Technology is likely an integral part of your business, but trying to manage a complex network of software and hardware solutions can be a nightmare without a dedicated team.
Today’s technology evolves at a rapid pace and making sure everything is up-to-date and running optimally is far from easy. Furthermore, many small to mid-sized businesses may not have the resources to have a top-notch team of IT professionals on the regular payroll. This is where IT managed services can help you.
How can IT managed services help my business?
How do you know what’s right for your business? With such a wide variety of hardware and software solutions, it’s difficult to determine what services are just right for your business needs. By consulting with IT professionals you can gain the insight and knowledge of experts to craft a system tailored to suit your needs.
There are a plethora of cloud and software services that may benefit your business. Having someone with knowledge and experience help you customize a package that’s right for you can improve your productivity and help keep you and your customers happy.
Unfortunately, these solutions will occasionally encounter problems, but you don’t have to face these challenges alone. Having a team of specialists available to tackle issues that arise as they occur can help get you back up and running with a minimum headache.
Round-the-clock support can make sure that no matter when you run into issues, your downtime is minimized and you aren’t losing valuable time and money. Even the most minor issues can seem insurmountable if you aren’t sure where to look or how to fix them. This is where having IT managed services can help provide an extra layer of security and peace of mind.
Whether deciding what services you need for your new business or maintaining and upgrading an existing network, it’s not always easy to know what you need and how to take care of it. Often having an IT team on site just isn’t feasible and hiring a technician for one-time consultations isn’t the same as having someone that knows your system, business, and needs.
It doesn’t matter how large your company is, or how much information technology that you have to maintain and collect, keeping it organized can be challenging. To this end, having a way to simplify your inventory can be helpful for keeping track of where your devices, and more importantly, your data is.
With any company with a lot of different and important operations, it’s crucial that you have processes put into place that documents where and how each of your moving parts is being used.
What Your Inventory Does
An inventory is typically used for businesses to track their assets and resources in a way that makes sure you have an accurate count of what your company owns.
Inventory is commonly used for countless types of organizations, from fast food to retail. Keeping track of what is on hand is critical to the success of any business, as it helps you manage your assets.
A detailed and easily updated inventory record helps you determine just how your resources are being used, allowing you to shift priorities when needed.
So, how can your organization take advantage of inventory management for your technology solutions? We’ll discuss some of the best ways that you can use this approach to keep close watch on your technological assets.
What Should Your Inventory Include?
When you’re building an inventory system for your organization’s technology, you should include a comprehensive record of what’s included under this term. Ask yourself the following questions:
What Technology Do You Have?
You’ll first need to identify which resources should be tracked. Since technology often has long and drawn-out names or titles, you should instead abbreviate them in a way that is easy to keep track of.
This technique, often called shorthand, is what will help you keep track of the technology components that you possess.
One example of different components performing different tasks is the hard drive. Chances are that you have all kinds of devices just sitting around, waiting for the moment where they see the light of day.
Instead of listing off exactly what each device is, create a system for tracking what they are to make inventory easier to look at.
Let’s say that your organization has seven spare hard drives. One of them is blue with 1 terabyte of capacity, three of them are red solid-state drives with 1 terabyte each, two of them are black with 1.5 terabytes each, and one of them is purple with a 2 terabyte capacity. Use a shorthand method to list them as such:
1 HDD – BLUE – 1TB
3 SSD – RED – 1TB
2 HDD – BLACK – 1.5TB
1 HDD – PURPLE – 2TB
Where is the Technology Stored?
Once you know what technology to track, you need to determine where you are keeping track of it; specifically, you need to know where it is being stored, as well as who might possibly be in possession of it (if it’s been checked out).
Be sure to mark which building, room, or closet it is stored in, as well as the shelf location.
1 HDD – BLUE – 1TB (MAIN LOCATION/BASEMENT/SHELF A)
3 SSD – RED – 1TB (MAIN LOCATION/BASEMENT/SHELF E)
2 HDD – BLACK – 1.5TB (SAT-OFFICE1/ROOM4/SHELF B)
1 HDD – PURPLE – 2TB (SAT-OFFICE2/ROOM2/SHELF D)
Additional Details
There are other details that you may want to include in your inventory processes. For example, you can monitor pricing for specific components in the event that insurance needs to come into play at any point. You also might include the date at which you purchased the technology.
1 HDD – BLUE – 1TB (MAIN LOCATION/BASEMENT/SHELF A) – $95 (May 9, 2017)
There are ways to make sure that you’re using the best technology inventory process out there, and one of them is using bar-code technology to scan a device or component into an inventory management system.
There are other ways to do this, such as using a spreadsheet system or clipboard, but these are typically more prone to human error than relying on a bar-code scanner.
Does this sound like something you would be interested in implementing? Don’t waste any more time, get started today by reaching out to us.
Regardless of the focus or area of expertise of your particular business, having access to a consistent and reliable network and an equally reliable computer system is critical to success. Unfortunately, these systems are starting to become even more complex than they have ever been.
The ever-increasing complexity of modern networks and computer system has resulted in the installation and maintenance of these systems becoming ever more complicated for those responsible for maintaining them. This makes it difficult for small businesses to maintain their networks and computer systems on their own.
Most smaller organizations would be better served to outsource their IT needs, in this category to an external provider rather than struggling to maintain their networks and computer systems on their own. Outsourcing to an external IT provider can help out a business by providing them with a wide variety of different IT services, depending on the needs of your business.
24/7 Oversight
By outsourcing your IT needs to a provider, you remove the need to have someone in your company constantly around to observe your systems and make sure that everything is working as it should. Instead, you can just leave that to your provider and trust that they will always be providing oversight for your network and computer systems.
Resource Allocation
Another advantage of a managed service over having your own internal IT department is that you will be able to allocate resources better and can use the resources you would otherwise have had to spend on hiring and maintaining an internal IT department can be spent on other areas and on helping to improve and grow your business.
Network Setup
There is also the advantage that if you hire a managed service, you will have professional help with setting up your network in the first place. They will be able to work with you and figure out what kind of network will work best for you and help to ensure that it is optimally set up, can be easily managed and is simple to upgrade and expand when necessary.
4 Corner IT has been providing South Florida’s Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties with high-level managed services for almost 10 years now. If you are interested in managed IT services in the areas we provide them to, you should contact us to learn more about the services we offer.
Technology and IT functions have quickly become more implanted into the daily activities of businesses in a variety of industries. Since the IT functions have become a huge part of business models, the way these functions are delivered has become more service oriented.
Many businesses are starting to use IT service management tools in order to help support their business IT functions. There are a variety of benefits and advantages to using an IT service management model, including the following:
Time Saver
One of the great things about an IT service management model is that it can save your business a significant amount of time. The model will focus on providing IT as a service to you. There will also be an emphasis on providing the best standards. The right IT service management model will allow you to work productively, efficiently, and effectively.
All of your employees and team members will have a process to follow on a daily basis, and this will ensure that the proper work gets done. You will also be able to review your process and your workflow. Reviewing your workflow will give you the opportunity to determine where you need to make changes.
Manage Your Changes
Not only will an IT service management model save you precious time, it can also give you a great opportunity to manage any changes. When you manage changes through an IT service management model, you will be able to identify any problems that have occurred due to any updates or changes that have been made to your hardware or systems. When you can successfully manage your changes, you will not have to worry about downtime and other issues that will occur.
If you want to save time and money on a service without jeopardizing the productivity of your business, we suggest that you use a management model. Contact us today for more information on our services.
Managed IT services is the practice in which businesses outsource their company’s IT needs rather than maintain an in-house IT department. More small to medium-sized businesses than ever are choosing to enlist the help of a professional IT service management company rather than maintain an in-house team of IT specialists. Here are just a few of the benefits companies are finding professional IT service management provides.
Saves Money
The primary reason businesses are choosing to switch to managed IT services is to save money. Outsourcing your IT needs can reduce your monthly IT costs as you will only have to pay for the services you need. You will no longer have to deal with the cost of maintaining and updating equipment or paying an in-house IT staff, which can represent significant savings.
Frees Up Resources
By outsourcing your company’s IT needs you will also free up resources that can be refocused on your core businesses. Personnel and resources can be reallocated from back-office IT functions to other projects that can help to further your business’s core objectives and promote innovation and expansion.
Access to Professional IT Services
While you will no longer have an in-house IT team after outsourcing, you will still have access to professional IT specialists without the costs involved in maintaining full-time IT staff. In fact, many small to medium-sized businesses have a hard time recruiting experienced IT professionals, and for this reason, many business owners find that they have access to superior IT resources after switching to managed IT service.
Professional IT service management can prove to be highly beneficial for many companies. Contact us to learn more about how IT service management could help your business.
