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A Virtual CIO Could Guide Your Small Business

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 For small or medium-sized businesses, information technology tasks can be pesky at best and completely overwhelming at worst. Even more difficult to manage is creating an overarching plan for a growing business’ equipment and security needs. Many small businesses grapple with their IT needs. In fact, more than a quarter of small businesses don’t employ any full time IT staff, let alone a Chief Information Officer who oversees a company’s IT services. 

Without a CIO how can a small business oversee their equipment and programs while ensuring the security of their vital data? A virtual CIO could be the answer. 

A vCIO — or third-party organization — provides all the strategic and experiential IT knowledge of a CIO while saving your business the cost of a full-time employee. Additionally, the vCIO coordinates and advises clients’ existing IT departments. They may also implement strategic IT goals, plan the IT budget, analyze and reorganize processes and facilitate hardware or software changes. 

Infomax’s vCIO services can provide many of the same services, providing clients with a roadmap for IT projects and strategic development as your company expands. Here are some of the benefits of working with a vCIO. 

Thorough Inspections 

Before getting started, many service providers like Infomax conduct network assessments and inventories of your current IT system. This helps pinpoint potential risks and prioritize projects. By evaluating technology today, providers can identify and implement the solutions to take you where you need to be tomorrow. 

Preparedness 

A vCIO helps your business implement the daily IT tasks that prepare you to meeting strategic goals. Those services include crafting an overall strategy, business continuity planning, network planning and integration and cloud computing. They also can coordinate between your business and vendors, providing vendor management and application selection. Additionally, your vCIOs can connect with your team daily, providing project management, license compliance tracking and reporting. 

An Expert Team 

The above services could be a staggering workload for one or two existing IT professionals within a small or medium-sized business. But a vCIO comes with a team of skilled professionals that make up a third-party provider’s staff. The team of experts help you make important technical decisions and find the best equipment and applications to fit your needs and budget. 

Cost Savings 

Leveraging vCIO services is just like having an in-house CIO who understands your vision for success. However, you don’t have to provide office space or pay full time salary and benefits like you would with a CIO. A vCIO also saves you money by uncovering and resolving issues that can escalate into expensive problems later. 

Ensure Business Continuity 

Business continuity planning balances real needs with financial realities. There may be resources that you can’t live without for an hour, but others that could be down for a day or two. A vCIO works with your business to determine what protection you should prioritize. 

To learn more about Infomax’s vCIO services, read more here and message us at InfomaxOffice.com to get started. 

Why Your Office Should Use DaaS

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Cloud computing provides many advantages to the workplace, including increased security, accessibility and cost savings. Desktop-as-a-Service, or DaaS, could change the way your office operates for the better. But what is it? We answer all your questions here.

What is DaaS?

DaaS is a type of cloud computing, or computing supported by multiple secured data centers. Information technology providers offer this virtual computing to businesses to project its workspace through a device.

What makes DaaS different?

With typical computing, data is stored on a business’ devices and local servers. Companies are saddled with maintaining expensive, cumbersome and vulnerable infrastructure on-site. DaaS computing is done through the cloud. That means all data, applications and even the desktop are stored in multiple geographically dispersed data centers.

Software programs allow users to access these desktops on laptops, desktop computers, tablets and cell phones, even if they are outside of the typical office space.

How does DaaS compare to VDI?

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, or VDI, is similar to DaaS. Both provide virtual desktops. However, DaaS is hosted through off-site servers and data centers, while VDI is hosted through local servers maintained by an IT team. That means organizations that use VDI to serve virtual desktops have to maintain and upgrade on-site servers, a labor-intensive and expensive process.

What are the benefits of DaaS?

Increased security: Because all computing is done through the cloud, all data is encrypted and regularly backed up. Data is easily recovered if a natural disaster, computer failure or cyberattack occurs. Access to the company desktop is always restricted, protecting the organization’s sensitive data if an employee damages, loses or has a laptop stolen.

Accessibility: No matter where your employees are working, they can access shared files and applications. DaaS makes remote working a breeze. Those inside the office also benefit from the cloud computing service because they’re not waiting on laggy applications and software on individual devices.

Cost savings: With DaaS through Infomax, you pay only for what you consume, avoiding those excessive monthly or annual fees you used to pay for benefits you never used. This means you can also scale the service up or down as your office expands or needs change. You’ll never be hit with upfront charges, bandwidth utilization fees or minimum term conditions.

Easy Management

Businesses avoid wasting time, money and space maintaining infrastructure through DaaS. By using a third-party IT provider, such as Infomax, the all management of DaaS is off your organization’s plate.

Learn more about Infomax’s DaaS services here.

2020 Trends in Technology and Cybersecurity

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In 2010, consumers were introduced to the iPad. Facebook was rising in popular culture with Twitter hot on its heels. The BlackBerry withered on the vine while more smartphones stormed the market. Americans were just beginning to consider online privacy concerns.

A decade later, tablets and smartphones have revolutionized business. Social media is a must-have platform for businesses to connect with consumers. Cybersecurity and privacy concerns reached a fever pitch in 2019.

There’s no doubt that the rapidly changing digital world will bring new opportunities and challenges in the next year. We predict 2020’s technology trends and how they’ll shape workplaces.

IoT

The Internet of Things — interconnected devices able to transfer data over a network — will grow in 2020. The IoT is already represented in the workplace through smart locks, thermostats, cameras, printers, tablets, smartphones and wearable devices to track travel or employee activity. As automation grows and companies add or upgrade equipment, it will be increasingly important for professionals to understand their devices’ interconnectivity and how to secure them from cyberattacks.

Automation and AI

Automation programs and artificial intelligence will have an even greater impact on the workforce in the coming years.

AI — machines mimicking human behavior by basing actions on past data — is already a fixture of Americans’ personal lives. Streaming services offer algorithmically generated suggestions based on past views, and social media sites use AI facial recognition software to suggest people users can tag in photos. In business, AI is already used to filter spam emails, detect fraudulent financial transactions and for a variety of other tasks.

Simply put, AI technology can accurately perform these tasks much faster than people can, leading decision-makers to favor labor-saving tools. AI is part of a larger automation trend that which could obliterate as many as 73 million jobs in America by 2030, according to a McKinsey Global Institute report. However, experts such as Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired magazine, believe the growth in AI technology will also create jobs as employees are needed to create and manage the technology. Throughout the next decade, the tech industry will see a rapid expansion in the need for workers trained in automation programs.

Outside of the job market, workers can find comfort in the fact that automation will eliminate pesky daily tasks that distract them from larger projects. Automation can help generate sales leads, maintain office equipment, analyze reports, organize data, process transactions and answer questions among other tasks.

Accessibility

American workers are constantly on the go, and many workplaces have employees who work remotely. More and more workplaces will require virtual private networks — VPNs — for employees who access the company network remotely.

Hosted communications systems are another way for employees to easily work on the go and connect with customers. The system allows a group of employees to collaboratively edit a document in real time and facilitate a video or phone chat for employees working in different areas. Cell phones connected to the office communications systems allow workers to answer calls outside of the office. If the call is sent to a voicemail, the message is transferred from the individual’s cell phone to the voicemail connected to the hosted communications system.

Cybersecurity

As the IoT expands and hackers become more adept at deploying cyberattacks across devices, cybersecurity threats will be more prevalent than ever. More small and medium businesses are facing the same cyberthreats as large corporations, according to Ponemon Institute’s 2018 State of Cybersecurity in Small and Medium Size Businesses report.

For the report, researchers surveyed more than 1,000 small and medium businesses in the United States and the United Kingdom. The survey found that 67 percent of respondents — eight percent higher than in fiscal 2017 — reported facing a cyberattack in fiscal 2018. Additionally, 58 percent reported facing a data breach in fiscal 2018, an increase of four percent from 2017.

More businesses will recognize the dire need for advanced cybersecurity plans. Throughout 2020, leaders will devote more resources to security efforts. For comparison, Cyber Security Hub found that companies’ cybersecurity budgets increased 59 percent in the first half of 2019.

In 2019, 91.3 percent of the Cyber Security Hub respondents said the lack of trained talent was turning into a crisis.  As the workforce hurries to find employees skilled in cybersecurity, more organizations will turn to managed IT service providers, such as Infomax, to work with a ready-made team of cybersecurity experts.

To learn more about Infomax’s team of providers, message us or call 1-800-727-4629. We can help guide your workplace through the next decade.

Disaster Recovery Plans: All Your IT Questions Answered

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Your company’s time and resources are limited. When you spend time planning for the future, it likely centers around a plan for a project, expansion or improvement. The last thing you want to spend precious time and resources on is planning for everything to go wrong.

However, if you don’t plan for disaster recovery, all your hard work for future growth can disappear, leaving you rebuilding your business from scratch and losing potential revenue and precious data.

What is a disaster recovery plan?

It’s a plan to get back to business as usual. Disasters can range from damage done to hardware by a natural disaster, user error or cyberattacks. A thorough disaster recovery plan is detailed and delegates tasks to a team of information technology professionals and internal employees who can restore your business’ data as quickly as possible. It allows the organization to recover data, gain access to networking technology, reconnect power and repair software or hardware.

When should planning begin?

The good news is that cloud computing and managed IT services makes disaster recovery much less difficult. Your managed services team — a third-party team of IT professionals — can assist your organization in transitioning to a cloud computing system.

The cloud — represented as multiple, secure data centers across the country — ensures that your sensitive and important information is secure. Data is backed up continuously so loss in the event of a disaster is miniscule. Your managed services team will use the latest data backup to restore your systems.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a disaster recovery plan. Your IT provider can work with your organization to determine steps to cover everything from what happens if your data is compromised to finding temporary hardware and software that allows your team to get back to work even as recovery begins. 

What should be in a disaster recovery plan?

Businesses often believe their disaster recovery plan should focus only on the worst-case scenario. However, consider what you need from your IT services and equipment to carry out daily operations. While the ultimate disaster could occur, daily mishaps are more likely, such as a corrupted software program or finnicky phone systems. 

Additionally, it’s important to not only have the guidelines for restoration, your IT team must have comprehensive access to your applications so they can get to work as soon as a disaster strikes. Both IT professionals and internal employees should understand the tasks they may need to carry out if IT systems go awry.

How do I create a disaster recovery plan?

As your organization and its processes evolve, your IT plan should be updated. To create a plan with your IT provider, consider these steps:

  • Establish the scope of the organization’s daily work
  • Gather network infrastructure and access documents
  • Identify threats
  • Review past actions during outages or disasters
  • Build an emergency response team
  • Review the plan with IT professionals and management
  • Test disaster recovery plan
  • Update the plan

Infomax can help create a disaster recovery plan for your team. For more information, call 515-244-5203. 

Business Yearbook: IT Support Superlatives

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How is your business addressing information technology services and security? Will your colleagues and employees remember your company as a cybersecurity success or a burnout that thought they had their information technology services figured out only to have the business endure a quarter-life crisis.   

Call Infomax for an evaluation, and let’s work to get iGuard Evolved IT in your business, bringing you a competitive advantage rather than just an irritating expense! First, let’s take a look at how the service models stack up to a complete managed services model, or working with a third party that offers comprehensive IT services.

The Tech Savvy Guy/Gal — Most Likely to be Overwhelmed

This IT support environment is most often seen in small businesses. Management has likely been focused on growth and finding employees with diverse skills. The IT support is likely one outsourced IT professional or an internal employee with a fulltime set of tasks and limited IT know-how who is able to spare a few occasional moments to help reset a password or assemble equipment.

Because errant IT questions, necessary software renewals and security issues occur regularly in most businesses, this staffer has an overwhelming amount of work to do in addition to their primary responsibilities. Not only is your employee overwhelmed, but the person’s productivity also plummets, and your IT support environment is left vulnerable. Your business’ network has no proactive monitoring or updating of firewalls. Data is not secured or stored for backup. No disaster recovery policy exists in the event of a fire, damage from a natural disaster or ransomware attack.

What happens to your business if that employee becomes so overwhelmed they need a long vacation — or worse — they leave the company?

No Managed Services — Most Likely to Have Uncoordinated Services

This service model really has no model at all. Some businesses have different vendors for many of their IT services: one vendor to work on their firewall, another to secure the network, one for wireless internet and phone systems, and yet another for their data backup and disaster recovery plans. While your business is outsourcing services to seemingly save time and money, the lack of management services could be more of a drain on resources. An internal worker has to coordinate services and payment between various vendors. Your IT support is also at the mercy of multiple companies’ operating procedures, leaving your business without a strategic, proactive plan.

Hybrid Break and Fix Services — Most Likely to Be Reactive

A hybrid managed IT services model may seem like a good option for smaller businesses that are still leery of a fully managed services model. However, this support environment is no better than having just the one tech savvy guy or gal taking care of IT. Companies with this model pay a base monthly fee for server updates and small security patches to a third party. However, all other necessary services are billable.

Typically, firewall updates and monitoring are done on request and not covered in your base costs. Similarly, help desk calls longer than 15 minutes also accrue additional costs. While a business may be paying a base monthly fee, services are often not covered and IT professionals are working only to fix problems when they should stop problems before they occur.

Managed IT Services — Likely to Be Proactive

Managed IT services offer more comprehensive and proactive support than other models in which your services kick in only after a problem occurs. Typically, the company providing your support offers a help desk for employees to call. Having one vendor allows your business to consolidate billing, and it allows the managed IT provider to take a look at all of the IT services that will best meet your needs.

But the biggest wild card could be narrowing down which IT services are covered in your monthly payment. Hardware, onsite work, security updates and security awareness training for employees may not be covered in base payments. Small businesses must be assured that your IT provider won’t give precedence to a larger company’s IT support. Your business must also consider future growth. Will the quality and quantity of technical talent keep pace with your business’ expansion?

Complete Managed Services with Co-Located Data Centers — Best Proactive, Comprehensive Services

This model is the cream of the crop, the class valedictorian. It allows you to get out of the IT business and back into your business! The cost is similar to that of managed services, but complete managed services offer a serious upgrade in security and unlimited data storage. The price is about cost of an IT professional, but the services are delivered by 30 or more IT experts instead of one or two IT workers who lack specific expertise.

The cost-per-service guesswork also disappears. All hardware costs — managed firewall, network servers, data backup and storage, monitors and more — are covered under one monthly payment. There’s no guesswork. Most importantly, services are proactive and managed by one vendor who is an expert on your business’ needs. That vendor provides a help desk for your employees’ small or significant IT issues.

In a technological world with rising cybercrime, this model provides the level of security all businesses require. Disaster and ransomware recovery are included in your monthly payments. Recovery is a breeze because your company’s sensitive data is continuously backed up in multiple data centers in various locations. Employees are able to work remotely through multiple devices — all through the secured cloud.

Contact Infomax today at 515-244-5203 to learn how we can set your business up with our iGuard Evolved IT, proactively securing and managing your company’s IT needs.

How Managed IT Could Affect Iowa’s IT Skills Gap

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Iowa’s unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the country, hovering at about 2.4 percent since July 2018. For employees, the low unemployment rate is a reprieve from the 7.3 percent high nearly a decade ago, according to the Iowa Workforce Development. The low rate also means employees have more job choices. Employers are not only must secure skilled employees to fill open positions, they’re tasked with retaining their employees and finding employees with the proper skillset to fill open positions.

Iowa’s information technology employers not only need highly trained employees, but they also need specialists in the various fields within the IT industry. Iowa has one of the lowest rates in the nation of people graduating from post-secondary computer and information technology-related programs, according to an Iowa State University Iowa Community Indicators Program report.

So what are employers to do if they can’t find employees with the proper IT background? If they do find skilled employees, how do employers keep them happy? Managed IT services could be the answer. Managed IT services allow companies to use third-party experts to handle or supplement their IT needs.

Small businesses who don’t have a full-time IT professional may rely on a tech savvy team member for their technology dilemmas. That solution — or lack thereof — takes an employee away from their daily work while also leaving the company’s preventive and responsive IT services severely lacking.

“With managed IT services, Infomax can address many different business sizes,” said Doug Postel, Infomax’s IT director. “On the smaller end, we can bring in expertise for a single monthly fee that would be less than employing a full-time IT professional.”

Medium-sized businesses may likely have one or two IT professionals for more employees than they can manage. Additionally, IT professionals may not have experience with certain types of software, hardware or other industry intricacies. Employers could spend years training IT professionals, only to have the employee overwhelmed with knowing a little bit about a lot of facets of IT.

 “You could exhaust that employee,” Doug said. “When you hire a person, they have a certain set of skills. With managed IT, we bring a whole team of experts who have individual knowledge on security, firewalls, antivirus programs, software and hardware.”

With Infomax’s iGuard Managed IT, companies gain access to Infomax’s IT help desk. The help desk frees up the business’ existing IT staff to focus on specific projects instead of pesky password updates and software license renewals. Infomax’s IT team also maintains a company’s software licensing, security and data backup and recovery so IT needs are preventive, not reactive.

Overall, managed IT services can provide a business with a full team of IT experts for one consolidated monthly fee. Managed IT could also give time back to existing IT employees, allowing them to develop in their career while taking away stress.

“IT can be overwhelming for one person,” Doug said. “We can provide that net around an employee, and it allows business owners to know they don’t have their all their eggs in one basket.”

To learn more about our iGuard Managed IT Services, contact us today.

How managed IT can change your business for the better

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When was the last time you or your employer focused on IT support for your company? Maybe you work at a small business that has fewer than 50 employees, none of which include a full-time information technology employee. Perhaps your IT staff is comprised of an unintentional IT team of one or two employees who happen to be tech savvy. Maybe you work at a medium-size company that outsources much of their IT services to multiple vendors: one for system firewalls, one for storage and data backup, another for phone systems and the list goes on. Isn’t it time for your business to be more intentional about your IT support in this world of complex technology?

Many small businesses have made the switched to managed IT services — IT support from a third party — such as ours that provide a variety of services and a team of IT experts. For many reasons, small and medium-sized businesses find managed IT services to be beneficial.

For one, businesses that use managed IT services gain access to a team of professionals who specialize in specific facets of IT, rather than one professional who has to be a jack of all trades. With Infomax’s iGuard Managed IT, clients know that more than 40 professionals with expert-level experiences work for their business. They also don’t have to worry about dealing with three or more vendors for all their IT support.

“What we can bring to the table is consolidation,” said Doug Postel, Infomax’s IT director. “We can give them security in knowing we can take care of the threat mitigation with firewalls, help with policies, phone systems, disaster recovery and backup.”

Another benefit of managed IT services is the cost effectiveness and predictability of expenses. Managed IT services that include a team of professionals often cost a company less than a full-time IT employee. Expenses are predictable because a company can choose their services and plan for the same costs each period. At Infomax, we also work with a company’s existing IT personnel.

“We can take care of that IT person and make sure they have the time and resources to focus on the objectives of the company. We really look at being able to build a support net around them,” Doug said. “We provide businesses IT for a predictable and manageable cost. We’re able to give the business owner peace of mind, and for one flat fee they know everything is taken care of.”

Most importantly, managed IT provides business owners and employees peace of mind knowing that they have a team of professionals who are working proactively — not reactively — to keep your business safe from cyberthreats. Managed IT staff work with businesses before breaches occur, periodically going over IT priorities. At Infomax, our iGuard Managed IT team even provides our clients with regular security awareness training to ensure employees are up to date on how to keep company data safe.

“For small businesses, we really become a one-stop-shop for their IT support,” Doug said. “For medium-sized businesses, we provide more necessary time and resources for their existing staff.”

If you are interested in managed IT services, contact us today.

What to Look for in a Managed Services Provider

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It’s important to work with technology partners who can manage your services efficiently and effectively. You must find a provider that is trustworthy, reliable, and able to meet your company’s specific needs. When looking for a managed services provider to partner with, here are a few important considerations for your search.

● Reputation — Talk to companies similar to yours and read reviews for potential partners. Ask to speak with a current customer for a reference.
● Goal Orientation — Look for a provider focused on impact, not the status quo. You want a partner that’s actively looking to improve performance, boost productivity, and lower costs.
● Analysis — Your provider should be data-hungry, offering dashboards, reports, and analysis of cost and performance.
● Workflow Expertise — Look for experience and expertise in managing and optimizing systems. You want a partner who can bring something extra to the table.
● Growth Potential — This isn’t a one-time encounter, it’s a long-term relationship. Will your partner be able to help you grow, change, and adapt in the future?
● Security — Your partner should be well-versed in encryption, access controls, role-based permissions, and monitoring.
● Vendor Neutrality — Your partner should support and service any and all brands you work with. A vendor-neutral partner will look for the best solutions for your business, not just the ones they sell.
● Integration — Make sure your partner supports any third-party apps, services, or tools you utilize.
● Clear SLA — You should have a good understanding of your service terms and responsibilities (including performance, response time, and uptime). Make sure there’s an exit clause should things not work out.
● Cost Clarity — Service partnerships are typically custom solutions designed to meet your specific needs, so your capacity, quality, services, and workload will all impact the bottom line. Understand your costs and how they change as your needs change.

When searching for a new partner in managed services, carefully consider your options and the capabilities of potential partners. You’re building a long-term relationship, so find a partner that has the skills and expertise to meet your needs and help you reach your goals. For document management, information technology, and print services, contact Infomax Office Systems today.