SMART Blog

For the majority of small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), finding the right technology solution is the key to growth. According to a recent study, businesses with 250 employees or less whose primary goal for 2018 is growth cited IT systems and technology applications as their top strategy for facilitating growth. However, in order for technology to provide the most ample amount of growth for your business, they must be the right selection for your individual needs. By working with an MSP, you’ll have a team of business technology solutions experts as your disposal, at a fraction of the cost of hiring an internal IT department to find and implement the IT required to accomplish your desired growth.

You might have only recently heard about outsourced IT services, but you might be surprised to hear that they have been around for far longer than you previously thought. Even before managed IT, however, business owners and individuals alike were using the outsourced services of others to simplify operations and day-to-day tasks related to their technology management.

Cloud Management
The cloud continues to increase in popularity, in part due to the overwhelming convenience that it provides for small businesses. When your workforce needs to be agile, they need access to data and applications on the move. This means that they can be productive anytime, anywhere. However, managing a cloud server can be a daunting task for a business that doesn’t have a full-time internal IT department. Outsourcing this responsibility to a managed service provider lets your business focus on productivity, rather than managing your technology.

When was the last time that you ran into a computer problem that was easily solved just by simply restarting your computer or unplugging a device from the wall, then plugging it back in? Oftentimes, simple troubleshooting tactics are enough to resolve a problem. But more often than not, there are issues that can’t be easily resolved.

Technology is an imperative part of your business’s operations, but sometimes things don’t go quite as planned. It can fail when you least expect it to, and you’d really hate to pay your IT provider for an on-site visit. What can you do when you’re in a technology bind and need to keep operations moving forward?

It’s well known in the business world that outsourcing your IT will yield significant savings for your IT budget. However, did you know that the benefits of outsourcing IT go beyond monetary savings? For example, gaining access to a new skillset is just one valuable benefit to outsourced IT that doesn’t have a column in your budget.

We often discuss why it’s important that a business takes proactive measures to resolve IT issues before they become problems, but these definitions might be lost on some of our followers. In order to understand the true value of our IT services, it’s imperative that you’re able to distinguish the difference between these two disruptive sources to your technology.

IT support is heavily reliant upon communication between both parties involved. Without both sides being on the same page, IT support miscommunications are far more likely to happen. Sometimes you just can’t help but laugh at poor communication skills, as seen in the 2001 movie Zoolander. But thankfully, these situations don’t arise too often in the non-fictional universe… right?

"Quick, to the emergency room!" These are dreaded words that nobody wants to hear. An emergency like this implies a life or death scenario, and it gets everybody worked up into a frenzy. After arriving to the ER and getting a doctor's diagnosis, how quickly do people's attitudes change when the emergency turns out to be false?

The news that Microsoft no longer supports Windows XP, one of its most successful operating systems, was a great blow to many who loved the software. The greatest blow, however, will likely prove to be hackers, who will be able to break into the system now that Microsoft is not providing security patches.

When looking for a mate, you will be most attracted to a "total package." This is a guy or a girl that has it all: Looks, personality, a sense of humor, and everything else your heart desires. Looking for a business partner is a lot like looking for a mate. You want to go with a company that is a total package.

How involved in your operations is your IT department? Does your SMB even have an IT department? Many organizations tend to consider IT an afterthought because they don’t believe themselves to be targets for hackers, or don’t anticipate costly technology issues. However, these business owners underestimate the power of complete transparency between an organization and IT.