When determining an IT budget, perspective is an important part of the process. It can be tempting to view your IT as just another cost of doing business, but it really is more than that. Your technology (and the state it is in) has a major effect on how your business runs. If it is lacking, other things will as well. In some cases, employee morale will suffer, your productivity will slow, and your incoming cash flow will falter.
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
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.
To help you out, we wanted to go over a few of an MSP’s capabilities, particularly the ones that will assist your business the most during tough times.
In this (or any) business disaster, downtime is the enemy. If there is some technical issue that is preventing work from being done efficiently, your business is going to feel the ramifications. Depending on how severe the downtime is, it could impact the likelihood of your business lasting in the long-term.
First, we’ll define what “infrastructure monitoring” refers to:
Infrastructure monitoring covers a few different considerations, all critically important to the continued productivity of your business. These considerations include things like the physical condition of your infrastructure’s hardware, how your operating systems are being utilized, how much of your network’s bandwidth is being consumed and how many errors are occurring, or the performance and availability of your applications.
When you purchase an Internet package, you get certain speeds. Today, these speeds are faster than ever, but if your business has too much going on, it can wreak havoc with your Internet speeds. There is a situation that happens when too much data is trying to pass through a network connection. This situation is called bottlenecking and it is potentially the reason your speeds are slow. Think about it, if you try to put several gigabytes through a connection that is only rated for a few megabits per second, it’s going to take some time to get all the data through. To check this, audit how many devices are at work. Most of the time you’ll be surprised how much data you are sending and receiving. We can help you with this audit before you make the call to upgrade your Internet package.
Another potential issue is that your networking equipment may simply be old and not be able to use the dual bands that are often necessary to get the most out of your wireless network. If you have enough bandwidth, but your Internet is just slow, chances are upgrading the modem, switches, or routers would be a prudent move and will likely fix any problems you have.
Once you’ve made sure that the physical components of your network are working as intended, but your Internet connection isn’t improving, you probably need to reconfigure your software on your devices or move your hardware to avoid interference. Specifically, if your wireless network signal is having problems making it through obstructions, you will want to consider using the 2.4 GHz connection rather than the 5.0 GHz channel. The max speed you’ll see will decrease, but the 2.4 GHz connection makes its way through obstructions better. Unfortunately, however, the 2.4 GHz signal can be a victim of electronic interference more than the 5.0 GHz channel.
If you need help with your business’ networking, don’t wait and lose more money. Contact the professionals at Coleman Technologies today at (604) 513-9428.
There are countless examples of IT turning to a reboot as a quick fix for technology issues in popular culture. Going back to August 4, 1999, Scott Adams’ syndicated comic strip Dilbert featured Dogbert working in tech support, interrupting a caller with the instruction to “Shut up and reboot.” The Channel 4 comedy, The IT Crowd, turned it into a catchphrase for one of its characters…
The joke has appeared in countless other places, including Supernatural, the long-running show that airs on The CW…
Even South Park used the concept as a joke, as Kyle effectively saves the world after the Internet stops by traveling to the “center of the Internet” and discovering that it is a giant router. I bet you can guess how Kyle fixes it:
As it turns out, this trope really is an example of art imitating life.
Well, let’s consider how much you actually do with your computer (or your mobile device, or your router, or your washing machine, or anything else that now has its own operating system) on a regular basis.
You start processes, you may install new programs, and that’s not even considering the massive amount of computing that goes on behind the scenes. A lot of these processes and activities will start things up in the background that are never really resolved, which means that your system resources are being used up. This usually has the biggest impact on your Random Access Memory, or RAM. Ultimately, your solutions aren’t able to work effectively any longer, and you see the effects.
However, rebooting inherently ends all of these processes, as they all require power in order to work. As a result, once the computer starts back up again, these processes are no longer running and impacting your system’s resources.
As a result, you have a better-working computer, and the IT stereotype is proven correct.
Keep in mind: if an issue seems to come back and persist despite a reboot (or multiple reboots) you likely have a bigger problem at hand. If this is the case, you can always lean on the professionals at Coleman Technologies to assist you with your technology.
Just don’t be surprised if we ask a particular question.
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Microsoft has announced that Windows 7 will no longer be supported after January 14, 2020. Computers that are running the software will no longer be protected, and put your business at risk. After January 14th, any computer still running Windows 7 will not be receiving technical assistance from Microsoft. First released in late October 2009, Windows 7 was one of Microsoft’s most effective and popular operating systems, but the time has come to upgrade.
Simply put, by running unsupported software your business becomes much more vulnerable to cyberattack. Supported software is routinely patched to keep potential vulnerabilities from becoming disasters for your company. A data breach can flatten any forward momentum a business has, and today, with ransomware being a consideration, making sure all of the software you depend on is supported keeps your business secure. Besides the security issues, there are other considerations to contend with, like a loss in functionality
Since you have around a month left to upgrade away from Windows 7, you still have time to switch your Windows 7 workstations over to Windows 10. Windows 10 is the current standard and has been for nearly five years. To upgrade to Windows 10 requires at least a 1 GHz processor, 2 GB of RAM, and 20 GB available on a hard drive. Since these specs aren’t much over what Windows 7 required, it may not be necessary to overhaul the hardware on each of your workstation.
For organizations that simply won’t have time to upgrade their machines there are a couple of options that you should know about. Microsoft is offering a costly extended support package that will available for all Windows 7 Pro and Windows 7 Enterprise customers with volume licensing through January 2023. Most businesses will not qualify, but if yours does, the costs for Enterprise will be $25 per device from 2020-2021, $50 per device from 2021-2022, and $100 per device from 2022-2023. The cost of support for Pro versions will be double that.
There are, at this moment no plans to support this software after 2023.
If your business is looking for an option that will move you on from Windows 7, Microsoft now offers the Microsoft 365 bundle. Available in enterprise, business, and education platforms, the cloud-based bundle provides users with Windows 10, the productivity and storage applications in Microsoft Office 365, and the security and control settings you’ll need to get the most out of the subscription service. Paid by the user, per month, major hardware upgrades can be tabled or done incrementally, allowing a business to pay as they go until they get to where they want to be.
If your organization needs help upgrading your software, or keeping it patched and up-to-date, call the IT professionals at Coleman Technologies today at (604) 513-9428.
Times have changed.
Today, the professional services industry is experiencing somewhat of a makeover. The effort-based expectations of the past are being replaced with outcome-driven expectations, leaving many professionals looking to technologies to help their businesses manage this shift in expectations. Typically, businesses begin their quest for efficiency by automating mundane portions of the business. This creates cost savings and promotes speed. The problem this model presents for professional services firms is that they don’t have many parts of their business that can be automated.
Since the front office and the back office of many professional services firms have some form of disconnect, and much of the work dictates that a person handles the intricacies of that work, automation isn’t really an option. That doesn’t mean there aren’t ways for professional services to utilize new technology to promote faster, more accurate, and more efficient operations. One way that professional services companies can improve is by making a digital transformation.
The digital transformation refers to shift from analogue systems to digital ones. Over the past twenty years many analogue systems have been retired to make way for digital ones. This includes cloud-hosted solutions for time and resource management, productivity and collaboration, and even for the archival of information. The added efficiency a professional services firm can gain from committing to digital systems--especially in the processes listed above--is sure to quicken the pace of your business’ operations. Let’s take a look at the technologies some of the most utilized professional services companies are beginning to use.
Medical practices have been improving their IT under mandate for almost a decade. How has the digital improvement gone? A study from 2018 showed that 60 percent of practices that have upgraded their information systems have had a positive experience, while 23.5 percent had (what they’re calling) positive-to-mixed results. Only eight percent reported having a negative experience implementing technology. It took healthcare officials at every level working together to achieve digital transformations that help fuel electronic health records and other technologies used to help curtail cost redundancies and promote the delivery of comprehensive care.
There are a lot of lawyers that like to continue to do things the way they always have. After all, it is one of the oldest professions and there is a standard of decorum that many lawyers adhere to. In many ways the legal profession remains unchanged. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t using technology. The profession as a whole may not benefit from automation as much as other professionals, but it still does benefit through other solutions like document management, mobile management, and other digital systems often utilized with remote workforces.
Most professional services firms are, like most other businesses, using information systems to improve operations and be the best firm that they can be. If you are working in the professional services market and would like to learn more about how your firm would go about making a digital transformation, call the professional service experts at Coleman Technologies today at (604) 513-9428.
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.
Well, no matter what your budget is, we know that there is one solution for your business that is extremely valuable, that being remote monitoring and management. This solution manages to skirt the issues related to acquiring IT assistance by utilizing remote support. In general, managed IT can bypass the issues that most small businesses experience with budgeting for technology maintenance and support. If you move in the direction of a remote monitoring, maintenance, and management solution, you might find that your business can save money and make great strides toward increasing your bottom line.
Businesses need someone to monitor their networks for signs of problems associated with bottlenecking and other inefficiencies, as well as security threats that need to be addressed. Remote monitoring gives your service provider the ability to do this without an on-site visit, meaning that they aren’t in your office to distract your workers or pull them away from work. They can simply perform their tasks quietly and behind the scenes. Proper use of remote monitoring can give your employees the ability to address issues before they become major problems.
Waiting for technicians to arrive and resolve issues is a waste of time and resources, as, while you’re waiting for them to make their way to your office, you’re experiencing wasteful and expensive downtime that could be prevented with remote assistance. Remote maintenance provides a more dynamic, responsive, and cost-effective way to get the help you need, as needed.
Configuring systems can be challenging, and while certain aspects of it might require the occasional on-site visit, many solutions these days can be configured remotely. With the right settings and technology solutions in your office, our technicians can remote into your infrastructure and make adjustments as needed, all without waiting for someone to arrive at your doorstep (and paying them for the travel costs).
Coleman Technologies can be your go-to provider for remote assistance, support, management, maintenance, you name it. To learn more, reach out to us 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.
Businesses usually have either an in-house IT department that can handle everyday maintenance and support, or they forego updates and support for only when operations cannot continue as they had previously been. While it might seem like a solid strategy, not paying for something that’s not needed until it is needed, the fact of the matter is that reaction-based IT maintenance and management is both risky and expensive. Furthermore, some companies rely on untrained employees to make sure maintenance and management occur as needed, but this is also a dangerous practice, as there is too much potential to botch necessary maintenance and ruin more than a little bit of infrastructure.
Events like hardware failures, hacking attacks, and software crashes are infinitely more common with organizations that take advantage of break-fix IT management. Furthermore, the facade of saving money is overshadowed by the crippling budgetary concerns that stem from downtime.
Even businesses that have an in-house IT department don’t have the luxury of providing organizations with IT support. They might be too busy implementing new solutions to bother answering questions. On the other hand, perhaps they are too weighed down by answering daily queries to worry about innovating and implementing new solutions at all.
Long story short, a help desk solution is designed to help your organization fill in the gaps that are left in the absence of a qualified IT technician. It can be used to supplement your current IT resources or act as a fully outsourced IT department that can perform all the roles traditionally allocated to this position. To learn more about how you can take advantage of a help desk solution, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.
When something bad happens, you might look back to see what you could have done to prevent the issue from happening in the first place. The word to remember here is “proactive.” Being proactive requires risk assessment, which demands that you analyze the greatest possible threat to your continued existence and prepare for it. In the event that your business’ IT is unable to function as intended, your business would stop functioning. All it takes is a single component failing to leave your employees unable to do their jobs. This is why you need to be as proactive as possible--to ensure that you have plans in place for when your systems inevitably fail.
For the past decade, proactive IT maintenance has been making strides in the office environment. When one of the most important parts of running a business--your IT infrastructure--no longer works as intended, you lose out on profits and shell out for repairs more often. Furthermore, downtime can be a major cost that your business suffers from due to technology malfunctions. If you can keep your hardware operating properly, your network safe from threats, and your business productive, you can eliminate potential problems before they have time to escalate into the expensive kind.
Coleman Technologies’s proactive IT services provide your business with monitoring and management software. With our expert technicians behind these tools, you can rest easy knowing that we are monitoring each and every critical component of your technology for any telling inefficiencies. This gives you the opportunity to address them before downtime occurs.
Security troubles such as software vulnerabilities can also lead to problems for your business. If you can’t rely on your software tools to get the job done without issue, then you’re doing yourself a disservice. Furthermore, you will need the latest threat definitions and software patches to keep your solutions secure from threats that could derail productivity. A major part of our proactive maintenance platform is deploying patches as they are released, eliminating the chances of known vulnerabilities affecting operations.
For more information on how your organization can be more proactive with its IT maintenance, give Coleman Technologies a call 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.
If you utilize a managed service provider (MSP) who handles the maintenance and support of your IT infrastructure, it’s likely that you pay a flat monthly, quarterly, or yearly rate to cover the upkeep of your workstations, servers, and network infrastructure. This model has become increasingly common and it makes a lot of sense; it takes a decent amount of maintenance to keep a business network running smoothly, and when it’s handled proactively there are fewer issues in the long run.
One thing to note; we can’t account for every British Columbia provider, because everyone has their own way of quoting and billing for their IT service, but typically if you get a monthly flat-rate bill per user or per device then your IT company is providing some level of service on a regular basis. That may or may not be all-inclusive support for end users, cover hardware failures, etc. We’re not really here to nitpick the minutiae of an agreement though, what’s important is that you are getting what you pay for, and perhaps more importantly, that your IT is handled in a way that isn’t setting you up for failure down the road.
All that out of the way, when reviewing your regular technology bills, when you see that line item for maintenance and support, you might look back at how often your team had to call for support or put in a service ticket over the past several months. If your IT has been running smoothly the past few months, you probably have that one big question…
A little tangent here; but you know when it’s time to pay that homeowner’s insurance bill, and you think to yourself, “Man, I didn’t have to use this at all this year. I’d probably feel a little better writing this check if the insurance had to pay for a new roof or to recarpet my basement.” You are not alone, and that’s the same feeling you might get with good IT management.
Back on track, the Pareto Principle, more commonly referred to as the 80/20 rule, states that 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the causes. Basically, it’s an ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure.
That’s exactly how IT works. If you set everything up right, configure it and document it well, and then carefully monitor it, you won’t be running back and forth to keep fixing it. It’s typically much more cost effective to manage and maintain your network than it is to set it and forget it, and only come back when something goes horribly wrong.
If your IT is running smoothly, and your users are productive, and your security is passing every audit with flying colors, then that ongoing management and maintenance is performing exactly how it is supposed to.
It’s not like insurance, where you continue to pay for the peace of mind that when something happens you are covered. Instead, you are paying to prevent something bad from happening in the first place.
We hope this helped explain how most managed IT bills work. If you have questions, or want to know how we can help keep your organizing running smoothly, don’t hesitate to reach out to (604) 513-9428.
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
Mon to Fri 7:00am to 5:00pm
