Perspective is a valuable thing, especially when your job is to figure out solutions to problems. Not only are there occasionally real-time issues to resolve, there are also plenty of recurring problems and challenges. Perspective is only helpful if it can be applied practically, however. A successful support team understands how a business needs to operate and provides them with the IT services that facilitate that.
Business owners are always searching for value. This is no different when it comes to technology support. The question is how to get the best support for your business’ technology for the least amount of money, right? After all, considering the amount of problems a business could have, its technology support bill shouldn’t be the one that hamstrings the whole business. This month we will look at the three types of IT support available to most businesses and tell you why managed IT services are by far the most valuable.
From a certain point of view, businesses now find themselves in a unique position to restructure their operations. For instance, the COVID-19 pandemic has provided an inconvenient case study of sorts that shows a promising outlook on remote productivity.
It has also helped to shine the light on how impactful waste can be in poorly managed IT strategies. Without any engaged oversight, the heightened use of cloud services can lead to a few considerable issues, including
To keep your IT working for you, you need control over it. You need to know when a piece of hardware was purchased, who set it up, and when it was last maintenanced. You need a strategy to protect the hardware and the data. You need these because you have made huge investments into this technology, why wouldn’t you spend money to protect it? Moreover, isn’t it easier to get the answers you’re looking for when there are extensive records kept?
COVID-19 has managed to close wide swaths of businesses and organizations as people try to stem its spread by avoiding as much contact with others as possible. Any small business owner would understandably be hesitant to make any large shifts in their operations, but it also needs to be understood that the shift to managed services can help relieve many of the challenges that businesses are currently facing—as well as those that may pop up afterwards.
As we have done throughout this series, we will compare the experience that a managed service provider is able to deliver, compared to the alternative.
Brennan’s business gathers and stores a substantial amount of data, as most businesses do. His business relies heavily on this data, as he runs an organization which depends on client contacts. To store all of this data, Brennan decides to do some research and build his own server. He understands the basics, and begins work. Not only does this take up a large amount of space, it also requires an absurd amount of power to operate. This makes the office unbearably hot. Furthermore, Brennan hooks up connections incorrectly causing equipment failure. This is not covered under warranty, and the initial cost of setting up a server is astronomical.
On the other side of the town, Dale works in the music industry. His business decides to go with managed services. Dale is quickly connected with a trustworthy, dependable cloud service. He is then able to store all of his data and applications in the space provided by this service. It only costs a minimal monthly fee in comparison to the initial cost a server build would require.
Let’s assume both Brennan and Dale are given the same set of circumstances. A flood causes both businesses to be completely under water. How differently will these two business owners handle this disaster?
Brennan, panic stricken, attempts to grab whatever equipment he can salvage. His business relies entirely on the information stored within his computers. He is only able to get a small number of computers operating again, and since all of his data was in-house, nearly all of it is destroyed. Brennan’s business is in some truly dire straits.
Dale immediately begins his backup and disaster recovery plan. His plan has been tested recently, so he is confident that his entire business can operate off-site. All of his data is stored in the cloud, which means it is all accessible anywhere there is internet. Dale’s cloud service also goes the additional mile of storing his data in an additional place. This ensures that there truly is a backup, and the same disaster that causes a backup plan to be utilized does not destroy the backup data.
The process of combining seeming less unrelated data into a singular platform is data warehousing. This process helps businesses fuel their analytics as well as their business intelligence platforms. These platforms are turning into some of the most important tools a business owner can utilize, as they provide immense value by providing decision makers a thorough knowledge base.
This processing requires a bit of computing power. In fact, it requires more computing power than Brennan’s entire home-made system is able to muster up. Since Dale utilizes managed services, he has no issues accomplishing his goals. His provider’s flexibility ensures he is able to adjust his infrastructure as needed.
In the next part of our series, we will be discussing how a managed service provider can assist with IT procurement. Coleman Technologies is always available to answer any questions you may have, so give us a call at (604) 513-9428 today!
There are a lot of different pieces of technology that go into a business, and like a puzzle they all need to fit together and work. So where do all of these puzzle pieces come from? Let’s examine different types of technology.
Here are two scenarios, and the different methods businesses use to handle them:
Walter’s business is growing extremely quickly, but his servers are the same ones he’s been using for years. He realizes he is running low on storage space, and his increasing staff puts pressure on him to upgrade his server. Walter manages to cobb something together, hoping it will suffice for the time being. When Walter attempts to merge his servers into one slightly larger server, he misconfigured a few components resulting in downtime for his entire staff. Not only has he wasted his own time, but now he is experiencing the most expensive segment of downtime he has ever experienced.
Jesse, on the other side of town, also is experiencing extraordinary growth. Jesse however, makes a simple phone call to his managed service provider. He is connected to a professional, who advises Jesse on server options that will sufficiently support his growing business. His managed service provider not only points him in the right direction, but also comes on site to install this new technology. Jesse knows he isn’t a tech know-it-all, so he leaves deployment of servers to the professionals. His business is ready for increased data storage that same week he decided it was time to expand.
Your business’ employees are only capable of what their technology can handle. When it comes time to upgrade or add additional workstations, there are a few options one can take. Let’s see how our two business owners handle these situations.
Walter, who is an impulse spur of the moment shopper, sees what he believes is a fantastic deal on eBay. He decides that these second-hand computers will be able to handle all of his employee’s programs without issue. However, upon arrival Walter notices that his computers are missing a few components. It turns out that the eBay listing was actually for five home-made computers that the builder was never able to get to operate properly, rather than complete working PCs. Overlooking the description just set him back a large amount of money, and the computer repair shop charges nearly as much as a brand new PC would have.
Jesse, has a few empty desks he would like to fill with capable computers as well as a few new employees. He reaches out to his managed service provider to discuss which computer might fit the needs of his business. The professionals are able to use their connections to get Jesse a fantastic deal, and most importantly, the purchase of the computers comes with free installation.
What good would a computer be without the necessary software? Businesses should be utilizing the latest and greatest software. There are a few different approaches a business owner can take to procure the necessary software to boost productivity within the office.
Walter knows that software can be expensive, so he decides to torrent a few versions hoping that he doesn’t get caught. Unfortunately, however, Walter is exposed as a fraud and his business is the center of attention for all things media. His business suffers massively, and he wishes he had spent a fortune on the software instead.
Jesse too knows how expensive software can be. Unlike Walter, he once again leans on his managed service provider. They offer what is known as software-as-a-service. This service gives you all the latest and greatest software, for a low monthly cost. It’s like renting a tool, as opposed to buying it outright. Not only does this tool come with free installation as well as support, but it doesn’t set Jesse back a large sum of money. He is able to give his employees all of the programs they need to proficiently do their jobs.
If you had a choice to be Jesse or Walter, which would you choose? Managed services truly offer support for all of your business needs. If you would like to learn more, reach out to our professionals by calling Coleman Technologies at (604) 513-9428 today!
Almost every industry has some form of office setup. Manufacturers, retail, and service delivery all need their offices to handle the procedural aspects of the business. Some people work from a home office that’s just a laptop computer, while others have multiple floors of a high-rise dedicated to office workers. It’s not an overstatement to say that the office is where a majority of western workers work. The office is where productivity happens.
This is all made possible through the use of technology. The modern office features all types of technology. From servers to workstations to networking equipment, peripherals, security and signage, and much, much more. With the deployment of all this technology, there needs to be some coordination with the way it is integrated, and with the way a company’s human resources utilize it.
This is especially true now that:
In these three variables, you can find a lot about how organizations are utilizing IT.
Things cost more today, that can’t be denied. For the business, this creates some tough situations. One way that a business can keep these shrinking profit margins from ruining their business is by leveraging customized IT solutions designed to transfer cost. Some examples of these technologies include:
Every action your business makes and every interaction it has with vendors, customers, and prospects can be tracked. This data can be used to help businesses see what works and which of those actions are more cost effective for the business to implement as process. In order to integrate this kind of analysis for your business, you first need to understand what data you need to use in order to get the information and what technologies you may need to make your data analytics efforts work effectively.
The threats that the modern business has to deal with from outside their computing network puts strain on the users inside their computer network. An organization’s IT administrator typically sets the tone by developing a plan for the business to maintain data and network security, but those efforts can be undermined at any time if the business’ staff isn’t trained in how to confront situations that are coming from outside the network designed to undermine the security platforms that have been deployed. Here are two tools that Coleman Technologies can offer to help you thwart threats:
The modern office has a lot of places that technology potentially fits. If your business can use any of these solutions to improve the look of your bottom line, call Coleman Technologies today at (604) 513-9428.
The Managed Service Provider (MSP) provide an experience unlike traditional service providers’ methodology. Let’s take a look at two scenarios:
Tom is emailing his boss in regard to a company project when all of a sudden his software closes. Tom tries to re-open his email, resulting in well, no result. Tom, frustrated at his email software, spam clicks the application which causes his entire computer to freeze. He has to ask his neighbor to contact their IT department for him. Unfortunately, they are out for lunch which results in a massive amount of downtime for not only Tom but for the business itself.
Jerry, who works for a business on the other side of town, is working on a project when he too is experiencing technical difficulties. Jerry has been working on a new business logo in his graphic design software. While opening his file, he is prompted with a message informing him that his software license is not valid. Jerry wastes no time in creating a ticket with his managed service provider. Within minutes, a technician remotes into Jerry’s computer, reconciling the issue at hand. Jerry is up and working in a timely manner.
Time is money, so why not save yourself time with managed services?
Managed service providers leverage remote support simply because of how efficient it is. It doesn’t make sense for a technician to come all the way out to your business to resolve an issue that could have been resolved at their own office. However, when a situation occurs where a technician is actually required to be present, managed service providers have trained staff ready to be dispatched.
When something goes wrong, IT support needs to be present. It isn’t cost effective to have IT support present when your infrastructure is operating as it should.
Time is a business’ most scarce resource, so why waste any of it? Every moment is valuable, so you can’t afford to sit idle waiting for IT to return back from lunch or wait for them to have a free moment. To ensure you get the most out of every second, Coleman Technologies offers managed services which can greatly benefit your business.
This is far from the end when discussing the benefits of managed services. Return back to our blog page to read part three of this series. If you would like to discuss additional support options offered with managed IT services, give us a call at (604) 513-9428.
For many smaller businesses the IT administrator’s position is not one held by a certified IT professional. It is held by whomever is most knowledgeable about computers; or, even worse, the person who most uses a particular machine. This can lead to complete catastrophe.
A help desk, either as a standalone service, or as a part of a larger managed services platform, can provide the kind of comprehensive IT support every organization is looking for. It doesn’t just battle broken technology, either. It also reduces downtime that comes from human error, whether it be from IT related issues or situational incompetence. If your staff can’t do their jobs efficiently because they encounter technology-induced roadblocks, having IT experts available around-the-clock to look into and fix most of the problems your staff could have is a huge benefit.
Additionally, if you do have a dedicated IT administrator or outsource your IT management to a firm that doesn’t offer help desk, having remote technicians at the ready can help an IT department that is stretched thin. Augmenting your IT staff by instituting a help desk can keep their attention on the projects that will help the organization move forward more successfully.
If your business finds itself falling short in terms of help desk support, look no further. Coleman Technologies can help your business get the support it needs to maintain operational efficiency. To learn more, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.
So why not make sure they have the technical support they need?
We’ve seen this all too many times. An end user is constantly running into an issue on their computer that interrupts their day and prevents them from accomplishing a task in a timely manner. Maybe they are trying to get a proposal or presentation finished, or push out a marketing campaign.
Either way, perhaps your employee feels that his/her performance on a certain project will help them achieve a bonus or raise or commission. Maybe they just want to perform well. You can’t knock that kind of attitude, right?
Unfortunately, there’s this computer issue. It’s getting in their way. They aren’t running on all cylinders because they are always having to reboot or they can’t open the software they need, or something just isn’t working right. Whatever it is, they need help.
In some cases, they might go to a coworker and seek help. They might contact a manager. They might go directly to you. Everyone has their own work to do, and even if this person’s tasks are important, solving their computer issue might not be a top priority.
Depending on how you handle your IT, you might know that in order to get their issue looked at, you need to call your IT provider, get walked through the issue, approve a remote session or on-site visit, authorize a quote, etc. That’s a lot to distract you from what YOU were working on.
What we end up with is an employee who’s frustrated because they can’t perform well. It reduces morale and it could belittle their position within the company. They can’t work effectively and their project or task can take longer than it normally would. It’s a lose-lose situation.
Now imagine the scenario like this: the user runs into an issue. They know that they don’t need to go to you for IT issues. They know that they can just pick up the phone or email in a ticket describing their problem and it gets handled.
In many cases, they could put in a ticket mid-morning and have it resolved by the time they are back from lunch. For more severe issues with a greater impact on operations, it could be solved even faster.
If your employees are empowered to report issues and get help, they feel more appreciated and more in control over their own work. If they need to get approval or be told that the issue is too minor to pay for a support call, it demeans their perception of their position.
That’s why we encourage our clients to let their staff access our help desk. For many common issues, it can fall under your managed agreement, and the business owner can be hands-off for the minor issues and support questions that would normally bog you down.
It’s time to give your staff the freedom to get support. It will save you time, and increase their productivity. Want to learn how we do it? Give us a call at (604) 513-9428.
Managed services differ from the traditional method of IT management and maintenance. Perhaps you remember the old days when you sought technology repairs as needed thinking that it actually saved you money. While it may have been true to an extent in the short term, did it actually save you money for the long haul? We’re willing to bet that it didn’t for one big reason: the downtime associated with technology maintenance.
When we talk about downtime, it’s important to remember that it’s a major cause for budgets being flattened. If you are waiting until your organization suffers from technology issues before resolving them, you’re practically begging for operations to be affected by downtime. Wouldn’t it be better to actively prevent these issues from evolving into bigger, more costly problems that are much more difficult to resolve?
It is this mindset that managed service providers take on. Managed service providers and preventative technology maintenance aim to eliminate the majority of downtime and save businesses serious capital in the process.
Furthermore, managed IT makes for easier infrastructure management, as it involves outsourcing the majority of your organization’s technology management to a third party. In this way, you save time and resources from being consumed in a way that is counter-intuitive to operations. Remember, your employees aren’t necessarily learned in repairing technology, so unless they have actually been trained in how to administer IT help, you should leave it to the professionals.
Coleman Technologies can provide your business with the preventative technology maintenance and solution management needed to ensure operations are always at their maximum. Not only that, but we can also maintain your solutions and host them on our infrastructure specifically so that this responsibility doesn’t fall on your shoulders. In other words, you’ll have an easier time managing your business because you’re not bogged down trying to manage all of its technology solutions.
To learn more about managed services and everything we can do for your business, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.
Not anymore.
A concept called managed IT services has taken the business world by storm. Experienced technicians work diligently with some of today’s most powerful monitoring software to proactively manage a business’ network and infrastructure, keeping technology working better longer, and reducing downtime to a point where it isn’t the huge problem it traditionally has been.
Coleman Technologies is a proud managed IT services vendor. With our technicians’ expertise, we are able to offer our clients a massive cache of services that include:
It is increasingly rare for many small or medium-sized businesses to hire onsite IT staff. If you don’t have the support your technology needs to function properly, you are looking at variable capital expenses that can, and likely will come to pass at exactly the wrong moment.
Coleman Technologies’s IT services provide your business with access to dedicated and knowledgeable IT technicians that are well positioned with some of the most powerful technology management software on the market; and, does it for a predictable monthly rate.
If you would like to get rid of your IT headaches for good, and kick downtime to the curb, call us today at (604) 513-9428.
Today, many of the largest and most lucrative companies in the world, Google, Apple, AT&T, Amazon, Verizon, Facebook and Microsoft are all, more than manufacturers of computer-based goods and services, data brokers. These data brokers create services that they then sell to advertisers that allow them to target you based on the information these companies have of you, which can accurately tell how and what to sell you.
Since nearly everyone has a near-ubiquitously-connected experience there is a lot of data collected, bought, and sold every year and it’s big business. Facebook, a company whose main revenue stream is from selling advertising, made a net profit of nearly $16 billion in 2017. This tells us that if you have people’s data, you have people’s hopes, fears, and dreams, which means you can pretty easily get someone to pay you for access to that information.
For small businesses it’s much less lucrative. In fact, all the data your organization needs to keep, is probably necessary to simply do business, not to sell to advertisers. Facebook voluntarily gets a lot of personal information from every one of their users, as where the typical small business often has to strategize to just get a name and a phone number. The information that is sensitive (mostly customer information that you collect) has a lot of value to the people looking to steal it. So while you aren’t making billions of dollars selling consumer profiles, it is still a mightily important part of doing business, and needs to be secured.
Is Data a Commodity?
Technically speaking, it isn’t. Since a commodity’s value is based namely on its scarcity and the amount of capital that needs to be put up to create it, in both resources and labor, the data that is being purchased isn’t really a commodity. In lieu of the dissolution of the U.S. Net Neutrality laws, this has created the argument in the U.S. that since now it’s up to the telecommunication companies how they want to manage (or more accurately bill) data consumption, that they would throttle and tier service, something that isn’t possible with a true commodity, where there are laws prohibiting those types of practices.
On the other hand, Internet access is something that a majority of the commerce requires, and delivering data is in itself an expensive endeavor (infrastructure spending, development, utility costs, etc.) so telecoms, who are seeing their would-be profits syphoned by over-the-top content providers, and publicly demonized as a result of a very public lobbying effort to gain control of the ability to implement some sort of prioritization strategy, have to find a strategy to sustain their ability to get a workable return on their investments.
Securing Your Organization’s Data
Regardless of what your view of data is, it’s an important resource for your organization, and as mentioned above, it needs to be secured. For one of your company’s most important resources, data can be lost relatively easily, so there needs to be a concerted effort to keep your network and infrastructure free from the threats that could put your data at risk. At Coleman Technologies, that’s what we do. We ensure organizations like yours get the professional IT expertise you need to work efficiently, effectively, and securely in what is the most turbulent time in computing history. With the litany of threats your business faces everyday, you need experts that have your back. We offer:
With data such a major part of doing business today, ensuring you have the right solutions and support in place to be confident that any situation you face will be managed before it becomes a problem is in itself a benefit. Call Coleman Technologies at (604) 513-9428 for more information.
Of course, not all businesses have the luxury of hiring in-house technicians to function as a help desk. In cases like these, outsourced solutions are viable alternatives, if they aren’t outright better overall. Here are some of the best reasons why your organization should implement an outsourced help desk solution.
Help Desk Support Minimizes Downtime
You may have heard the excuse, “I would have done the work, but I didn’t know how,” or “My computer wasn’t working properly.” If you don’t have anyone available to help your staff with their issues, chances are they are being ignored and piling up, resulting in a situation where your staff simply can’t do their jobs--not because they don’t want to, but because they literally can’t. If you have someone your staff can reach out to for assistance with the technical side of their job, they’ll be more likely to get assistance and improve their productivity. Most importantly, you’re keeping downtime to a minimum, as it is a huge blow to your bottom line if left unchecked.
Help Desk Support Provides a Single Point of Contact
Even more confusing for some employees is who to actually contact in the event they need help with their technology. Sometimes the organization will have several numbers compiled in a location for all to see, but this isn’t helpful, as the employee might wind up having to reach out to several vendors just to resolve a basic issue. By using a help desk solution, there is only a single phone extension or email address to inform, making this kind of assistance much more accessible.
Help Desk Support Can Augment In-House Assistance
Let’s say that your internal IT department is responsible for helping your employees out with their technology troubles. This is fine and all, but chances are that they don’t have enough time to implement new solutions, keep your hardware and software updated, monitor your network for inconsistencies, and manage all of your organization’s devices, let alone take a call from Susan down the hall because she can’t access her email. You can help your business’ IT department out by taking this one responsibility off their shoulders and handing it to an outsourced, remote help desk.
If your business finds itself falling short in terms of help desk support, look no further. Coleman Technologies can help your business get the support it needs to maintain operational efficiency. To learn more, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.
What’s the Big Deal?
You would think that assigning administrator accounts would prevent users from making poor choices with your data. The main difference between the two is that administrator accounts have many more privileges compared to the traditional account used by the average user. In fact, a traditional account is much safer to use unless you actually need administrator access to perform a certain task. Ordinarily, a normal user account can’t install software or mess around with important files in the system, but this isn’t necessarily the case for an administrator account.
Admin accounts are essentially the most powerful account on your computer. They have the permissions to perform just about any role on your PC. It’s the same role that your IT department uses to make any significant changes to your devices during updates and general maintenance. Every computer needs to have at least one admin account found on it, but if access from untrained users is allowed, they could make changes to important files needed for the computer to run properly.
Why You Should Limit Admin Account Use
While it might make sense to have admin permissions if you’re the only one who uses your computer, this is simply not the case on a managed network. There are security problems associated with using an admin account as your primary device account. What happens if your account gets compromised by some sort of malware? It’s simple; the malware will install on your admin account and be able to make any changes it wants to any of the important files only accessible by your admin account. While more permissions as the device owner might sound ideal, it only makes it easier for threats to leave a lasting effect on a device.
Standard accounts have more limited permissions, meaning that if they are compromised in any fashion, they will be more limited in the amount of damage they can cause. It’s for this reason that it’s best to limit administrator accounts as often as possible, as there is no guarantee you will never fall victim to such attacks.
To minimize the chance of your business’ endpoints falling prey to attacks, you should implement proactive measures against the countless possibilities out there--including a compromised admin account. To learn more about how your business can protect itself, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.
There is no question that a small business can benefit from technology, as has been proven time and time again. However, an issue can arise if a business bites off more than it can chew, so to speak, and ultimately creates a spike in costs. A responsible business owner will resist this temptation and prioritize the solutions they need over the ones they want - building profitability and generating capital needed to make other improvements.
In this blog, we’ll examine some of the implementations that can deliver a good return on investment to a small business.
The late American author Kurt Vonnegut once wrote, “New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become.” Written in the 20th century, it has been put in practice by 21st century businesses. As the Internet has grown, the amount of companies expanded, and the amount of data that those companies collect has grown exponentially, especially now that there is a market for such data.
Coleman Technologies has been serving the British Columbia area since 1999, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses. Our experience has allowed us to build and develop the infrastructure needed to keep our prices affordable and our clients up and running.
20178 96 Avenue, C400
Langley, British Columbia V1M 0B2
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