Every business relies on technology for at least part of its operations. This means that every business—particularly those with operations that make IT an essential part of the process—will need access to some form of IT support.

For most small and medium-sized businesses today, managed IT is the best option. Let’s discuss a few reasons why this is.

There's a lot of pressure on (often understaffed and overworked) internal IT teams to manage and maintain increasingly complex systems. For businesses noticing signs of strain on their IT staff, seeking assistance from managed services providers (MSPs) could be the remedy. Here's how an MSP like us can alleviate the pressure and contribute to workplace wellness for all.

For any business to succeed, it needs to exhibit some degree of empathy toward its audience. Otherwise, the services and products they offer will be less likely to meet the priorities and needs that its targets are experiencing.

As a managed service provider, this is perhaps most true of us, as our services revolve around predicting the needs of our clientele and resolving them… ideally, before the client even realizes they have a need to fulfill.

IT is pivotal to the success of any business. Still, for small and medium-sized businesses, there might be limitations placed on the organization's potential resources to cover its needs. Outsourcing IT responsibilities to a managed service provider is a viable option for improving the odds of finding success with technology management for SMBs. Here’s what your business can stand to gain from working with an MSP.

You might hear us discuss the benefits of “proactive IT maintenance” all the time, but what does the word “proactive” really mean for technology management? Today, we want to demystify some of the jargon surrounding proactive IT and show you just how great of a value proposition it really is.

Businesses that struggle with managing technology have a lot to gain by working with a managed service provider, or MSP. These providers are able to help businesses just like yours maintain and improve operations through the use of technology management tools and services. Here are three of the greatest benefits that working with an MSP can provide for businesses just like yours.

When it comes to managing your IT needs, there are three main approaches: break-fix, managed IT services, or hiring internal IT staff. All three have their own benefits and drawbacks, and it can be challenging to determine which is the right fit for your business.

Let’s explore the differences between break-fix, managed IT services, and IT staffing, and help you decide which approach is best for your business.

It’s an unfortunate fact that cybercriminals are motivated to attack places that contain large volumes of sensitive data, but typically lack the budget or in-house skills to sufficiently protect it. It’s even more unfortunate that this description directly applies to many schools and school systems.

Let’s talk about what schools have to offer cybercriminals, and what they need to do as a result.

The businesses that make up the bustling economy of Montgomery County have a lot to offer, but in order for these goods and services to properly exchange hands, there needs to be consistent technology supporting the processes that lead to these exchanges. This makes it important that you have the resources to keep this technology in working order, and while Montgomery County has a few options, it is important that you make the best choice possible.

For many years, IT has been stigmatized as an overhead expense for businesses. The costs have been challenging for organizations of all shapes and sizes. A lot of newer organizations might even be technically savvy and understand the value of technology, but focus on the costs without taking into account the value of properly managing and implementing that technology.

We have to say… Columbia is a pretty nice place. We aren’t the only ones who think so, either! Over the past few years, Columbia has been recognized as one of the happiest, best, and healthiest places in the nation. From our perspective, it’s also a great place to do business.

In short, we’re proud to call Columbia home.

Your business’ technology is critical to its productivity, but unfortunately, this technology can (and at some point, likely will) break. So, what do you do if and when it does?

Let’s go over some of the options that you have to consider.

Most things in your office depend on technology in some way. That’s just the simple fact of life these days. Let’s examine just how much of your business depends on the technology that powers it and how companies increasingly depend on IT to manage the countless devices that have permeated the office environment.

Any successful business likely has some kind of relationship with at least a few vendors as it likely depends on their services and available technology and supplies. Having said that, it can be truly challenging to juggle all these providers. How is it that this challenge can be overcome?

Be honest with us: when you hear the phrase “tech support,” what comes to mind? If your thoughts turn exclusively to painful phone calls or a guy coming over to bill you by the hour to fix a broken PC, we want to show you a better way. Managed IT offers far more than just that. Let’s go over three aspects of managed IT that are crucial to Maryland small businesses, and help keep your operations running smoothly.

As a managed service provider, we are very aware that the term “managed service provider” isn’t particularly familiar to most people. To many, we’re computer people or an IT department, but that’s really just the top layer to what we do for our clients. To help mitigate this, we wanted to answer a few questions we’ve found people often have about the nature of our services, and how they can make your business processes more efficient and reliable.

For most people, the term tech support is pretty self-explanatory. The terms managed services and MSP… not so much. Let’s go over what makes managed services and what we do as a managed service provider so different from the IT support you may be used to. To start, we’ll review where the idea of an MSP came from, and end with what one like us can do for you.

When you see that we offer tech support, you almost certainly have an idea of what that means. However, upon hearing about our typical service delivery for the first time, many people are really surprised by how different our services—as a managed service provider—are. These differences are not an accident. Let’s go back in time a little while to explore how managed services came about, and what difference they could make for you.

It’s no secret that 2020 has been relatively tough on all of us, down to the technology that so many use and rely on each year. Now that we’re in the home stretch towards a hopefully better 2021, let’s look back at some of the technologies that didn’t deliver as promised and some of the other issues that we saw this year—some relatively harmless, and some decidedly not.

Being told by an IT provider how important it is for you to update your software is probably a bit like your grade school teacher telling you how important it is to do your homework: of course they’re going to say it, it’s their job to do so. However, we’re telling you what the Department of Homeland Security announced when they released a warning to update your Google Chrome web browser.