If you have a pressing need for IT service, don’t hesitate to call us at 512-820-7196
As you reach a point of growth in business, most companies experience the need to have someone manage computers and let them focus on the many other pressing needs. But most times, it is not until an emergency comes up that they understand how important it is to make great choices and configure things well upfront… Like not running out of coffee
7 Common Managed IT Solutions that we support daily.
1. Microsoft Office 365 for business, covers email, team collaboration, file sharing, and the well known Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access, and many other tools that most businesses use.
This suite has almost entirely replaced the need for local servers in most companies as it solves enterprise email, file sharing, collaboration, and document creation issues in a far better way.
2. Google’s GSuite on the other hand carries a similar set of offerings that have been approached from a unique perspective. Often times, one or the other or even parts of both become necessary to best meet the needs of an organization.
But when it comes to editing a document or spreadsheet by multiple people at once Google has pulled far into the lead.
3. Quickbooks, both for desktop and online, have become by far the most used accounting software suites in the world with a combined market share of over 60%. We believe that in the coming years this trend will increase, but perhaps businesses will move into Quickbooks Online currently holding about 7% of the market. We have witnessed since the original launch of QB Online in 2001 an amazing shift from being a nearly unusable solution for most businesses, to now having billing system advantages that make it a better solution than the desktop platform for most small businesses. The desktop version creates a “local server” scenario that your IT Service provider will then need to support, backup, and fix on a semi-regular basis. Where Quickbooks Online requires basically no support from an IT Service company.
4. Local Networks, shared printers, and remote access… In every business, except for one small barbershop, we worked for lol, everyone has an internet connection.
With the internet comes the concept of a local network and local network devices like printers and file shares and remote access to use or maintain computers. In 2020, what many businesses considered to be “good solutions” needed to be dramatically modified to adapt to having people work remotely. The nice thing about networks and all the solutions that go along with them is that most any problem has multiple good solutions, we simply pick one that works great for you.
5. Virus Protection and Cleanup after 2020… it’s not what it used to be.
If you have been scammed into installing a virus on your computer, we can easily get you back on your computer quickly and safely. Just fill out this quick form and we will contact you as soon as possible.
Years ago, before security standards were established in networking and operating systems, attackers had direct access to take over a computer or network without any interaction from someone inside the network. As a result, most people think you can still “catch a computer virus” the same way we catch something like COVID. The reality is that 99.999 percent of the time you can’t. But it is not in the interest of the attackers (or antivirus companies) to let you know this, instead, they each use your fear of what virus you might have to cause you to spend money.
In reality, you simply need to arm yourself with a little knowledge and some good user account and password policies to resolve any worries you may have.
6. Backups that run and monitor themselves.
Speaking of Virus protection, the really bad threats that do still exist (should you be duped into running one), can be easily solved with automatic backups.
In the same way that antivirus companies use fear as leverage to make you spend money, Backup services tend to do the same thing. As a result, there is a wide variety of options that are often very expensive and in some cases, they can really slow down your computer. In many companies, we have utilized the Desktop version of ARQ Backup. It takes a bit of configuration upfront but in the end, allows you to use the cloud storage you already have purchased, like Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive.
You can recover historical versions of files as far back as you want to go, it is fast and can be configured to accommodate particular times of the day or bandwidth limitations and best of all you only buy it once. Just in case you are not convinced here is another cool thing… you can backup other computers across the network and eliminate the need to buy ARQ for each computer and last but not least you can add local backups in case you want to the ability to recover large amounts of data fast. If we were smart, we would sell it as an additional IT service, but we would rather stay out of the fear business and stick to caring about people’s business.
7. Outsourced IT as a Service
Ever since Exchange email servers became a hosted service, the entire IT Service industry has been steadily moving away from traditional in-house servers and the IT staff they required. The true geeks and programmers that service those servers are not out of work, they simply work more efficiently in “network centers” rather than your office.
As a result, the role of end-user IT Support has dramatically changed. We have now been liberated to focus on more important tasks, like helping people sort through and configure the many solutions. We have the freedom to choose from so many great hosted options that only require support on the front end while the back end is handled by tech giants like Microsoft Amazon and Google.
Conclusion:
As things continue to move and change we have discovered that in a similar model to the tech giants the managed support providers have been able to shift to be more remote while spending a lot more quality time with the people they serve. Not long ago, about two-thirds of our time was spent on the road traveling to customers and today down to about 2%. The reason is that the world has come to fully understand and embrace the power of remote support in ways that we never imagined before. The cool thing about it is that whenever you teach someone something new, you are both with them and yet they have the ability to fully focus on the task at hand.
All that said, do we love the physical distance from people? Well no, not at all but we are willing to sacrifice some in-person support time to become faster and more effective in the way we respond to each request. Then we can take time to visit, even without the support issues.
Computer Consulting in a local business.
5 Things that keep every small business running
It struck me again when I was watching the undercover billionaire as Glenn Stearns built a business out of nothing. The importance of surrounding yourself with the right people, and empowering them to “do what they do best”. Building an amazing business almost always comes down to the same principles.
- Positive cash flow
- The market that requires what you offer
- A product or service that provides more value than it costs
- Sales funnels that can reach the market
- A team that you can rely on to cover each critical part of the business.
Our goal as a Computer Consultant is never to simply fix whatever you tell us is broken, but rather to look into the processes and workflows of each business. For a simple start on you local web marketing check out our list of 52 sites you can list your business on for free.