MultTtech

Las Vegas IT Consulting

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Step 6 of 7 – Proactive Support

REPORTING

Step 6 for Profitable Technology Operations

So, you can see the results and the value of all the efforts.

 The MSP market is a crowded one. There’s no shortage of competition. numbers-based visibility and accountability are essential.

We build trust with customers and prospects by providing transparency and visibility. Merely claiming our services are improving performance isn’t enough. Transparency gives you information about not just what we can promise, but also how performance is being measured.

Strong reporting tools is a must. Producing benchmarks and performance metrics about our services can quantify the value we are providing and how our value increases over time.

Reporting also delivers value by empowering us to make proactive recommendations, backed by hard data, about infrastructure and service upgrades. For example, a monthly report with minimum, maximum, and average figures on things like disk utilization, network bandwidth, and CPU time helps you point out where new hardware purchases and network upgrades will help the customer avoid performance issues down the line.

In turn, by ensuring our customers know when to increase bandwidth capacity, links, disk space and other resources to prevent overload, our reports make the job of managing your business operations easier.

Trust and verify = accountability.  You as our client should know what we are doing to protect and maintain your business technology systems. You are paying for a valuable service. It only makes sense.

Step 5 of 7 – Proactive Support

TECHNOLOGY EFFICIENCY

Step 5 for Profitable Technology Operations

So, your technology-based processes are as integrated, streamlined and efficient as possible.

 Just as devices have proliferated within an office, so has the software. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of tools and systems we can choose from when deciding how you’ll run your business. Realistically, you’ll use a dozen or more different ones to handle different tasks such as accounting, quoting, ticketing, messaging, desktop management, network operations, and more.

If those apps and systems are siloed, with no integration between them, you’ve got an efficiency problem on your hands.

It’s much smarter to choose products that have hooks into complementary products. Integration helps you avoid task duplication, and ensures workflows are as quick and smooth as possible. Bottom line, it’s all about your bottom line. Process and workflow efficiencies help boost profitability; siloed systems eat away at profitability.

Here are some ways we take advantage of platform integration:

  • Sync your support system with your real-time monitoring tools.
  • Sync your messaging with your real-time alert system.
  • Sync inventory and configuration details between your business platform and your support system.
  • Sync your access control tools so you don’t have to store credentials in more than one place.
  • Sync your reports on performance with metrics from the rest of your business
  • Adopt cloud-based tools that are platform-agnostic and work from whichever system a staff member chooses to run.
  • Sync your data backups with System Backups and document a Disaster Recovery Plan.

 

Step 4 of 7 – Proactive Support

NETWORK QUALITY

Step 4 for Profitable Technology Operations

So, you know your network will support and grow with all your needs.

 One of the reasons—perhaps the main reason—we are hired to manage your network is because you want to know the network will continue to support the business, whatever disasters might strike. More uptime = More efficiency = More profits.

When IT infrastructure goes down, companies lose huge money. Depending on their size, downtime can cost hundreds of dollars per hour to many thousands of dollars per hour. And the people responsible for that infrastructure (me) are suddenly at risk of being fired. It is in our best interest to make sure you know and have the path defined, knowing risks along the way to get to this quality of network quality.

As we’ve said before, you should expect your network to just work—all the time. If the network does go down, minutes matter. Speed in restoring service as quickly as possible is critical.   This is one of the most stringent planning and support sections we can provide you.

To meet such expectations requires us to draw on a combination of other network operation components, including client knowledge and real-time awareness.

  • Detailed knowledge of the network’s intent. To effectively maintain network continuity, we need an intimate understanding of what the network is supposed to be doing and why.
  • Constant network monitoring. We’ve already discussed the importance of real-time awareness to delivering proactive network service. It’s essential for network continuity because constant monitoring ensures you always have the most up-to-date information about network status when something goes wrong.
  • Real-time alerting. In addition to constant monitoring, an effective alert system lets us know about emerging problems before they bring the network down.
  • Accurate, detailed, and up-to-date network documentation. The last thing we want to be doing when disaster strikes your network is struggling to figure out how devices are supposed to operate.
  • Configuration back-ups. Many MSPs are quick to think about backing up data but are less rigorous when it comes to backing up network devices. Device backups tend to be on a periodic schedule (say, once a month), and your support team must remember to do it and take the time to do it. There are lots of places where the process can fall.

Step 3 of 7 – Proactive Support

SECURITY CONTROLS

Step 3 for Profitable Technology Operations

Not just password management anymore.

Do Any of these sound like your business practices?

  • Are you using virus security solutions that come with your computer?
  • Are you using the same name branded solution you bought for your home computers 3 years ago?
  • Are you constantly seeing and waiting for updates to process for your threat protections?
  • Are applications being interrupted and slowed down while virus scans are being performed?
  • Are your updates scheduled at 2 AM when you are asleep?  (what happens for the other 23+ hours of the day?)

Security software has evolved from just scanning for viruses.  They need to monitor real-time all traffic coming and going through your technology connections and business applications.

A proactive and predictive solution that relies on non-intrusive threat intelligence is a more efficient way to increase your computing power while decreasing any security threats. Providing you with real-time 24×7 security coverage.

A recent study by Preempt a security firm that specializes in technology security revealed the following:

  • An Average 13% of business users have shared passwords
  • An Average 19% of business users have password quality users
  • An Average 7% of business users have extremely weak passwords
  • In small businesses, more than 80% of passwords are maintained on Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, or some other non-secure methods.

Don’t be part of that crowd.  We have cloud-based secure business package password management systems that can fit into your business process.  Our solution will encrypt and store access credentials securely, where login information must be entered only once. It will also allow you to define, granularly, which of your employees has access to which login information.

Set yourself apart from other clients in your industry by taking advantage of controlled access solutions your technology partner can introduce you too.  These allow you to manage user access and client device credentials in a secure and compliant way.

Reaching an efficient technology balance with security on performance and reliability is one aspect of using the proper security suite of products and methods that Managed Services Providers will provide.

Step 2 of 7 – Proactive Support

PROACTIVE SUPPORT

Step 2 for Profitable Technology Operations

So, you and your business always know exactly what’s happening.

 Twenty years ago, you might have been conducting your business with a fixed number of computing devices in relatively static positions. No more.

Today’s business technology is in a constant state of flux as devices connect and go offline throughout the day. As well, traffic ebbs and flows at variable rates causing bandwidth usage to spike and fall. Documentation goes out of date the minute you complete it.

Real-time awareness helps us prevent issues before they happen, not least by allowing us to compare historical and current data to spot trends. If something in your monitoring stats looks inconsistent with past data, we have an early warning about a potential problem.

So, if your technology monitoring isn’t being done in real-time, you’re either missing key information entirely or getting it too late to react effectively. By reacting early, you prevent downtime and increase profits.

How can we troubleshoot an issue if you’re looking at an outdated view that’s no longer relevant?

For that matter, how do you know what’s in your inventory at a crucial moment if you’re not monitoring in real time? When trouble strikes, you want to know how many devices are being affected at that instant, not an hour or a day ago.

By the way, real-time awareness entails ongoing monitoring of all your devices, not just certain ones. It’s not enough to only monitor what you feel is a critical item.  They all need to be monitored.

Our Real-time monitoring tools eliminate the delays on trying to manage updates.  Those manage that for you and we integrate an optimum schedule to eliminate downtime and keep you current. Finally, being proactive with Virus security software management is critical to keep you current.  Why wait for updates when they can be available always?