future-proof your business

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When is In-house IT Not Good Enough?
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Managed Services

When is in-house IT not good enough?

Does your firm have “a guy” who is responsible for managing your IT? Maybe it’s a manager who is also tasked with human resources, bookkeeping, or marketing? Maybe the job landed with someone who just knows a little bit more than everyone else in the office.

In many Boston area law firms, the heartbeat of their practice – their infrastructure – is under the purview of someone who doesn’t consider it as their primary focus.

Think about it.

Would you undergo heart surgery with someone who had a few more biology classes than anyone else? Your infrastructure is the heart of your business and powers everything else. It’s controls access to your accounting software, to your clients’ files and their private information, to payroll, to email, to discovery data, legal settlements and negotiations. Why would trust your IT to anyone but an IT professional – someone whose only priority is keep you, your firm, your staff, and your clients safe?

Is it time to get serious about IT? If you can’t answer these questions with confidence, the time is now.

  1. When was your last healthy backup? If you don’t know when or if your answer isn’t “today”, you need the expertise of a qualified MSP. Penalty points if you don’t know what a healthy backup is.
  2. Where is your backup stored? For maximum security, your backup should be stored off premises. If you have a data breach, fire, or theft, you are at risk of losing everything if your backup is stored on premises or on the same infrastructure as all your other data.
  3. How often does your staff undergo cybersecurity awareness training? Employees are the No. 1 risk factor for security breaches. If you’re not continually educating your staff on what to look for, what to be aware of, and what to do if a breach happens, you need an IT expert.
  4. Is every software program you use up to date? Have all the most recent patches been installed? Patches don’t just update products but also include security features to maximize your protection. Without the most current version of any program, you are putting your firm at risk.
  5. Are you using a quality antivirus software? Are you receiving alerts on malicious or suspicious activity? What are you doing with them? If you’re not tracking and monitoring potential breaches, you could already be at risk.
  6. Do you have a WISP? Is it stored off premises? A Written Information Security Plan is your roadmap to restoring business continuity in the event of a disaster. If you don’t have one in place, an IT expert can help.
  7. How much IT downtime do you have each month? What is it costing you? A file was deleted in error, a password needs to be recovered, a computer is frozen. These issues add up and cost money. From unproductive staff members to neglected clients to missed deadlines. Having a fully staff Help Desk available to quickly address these issues and get business back on track can save you thousands of dollars annually while minimizing employee frustration and unhappy clients. A good MSP is just a phone call or email away from restoring productivity.

These are just a few questions to consider. When it comes to IT, there’s no question that you owe it to your business, your staff, your clients, and yourself to have the best solution.

Get in touch today for a free assessment.

Debby Thompson, (617) 420-1244, dthompson@tekdocsolutions.com

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Four Ways Cloud Computing Can Future-Proof Your Business
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We hear a lot about the cloud and cloud computing lately. Some businesses don’t actually know what the cloud is, what it can do for them or where they can even find it – let alone start using it. The cloud isn’t just a passing fad – cloud computing is here to stay and it’s quickly become the best way to future-proof your business.

So what is the cloud, exactly? At its intrinsic level, it’s a collection of computers, servers, and databases that are connected together in a powerful way that users can lease access to share their combined power. Cloud computing is scalable so that buyers can choose to increase or decrease the amount of computing power they need.

Sounds a bit intangible, doesn’t it? Send your company’s precious data up to this “cloud” in the sky, and then what? “Is it worth it?” “Will it help my business grow?” “Is it safe?”

Yes, yes and yes. Major business owners are comfortable enough with cloud computing to future-proof their business, and the impact is global. Media giant Forbes, whose focus is business and IT, has projected that cloud computing will be a $162 billion industry by the year 2020. As it stands now, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is at 19% meaning more and more industries are making the cloud business-critical. Their report also stated that 74% of IT CFOs attribute the most measurable growth to cloud computing.

So what does this mean to you and your company? If you’re looking to ensure your business has longevity in this economy – no matter your niche – then you need to seriously consider making the move to cloud services. Here are five ways that cloud computing will future-proof your business:

  1. Security for your data – The cloud’s security architecture is multi-layered, and safeguards against the weaknesses that allow cyber attacks to occur. There are different types of security controls employed: deterrent controls, preventative controls, detective controls and corrective controls. All of these things work in tandem to protect your sensitive information and intellectual property, especially where federal compliance regulations are an issue.
  2. Unlimited mobility – Self-hosting your legacy software and platforms for years places a major stressor on already overworked network servers. The time spent maintaining your hardware and its performance can cost you both productivity and dollars. Application hosting in the cloud gives users the real-time ability to access data from any device, anywhere and at any time. Your staff could be spread across the globe and still collaborate in real-time on projects.
  3. Scalability – The cloud grows with you. The combined computing power of users in the cloud is scalable so that buyers can dynamically increase – or decrease – the amount of computing power they lease. That flexibility is quite a cost-saver when you consider the impact on your IT budget if you have to upgrade your on-premises servers after you have outgrown your old network.
  4. Cost reduction – Given the speed of cloud growth and accessibility, it’s been easier, faster and less expensive for software developers to roll out applications as compared to traditional onsite platform development. That cost savings gets passed on to users. You don’t have to buy hardware until you need it, and you don’t have to plan for peak capacity, since most traditional servers are only used at 15% of their capacity. You only pay for what you use.

Lost production hours are a killer when you’re trying to migrate data from one network to another. Firms that handle their own migration on average take 2 months and up to $3,000 to do it. Partnering with a managed IT services provider (MSP) to handle your move to the cloud reduces – and even eliminates – downtime and speeds up deployment by managing your data with new integrated tech solutions, upgrading your performance seamlessly. That’s where we come in.

Moving to the cloud is power. Power to give your company future longevity. And the best way to harness that power is by partnering up with a great MSP, one whose expert team can handle the entire process from start to finish. Give us a call and let us help move you into the future with cloud computing.

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