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How to Avoid an IT Wreck

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Before heading out on a road trip, most people make sure their car’s oil is changed and sufficiently filled, their brake pads are functioning properly and their tires aren’t bald. However, it’s just as important to perform regular maintenance on your car when you’re driving close to home. Starting the workday with a dead car battery is extremely inconvenient. Driving with warped brake rotors on the interstate during rush hour can be downright dangerous.

Most people understand the responsibilities and dangers that can come with driving a vehicle, but daily stress makes it easy to put off regular servicing. Your IT systems can suffer from the same negligence.

Small and medium-sized businesses likely have hundreds of devices that require regular maintenance — everything from computers, tablets, desk and mobile phones, servers, routers, printers, scanners, copiers and other machines.

Your office may perform full-scale system checks or data backups once a year or before beginning an ambitious project, but what do you do to ensure your equipment is functioning properly and securely on a regular basis? Can you or your employees recognize the signs of a breached or failing system?

We’ve got answers to your questions to keep irksome issues from turning into a complete wreck.

How do IT issues occur?

IT flareups are often the product of long-term issues that employees may not have recognized or that the company has not prioritized. It’s easy to see how more pressing work or more exciting projects can get in the way of fixing a system or device. If your office has only one or two IT employees on staff, small issues may fall through the cracks.

How can you keep an eye on your IT Services?

First, you need to set terms of reference for all employees. Make sure they understand how the systems and devices they use on a daily basis should work. Train employees to recognize common problems and provide a procedure to follow when issues occur. That way your employees aren’t driving around with the check engine light on for days without popping the hood of the vehicle or calling a mechanic.

Regular meetings are a great way to stay on top of your IT systems. Depending on your operations, a monthly meeting might be sufficient with all departments represented. The meetings should be streamlined, focusing on a plan of action to take care of the parts of your IT system that need regular maintenance — or ones that need special attention — until the next meeting.

How does managed IT help?

Third-party IT services providers, such as Infomax, supplement your existing IT team and allow your organization access to experts in various facets of IT. With Infomax’s iGuard Managed IT, clients know that more than 40 professionals with expert-level experience work for their business. 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 providers work with businesses before breaches occur, periodically going over IT priorities. At Infomax, our iGuard Managed IT team even provides our clients with security awareness training to ensure employees are up to date on how to keep company data safe. iGuard Managed IT Services also entails regular data backups, ensuring that systems can be restored in the event of cyberattack, natural disaster or user error.

How does complete cloud computing keep your IT in line?

Infomax’s Complete Cloud Services — powered by Avatara — are similar to our managed IT services. However, our complete cloud services allow your company to completely hand your IT needs over to a team of experts.

It makes the most sense for businesses that don’t have full-time IT employees and want to staff to focus on their initiatives instead of pesky IT tasks. For instance, your mechanic wouldn’t expect you to rotate the tires on your vehicle while they change the oil.

With complete cloud services, our IT experts work even more proactively to protect and maintain your devices and IT systems. Additionally, all servers, storage and other infrastructure are moved to the cloud, represented as multiple secure data centers across the country. All computers and technological systems are hosted in the secured cloud, taking away the clutter of hardware your organization previously stored. Your business will never again need to buy new hardware, manage device upgrades or download new programs.

To learn more about how Infomax can help keep your IT systems running smoothly, contact us at 1-800-727-4629 or visit infomaxoffice.com/support/contact-us/.

Everything You Need to Know About Hosted Communications

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When you think of a cloud, are you the type that envisions fluffy white water vapor trapped in the atmosphere? Or do you think of bits of data consisting mostly of old selfies and pictures of your pets whizzing around in a figurative holding space? For many businesses, the cloud means their lifeline to reach customers and operate on a daily basis.

Efficient and effective communication is essential to a company, internally and externally. Hosted communications systems — or internet-based communication applications — ensure that the process remains smooth.

Here are some of the benefits a hosted communications system can bring to your office.

Simplicity
 In a hosted communications system, the hardware and carrier services typically connected to a phone system are moved to the cloud, or data systems represented in various areas across the country. The clutter of traditional communication systems disappears. But hosted systems aren’t just for phone services. They encompass video, email, document and chat programs as well. With all those programs in one communications system, businesses have only one vendor that handles regular service and maintenance.

Security
Because the cloud is represented in multiple data centers, sensitive information is continuously stored. Disaster recovery is a cinch, and gone are the days of interrupted work because a phone line went down. Additionally, the data in a hosted communications system is encrypted, protecting against cybercrime.

“The security that we have with hosted communication is second to none,” said Doug Postel, Infomax’s IT director.

Accessibility
Ease of accessibility may be the best feature of a hosted communications system. The system can allow a group of employees to collaborate and edit a document in real time and facilitate a video or phone chat for employees working in different areas. Hosted communications systems are also key for offices that have employees working remotely. Cell phones can be added to communications systems so workers can 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. Calls from cell phones through the hosted system also show up on caller ID as the business’ phone number.

“The mobility of the system is a significant benefit,” Doug said. “Very few business owners will tell you, ‘I don’t want to take a call if I’m not in my office.’”

A hosted communications system allows for better office collaboration and businesses are more accessible to customers.

“Chat functions are huge,” Doug said. “It’s vitally important for people to look at their business and say you don’t have to communicate with me the way I want to. As a business, I’ll work with you the way you want to.”

Cost effectiveness
 Because hosted phone communications consolidate services, maintenance and hardware, companies have only one monthly fee to one vendor. Additionally, companies get the exact number of channels they need. With traditional phone systems, companies paid for a set number of channels. If they needed to add additional channels, they had to purchase another large set instead of just one or two more channels.

“I don’t have a nickel and dime fee for upkeep or maintenance calls,” Doug said. “With the services that are in the cloud, I pay just for what I need.”

To learn more about how Infomax’s hosted communications systems, call us at 1-800-727-4629.