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American small business spend billions of dollars each year on IT support, yet most of them don’t have a thoughtful IT support strategy to ensure they are getting the most bang for their buck. The following seven tips will help you get the most from you provider of technical support.
1. Establish a relationship with a provider.
Dig your well before you are thirsty. Don’t just call an IT support provider when you have a technical support emergency. Get to know one while sailing is smooth and build a stable relationship with them. This will help them get to know you, your needs, and your systems during a time of relative calm, which is easier on everyone. That way when you really do need them, they’ll be prepared and able to help you as efficiently as possible.
2. Treat your IT support provider like a part of your team.
As a continuation of tip No. 1, treat your IT support provider as a part of your team, not just a vendor. The more you are open with them about your goals, priorities, and concerns, the more they will be able to help you. Show them the trust and respect of a professional, and they will bend over backward for you.
3. Be clear about your expectations.
Every business has different needs and expectations. Some can’t afford any downtime and are willing to pay to be up 24/7, while others are just fine if their computers don’t work for a few hours and don’t want to pay higher rates to ensure uptime. Be clear about your expectations, so your service provider can align their service and costs with your expectations.
4. Let them monitor your systems.
IT support professionals have access to amazing remote monitoring and management tools that let them do their jobs more effectively and efficiently. These tools can monitor the health of your systems and alert your IT support team of a possible problem before it becomes a disaster. This decreases costs and the likelihood of computer downtime.
5. Find someone with experience in the hardware and software you use.
You don’t want your IT support specialist to learn on the job while you are picking up the tab. Find someone who has experience in the majority of the hardware and software you use. At the same time, be realistic and understand that your technical support team may not have experience in everything you use; tell them that you’d like them to make the investment in learning the technology at their cost as a sign of commitment to a long term relationship with you.
6. Find a provider that does remote support.
Ninety percent of IT support issues can be resolved over the phone or internet. Find a service provider that is staffed to provide effective remote support so you can minimize the costs and wasted time associated with waiting for a service provider to drive to your office.
7. Find a provider that offers managed services
“Managed Services” is a term used by IT support providers to describe an ongoing IT management relationship with a client that generally includes the proactive management of the client’s technology (versus just reactively responding when something is wrong) for a flat monthly fee. This combination of proactive services on a flat monthly budget can really benefit small businesses by removing some of the costly surprises that come with working with a service provider on an hourly basis.
Ask Lanlogic about our new TotalCare Managed IT Services coming in 2012.
Sign up for Office 365 Exchange Server Online Migration and Support in December and one of these receive these great offers:
1. 15% rebate on your subscription costs, applied as a rebate check
2. FREE Postini Message Security anti-spam and anti-malware protection for the first year
3. FREE Custom Email Migration Plan for your organization of 50+ users
4. Or a Partridge in a Pear Tree … wait … How about a Completely FREE Migration Project for your and your users, when you sign up for our Rapid Response Center Help Desk Service for one year?
Contact us today.
Per Monster.com, “Employers overwhelmingly point to internship experience as the most important factor they consider in hiring new college graduates for full-time positions.” So help get your foot in the door with an internship at Lanlogic.
We’re looking for a few good entrepreneurs – to fill our positions for marketing interns. Do you have a self-starter personality, great thought leadership skills, and the drive to learn and work in a team environment? Is good customer service one of your top work priorities? Then we want to hear from you!
Marketing interns will shadow the Director of Sales & Marketing on the development and management of the marketing department. Job responsibilities include:
- Social media management (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blog, etc.)
- Database management
- Help create and host webinars
- Help design a marketing plan and budget for the department
- Work on internal marketing: polishing the company’s image and branding
In addition to these opportunities, interns will attend regular meetings within the company to gain valuable insight into how marketing drives many aspects of the overall business. We are seeking candidates who can devote at least 10 hours a weeks to the internship, and we are willing to work around class schedules.
Cloud computing has leveled the playing field, enabling small businesses to have computer hardware and software systems that rival those of major corporations. The entrance of Microsoft and Apple into the cloud market has only served to raise awareness for these types of services.
But for many small businesses the whole idea of “the cloud” is still confusing. Sure they understand the basics behind it, but many don’t realize the benefits, nor do they know how to go about moving to the cloud.
“The cloud is increasingly popular with small businesses because it allows access to more powerful applications, more quickly and at lower cost than ever before,” says Josh Waldo, director of SMB marketing at Microsoft. What’s more, moving to the cloud can save a small business money by helping to reduce overhead and costs associated with physical hardware and software.
What is the Cloud?
In essence cloud computing is the ability to access computer hardware and software from the Internet. Instead of a small business housing a server for email or security or a storage system on-site, the small business would pay a monthly fee to access a data center’s hardware via the Internet. Same goes with software whether it’s email, a customer relationship management program or a Web hosting application. Small businesses can also access their documents and presentations via the cloud enabling employees in different locations to collaborate as if they were sitting next to each other.
“The three tenants of the cloud are economic benefits, flexibility and responsiveness,” says Joe Foos from Lanlogic, an information technology services company focused on the small business market. For a small business the benefits will either be one or a combination of the three, he says.
Take flexibility. Some small businesses, particularly ones that have peaks and troughs in business demand, need the flexibility to increase their computer systems when demand is high and to reduce it when business is slow. Being on the cloud means the company can order up more processing power and storage space on a need to use basis. If a small business had its own hardware in house it would take weeks to order and install an additional server. Same goes for responsiveness. Small businesses launching a new product would want to quickly increase their computer systems to handle the demand but may not necessarily have the time to order a new server and wait a couple of weeks for it to come in.
On the economic front, small businesses can save a significant amount of money. In addition to not having to pay for computer hardware, moving to the cloud means a small business doesn’t need to worry about hiring an IT professional to manage the systems. Not to mention a small business will save on the electricity required to run the systems.
“Some of our clients save 60 percent to 70 percent on the cloud versus building an on premise email system,” says Foos. According to Foos, for small businesses just getting their toes wet with cloud computing, the easiest thing to do is to move their email system to the cloud. “It makes the most sense because it’s a mission critical application for many organizations which don’t have the IT resources to babysit a server inside the office 24 hours a day,” he says.
While small businesses may express concerns that moving their critical systems and applications to the cloud will make their data more vulnerable to a potential breach, experts says that moving to the cloud often times will make the data and applications more secure.
“People choose on premise servers because they think they can secure it better than a hosting provider,” says Foos. “Most organizations are lucky if they have a single firewall in place where a hosted place has multiple layers of security.”
Choosing a Cloud service provider
Moving to the cloud affords small businesses a lot of benefits but it’s not without negatives. For one thing, when a company moves to the cloud it gives up control of their systems which could come as a shock to some business owners. According to Foos at Lanlogic, to reduce that potential shock, he says a small business should go with a provider that will meet all the needs of the business and one in which the company feels secure with. Since there are a slew of cloud providers popping up just about every day, Foos says the small business has to do its homework on the providers before choosing one.
“It’s not just a transaction,” says Foos. “You have to trust that provider has your interest top of mind,” which means making sure the provider understands what your business is trying to do and what the provider can and can’t do.
A small business shouldn’t move to the cloud for the sake of moving to the cloud either, adds Foos. He says a move to the cloud should be prompted by a need for a new email system, because the company has aging hardware or wants to collaborate better with far flung employees. “Once you establish the need, then look at your options in the cloud,” he says.
Understanding your needs and making a decision about cloud computing for your small business is best done through a cloud readiness assessment, a process that generates a comprehensive report showing the status of current IT infrastructure and best practice recommendations to consider.
Contact Lanlogic today to schedule your Cloud Readiness Assessment.
We recently finished our migration to the new Office 365 service from Microsoft, and we’re very, very excited to offer it to our clients. Very briefly, Office 365 is a cloud-based suite of services comprised of Exchange Online (for e-mail, calendaring, and tasks), SharePoint Online (for document sharing and collaboration), and Lync Online (for instant messaging, voice calls, and more). It’s a monthly subscription service, meaning that companies no longer need to pay for costly on-premise servers.
Setup for Office 365 is simple and the entire system has been extremely fast and stable. We have no qualms about migrating our clients to the new system, but a question that has already come up is, “Which Office 365 plan is right for my small business?”
P1: Office 365 for Professionals and Small Businesses
Microsoft offers a plan they call P1, which is specifically aimed at small businesses with 1 to 25 employees. It includes three main components, Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync, as well as Office Web Apps (the online versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint); all of it for only $6 per user/month. Sounds great right? Well, it’s not that simple. In order to keep the cost of this plan down in an effort to lure people away from the low-cost Google Apps, Microsoft excluded a number of features from the P1 plan that we think are deal breakers.
Two important limitations of the Office 365 P1 Plan
- No telephone technical support – This is the single biggest reason why the P1 “Small Business” plan is truly not a good fit for small businesses. Office 365 is extremely easy to deploy and manage as compared to on-premise Exchange or SharePoint, but it’s important to understand that because Office 365 exists on Microsoft’s remote servers, if a technical issue arises Microsoft is the only one who can fix it. And I would be lying if I said there won’t be an occasional technical issue. Whether it’s right at setup or 6 months down the road, I can guarantee that you will need Microsoft’s help at some point with Office 365. With the P1 plan, Microsoft only allows you access to an online forum where you can post questions—this is unacceptable for small businesses.
- No SSL with SharePoint– SSL (secure sockets layer) is the standard for ensuring security on the Internet. It’s what protects your credit card numbers from thieves when you buy online, and it verifies the authenticity of sites on the web that ask for your personal information.SSL is not available with the SharePoint site in the P1 plan, which means that any documents you upload and download to and from your site are not encrypted and can potentially be stolen while in transit. This is especially significant if your business plans to use SharePoint to store any sensitive client data, social security numbers, etc.
For more details, Brett Hill, a Microsoft MVP and Office 365 expert, goes in-depth about further limitations of the P1 plan in an article on his site: http://www.office365answers.com/Office-365s-P1-Plan-What-you-must-know.aspx.
As small business technology consultants, we can’t overlook these shortcomings, and we simply can’t recommend the P1 plan to our clients.
A better Office 365 plan
Fortunately, in addition to the P1 plan, Microsoft offers 4 levels of Enterprise Plans (Plan E1-E4) that address these shortcomings. They are a bit more expensive, but in our view they’re well worth the extra cost per month. And they’re still quite affordable. The E1 Plan, for example, includes Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync and is still only $10 per user/month.
An important note: If your business is only interested in Exchange Online and you don’t need the whole Office 365 suite, it’s available à la carte for just $5 per user/month. And, yes, it includes phone support.
If you’re new to Office 365 and want to learn more about how it can help your small business, feel free to post questions or contact Lanlogic directly.
We’re longtime proponents of the enormous value of using Microsoft Exchange Server, but the major drawback has always been that Exchange required an on-site server and often considerable time and attention. The short of it is that it wasn’t cheap and it wasn’t easy to setup or maintain. Nevertheless, the costs, the complexities, and the hassle of running an in-house Exchange server were justified because Exchange simply was and still is, the best platform for centralized and shared e-mail, contacts, calendars, and tasks. But, now there’s a better way.
Hosted Exchange: The Basics
Instead of running on a server in your office, a hosted Exchange service is run by a third-party at an offsite datacenter and is accessed by you and your staff over the Internet. Hosted Exchange has been available for a few years from a number of companies such as Lanlogic, but now Microsoft, the creators of Exchange, also offers this hosting service. We recently moved from our on-premise Exchange server to Microsoft’s Exchange Online service, and your business should, too.
Microsoft keeps your data safe and your business up and running
With Exchange Online, your critical business data is kept extremely secure. Microsoft maintains your data at redundant data centers, so even if one goes down (which is quite unlikely), your data remains safe. You no longer need to worry about natural disasters at your office (fires, floods, hurricanes, etc.) or even about someone breaking into your office and stealing your server—your data is always safely offsite. And in a worst case scenario where your office is inaccessible, your staff can still connect to Exchange from anywhere they have Internet access.
There is no massive upfront cost
Upgrading or installing a new in-house Exchange server requires a huge upfront cost. You pay for the server hardware itself and the Microsoft Exchange or Small Business Server license (Exchange is bundled with SBS), in addition to antispam, antivirus, and data backup software licenses, data backup hardware (a NAS box or USB hard drive in most cases), a server-grade uninterruptible power supply (UPS), and many hours of time for a trained IT person to set it all up. And let’s not forget about the inevitable recurring maintenance costs.
Exchange Online, on the other hand, is an inexpensive monthly subscription service paid on a per-user basis. Right now, it’s just $5/user/month, and there are very few additional costs.
You get the latest and greatest features of Exchange
Many small businesses still use Exchange Server 2003 (which came bundled with Windows Small Business Server 2003) because it still works and the enormous cost of upgrading outweighs any benefits. Sure, newer versions of Exchange Server offer big improvements, such as a vastly improved Outlook Web Access experience, but small businesses often can’t justify the cost of upgrading until there’s an urgent need (e.g. their server explodes!). With Exchange Online, the service is constantly updated and you get all of the latest features as they are introduced.
It works the same way as before
Your employees might not even notice the difference between connecting to Exchange Online and connecting to your old on-premise Exchange server. They still use Microsoft Outlook, they still have Outlook Web Access for checking e-mail on public computers, and they still have two-way synchronization (ActiveSync) to their smartphone (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, etc.).
The Cons: Yes, there are a few
So far this is a glowing endorsement of Exchange Online—and in general I can wholeheartedly recommend it for small businesses. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out the challenges we faced when switching.
The single biggest issue is the utter lack of Public Folders. Many businesses rely on the Public Folders feature in Exchange to handle shared e-mail, contacts, and calendars. Microsoft has made it clear that they’re phasing out Public Folders in on-premise editions of Exchange Server. However, in Exchange Online, they’ve already pulled the plug. Public Folders are gone and they’re never coming back. All is not lost though, you can achieve much of the same functionality with Microsoft SharePoint Online(another $5 per user monthly fee gets you this software as well as Microsoft Lync, the presence-based unified communications solution for business).
Another major concern was the necessary trust factor. By switching to Exchange Online, we had to accept that our company’s most critical data—data that if lost could put us out of business—would no longer be completely in our hands. We had to trust that Microsoft would keep it safe, secure, and always accessible.
And, as with any “Cloud” service, if you don’t have Internet access, you don’t have access to anything. Previously, internal e-mails (between employees) continued to flow even when our Internet connection was down—not anymore. But simply adding a second internet connection from an alternative ISP is the best way to ensure against a single internet connection
Conclusion
The huge list of benefits that we’ve already realized makes it very clear that switching to Exchange Online was the right decision for our business and would be the right move for a majority of small businesses. Exchange is a critical business tool, and Exchange Online finally makes it accessible and affordable to all.
If you are faced with an Exchange Server upgrade or migration, or worse, an Exchange Server crash, this new solution may be the best option to consider. Evaluating your needs and qualifying your IT infrastructure and environment for an Exchange Online migration requires going through what Microsoft calls a Cloud Readiness Assessment. There is a free tool that you can run on your network to collect the info you need to create an Exchange Online migration project planning guide. Contact Lanlogic for more info about how we can help you succeed during this transition.
Lanlogic invites you to attend the Small Business Technology Tour 2011!
The Small Business Technology Tour, produced by Smallbiztechnology.com is a full day of information, insight, energy and fun geared towards informing small businesses of the latest and greatest technology tools and solutions available for growing their business and becoming more productive and efficient. There are five (5) cities on this year’s tour including
- Mountain View, CA – September 27th
- Salt Lake City, UT – October 12th
- Boston, MA – October 18th
- Atlanta, GA – November 2nd
- Chicago, IL – November 10th
We encourage you to register today for this highly informative seminar! By attending, you’ll learn directly from experts in business and technology and leave with information on how to strategically leverage technology in order to grow of your business. You’ll learn how to save time and money, be more productive and efficient, increase revenue and enhance relationships all by using the right technology, intelligently!
We have a limited number of discount tickets available.
If you are interested contact Lanlogic today.
For more information on the tour and specific topics and presentations, please visit http://www.smallbiztechtour.com. We hope to see you there!
U.S. Commerce Association’s Award Plaque Honors the Achievement
NEW YORK, NY, September 5, 2011 — Lanlogic has been selected for the 2011 Best of Livermore Award in the Information Tech Services category by the U.S. Commerce Association (USCA).
The USCA “Best of Local Business” Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USCA identifies companies that they believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.
Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2011 USCA Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the USCA and data provided by third parties.
“Lanlogic is proud to earn a Best of Livermore award in the IT services category, it is further evidence of the quality of our people and the trust our clients have in us for all their IT service, support, and consulting needs in the Tri Valley, and the greater East Bay”, said Joe Foos, Director of Sales and Marketing. “Having moved to Livermore in 2003 and become the Livermore Chamber of Commerce Platinum Technology Sponsor in 2005, we are very committed to this city and the surrounding area. Our people help organizations of all sizes plan, implement, and support their technology investments from beginning to end. We have helped clients as diverse as City of Livermore, Livermore Police, Livermore Library, Las Positas College, Zone 7 Water Agency, Uncle Credit Union, Purple Orchid Inn, Antrim Engineering, Beets Hospitality, and Casa Orozco.”
Learn more about Lanlogic – Best of Livermore for IT Services
About U.S. Commerce Association (USCA)
U.S. Commerce Association (USCA) is a New York City based organization funded by local businesses operating in towns, large and small, across America. The purpose of USCA is to promote local business through public relations, marketing and advertising.
Maybe you dropped your laptop, or for some reason your hard drive just stopped working. It is tough to think about where you will send your drive in the moment you have lost all of your precious computer files. The important thing to do is keep calm and take the time to learn what goes in to a good, trustworthy data recovery service which you can send your hard drive to.
The first thing you should look for in a well-rounded data recovery service is a company that has experience in the high tech industry and a large clientele basis. If you know that a company is deep in the industry with experienced engineers and those people have worked with many clients in multiple industries, then you know this company is likely to posses the necessary experience needed to get your data back.
The next thing you need to be sure of is that the data recovery service is secure. If you don’t know that your hard drive is in safe keeping at a certain company twenty-four hours a day, than you should not choose the service. A good data recovery service will provide twenty-four hour a day surveillance, along with a vault in which to keep your hard drive locked safely inside when the drive is not under evaluation. Vaults for this type of safe-keeping should be UL Listed with a level 1 or 2 vault accreditation.
The third thing you should consider when looking for a data recovery service is a Class 100 or better cleanroom. Having a clean environment is one of the most important things to have when working with the magnetic disks inside a hard drive. Any tiny spec of dust that lands on a disk could be detrimental to the drive. Having a Class 100 or better cleanroom will ensure that your hard drive is kept completely free from airborne substances.
The final thing to look for in a data recovery service is a high level of customer service. While every business, small or large, should consider this an important factor, it is especially important for a data recovery service to consider customer service a top priority for many reasons. It is important for a customer to know the status of their drive at any time. The customer should know the status of the drive at all times to be sure that the drive is kept safe and clean. Pricing should be based on the work needed, not on how much they think you can afford.
There are many things to consider when choosing a data recovery service, but the most important things are knowing that the data recovery company has experience, is secure, has a certified cleanroom, and has and excellent customer service track record. These are the things that many companies in this industry wish they had, and something The Data Rescue Center offers to their customers every day.
We’ve all heard the stories. A disgruntled IT employee takes down the entire network, costing the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue and repair costs. If you think it can’t happen to your small business, think again. It is important for your small business to remain in control of your information systems infrastructure at all times, even when you are outsourcing the work.
For most small business owners, time is limited. Even for those small business owners who are tech savvy, IT work takes away from daily business, cutting into the company’s bottom line. But whether you’re technically-oriented or not, there are several steps you can take to protect your company against an in-house technological attack.
The most important thing a small business owner can do is always remain in control of their company’s technology. While you may allow someone else to do the day-to-day work, you need to be aware that you are in charge of your company’s policies. In its article “When IT Goes Rogue: 5 Ways to Protect Your Business” a recent journal recommends putting a signed, documented policy in place to help protect your company against liability. Additionally, if you are dealing with outside vendors, make sure you have a written, signed contract that details what you expect and what you are not to be held responsible for in case any illegal activity should take place. If the IT consultant is a member of your staff, the signed IT policy should take care of any liability.
If your company chooses to outsource its IT work, experts recommend using a vendor-certified partner for the majority of IT solutions you own. Check references and do online research, as you would with any vendors. The most common vendor certification appropriate for small businesses is from Microsoft, the Small Business Specialist Certification. Lanlogic received the very first Microsoft SBS certification in the San Francisco/Silicon Valley bay area.
Many security problems arise after an employee has been terminated. Unfortunately, with IT staff, it’s often necessary to grant access to sensitive data, with IT staff holding all passwords and full administrative rights. Make sure you or a trusted member of your staff have access equal to or greater than your IT consultants and institute a checks-and-balances system that avoids giving IT staff sole technical knowledge of your company’s sensitive data.
If an employee is terminated, especially an IT staff member or consultant, have a policy in place that disables all of that user’s accounts immediately. Even if that employee is no longer allowed into the building, damage can be done remotely. Deactivate email as well, which will block an employee from sending derogatory emails that could single-handedly destroy the reputation you’ve worked so hard to build. Make sure you or a trusted member of your staff know how to disable accounts, should your IT staff person be the one who is suddenly terminated.
While you can’t possibly be expected to handle every aspect of your business, putting too much reliance on IT staff can be dangerous. Make sure you are fully aware of the technical operations of your business and take measures to protect yourself against vengeful attacks.
For a second opinion on your IT staff or your IT environment, contact us to learn more about the Lanlogic Comprehensive Technology Assessment.
Gmail is a free, Google-owned service that allows users to set up a new e-mail address instantly. But if you’re using it for business, you may be sending out the wrong message to your customers.
According to a study by Visible Logic, statistics show that 70 percent of respondents perceived emails coming from a free email service like Yahoo, GMail, and Hotmail were less professional. Respondents emphasized that emails from a company name (example: John.Doe@microsoft.com) were more professional.
In the early days of the Internet, computer users were likely to open any email that showed up in our inboxes. But after nearly two decades of junk mail and spam, users have become jaded. If an email doesn’t look official, we’re far less likely to open it. Users have become very adept at spotting good emails in a long list of “Make Money From Home” advertisements.
If your email doesn’t look legitimate, you might be losing customers and potential clients right away. Your domain administrator can easily set it up so every email you send has yourname@yourcompany.com. That email can then be forwarded to an email address of your choosing. Yes, even your GMail account.
If you manage your own domain, you should have been given access to a domain account control panel. Once you log in, look at your various choices. There may be a section specifically dealing with “Forwarding.” If not, check for a section that addresses “Email” or go to your account settings. Most domain control consoles are fairly straightforward, allowing you to simply enter your domain account name (yourname@yourcompany.com) in one box and the email address you want it forwarded to in the other. If you have problems, the company who hosts your domain should have a help section and/or a customer support line where they can walk you through it.
Does it matter? According to Emily Brackett, president of Visible Logic, using a free email service for your business emails is like “putting a sign for somebody else’s business over your front door.” Why not blast your name out there for all the world to see?
Not only are you missing a valuable opportunity to get your business name out there in front of people, but the choice to send emails to your customers from your GMail account can be a bit disconcerting to customers. The public has come to think of free email services as something used for personal email. We’re used to seeing it in emails from college buddies and our Aunt Mildred in Kansas. Your choice to use a free email account may come across to your customers as a sign that your business is not making enough of a profit to afford a website. With web hosting services as low as $3.95 a month, that’s not very likely. But the perception is still there, and it might shake the trust of the very customers whose trust you are trying to win.
With domain forwarding so easy and inexpensive, there’s no excuse to still be sending emails to your customer through free e-mail services. If you still don’t have a domain name, choices from Lanlogic are affordable and easy to use. Set up your email forwarding today and avoid losing valuable business.
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