Coleman Technologies Blog

Depending on the size and complexity of your organization, managing technology can easily become a full-time job. If you are only calling a technician when you are dealing with a computer issue, then you might be sitting on a ticking time bomb. Whether you have internal staff responsible for managing your IT, or you rely on a third-party, you’ll want to make sure the following tasks are getting done.

Windows and Server Updates

Microsoft pushes out security updates and product updates for its operating systems regularly. Traditionally, these updates come out on the second Tuesday of each month, but additional updates and patches may be released on a different schedule. On top of that, if you get behind on your updates, sometimes it can take longer to apply them all, or there may be conflicts that prevent you from being able to automatically run updates. These updates are critical, and you shouldn’t rely on your individual users to keep their own laptops or workstations updated.

Software Updates and Patches

While Microsoft has a pretty regular schedule for updates, the other software that drives your business might not. Your IT department will need to be aware of everything being used, and how to check for and apply updates, and in some cases, have a testing bed to run updates on so they don’t disrupt day-to-day business.

Antivirus Definition Updates

Virus definitions are updated on a very regular basis, and for your antivirus to fully protect you, it needs to have the latest definitions applied, and it needs to be kept updated as well. This is usually an automatic process, but the end user can sometimes delay it from happening. Having a centrally managed antivirus solution can help remedy this, but even still, someone needs to be monitoring it, and making sure scans are run regularly and that the utility is doing its job properly.

Daily Backup Checks

You wouldn’t believe how many IT “professionals” skip this. It’s absolutely critical. If your company’s backup device isn’t properly taking backups, it’s not doing you any good. If something were to happen that causes you to need your backup, it would be a nightmare to only discover then that you haven’t been running backups for several months.

It’s important to review backup logs and check for corruption and audit the entire backup regularly. If this isn’t getting done, you may as well assume you don’t have a backup in the first place.

At least once a week, the daily backup check should also involve a random restore to make sure the process is working and that files and directories are actually being backed up properly. Each month, this should be done even more thoroughly. 

Check Event Logs on Servers

This is another daily task that needs to be done, and can catch a lot of potential issues before they start affecting your staff and your bottom line. Server logs will often pick up on problems that are about to become bigger, so reviewing these daily will allow IT to make proactive adjustments and decisions to prevent downtime and solve issues before they escalate.

Check Disk Space Across All Mission Critical Devices

Done for both servers and active workstations, a full hard drive can bring your network to a stop and cause some pretty ugly issues depending on the device and how the drive is utilized. It’s a very quick check if your business has the right monitoring tools in place, and it can save you from a lot of hassle, especially in cases where you can’t simply free up storage and need to physically add more storage to a device.

Review Wi-Fi, Firewall, and VPN Access Logs

It’s important to know who or what is connecting to your network. Understanding network behavior and looking into traffic spikes and other unexpected events can often find problems before they get too big. Not only can this data be used to prevent network slowdown and other bottlenecking issues, but it can potentially detect fraudulent activity on the network and hopefully allow techs to stop it before it turns into something devastating.

Provide Technical Support For Your Staff

This isn’t an exhaustive list by any means, but on top of all of the critical IT tasks above, your IT department (or IT person/company/agency) needs to also be able to handle day-to-day support requests so your staff can continue to do their jobs without getting caught up with computer problems. 

These are just some of the regular tasks that our techs perform for all of the businesses who entrust us to manage their IT. There’s a huge difference between just having a computer person on call to fix issues as they arise, and having a company contracted to fully manage your IT. If you feel like your technology isn’t getting the TLC it deserves, give Coleman Technologies a call at (604) 513-9428 today.

Every business relies on technology to function. Some wouldn’t be able to deliver any value to their customers without it, while others would be severely hindered if they suffered a data breach. For this reason, cybersecurity has to be a priority. In today’s blog, we will discuss five issues that business owners run into that can muddle their cybersecurity efforts.

Not Taking Security Seriously Enough

For organizations that think that cybersecurity is just a line item on a budget, things can get dangerous quick. Since your technology effectively runs every part of your business, security issues can have a negative effect on literally every part of your organization. Cybersecurity initiatives are more than a budgetary concern; they are existential ones. Since a breach can happen at any point in your business, you need to consider the ways you can protect your business continuity. This often requires investment throughout your business, and one number on a budget doesn’t provide the context needed to address the issue sufficiently. 

You Are Being Targeted, Whether You Like It or Not

Many decision-makers see these horror stories of companies dealing with multi-million dollar hacks and their reputational fallout and think to themselves, “not us.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Any success a business has just serves to create a bigger target for opportunists. Face it; we live in a time when individuals and groups seek to exploit any business they perceive as “low-hanging fruit.” If taking action to reduce your organizational risk is part of your mandate, paying attention to cyberthreats has to be at the top of your list.

Lack of Training

Training your employees to navigate potential cyberattacks is essential for every business. Not only do they need to know how your organization handles these issues, they need to know some best practices to help your organization avoid them in the first place. Training them on the best ways to build secure passwords, how to identify phishing attacks, what to do when they encounter one, and why your organizational procedures are in place in the first place puts the truth right out there: cybersecurity is a team effort, and it starts with them functioning responsibly in regards to documented policies and procedures. 

Breakdowns in Communication

Say you have a big contract that you need to fulfill. Do you often want a status report to ensure that everything is on the up and up? 

Of course, you do. 

Good communication is a key component to a well-functioning business. Why then would you not have constant, meaningful conversations with the people you entrust to ensure that your business’ digital assets are secure? Every business owner needs to schedule regular meetings with their security team to get status updates and ensure they have sufficient information to protect their business. Going long stretches of time without reaching out can have dire consequences.

IT Support is a Mess

For a great many businesses, technology is a headache. This is why you have an IT department. The people who work behind the scenes to support the efficiency and overall effectiveness of your business. For some organizations, keeping IT staff is not only a challenge; any turnover or inconsistency can leave holes in your network security. Many organizations choose to partner with an outside vendor to look after their IT to remove these concerns. Even if you have an active IT department working for you, you can always use an extra set of eyes on your business’ cybersecurity. At Coleman Technologies, we offer co-managed services that work with your IT department to ensure that you get the coverage and support you need to avoid costly inefficiencies resulting from dealing with cyberthreats.

If you would like to learn more about how we can help you prioritize your organizational cybersecurity, support your training initiatives, and more, give our team of IT experts a call today at (604) 513-9428.

With technology playing such a massive role in modern business processes, having someone in the higher ranks to oversee it is a huge advantage. This is the role of the Chief Information Officer—the CIO—which makes them an integral part of the modern C-suite.

So, what kind of thing does the CIO (or your business’ equivalent of it) need to know and consider in order to fulfill their role? 

Let’s go over a few of the priorities the CIO will need to have in the coming year and years, and what skills they’ll need to have.

What Does Your IT Leadership Need to Focus On?

There are a few key areas that the person taking the lead on your business’ IT should devote their attention to in the coming year.

• Budget Defensibility - With the signals we’ve been seeing as far as the economy is concerned, budgets are bound to be pretty tight for businesses. This puts the often resource-intensive IT department in the crosshairs for cuts...even though these cuts could negatively impact the business as a whole.
  
  As such, it will be important that a company’s IT leadership has a good handle on how much return the department is seeing on the company’s investment into it, and that they have empirical data to support these conclusions. Focusing on value will help you to communicate this more effectively.
  
  
• Data Security and Protection - The unpleasant reality is that cyberattacks aren’t going to go away. Why would they? Economic and geopolitical struggles often go hand in hand with cyberthreats—many of which can and will target businesses of any size—which only adds to the current need for improved cybersecurity across the board.
  
  
• Adaptability - The world learned the hard way how effective remote (or “distributed”) work can be just a few years ago, despite many resisting it for as long as they could. Despite distributed work quite literally keeping many companies from going under, a considerable number of these companies have been quick to pull their employees back into the office. For many of these employees, it has been an unhappy return.
  
  Today’s CIOs need to understand and embrace remote work as the net benefit that it is, creating a strategy that allows the business to take full advantage of its employees’ skills, wherever they happen to be working.

We Can Help Your Business, Supporting Your CIO (or Even Stepping Into the Role)

As a managed service provider, we have the capability to work alongside your Chief Information Officer to ensure that their plan for your business’ IT is properly implemented in a way that is both effective and fiscally responsible for your business’ situation. Don’t have a CIO? No problem—we can also serve as a virtual CIO for you, taking the lead on your business technology strategy.

Learn more about the options you have with Coleman Technologies by giving us a call at (604) 513-9428!

Taking a sip of cocoa, Trinket leaned back from his computer and let out a long sigh. Here it was, barely after 9:00 in the morning, and his agenda was already impossibly full. Around him, Santa’s Workshop was in full swing, the other elves frantically working to ensure that all the deliveries were prepped for the Boss before the big day came. 

Opening his Glee-mail, Trinket made a face as three new messages appeared, all labeled “urgent.” From experience, Trinket was sure that they weren’t.

Clicking through them, the Manager of Toy Creation and Assembly was soon proven correct. One of the messages had been sent to the entire North Pole team, despite only being relevant to the Coal Department. Another was an email that he had already responded to days ago but had since deviated from its original purpose and was now debating if the menu for the end-of-season wrap party should include non-dairy milk options and gluten-free cookies.

The only message that had anything to do with Trinket was the request from Sleigh Maintenance and Repair to borrow himself and one of his team members to inspect the sleigh’s wish injector. As it turned out, Trinket’s team was well ahead of schedule this year, so the request could be filled with little issue. He called one of his team members over to him.

“Poppy!”

Poppy jumped up from her seat and bounded over to Trinket’s desk. “Yes, sir?”

“How are you with magical engineering?”

“Pretty good, sir. I interned there for a while before being assigned to Creation and Assembly.”

“Excellent. Come with me, they need a few extra sets of eyes in the garage.”

“Okay!”

Trinket and Poppy set off for the North Pole’s garage, where the Boss kept his famous sleigh and Mrs. Claus kept her less-well-known motorcycle. As they walked over, Trinket couldn’t help but sigh once again.

Poppy glanced at him, concerned. “Everything okay, boss?”

Trinket replied, “Yeah, it’s okay. There’s just a lot piling up on my day that it really doesn’t seem like I should be involved in. I mean, I shouldn’t be venting to you about this, but some of the technology we use just seems to get in the way.”

Poppy nodded. “I know what you mean. I couldn’t figure out why my workstation was running so slowly this morning. Cedar had to come over and help me fix it… and I’m not even sure that it helped all that much.”

They continued walking in silence. Almost hesitantly, Poppy spoke up again.

“You know, I have a cousin who works in a shoe factory, and he says that IT isn’t really a problem for them.”

Trinket snorted. “Yeah, maybe after they’ve invested half of their annual magic into it.”

“That’s just the thing,” Poppy persisted. “They don’t have to. They work with this company called Coleman Technologies, they’re something called a managed service provider.”

“A managed service provider? What’s that?”

“Well, you know how we usually handle technology issues? We all kind of try to figure it out ourselves, until we need to call someone else in to fix it. Kind of like we’re doing now, for the sleigh?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, a managed service provider handles things a little differently. Instead of us trying to fix problems after they’ve popped up, the MSP keeps an eye on our systems for us, spotting potential issues and fixing them before they interrupt us. According to my cousin, the shoemaking elves managed to up their productivity considerably.

“The MSP has even helped them make their systems more efficient by recommending upgrades and helping them keep up with their updates. My cousin says that the factory is also more secure, to boot.”

Trinket considered it, impressed. “Well, how much does this cost? It sounds expensive.”

“That’s the other thing—it’s a service, so the MSP charges the factory each month. However, that monthly cost covers a lot, so considering what you get, it isn’t so bad.” Poppy shrugged.

“I think I’ll have to bring this up to the bosses. What did you say this company was called?”

“Coleman Technologies. They’re based in British Columbia but since most of their services are delivered remotely, that shouldn’t be a problem. Even if they must make an on-site visit to fix something, their remote operations can save time by giving them a head start.

“They can help prevent viruses and malware, get a better handle on our communications, and help us streamline our processes, too.”

“Not bad, Poppy. I’ll have to bring this up to the Boss before the New Year starts,” Trinket said as they reached the garage. He held the door open for her. “Shall we?”

“Let’s!”

The two elves entered the garage and got to work, as elves do.

Hopefully, this has helped illustrate that everyone needs a little assistance, every now and then. If your business has also seen some IT challenges that it needs addressed and mitigated, give Coleman Technologies a call at (604) 513-9428 to start the new year on the right path.

In the meantime, we hope that your holidays are merry and bright.