ATECH MSP Blog

Every business has vendors and most of them take up more time than they probably should. Some of the relationships are pragmatic and fulfilling, but many take up too much time and effort and tend to distract decision makers from focusing on what is truly important within the business. As far as technology goes, depending on your company, you may have a dozen or more vendors contacting you sometimes a couple of times a month looking for you to expand your investment with their companies. Let’s talk about how vendor management can help your business.

You should never settle for less than the best, especially with your business’ technology solutions. Unfortunately, this part of any company’s operations can be so stressful to manage that people often push IT maintenance to the wayside. So, if your company is not performing maintenance on its technology, how can it remain functional? It’s all about finding someone with the right skill set to manage your technology, something that is easier said than done.

In a world of “as a service” business models, where services are distributed by month or by billing cycle, users are not necessarily buying things outright to replace them at a later date. The issue with this Software as a Service (SaaS) model is that too many of these solutions implemented all at once can create a messy web of software that needs to be managed. How can you make sure that you are getting the most out of your solutions without driving yourself up the wall?

Technology management is a pain point for businesses, particularly smaller ones that might not have the vast amount of resources as larger organizations or enterprises. That being said, small businesses have a secret weapon that allows them to compete with larger businesses, and it comes in the form of managed IT services. What is a managed service provider, and how does working with one dramatically change the dynamic of your business’ operations?

Businesses of all sizes have been able to successfully overcome operational challenges by rethinking and adapting the technology they utilize. Let’s consider a huge example and look at what The Lego Group (as in the building blocks) has done to address some of their technological challenges with improved solutions—as well as how your business can do the same.

When you think of managed services, you may not really understand just how it fits into your business. This month we wanted to demonstrate how a managed services provider can deliver a lot of value. 

For most people, the term tech support is pretty self-explanatory. The terms managed services and MSP… not so much. Let’s go over what makes managed services and what we do as a managed service provider so different from the IT support you may be used to. To start, we’ll review where the idea of an MSP came from, and end with what one like us can do for you.

When you see that we offer tech support, you almost certainly have an idea of what that means. However, upon hearing about our typical service delivery for the first time, many people are really surprised by how different our services—as a managed service provider—are. These differences are not an accident. Let’s go back in time a little while to explore how managed services came about, and what difference they could make for you.

Working in IT for any length of time will make you understand that it isn’t just novice workers that have trouble with their computers. In truth, about seven out of ten people can’t diagnose and fix simple IT problems. With that truth, it’s evident that any business that relies on IT, or at least on the productivity of people who use workstations, needs to have some type of strategy to keep those endpoints up, running, and managed proficiently. 

Your business’ critical IT systems are on the fritz again, and you aren’t sure what’s causing the problem. Fortunately, you have access to help. When you don’t feel well, or something’s wrong with your body, you visit your healthcare provider. They’ll examine you, diagnose the problem, and prescribe a solution. This process has been in place for millennia. Much more recently, it was also adopted by a very different sector: the information technology industry in what is known as managed IT services. 

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.

If you need to get your current IT infrastructure under control, you don’t want to deal with amateurs. You want to resolve your issues and quicken your response times, as well as grow and upgrade your infrastructure in a way that makes more profits and enhances productivity. To find out if you need an upgrade to your current IT systems, ask yourself the following questions.

There is an inherent value in approaching experts regarding any services you need, whether it’s building maintenance or your technology. It really helps to have IT professionals to turn to for any and all questions or concerns you might have regarding your computers, servers, and any other technological asset your organization might need to succeed.

Of all reasons that a business doesn’t leverage IT, the one that makes the least sense to me has to be their size. There’s just a reluctance to adopt more than what - for whatever reason - is “enough” for a business of their capacity.

Wouldn’t it be great if your business could get the support it needs without having to ask a provider to travel to your office? With remote monitoring and management tools, we can help your business stay focused on the task at hand, improving productivity and efficiency without disrupting your operations with an on-site visit.

The modern business needs a reliable source of information technology support. Historically, this was provided through a method known as break/fix—if your business technology was to break, a technician would come in to fix it. While this approach works, there are many trade-offs to using it that a business shouldn’t have to accept. Now that there is the managed services model, businesses no longer do.

If yours is like the majority of today’s businesses, you absolutely need to invest in network and infrastructure maintenance. Some companies hire a network administrator, but not all companies have the budget to do so. For companies in this position, there is the option to leverage managed IT services.

Your business relies on technology to function as intended, and beyond that technology are the minds that maintain it and keep it operating efficiently. In a way, you put a great burden on them to ensure that your operations can continue unhindered; and yet, there are a variety of ways that you can make it easier for both IT and non-IT staff to do what you hired them to do.