Outsourced IT Support is a Leg Up to the Playing Field

outsourced it support is a leg up to the playing field

The thing about your internal enterprise IT support is that the latter is always a cost center and somewhat like a 25-pound weight around your otherwise lean midsection.

Who hasn’t cringed under the gimlet eye of the IT manager, who, in response to a suggestion or request for more data access has replied, “No, we can’t do that now.

Our system is maxed out because of the monthly usage reports we in the IT department need”?

OK, that’s somewhat of an extreme example, but it does conjure up familiar memories of the old-time IT support. It was like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz being warned not to look behind the curtain. You don’t know exactly what’s going on there, but you certainly know that when the system is down, it’s still gnawing at your bottom line.

Then there’s the effect of equipment aging when amortization deteriorates past depreciation and into another looming capital investment liability. All the while, everything you do and all the business records you have accumulated during the past ten years are in the form of digitized zeros and ones. Sure, everything is backed up, but what if your backup goes belly-up because of an act of God or the negligence of man?

You’re aware of your own playing field, because you’ve been competing out there. It’s like a three-legged race, and what you’re tethered to is both your cost of doing business and your lack of agility as equipment ages in the face of stiffer and increasing competition by hungry competitors, who are increasingly relying on and employing outsourced IT.

A great example of how effective the use of outsourced IT is our air traffic control system. Imagine if every airline had to do it’s own traffic control. For a start, we’d need private airports for each, and the redundancy and confusion would be unimaginable. Likewise, our air traffic control system is a classic example of leveling the playing field. All airlines, regardless of size and revenues, benefit from outsourcing a service to which each airline has immediate and equal access.

Analogies and metaphors notwithstanding, it may be time to take your IT support out of the realm of a significant cost center where you pay to be somewhat encumbered. Why not make your IT support a scalable and predictable expense? It is scalable in the sense that you pay for what you use, and it is predictable because you know its monthly costs without having to factor in breakdowns and training curves.

Here at 4 Corner IT we can give you that aforementioned leg up with a customized outsourced IT management program. We’ve been there a long time and are still doing that today.

Contact us and see how outsourced IT services can help you drop the burden of high IT costs.

The Perks of Worry-Free IT Support and Network Support

the perks of worry free it support and network support

Are you running a small medium business and trying to find ways to streamline the tech side of things? Well the hardest part of running your own business is getting it started up. Now comes the easy part, finding an IT support company. Some people embrace the technological side of business and others shy away from it; but it’s really nothing to even worry about.

If you’re reading this post you’ve already come to 4 Corner IT. That’s the first step. Just contact us and find out that it gets easier as we move things along.

First of all, whether you have a small medium business or any other sized business we can help you. The first step is always assessing the situation and finding out what is needed to make your individual business more successful.

What are you trying to achieve by integrating more technology into your business?

These are questions asked and when answered provide insight into exactly how your new IT system will be directed.

Once your services are up and running your business can rely on the ongoing support from specialists that eliminate the need for you to keep an IT tech on sight.

24 hour help desk allows for any situation to be addressed. Through remote desktop access the techs at 4 Corner IT can keep your systems up and running without you needing to worry about the technical side of your business. This frees you, the business owner to focus on what’s really important, the customer and what you can offer them.

The features that are offered are too many for me to list here. Check them out here: https://www.4cornerit.com/computer-services/

Bottom line any business, whether you are a potter who ships your product world-wide and needs to keep track of inventory or you run a service-oriented business where reports and information needs to be conveyed between offices, runs with computer support. To keep your business running smoothly and efficiently you need to keep that computer system operating optimally.

4 Corner IT offers worry free tech support that will allow you, the business owner, to build and expand without having to even think about whether your systems can keep up.

Also, Check Out Our Cabling Services!

In the Market for a Managed Services Provider to Support Your Business Computer Network?

in the market for a managed services provider to support your business computer network

If your business is growing faster than your local IT infrastructure can reliably accommodate it, you may be in the market for a managed services provider.

It’s not so much a matter of logistics and expertise. It’s more about economical access to an extremely rich and eclectic mix of ready-to-use software, platforms and support services. Knowing what to use and how to use it requires the discerning judgment of a provider whose real-world and big-picture experience makes the whole of the service somewhat more than the sum of its parts.

That all may sound somewhat nebulous, but connecting the dots is what turns experience into competence.

Speaking of Nebulous

The word nebulous, by the way, means indistinct or hazy and its root comes from the Latin word for cloud. The more modern connotation of the word cloud as regards IT managed services, is anything but hazy, and the cloud has taken enterprise IT by storm — pun intended.

This brings us back to how the cloud has been the quiet revolution that has totally leveled the playing field on line, especially for small businesses willing to outsource the IT support they need to grow and stay competitive.

What’s Out There For You

In a word: everything. In a phrase: everything from disaster protection to ready-to-use and cleverly robust customer resource management software.

Disaster recovery means state-of-the-art backup and instant recovery that guarantees your data survival when the clouds open and flood your servers. Scalable, use what you need and pay for what you use, enterprise applications slim down the “bloatware” and flatten the user learning curve.

And It’s On the Cloud

The good news is that it’s all out there and ready. The scary part is the decision to let go of your infrastructure and release your precious data to the custody and care of others.

The better news is that the cloud is maturing and well protected. You can choose to go totally or partially to cloud services — actually, if you subscribe to any off-premises web service, you’ll already a charter member of the hybrid cloud.

And the best news is that we at 4 Corner IT can help you elevate and customize your IT management. We’ve been doing that for years.

Contact us and see how our managed IT services can be a great fit for your business or organization.

How Do I Choose the Right MSP Managed Service Provider?

how do i choose the right msp managed service provider

You know that choosing the wrong managed service provider can result in a company not only not growing at its projected pace, but can actually take a firm backwards.

So, extensive research into the types of support and management available is essential, as is some way to make sure the decision results in obtaining everything necessary, but not a bit or a byte more.While your needs are unique in many ways, there are some things that all companies in need of a managed service provider have a lot in common.

Do Some of These Issues Sound Familiar?

You’re working within a complicated web of vendors, whose individual components may or may not “play nice” with each other.

You have your own proprietary products, designed to interface between various pieces of purchased software and/or equipment, as well as some created to do specialized things required for the production of your specific product or service.

Every day you seem to need faster ways to diagnose and resolve different types of challenges. Your company keeps growing, which creates a constant need for vigilant assessment of areas of strength to work with and areas of weakness to compensate for.

The levels of complexity in your specific industry and in the world of IT seems to be increasing exponentially. Budgets are constantly shrinking, requiring you to constantly ask more and more of your already overworked IT teams. So how do you as the CIO or head of IT make this essential decision?

According to Pat Patterson there are seven essential questions that need to be asked and answered by any potential partner:

  • Will the proposed service partner support your business strategy now and in the future?
  • Do you trust them to have the necessary expertise and bandwidth to provide maintenance, deliver support services or assume managed-services responsibilities?
  • Will they become trusted advisers that stay engaged and serve as an extension of your IT organization and business?
  • Do they provide a portfolio of offers that span the entire service continuum and have the necessary flexibility to ensure a smooth deployment of managed services?
  • What applications, diagnostics checks or analytic tools do they leverage to anticipate any problems or hidden issues?
  • Do they provide a single point of contact that can quickly swarm experts to resolve an issue in your network?
  • Do they really know you? Understand your solution?

Now that you know what types of questions to ask you can rest easy because we have all the answers.  We’re dedicated to helping you make the right decision for your individual company’s distinct needs both for today and tomorrow.

Contact 4 Corner IT and we’ll help you design and implement an infrastructure that works for you. 

How Technological Change Affects the Productivity of Labor

technological change affects the productivity of labor

There is an ‘instant’ feeling to so much of what we do and expect to be done in life that this has kind of clouded the way we interact with one another. For example, if we receive an email, the sender expects an instant reply and if we don’t reply within an often very narrow time frame, the sender will often move on. ‘Instant’ is a two way street, so while we have come to expect things to happen immediately, we often hate it when people want something right this minute. There is a danger that technological change affects the productivity of labor and that it could become a big problem in the near-future.

This insatiable need for the ‘instant’ has arguably led to a decrease in the overall attention span of many people. We no longer focus on one thing and are constantly multi-tasking. Think of the last time you went out for a team lunch, what was the conversation like? More than likely you were sat around a table, talking for about five minutes before almost everyone resorted to looking at their phones, while kind of listening. Beyond that, think of the last time you had to wait for something, anything. If you’re like a lot of people, you probably mumbled some comment or question as to why it was taking so long.

This instant, multitasking, relatively impatient lifestyle has started to really affect many us in negative ways. For example, looking at a forum post with over three pages of entries, most people will read the first few visible posts and then skip to the end and read the last post. If the post contains lots of text, most people bust out the TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) and skip most of the information, potentially missing the most important parts.

If this was on an important sales contract and you skipped over the section that detailed how your company would be compensated because you just didn’t have the time or patience to read it, you could irreparably harm your business, simply because you didn’t feel like reading a few extra paragraphs.

Before you go throwing the computer out the window – many businesses simply can’t afford to get rid of it, or can’t operate without it – you should take a step back and track how you utilize technology in your daily life. Look for gadgets, devices and even websites that distract you and take steps to decrease their use. Using a timer with a set amount of time during which you concentrate on work, and another with a smaller amount of time for breaks could be a real big help.

There are thousands of other ways you can increase your productivity, regardless of your reliance on technology. Which do you find work for you? Let us know.