The Connection, Inc Blog

I was meeting with an old colleague the other day. We met over Microsoft Teams to just check in and see how they were doing—no real itinerary, just to check in with a familiar face that I haven’t personally talked to in a few years. They had a little trouble getting into Microsoft Teams, since they were used to Zoom. I patiently smiled and helped them through it, and told them “No worries, it’s always the little differences that complicate things!”

At the time, I said this just to be empathetic. At first, the nerdy computer-geek part of my brain told me that the process to get into a Zoom meeting vs a Teams meeting, from their perspective, is exactly the same. But after the call, I really thought about this small interaction, and you know what? Things have gotten complicated.

Your decisions with capital will bleed into every part of your organization, so it’s crucial that you are able to determine the difference between capital expenses and operational expenses. When you know what each of these accomplish, you can do more with the same amount of capital.

Especially with so many people claiming to be tech-savvy, asking a question about IT can be a bit nerve wracking. Because of this hesitation, there are a lot of people who don’t ask questions about technology because they feel like their questions might be stupid. For example, having an updated operating system is a term that is tossed around a lot by IT professionals, and even some not-so-professionals.

It’s difficult to put a value on your organization’s technology solutions. While you might be tempted to assign a monetary value based on how much it all saves you, you also need to examine how much it costs you in the long term. Can you optimize your network even more than it currently is? Can you even keep track of the countless moving parts of your IT infrastructure? Managed IT might be able to help.

With technology being deployed to help businesses solve all manners of operational inefficiency, it’s often difficult to pinpoint what IT will work best for your business. Organizations of all types look to technology; and, at some point you need to ask yourself if your technology is set up to help reach your business’ potential. 

Your business relies on its technology being maintained properly, but it’s not always as simple as updating a software application or replacing a hard drive following a catastrophic failure. You have to think about who you’re paying to maintain your technology solutions, if there’s anyone doing it at all. You need to consider what happens when you lose data or when your organization experiences downtime. How do you keep technology from becoming a hindrance for your business?

Managed IT is one of the best ways your organization can capitalize on its technology without worrying about whether or not you’re maintaining it properly. The ideal way for a small business to manage its technology is to have professionals handle it while you focus on other aspects of the management process.

In other words, let’s ask you a question; is your business running as smoothly as possible? Can you honestly say that you have time in your day to handle multiple technological troubles, as well as all of your other responsibilities? Upper-level executives like the CEO and COO have other responsibilities that are more pressing, and as such, technology maintenance is often left to your employees, who may (or, more likely, not) know what they’re doing. Technology maintenance is something that should always be done by professionals, as any mistakes could become costly mistakes that lead to downtime caused by having to do the same work twice, or even your technology failing completely.

Imagine what would happen if a hardware failure occurred and you lost the entirety of your business’ data. What would you do then?

Instead of relying on your employees, who have other jobs to do as well, managed IT can make sure that your organization’s technology is always maintained. Since a managed IT provider like The Connection, Inc is dedicated to maintaining your business’ technology, you won’t have to worry about other tasks getting in the way of it happening. You’ll receive customized service and solutions based on your service agreement, as well as the opportunity for more great tools such as unified communications, security solutions, data backup and disaster recovery, remote monitoring and maintenance, and so much more--all to make sure that your organization can run as optimally as possible.

To learn more about managed IT services and support, reach out to The Connection, Inc at (732) 291-5938.

IT maintenance is something of a sensitive topic for some organizations. While most understand that it needs to be done, they often don’t have the resources to make it happen, either due to a limited budget or timeframe. How does your business handle IT maintenance? If your organization is having troubles managing its annual technology budget, or if you are consistently experiencing profit-sapping downtime, consider managed IT services the answer to your problems.

Simply put, the traditional method of technology maintenance doesn’t work well anymore. The break-fix method to technology management is generally how small businesses have run their organizations for quite some time. Break-fix relies on your business reaching out to a maintenance provider only when your systems are malfunctioning, causing downtime and inefficiency that is sure to show up on your organization’s bottom line.

Without a reliable way to guarantee that the downtime-causing issue won’t happen again, the break-fix method is like slapping a Band-Aid on a wound and hoping that it won’t reopen. Managed IT, on the other hand, is designed to address problems before they happen by taking preventative measures.

Managed IT accomplishes this goal by providing you with comprehensive access to technicians who you can proactively monitor and fix any technology problem you may have with your network or infrastructure. For businesses that lack an internal IT department, managed IT can fill the void you have in technology administration quite nicely. Furthermore, managed IT can provide value even for organizations that have dedicated internal IT staff.

More often than not, a small business will have, at most, an internal team consisting of only a handful of technicians who, more than likely, have a lot on their plate. By supplementing their skills with a managed IT service provider, you’re giving them more time to focus on the quality of their work, as well as assisting your in-house team with any technology problems they might have. It also allows your organization to add profitable IT projects to its roadmap, which provides for higher degrees of productivity and a rapid ROI.

Basically, managed IT does whatever needs to be done for your business’ technology, be it acting as a supplementary force to support your current technicians, or taking on the full responsibility of managing and maintaining your organization's current IT infrastructure.

One of the most important factors of managed IT services is how much more affordable it is. This is explained primarily by how you prevent issues from happening in the first place. Plus, by keeping issues from evolving into bigger problems, you can spend less on your technology support.

Could your business use help with your IT solutions? Reach out to The Connection, Inc at (732) 291-5938.

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?

Two words: outsourced IT. By outsourcing your business’s technology management needs, you can effectively eliminate the burden placed on your organization’s employees and help them be more productive.

Network Assessment
First thing’s first--you need a network assessment before you can know how to improve the way you do business. A network assessment is designed to identify flaws in your current infrastructure, ranging from traffic bottlenecks to security flaws. It’s best that a third party handle this responsibility so that it can be assessed with a clear, unclouded view.

Remote Network Monitoring
Implementing preventative solutions will only get you so far. You need to actively monitor your business’ network so as to make sure that threats stay out as soon as possible. This is what remote network monitoring is for. An outsourced IT provider like The Connection, Inc can monitor your network in real time, ensuring that any issues related to security or operations are resolved in a timely manner.

Security (Firewall, Antivirus, Spam Filter)
Security is one of those things that includes so many details that it can be difficult to prepare for every situation--especially if you’re not particularly familiar with cyber security and its threats. There are all sorts of threats that you have to worry about, including viruses, malware, ransomware, Trojans, spyware, and so much more that can cause trouble for your business. The best way to protect your business is through preventative measures like a firewall, antivirus, spam blocking, and content filtering. We can arm your business with these powerful solutions so that you never have to worry about online threats again.

At the end of the day, managed IT is meant to help your business focus on what matters most: running your business. You can’t focus on keeping your operations moving forward with full force if you have to constantly worry about IT troubles. This is where The Connection, Inc can help. We can provide all of the above services, plus many more. To learn more about how managed IT can help your business, reach out to us at (732) 291-5938.

Who would you rather hire--an employee who comes in late, after your systems have encountered an issue, and takes twice as long to fix them as he said, or an employee who was ahead of the game, and managed to avoid issues before they influenced your business? This scenario is precisely the same one that you encounter when you weigh a break/fix IT provider against a managed service provider.

In order to understand the differences between the break/fix and managed services approaches, it may be helpful to run through how a common issue as it would be handled by each.

Break/Fix
As its name would suggest, the break/fix approach comes into play when some component of your IT breaks, and someone has to come in-house to fix it. While this approach was effective enough for a few years, it is no longer the best option to consider for your business and its needs.

This is largely based on the speed that business moves at today, with the help of technology. Imagine this situation happening to you: a piece of your hardware goes on the fritz. Of course, this hardware was necessary for a few of your employees to be productive, so that’s revenue thrown right out the window.

You also have to factor in the price the break/fix repairman plans to charge for their trouble to travel to the office, in addition to the cost of any repairs they make while they’re there. If they can’t make the repairs with what they have, you’re going to have to wait until they have what they need. This also can have the potential for a significant service charge.

So, tallying up so far, break/fix ultimately costs you time and money, in addition to the losses your business will incur because it was at least partially incapacitated for a time. You will also have to pay your staff for the time they spent at work, whether or not they generated any revenue for your company.

Clearly, considering its obvious faults, break/fix simply isn’t an economical choice. Fortunately, we still have managed services to examine.

Managed Services
Unlike break/fix, the meaning behind managed services takes a little bit of backstory. Essentially, rather than waiting for an issue to give your systems trouble, a managed service provider will monitor the technology you have in place to keep an eye out for issues, proactively resolving them before they cause operational deficits.

For a predictable monthly rate, your managed service provider will handle all of your issues remotely, preventing any issues they can from taking root, and working to fix those that they can’t.

This brings the usual tally for a managed service provider’s work to be whatever they charge as their monthly fee, with the odd exception of specialty services or work that lies outside of the contract. Even so, managed services allow you to preserve your precious uptime for as long as possible, which is beneficial for your business.

If you’re ready to make the switch to managed services, or to hear about our other solutions, give The Connection, Inc a call at (732) 291-5938.

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.

Instead of taking a break-fix approach to IT, managed technology services take preventative measures to keep problems from escalating into major disasters. Here are three ways that managed IT services can help your business.

Cost Savings
One of the biggest ways you can save on your IT is by implementing managed services. Due to the way managed services work, you get a service for a monthly fee. Now, compare this to the usual way of managing technology. When your technology breaks, instead of reaching out to a company that can diagnose and fix your problems for a steep cost, a managed service provider can administer the care needed as per your service level agreement.

Furthermore, the majority of problems can be prevented through careful maintenance and management, which is something that a break-fix IT provider won’t tell you. After all, they profit from your technology consistently breaking down. Managed IT providers want to save your business money through preventative maintenance. This means minimal hardware replacements, as you’ll only need to replace technology that’s in danger of an imminent failure.

Less Wasted Time
Chances are that you don’t have an internal IT department, and even if you do, it’s probably buried in work that nobody has time to get to. When there’s too much work that needs to get done, it’s easy to accidentally cut corners in order to guarantee that something of critical importance doesn’t go unanswered. One of the most frequent cut corners could include the administration of patches and security updates, which are crucial if you want to keep your business safe from online threats.

Managed IT services give your administration or internal IT department a break from constant technology maintenance. Instead, the responsibility is outsourced to an MSP whose sole responsibility is the upkeep of your technology solutions. This lets you stay focused on operations without worrying about your technology.

Peace of Mind
We mentioned that some companies leave the management of technology up to their employees, but we failed to mention how dangerous this can be. When you have untrained employees working with complex machines like workstations or servers, the chances of user error skyrocket. This can lead to downtime and other problems that could hinder the productivity of your organization.

The biggest benefit of managed IT services is that you know for sure that your technology is being handled by professional, proven technicians. This virtually eliminates the possibility of user error stemming from large technology revamps or maintenance projects. When a project is done right the first time, everyone benefits--especially your bottom line.

If your business wants to cut down on the amount of expenses and save on capital costs, managed services are the way to go. The Connection, Inc can provide a number of managed services designed specifically for your business. To learn more, give us a call at (732) 291-5938.

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.

Managed IT services are so popular with small businesses that they’re becoming a commodity. If you’re not taking advantage of managed IT, what’s your excuse? Here we address three common excuses put forth by companies that avoid managed IT.

“I’ll save money by only fixing technology when it’s broken.”
At first glance, this seems to make sense. By only performing maintenance on your devices when they aren’t operating as intended, you should be able to save money in the long run. The only problem here is that technology by nature requires that you perform maintenance on it regularly in order to maintain optimal performance. If you aren’t providing the care that it needs, you’re holding your business back from achieving its maximum potential.

Then you have to consider the fact that technology is much more expensive to replace outright than it is to perform routine maintenance on. Think about it; a server unit is very, very expensive, and so are good, quality workstations. If you’re going to purchase hardware, wouldn’t it make sense to perform maintenance on it and guarantee a long life, rather than await a premature hardware failure? Managed IT seeks to provide this care throughout the lifetime of your technology to ensure its longevity and proper functionality.

“My technology doesn’t need maintenance regularly.”
Some businesses are under the impression that they don’t use their technology enough to justify regular maintenance routines. This may be because they only use their office productivity suite, the Internet, and not much else. If technology systems don’t receive regular maintenance (like patches and updates), security can quickly become a problem. Also, when you don’t experience a targeted hacking attack, it can be easy to fall into a false sense of security.

Then there’s the problem that comes from having Internet-connected hardware like servers and workstations. Most businesses will be using their technology solutions to browse the Internet and conduct business with email and other communications which could potentially result in a data breach. Do your employees know how to identify phishing scams and other online malicious activity? While most organizations use security solutions like firewalls and antivirus, consumer-grade is often not enough to protect sensitive data from hackers and data breaches.

“My employees and I can handle IT all by ourselves.”
Here’s one of the biggest reasons why companies don’t implement managed IT services; they feel that they can do a fine-enough job managing their own technology. This is fine if companies have an internal IT department, but it’s more likely that small businesses are relying on their own employees to perform troubleshooting procedures and basic tech maintenance to save money.

Ask yourself this question: “Would I rather have skilled technicians working with my technology, or my busy employees, who have other duties and obligations?” More likely than not, you’ll want your team to focus on their responsibilities within your organization, rather than wasting time with your business’s technology. Managed IT allows your team to take a step back and focus on what matters most: your business.

So, what do you think? Would you be willing to reconsider your approach to IT maintenance? If so, reach out to us at (732) 291-5938.