IT Support has always been the key term businesses use to describe the service they need to ‘make the computers work’. However, as IT moves forward its no longer a matter of just fixing the computer(s) but also managing the security, SPAM filters, broadband, remote workers, VoIP and a multitude of other services that impact your IT systems. That’s why a new term has emerged in the world of IT – Managed Services – a term that simply is an updated reference to IT Support but with an eye on the fact that its now about managing a wealth of IT services as a whole.

The importance of stability

Let’s start with a question. How much inconvenience would you suffer – and how much business would be at risk – if your system failed and you didn’t have adequate back-up? Or if your security was breached? Or if your email went down, even for just a couple of days? And how much would it cost to put it right on an ad hoc, emergency basis?

Well, we’ve seen it happen far too often to companies who weren’t protected – with disruption to the business, and disproportionate costs. And that’s why a managed services programme can make so much sense.

Think about your car for a minute. Regular servicing and preventive maintenance keeps it running smoothly. You wouldn’t wait for it to break down and leave you stranded. It’s just the same with IT – only even more important.

What’s the SP on MSP’s ?

So what are managed services? What does a Managed Services Provider, or MSP actually do? Well each month, they examine and check every aspect of your network and system, including key areas such as security, back-up, usage levels and operational effectiveness. You get clear and detailed reports of what’s been tested, work completed and pending, and any potential problems that need attention before they become serious.

In addition, you get levels of support that normally only large companies enjoy. Unlimited telephone support, via a dedicated helpline. Unlimited remote monitoring and support – with links from your server to a monitoring dashboard. And unlimited engineer support on site, if this becomes necessary.

Insure against failure

For some, it helps to think of it as an insurance policy that buys you peace of mind, confidence in your IT operations and systems that are smooth-running and problem-free. And most importantly, it’s an insurance policy that buys business uptime and continuity, which are very hard to regain quickly if serious IT problems occur. DTI statistics show that 70% of businesses don’t trade again after a catastrophic IT failure including virus infection or hard disk failures on the server.

Some find it hard to believe that MSP need to be this proactive, instead thinking that the IT systems just sort themselves out. Others struggle to change from the old break and fix way of doing things, or muddle through with the false economy of IT being done on a part time basis by an enthusiastic amateur.

Real benefits

But clients who are using managed services know for themselves that it really is the way forward – taking away the burden of day-to-day IT management, and enabling them to really focus on running their business and improve strategic direction as they develop and grow. We have a number of examples in our Case Study section

Additional to Managed Services, many MSP’s can provide Vendor Management – an add on that puts the MSP in the firing line, not you, by managing not just the IT systems but the technology that touches them. This can cover your telecommunications, both fixed and mobile, along with cabling, broadband, copiers and printers.

If you want to explore the benefits of Managed Services then come and talk to us today : Why Abussi ?

One thing that a good website, well planned SEO and simple to understand marketing propositions offer me is a steady stream of inbound enquiries. Many of these enquiries are from companies looking for IT Support in the West Midlands who, for a variety of reasons, are looking to change their provider either because of poor service, cost issues or a combination of both. This is normal and all IT providers will get varying degrees of this over time.

What prompted the writing of this blog is the increase in times when I sit there pulling my hair out as SME’s lose sight of the importance of IT to their business, and how looking for the cheapest IT service is actually going to cost them money over time. I know we are in ‘difficult times’ and I know SME’s have little ‘spare’ cash but the importance of IT means it should be seen as key to the success of their business over time and not an expense which should be reduced to the lowest amount they can find.

Cheap as (Micro) Chips

This approach has a knock on effect in terms of service and the managing of expectations with clients. Let me use an example. In a recent prospect meeting the MD of the company was telling me all about the poor level of service he was getting from a local IT provider and how he was fed up of being left until last, as he saw it, on the list of work the provider was carrying out. After some searching questions it was made clear that the MD had agreed the ‘Ad Hoc’ service plan with his IT provider and so would not be seen by the IT provider as important as his regular monthly contract clients. Now it may be that you feel any service you pay for should receive equal priority but that’s just not realistic and so by making a commitment to the IT provider they will make a commitment to you.

Something for Nothing

The fee’s companies are paying to receive IT support are, in my opinion, far too low to get the level of service they expect. One recent prospect told me that my prices were high due to the fact that he was paying around £80 per month to have his server and 6 computers looked after. He went on to say that he was disappointed with the service he was getting and that he was making this enquiry to me in order to look for better options, while making it clear he wanted to pay the same as he was or even lower !

I wonder what reaction you would get if you walked into a BMW dealer and asked to buy a 5 series but then said, but of course I want it to cost the same as a Ford Fiesta. Many people find it hard to understand that IT services, similarly to Accountancy services, Legal services and other professional services are priced according to the service you get. Cheaper = less service; Cheaper = lower skills; Cheaper = lower quality

Fixer not Consultant

Another trend that these recent prospect meetings have highlighted is the fact that SME’s are still focused on their IT provider being an emergency fixer and not an advisor or business development consultant. I regularly hear that my service level, which is a flat monthly fee with all you can eat support is ‘too much’ in terms of cost and service because the prospect makes it clear that they don’t call out their IT provider that often. This shows a fundamental lack of understanding in what the modern IT provider offers to its clients. IT support companies should be advising you regularly on how you can increase efficiency, reduce cost, enhance flexibility and develop new services. None of this is about ‘fixing’ anything; it’s about making the best use of your investment.

Conclusion

So, next time you think about your IT provider and if you are getting the service you expect, consider that you get what you pay for and that a good provider can help you save the value of your investment over time with good advice and zero computer crashes

About Craig Sharp

As the owner of Abussi Ltd, a West Midlands based IT Managed Service Provider, I can help you and your company gain maximum benefit from any IT investment while providing a professional support service to resolve any day-to-day issues. High quality IT services are only a phone call or email away - contact me today

Moving office is a time of both great exitement and great stress. Moving house is stressful, but when moving office you have to keep working (and thus generating money) right up to the day of the move, then you move, and then you have to be operational again with minimal disruption so you can get back to earning money again.

The problem is that many smaller businesses don’t have the internal skills needed to carry out the project management to make this a smooth process.

You need it when ?

Take for example a meeting I had last week. It was a referral from our structured cabling partner. He advised that he’d been to visit someone who had an existing cable network installed into an office they were refurbishing, but that they would need some additional network switches and routers  so told me to give them a call.

On arrival it was clear that the offices were in an advanced stage of refurbishment and workmen were installing partitions and laying floors. I spoke to my contact and it became clear that they needed the existing IT cable network sorted out ASAP, some telephone lines, broadband, WiFi and PC’s. This was looking like a great opportunity. “.. What are your timescales? ..” I asked. He thought for a minuite and then said “.. we need to be working in here in 2 weeks ..”. I looked at him, hoping that he’d got the dates wrong in his head, but he confirmed the two week timescale.

I mentioned that BT’s installation timescales for standard telephones lines is a minimum of 10 days, followed by getting the broadband lines activated afterwards and finally sorting out the new router to make it all work. He then added “.. Oh, and we will need a VoIP Phone system for 15 people ..”

So in summary, they had started to refurbish the office with no consideration for moving IT or Telecoms at all.

All in a days work

You may find this surprising or even shocking, but you would perhaps be more surprised as to the number of times I have similar conversations with clients and prospects. It’s no longer a surprise to me the number of times I am asked to get IT and Telecoms up and running in a new office within unrealistic timescales.

My personal take on this situation is one rooted in a strong belief that as technology has got simpler, people seem to take it for granted and forget it’s something that needs thought, consideration and planning.

Thinking ahead

IT and Telecoms are services which need to be considered in the wider context of your business growth. Take for example the number of cable network points in a standard office. Many people simply say “.. well there’s going to be 1 person here so that’ll be 1 cable point please ..”. They forget that each person needs a PC, a phone and perhaps a printer so that’s a minimum of 3 points per person. They also fail to consider expansion in the future and don’t install extra points in suitable places.

Just to to be clear, the key cost of installing computer network cable is the people doing it, not the cable, so to get 20 extra points installed while its being done is cheaper than getting 20 points added in 12 months time.

Check the Internet connections

Another trend I’m seeing is the asumption that broadband is just ‘there’ and available at good speeds pretty much everywhere – this is not true. If you are going to relocate an office its worth looking at the local broadband situation before picking your office location. A client recently moved from a Surrey town centre where he got 12Mb broadband to a rural location that was better suited to commuting from his home and now gets a maximum of 2Mb. However, the speed of local broadband in the new location was only considered after making the decision on the office location.

Another example is a popular Business Park in South Birmingham where the only internet connection available on the site is Leased Line (or Fibre) at a cost of £1,000 per month. There are no standard telephone based broadband services at the typical £40 per month because the whole site was never setup to carry BT telephone cables, only fibre cables.

Conclusions

Moving office is a stressful time and there is so much to consider but don’t let the IT and Telecoms portion of it can be overlooked. Often its because in smaller businesses there is no one person let alone a department that has the skill or expertise to understand the processes needed to commission IT and Telecoms services. This is where an outsourced company can help, especially if they have experience of relocating a number of companies in the past, have a range of partners to cover things like phone lines or cabling and can manage the whole process so you don’t have to.

Listen to our short Moving Office Podcast : HERE

Heard of BYOD, or “bring your own device”, to work before? More and more companies are letting or even asking their employees to bring their phones or laptops to work. There are obvious benefits, but also dangers that may not be as obvious. Read on to find out what they are.

You may have noticed more and more of your employees or colleagues bringing their own computing devices to work—be it their mobile phone, tablet, or laptop. Or perhaps in your company or in other companies you may have seen, they have let people decide which device they prefer because they are used to it at home. You may not realize it, but this is all part of a large trend called the “consumerization” of IT, in which the influence of consumer technology is being increasingly felt in the workplace. With the wide availability of cheap but powerful mobile devices and online services, a growing number of people are being exposed to the latest technology at home first—adopting them at a rate faster than most businesses are able to manage. This flips on its head the old paradigm in which traditionally new technologies would be rolled out to businesses first, before they would find their way to consumers.

This trend, plus the increasing sophistication of young workers today and their frustration with the tools available to them at the office, is pushing some companies to adopt a “bring your own device” or BYOD policy at work. They are not alone. According to research by technology analyst group Gartner, end users, not the IT department, will soon be responsible for 50 percent of business IT procurement decisions—ultimately bringing and running their own systems on company networks. Meanwhile, according to management consultants Accenture, around one-third of today’s younger generation of workers (a group called “millenials”) not only wants to use the computer of their choice at work, but also wants control of the applications they use too.

The benefits companies cite to adopting a BYOD policy are many, among them:

• Savings on capital expenses and training costs in using company equipment—compensating employees instead via other means such as flexible work hours, subsidized purchases, insurance, and other benefits.
• Less management headache—effectively letting employees decide what to use releases the company from some overhead and management responsibilities.
• Improved employee satisfaction—by giving employees the freedom to use devices and applications that they prefer.

However, before you consider letting employees bring their own personal technology to the work place, be aware that there are also disadvantages, and sometimes very real dangers in doing so. These include:

• Non-standardization of hardware, operating systems, and applications. If your business operations require that some equipment is integrated with others, then BYOD can in the long run actually increase IT management costs and decrease efficiency.
• Exposing your network to malware or security vulnerabilities and breaches. When your employees bring their own devices to work, you lose important control over their security. Consumer devices often don’t employ comparable bullet-proof security technologies mandated by businesses.
• Leakage of confidential or proprietary information. Employees will naturally do what they want with the data on their devices, even if it doesn’t belong to them, or it’s against company policies. Employees can also lose precious company data when they misplace or damage their personal devices.
• Lower economies of scale in procurement. Essentially because everyone is buying devices on their own, you miss out on the chance to consolidate purchases and lower purchase costs for everybody.

Have you adopted a BYOD policy at work? Thinking about it? Worried about this trend? If you need to understand BYOD better so you can define a policy for your staff, contact us and see how we can help.

While there are a lot of free tools, applications, and software available on the Internet, it can be a chore sorting out the good from the bad. To make things easier for you, here are a few handy tools you can use to boost productivity while saving on costs.

It is a constant challenge for small businesses to meet ever-changing and ever-evolving IT requirements while balancing a budget and keeping costs reasonable. And with software applications being one of the major factors that contribute to IT maintenance costs, it is always welcome news to come across free tools that work well and efficiently despite the lack of a price tag.

ThinkFree Online Office One of these applications is ThinkFree Online Office, which is a cloud application that enables you to create and edit documents in common formats. It also comes with free 1GB of storage and allows you to work from anywhere, since the documents are stored online. And with its own app for Android users, ThinkFree is particularly advantageous to people who need to work on the go.

ReqMan Another free cloud-based application that can prove useful is ReqMan, an online project management tool. You can use this to manage and track your different projects using various templates the service provides. And since it's in the cloud, mobile personnel and staff who are given access to your ReqMan account can work even when they're out of the office.

Gliffy Gliffy is a free tool that you can use to create all sorts of technical illustrations – diagrams, floor plans, flowcharts, and more. The basic plan is free, but you also have the option to subscribe to their more fully featured plans for a minimal fee.

ScheduleOnce For managing schedules, calendars, and the like, ScheduleOnce allows you to keep better track of all your appointments, meetings, and deadlines through a single tool. It integrates with your calendar on Google, and then allows other people to see your open times when they can schedule a meeting with you. Think of it as a one-stop-shop for your scheduling needs.

If you want to know more about these tools and how you can best utilize them, please feel free to contact us. We’ll be happy to guide you and help you make the most out of these types of applications to improve your efficiency and bottom line.

Microsoft recently posted a video on its website that is the latest in a series from Microsoft offering a view into where technology is headed in the future through product development at Microsoft. The video offers a fascinating and impressive glimpse into the future of work and productivity that may occur in less than a decade.

The video from Microsoft gives us a glimpse into a day in the life of Ayla, a travelling executive, her daughter Shannon, at home with her Dad, and Qin, Ayla’s colleague. The video is the latest in a series from the Microsoft Office team. You can see past videos here, or view a behind the scenes video from Kurt DelBane, Microsoft Office Business Division President, who explains the technological concepts behind the video, such as collaborative technologies, data visualization tools, mobile technologies, and cloud computing.

Interested in finding out more? Check out the actual place where this technology is developed by Microsoft demonstrating some of the video’s concepts in real life.