The Connection, Inc Blog

Who makes the tech decisions for your business? If it’s you, are you sure you know enough to make the best choices for your company’s tech future? If you’re not sure, don’t stress—we’re here to help with a service called a Virtual CIO.

Reaching out for support involves admitting that there is a problem in the first place—a sore spot for some individuals. It can also be time-consuming, which is more of an issue for busy individuals. However, with the right approach, you can make asking for help during the IT support process much easier.

"I don’t need to worry about cybersecurity… my business is too small for hackers to target."

This is one of the most dangerous misconceptions a small business can have. If you believe this, you may not fully understand how modern cyberattacks work. Let’s break down why this mindset can leave your business vulnerable.

Your business needs IT expertise, regardless of how much it is integrated into your operations. You need someone on staff who not only understands your technology, but someone who can help you make the most of it to get the leg up on competition. Today, we want to explore how you can hire the right IT professionals for your organization’s specific needs, including both hard and soft skills.

Technology frustrations can cause major setbacks for today’s businesses. IT challenges of all kinds can disrupt operations and impact productivity. Fortunately, managed IT services can help solve these common business IT headaches. Therefore, businesses can access a team of experts ready to tackle these issues head-on by outsourcing their IT management to a managed service provider.

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) face the challenge of managing complex IT systems with very limited resources. Enter managed service providers, or MSPs, the guardians of IT that can help your business stay ahead of the game. An MSP's approach to IT support delivery offers many benefits that traditional IT support and even an in-house team might struggle to match.

Let's delve into three compelling reasons why our innovative approach is best for your IT support needs, especially if you want to scale up and streamline operations.

With technology being so important for all businesses in at least some capacity, it’s no small wonder that effectively using it (and having someone on-hand to manage it all) is tremendously valuable for any company. This is where a managed service provider (MSP) can be helpful, even for businesses that have a dedicated IT department. All small businesses benefit from working with an MSP.

Since it first entered the mainstream in the mid-2000s, cloud computing has become a cornerstone of businesses of every size and shape. The big question that remains, however, is what your business could lean on the cloud to do. Let’s go over the multitude of options that the cloud opens up for a business.

As a business owner, you have plenty to worry about, and your technology doesn’t do you any favors. It’s difficult to oversee the responsibilities of managing technology like workstations, server units, and mobile devices, alongside the ordinary demands of your job. What a lot of organizations don’t realize is that they can improve operations and make their jobs easier by outsourcing the responsibility of technology management to IT professionals.

Outsourcing your company’s IT management needs offers a unique return on investment by taking expensive and time-consuming tasks and handing over this responsibility to someone else; notably, a third-party IT service provider like The Connection, Inc. Through the use of remote monitoring and management technology, professional technicians keep an eye on your organization’s network and address problems as if they were in the office themselves. To give you some examples of how great managed IT can be, we’ll explain how three noteworthy services can benefit your organization.

Remote Patching and Maintenance
Have you ever tried to actually update each and every one of your business’s workstations or servers with the latest patches and security updates? It can take hours, or even days to complete. Worse yet, these updates are practically necessary if you want to ensure that all of your business technology works as intended. If you don’t take care to implement them as soon as they are released, you run the risk of being subject to various developing threats and vulnerabilities.

Outsourcing the responsibility of managing and maintaining your technology via an RMM tool is ideal, as you will no longer have to worry about finding the time to update your systems. This also helps make your systems more secure in the long run.

Remote Management Means Fewer On-Site Visits
One of the most beneficial aspects of remote technology maintenance is that you don’t have to wait for a technician to arrive before handling various technology troubles. Instead of dealing with travel time, the majority of your problems can be resolved simply by remoting into your PC and fixing the problem.

Break-fix IT companies don’t want you to know this, as they benefit by charging you for on-site maintenance. Managed service providers like The Connection, Inc don’t want to do that unless you absolutely need on-site assistance, so you can count on us to always be conscientious about your business’ technology management by proactively preventing problems that require on-site visits from happening in the first place.

Despite this, it’s important to remember that it’s impossible to keep all problems from happening. Eventually, you might be unfortunate enough to run into a problem that can’t be fixed through remote access. When this happens, you can count on our technicians to be there when you need us most.

Responsive Threat Detection
There are countless threats that exist on the Internet, and they threaten your business every day. With troublesome entities like viruses, spyware, and ransomware, your business needs a platform in which to mitigate its exposure to these threats. Understanding that your business is a target is the first step toward protecting it.

How would your business react to a data breach? Would you be able to sustain operations following a crippling leak? You don’t have time to keep track of all the latest developments, let alone monitor your entire network. Hiring a third party like The Connection, Inc can take these responsibilities off of your shoulders and ensure that you stay focused on what matters most: running your business.

If you’re sick and tired of dealing with troublesome IT issues, reach out to The Connection, Inc at (732) 291-5938. We’ll make sure that your business stays in action through preventative IT maintenance and management.

How does your organization manage its mission-critical technology solutions? We know that most small businesses have some sort of trouble with this topic, either due to budget constraints or a lack of personnel. Either way, we know that there is a better way to manage your business’ technology, and it’s all thanks to an approach called managed IT services.

As a managed service provider, we’re naturally going to be a little biased when comparing the positives and negatives between an in-house IT team and an outsourced approach. However, each has its benefits in the right situations, and each can have its downsides. Today, we’ll discuss each to establish which is the better choice for your situation.

The In-House Team
One of the biggest benefits to relying on an in-house team to manage your technology is the fact that you can hand-pick the members of your team. As a result, you have some level of control over which aspects of your IT you want to prioritize for the benefit of your company. Having an in-house team also means you have staff right at your fingertips that you can direct at any time.

However, small to medium-sized businesses may encounter some difficulties when trying to maintain an in-house IT team. First and foremost, training your new staff members can be a difficult process without another experienced IT resource on staff to oversee the process. Furthermore, maintaining an internal IT team can be expensive, and if you want to hire experienced technicians who can tackle modern problems, it’s going to typically cost more.

A Managed IT Provider’s Team
One of the biggest advantages an MSP can provide to a business is predictability. When subscribed to an MSP’s services, a business will have its technology maintained and monitored for issues, all for a budgetable, fixed monthly fee. The MSP is also more likely to have kept up to speed with new technologies and solutions, gaining knowledge that they then pass on for your business’ benefit. Partnering with an MSP also gives you an improved means of expanding your business when the time comes, as instead of hiring a new internal staff member, your business just needs to scale accordingly.

The only issue with bringing in an MSP to handle your technology is the fact that you are relinquishing total control over your company’s IT to another company. As such, if you elect to utilize an MSP’s services, you will need to find an MSP that you can trust.

The Connection, Inc can be that MSP for you, should you find that a managed IT service provider better suits your company’s current and future needs. Call us at (732) 291-5938 for more information.

Technology support can be one of the major pain points for businesses, and it’s not something that your organization wants to invest in without thinking about the details. Technology support as a service has a lot to offer when compared with the break/fix method. We’ll help you make the right decision by explaining why remote IT services are a major benefit for any business.

More small businesses today depend on their IT. If that technology isn’t working as intended, it can really stymie an organization’s ability to be effective. Our strategy of managed IT support and services can do quite a bit towards keeping a business running efficiently. Today, we’ll take a look at managed IT to see how proactive monitoring can deliver enhanced efficiency to businesses.

Technology has fundamentally altered the capabilities of businesses. Cloud computing has provided access to enterprise-strength computing at small business costs, and now IT providers are more able to provide value than simple repair-and-replace services. The name of the game is value, which is why the value-driven IT services of tomorrow are here to stay.

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) have historically been restricted in what they can do with their technology infrastructures. However, there are now options that an SMB can leverage that enable it to accomplish more with their infrastructure - but this requires the SMB to have a plan in place.

What Is Your IT Infrastructure?

In short, your IT infrastructure is everything that contributes to your business’ ability to store and use the data it has collected - including your network, your storage system, and the hardware and software solutions used to access them. In other words, it’s your business’ backbone, supporting your operations and allowing data to be transported where it needs to go.

It should go without saying that your IT infrastructure is a critical consideration for your business’ success. This means that you will need to dedicate the time and energy needed to devise a strategy for your IT infrastructure to follow.

Determining Your IT Infrastructure Strategy

In order to be optimal for your business’ needs, your revised infrastructure strategy should touch on a few best practices.

Simplification

As you’ve needed to improve your infrastructure, it’s likely that it has grown based on the individual needs it had at the time. As a result, there’s a good chance that your IT infrastructure has a mix of technologies in it, which makes it harder to improve and update it later.

When designing your new infrastructure, you should leverage the modern standardization of software and integrations to create a centralized platform that enables data to be utilized across the business. This will help to simplify your IT and improve your workplace experience, often providing more functionality and flexibility for your users.

Flexibility

Speaking of flexibility, information technology is always adapting and changing, which means that your IT infrastructure needs to be able to accommodate these adaptations and changes. Considering your current infrastructure, ask yourself where your biggest speed constraints are, and how they can be rectified. Furthermore, are there any ways that you can consolidate your existing system to further limit your risks while advancing your processes?

Service-Focused

When you really consider it, your IT provides a service to your operations, in that it enables them to happen. While this may be a simplistic view of it, it isn’t any less true. When designing your infrastructure, you need to keep in mind that it will be providing your entire business with the tools that it needs to function. Consider what you need your infrastructure to do, and what you will need it to do in the future, and plan it accordingly.

Why You Should Consider a Managed IT Infrastructure

I want you to think back to the beginning of your business, when it was just you and maybe one or two other people. You may have had a hand in setting up your network back then… so why not do the same again now? Well, there are a few reasons.

First of all, consider your responsibilities. With any luck, your attention is commanded by the duties that your position leaves you responsible for. Can you really say you have the time to properly strategize your infrastructure, let alone maintain it once you’ve done so? Secondly, there is no denying that technology has changed. Would you rather try and tackle it yourself, potentially creating an issue, or would you rather entrust someone with experience to take care of your organization’s infrastructure?

The Connection, Inc can manage your infrastructure on your behalf, ensuring that it is optimized to your business’ particular requirements so that your efficiency can be improved. Reach out to us at (732) 291-5938 to learn more.

While information technology is an important part of the modern business and its processes, it isn’t always the easiest topic for the average business user to figure out. In this series, we’ve been exploring how a managed service provider can add value to your business and its IT. Here, we’re focusing on how the managed service provider can serve as a knowledgeable consultant.

Remote monitoring and management software helps businesses of all sizes avoid issues of equally variable sizes, which is why it is a key facet of the managed IT service model. We wanted to review some of the ways that it benefits the managed service provider, and as a result, benefits our clients.

First, What is RMM Software?

RMM (Remote Monitoring and Management) software is a solution that allows an us to--as it says in the name--remotely monitor and manage a client’s systems. By installing a small software application (known as an agent) into the various components of a business’ infrastructure, we are able to keep an eye on the business’ technology. When we detect an issue via that software, it can be identified and resolved without interrupting the operations of your business, oftentimes before you have any idea that an issue is even present.

How Does RMM Software Help Us?

There are a lot of ways that using RMM software is to our advantage:

• It collects data about your systems, including the status and health of your devices.
• It simplifies the process of updating and proactively protecting your systems.
• It enables us to care for your systems without sacrificing travel time.
• It allows for concurrent mitigation and resolution of IT issues.

So, why should any of this matter to a business? Simple--the benefits that we gain from these tools directly translate to benefits for you. For instance:

• With additional data collected about everything on your network, we can better understand and care for these systems more effectively.
• With updates and proactive protections applied more easily, you can enjoy a more secure computing experience.
• With the need for us to travel reduced, you could see your issues and challenges resolved much more efficiently.
• With IT tasks across an infrastructure resolved simultaneously, you could see improved results in less time.
• With issues detected in their infancy, they can be resolved before they escalate into a larger problem.

Interested in Learning More About RMM?

Reach out to the team here at The Connection, Inc. Our expert consultants can help you determine your business’ needs and recommend the IT solutions that best fill them. Give us a call at (732) 291-5938 to get started.

The role of professional services companies in our society dictates that they need access to information as efficiently as possible. Some of the most crucial jobs in our society would be labeled professional services. Today, we are going to go through three of those careers--lawyers, accountants, doctors--and we will go on to describe just how each of their industries benefit from the presence of managed IT services.

The business landscape can be unforgiving. It can be filled with landmines that slow progress to a crawl and blitzes that send your head spinning. If you were to compare the business world to history's great battles, technology solutions are a business’ weapons. They are the tools used to make the everyday grind possible. The more advanced an army’s technology, the bigger the edge they have over outfits that don’t have that technology...as long as it works as intended.

How much money does your business waste on managing its technology solutions? You might be surprised by the answer to this question. Depending on the way that your organization takes advantage of technology, you’ll have different needs than other businesses, but no matter what kind of organization you manage, it’s critical that you try to get the best return on investment for your solutions.

Let’s start by talking about the way that the average business might leverage technology maintenance solutions. Depending on your business’ staffing capabilities, you might have an in-house IT department that is responsible for general upkeep and maintenance. If you don’t, then chances are that you are either having your employees manage the maintenance of their own technology, or your devices simply aren’t being maintained as well as they need to be. Either scenario isn’t ideal, especially since you can’t take any risks nowadays when it comes to your technology maintenance.

For example, let’s say that a mission-critical patch has been issued for an important piece of software that your organization relies on. Without it, you would be at risk of infection from all manners of threats, including some of the nastiest ransomware on the Internet. Devices need to be periodically updated with the latest threat definitions to ensure that they don’t go unprotected. But the issue here lies in the fact that it’s time-consuming and troublesome to update several devices at once with the latest patches and updates.

Let’s take this a step further and think about a hypothetical worst-case scenario. What would you do if your organization were to suffer from a crippling data loss incident? In the event that our organization falls victim to a flood or fire, your data infrastructure could be destroyed… unless it’s backed up and maintained off-site.

Another service that presents substantial value for any business is one that supplies some form of proactive maintenance and management. This can be an effective way to keep your network free from threats, while keeping all your infrastructure monitored and in working order. Since an outsourced provider can accomplish this maintenance remotely, you can see much less downtime and higher degrees of productivity.

This type of maintenance can be difficult to come by for small businesses if they choose to do it themselves, but a managed service provider can keep your organization from having to stomach some of the largest expenses a thoroughly monitored, maintained, and supported IT infrastructure can incur. Not only do you save money by not adding salaries to your budget, but you also save time and resources by outsourcing the majority of the time-intensive work elsewhere.

To learn more about The Connection, Inc’s professional managed services, call our consultants today at (732) 291-5938.