Month: May 2021

One thing the Coronavirus pandemic taught businesses is the fact that it is important to move with the times and adopt and adapt to the latest technology. While you don’t have to be the first one in the market to invest in the newest technology, once its effectiveness and usefulness is proven, it does make sense to switch to it. Here’s how the cloud allowed businesses to overcome the challenges posed by having to suddenly switch to a remote operations model.

Challenge 1: Access to critical data and applications

This could have been easily resolved by migrating to the cloud. The cloud offers unparalleled connectivity to your data—from anywhere and at any time, with any internet-enabled device.

Challenge 2: Data safety, cybersecurity concerns

The cloud provides solutions to data safety and cybersecurity challenges as well, as data stored in the cloud is naturally much safer and difficult to break into than data stored on your employee’s home computer. The cloud offers multiple layers of security, including some from your cloud service provider.

Challenge 3: Data loss

With the cloud, businesses wouldn’t have to worry about losing data, as it wouldn’t be stored on their employee’s personal computer, but at a centralized location in the cloud.

Challenge 4: Hardware issues

The cloud rendered any hardware issues non-existent, as the employee’s personal devices were just gateways to access their work stored in the cloud. They needed devices that met the basic specifications, and the rest of the work was happening online, without additional load on personal devices.

Challenge 5: Phones

Businesses that had adopted the VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) were able to overcome this challenge easily. VoIP allows you to communicate by sending voice as data packets using the internet. The VoIP system is primarily software-based and can be accessed from anywhere, using an application that your VoIP provider offers. (Physical instruments are optional). This meant, companies with VoIP systems could keep their office phone numbers responsive even when their staff were working from home.

While these technologies can help a great deal to maintain business continuity, you will need the assistance of a reputable MSP to deploy them and also to ensure they are functioning as they are supposed to. Plus, there are always other security concerns that crop up in a remote working environment when you can’t monitor your staff’s IT activities. Your MSP will be able to offer solutions and control mechanisms that can help put those concerns to rest.

It is a known fact that survival of any species depends on its ability to adapt to change. One major change for businesses in 2020 was the need to switch to the work-from-home model to keep things running during the time of pandemic. When countries all over the world started imposing lockdown restrictions, companies had no choice but to switch to remote operations if their line of business allowed them to do so. This blog post discusses the key challenges faced by businesses that had failed to adopt the latest technology on time.

Access to critical data and applications

For businesses that didn’t store their key data and applications in the cloud, this was a huge challenge. How do you ensure each of your employees have access to all the business data, programs and apps they need to operate efficiently? Companies that had already adopted the cloud as their core data storage means they didn’t face this challenge: everything was cloud-based and accessible from anywhere, using any internet enabled device (laptops/PCs/tablets/smartphones, etc., )

Cybersecurity concerns

With employees working from home, businesses’ fears of cybersecurity incidents were increased. Cybercriminals, on the other hand, knew full well all the security lacunae that existed in a hurried remote working environment setup and exploited them to the fullest. Industry reports showed that the initial few months of the pandemic saw an increase in cybercrime and related attacks on businesses.

Data loss

For businesses that didn’t operate in the cloud, data loss was another angle to look into. How do you ensure data backup and recovery when your staff is using their personal devices for work? Also, how to ensure they are taking all the precautions necessary to keep the data they are storing on their devices, safe?

Hardware issues

Some businesses provided their employees with work devices at home. For example, employees in some companies were allowed to take their office computers home for work use. But, that still didn’t solve the backup and recovery or cybersecurity challenges entirely, because the management still lacked ways to maintain control over the devices.

Phones

With employees working from home, it was a challenge for many businesses to manage their phone numbers – especially for client-facing employees. Businesses with VoIP phone systems could make this transition easily, whereas those still relying on the traditional phone setup had to resort to cell phones and couldn’t use their business numbers for a while.

Key lesson: Move with the times, adopt new technologies, and adapt to newer ways of working.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed life as we know it, in many ways. While its impact on our day-to-day lives has been huge, the impact has been even more severe from a business perspective. The social distancing norms, staggered operating hours so as to limit crowds, the masks, shields, barriers, and more. From the business continuity perspective, companies have had to adapt themselves to the new normal very quickly.

During this global crisis, one technology that truly came to the rescue of business big and small was the cloud. The cloud made it possible for businesses to keep their operations running even with staff working remotely. With all critical data stored online, all that was needed was a compatible device with an internet connection and it was business as usual…well, almost.

Here are some core business challenges that were resolved due to the cloud.

• Access to core business data and software programs that were needed for smooth day-to-day operations
• Data security concerns, though not entirely non-existent due to the use of personal devices, were largely taken care of, thanks to multiple layers of security offered by the cloud service providers
• There were no “hardware hassles”…companies that were already on the cloud didn’t have to worry about the logistics of providing office computers to their employees working from home. With all the data stored online, they could use their home computers or tablets to get the work done.

Earlier what was perceived as an advantage for employees (the permission to work from home) was now mandatory for survival of the business. Even businesses that allowed employees to operate from home before the pandemic had a tough time migrating their entire setup to the work-from-home model.

In our last blog post, we discussed 3 reasons SMBs usually cite for not signing a service level agreement with an MSP. In this blog post, we suggest how an SLA with an MSP will add value to your business, irrespective of your business size, budget and the presence of an in-house IT team.

Reason#1: Our IT requirements are limited

IT is not a one-time thing where you can follow a set-it-and-forget-it approach. Want this to run smoothly? IT needs regular maintenance – a service level agreement with an MSP is the answer. Regular data backups, timely security patch application, software updates, etc., are all important and won’t happen unless you have a dedicated resource working on them. Plus, there’s the issue of network latency. Services like periodic network monitoring offered by MSPs ensure that any latency issues are identified and taken care of before they result in a major system failure.

Reason#2: We are tight on budget

Agreed that SMBs may not have the kind of revenue inflow as expected in large organizations, but that’s no reason to skimp on your IT requirements. Skimping on IT needs and diverting the funds elsewhere may sound tempting, especially when your IT infrastructure is running great, but this can cost you a lot more in the event something goes wrong. Let’s take a look at a malware attack scenario, for example. If you don’t have an SLA in place, you are most likely to reach out to an IT expert or MSP on a transactional basis. It will not only result in a sky-high bill, but also, there’s no guarantee that you will be immediately attended to: customers with SLAs get preference over transactional ones in the event of an emergency. Plus, every minute your IT infrastructure is down, you are losing potential revenue – through online or even offline sales. In the event of a data leak or a compromise in customer/vendor data due to the malware attack, you are liable for penalties and may be even sued by your clients. So, saving a few bucks here and there by cutting back on IT expenses can prove much more expensive later.

Reason#3: We have our in-house IT person/team

So, you have in-house IT personnel? Great! But there are ways in which an SLA with a managed service provider can still add value to you. This kind of setup is called the co-managed IT model. By bringing an MSP onboard when you have an in-house IT team, you:

• Benefit from their expertise and enrich your in-house IT team’s knowledge
• Enjoy flexibility in terms of meeting your IT needs as you can scale your IT up or down based on your business needs
• Reduce payroll expenses incurred as result of hiring new IT staff in-house
• Help your in-house IT team focus on more important tasks by outsourcing the mundane IT processes to the MSP
• Get an extra hand to assist your in-house IT personnel in the event of a major IT issue
• Have 24/7 IT support, something that may not be viable with a small in-house IT team

Having a service level agreement with a managed service provider adds value to businesses under all circumstances, and should be considered an essential, not an option.

Managed IT services are becoming more popular by the day. Businesses, big and small, are bringing managed service providers onboard to handle their IT requirements. The bigger IT players like IBM, Accenture, and Cisco act as MSPs to larger organizations, while the typical managed service provider is often hired by SMBs. However, there’s a question that crops up time and again. Do SMBs really need an MSP? SMBs are sometimes in two minds when it comes to bringing an MSP on board and typically use one of the following justifications.

Our IT requirements are limited

A lot of businesses in the small to mid-size range believe that their IT needs don’t warrant a full-time service level agreement with an MSP. They believe the only times they need to invest in IT is at the start of their business or when rolling out new technology. As a result, they don’t see much value in signing a service level agreement with an MSP.

We are tight on budget

SMBs also tend to cut on the IT budget and invest those funds elsewhere – generally in areas where they see tangible results, such as hiring new customer-facing staff or a new advertising campaign. So, when SMBs find themselves a little tight on the budget, the IT department sees the cut.

We have our in-house IT person/team

Businesses with an in-house IT expert or even a small in-house IT team feel that is sufficient for handling any IT needs and an SLA is just an added expenditure.

So, did your reason make it to the list? Stay tuned for our next blog post, where we will discuss how an SLA with a managed service provider can add value to your business.