allows you to continue doing business as usual. However, this also means that there are some topics that you might not understand completely. This is why you hire employees from diverse backgrounds, and it’s one reason that you should consider outsourcing what you can to professionals in specific fields.
When running a business, you can’t always upgrade your technology to the latest and greatest equipment or software every time something new comes out. Yet, you also don’t want to be left behind, which would be limiting to your growth and mobility. Moving forward can be a daunting task, especially if you haven’t revamped your IT strategy in some time. Paying attention to the details is an important part of avoiding potential roadblocks with your future IT strategy.
If you’re one of the unfortunate souls still using Windows 8 (as opposed to 8.1) on your business’s workstations, you should consider upgrading, and as soon as possible. Microsoft has cut off support for its infant operating system, so if you want patches, security updates, and just a better overall operating system, upgrading to Windows 8.1 or 10 is an ideal solution to this dilemma.
A whole lot of technical training is what separates an average PC user from the IT technician servicing their malfunctioning computer. We know a lot about how technology works, and this knowledge is no guarded secret. In fact, we’re happy to share it with you.
As a business owner, you know that technology is a necessary, albeit unpredictable, investment. Your organization thrives off of it operating as expected, yet suffers when it doesn’t function properly. This is the primary reason why the idea of help desk support was first introduced. It’s an effective medium through which your employees can receive tech support when it’s needed most.
One of the most important factors that you should consider when looking for IT staff is how much you can trust them. After all, they’re dealing with your technology. You’re trusting them with incredible responsibility. Therefore, you need to be sure they are honest, hard-working individuals. How can you ensure that you aren’t getting blindsided by your IT staff?
You know that one unlucky employee that seems to have the most problems with their computer? Perhaps they keep getting an error that no one can replicate, or they need a little help setting up a Mail Merge? Due to most managers only knowing of two technical support options, business owners can get stuck in a tough spot with employees like this.
In days of old, skilled people of all crafts joined together to improve the quality of their lives and their products. These were called guilds, and they're not unlike small businesses of today; a group of like-minded individuals who come together to make the public's lives easier. Your business is no different, and at NetWorthy Systems, we understand that.
Keep It Simple Stupid, aka KISS, is a sure way to find success in business. By keeping operations simple, the cost of doing business is reduced, there's less room for error, and more people understand what's going on. Your IT infrastructure is at the heart of your organization, keeping IT simple will help your business kiss many of its problems goodbye!
You're on vacation with your family and your smartphone notifies you about a work email entitled "URGENT!" What do you do? Checking the message could mean hours spent putting out a fire at the office. Ignoring it will give you more time with your family, but you'll be distracted and stressed the whole time thinking about the worst-case scenario.
