Are Technology Malfunctions Disrupting Your Company’s Productivity?

When employees call in sick or have to miss work because of a personal emergency, your business doesn’t grind to a halt. If you urgently need their assistance to finish a project or resolve an issue, you can probably reach them via email or cellphone. But when technology shuts down, it’s usually a big productivity problem. Even with automatic data backup, if your laptop crashes with all your current work stored on the computer, it may take time to restore your system. In the meantime, you can only do so much without that information.

A recent small business survey highlighted in an article on the FOX Small Business Center website shows that 75 percent of small business owners say technology malfunctions like crashed computers are more disruptive than sick employees. Nearly half of the 500 companies surveyed cited frequent productivity loss due to technology malfunctions, with 86 percent experiencing such a loss at least once. Office tools manufacturer Brother International Corp. polled companies with 100 or fewer employees for the survey.

As companies rely more on technology, it’s critical for a small business to fully understand the risks to its technological infrastructure and to create a plan to get the business functioning again after a disaster or technology disruption as quickly as possible. The basic elements of disaster recovery include having an off-site backup of your business data and making a plan for how you’ll communicate with customers and the rest of your company if the normal lines of communication are disrupted. Start by determining who will be responsible for communicating your company’s plan to customers and employees, and whether word will come by company-wide emails, text messages or robocalls.

Planning ahead is critical to maintaining productivity in the event of a major technical problem, and as the Brother International Corp. small business survey shows, these kinds of problems arise frequently among small companies. While no amount of preparation is foolproof, disaster planning helps your company to mitigate these risks and resume operations as quickly as possible.

Do you think that technology disruptions are more problematic than absent employees? What disaster planning tips do you feel are most important for small businesses? Share your thoughts!

http://smallbiz.carbonite.com/articles/bid/271211/Are-Technology-Malfunctions-Disrupting-Your-Company-s-Productivity

The Problem That a Computer Support Company Will Fix

Ever think about the saying that is anything can go wrong, it will. Well this is very much true for computer systems. Many business owners don't realize how important it is to have a good IT company at their side, to service and fix any malfunctions that could go wrong. It is ideal to minimize the chances of anything malfunctioning, and TVG consulting can help do that.

 http://www.tvgconsulting.com/what-types-of-problems-can-a-computer-support-company-fix/

Security Management in Detail

read this wikipedia article about security management:

Security management is the identification of an organization's assets (including information assets), followed by the development, documentation, and implementation of policies and procedures for protecting these assets.

An organisation uses such security management procedures as information classification, risk assessment, and risk analysis to identify threats, categorise assets, and rate system vulnerabilities so that they can implement effective controls.

to read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_management

Information Technology Support Makes IT Management an Enjoyable and Productive Process

Read this amazing article we found.  It can help you decide on an IT support company:

Back in the original days of information technology and business, the entire technology department was an operator that stored backups and fixed broken computers. Technology has grown and now includes so much more. It continues to offer new and exciting developments as the demands of competitive businesses and individuals change. These changes work together and continue to evolve the ways businesses use information technology. Today technology is everywhere and information technology departments for businesses contain a vast array of employees with expertise in areas such as web design, network support, and PC technicians. IT systems are the driving force of many companies success. As the complexity of business systems increases, companies find it very difficult to keep up and obtain information technology support that is truly beneficial.

IT Management - Managing an Entire IT Department Can Be Simple

Technology can be pretty confusing in the business world. No one has all the expertise in every part of business systems technology. Often the managers hiring employees for these jobs know what they want to accomplish in business terms but do not know what skills are required to make it happen. The result is time spent hiring an employee that doesn't have the skill set needed for the position and unachieved company goals. Any potential employee can come in and talk the talk to get in the door. Unless your company has a dedicated IT manager that truly understands the language, you can end up with a very messy IT department, undependable systems, and lots of frustration. Employees at smaller companies are often relied upon to have many different types of skills making this more likely. What you want are people that have a specialization and a general understanding of the whole picture. This allows them to work together with other employees for the most efficient technology. No one ever said IT management was easy; however, getting information technology support from an outside company with experienced people can make it a lot more rewarding, less costly, and dependable.

IT Outsourcing Services - What Can They Do For Your Company?

Why would you want to use IT outsourcing services? There are many reasons why companies choose to outsource. The biggest reason is cost savings. When the IT department consists of a multitude of semi-experienced employees, the result is money spent where it shouldn't be. An inexperienced employee will buy the wrong hardware, not be able to support the network, or properly run the website. The network may be down often or website sales are halted. These problems cost your company money and possible customers. IT outsourcing services use your specific company goals, current technology, and budget to create a feasible technology plan for the business. Once in place they support the system through monitoring tools. When problems arise, they will either fix them remotely or come to the site and take care of the problem. Many issues are avoided through monitoring and repairs are quick due to their awareness. Updates and backups are done mostly offsite for protection of data and the most current system. The right IT management can transform the way you do business.

to read the rest: http://ezinearticles.com/?Information-Technology-Support-Makes-IT-Management-an-Enjoyable-and-Productive-Process&id=4885649

Fixed Fees Verses Hourly Rates

When your business is looking to hire and IT support Company, you should consider whether you are looking to pay a fixed fee or an hourly rate along with doing online research for companies in your area. This is important in order to hire the best candidate to assist your business with information technology. There is a big difference between paying an hourly rate and paying a fixed fee.  Learn the difference while reading this blog. 

http://www.tvgconsulting.com/why-is-a-fixed-fee-better-than-an-hourly-fee-for-it-services-in-los-angeles/

Why Small Businesses Need IT Support

we found this awesome article for you to read:

Sometimes IT is treated like secondary concern by small business owners who’ve recently made it through the lean, DIY startup years. They might see IT as an option rather than a necessity. But when the first meltdown occurs, like a server crashing or email going offline, owners begin to realize they need some kind of support. But why go with a flat fee, fully managed IT service like Ripple? Why not just get the office manager to troubleshoot problems as they occur? Or maybe an hourly help desk service would do the trick. Yes, it’s true that these solutions are better than nothing, but having a dedicated team of IT experts watching over a company’s network decreases the likelihood of having another emergency situation arise in the first place. Not only that, but when there is a big problem, knowledgable IT folk can get you back on track without taking time away from your employees or having to worry about the cost of being on the line with a “by-the-hour” IT service.

Obtaining the best IT support keeps your people doing what you’re paying them to do, and not fiddling with a malfunctioning printer or some software issue for an hour or more. Here’s a quick breakdown of the reasons why small business owners not only need IT support, but how they can use a fully managed service provider to keep people productive and ultimately grow the business.

1. Staying Productive
Trying to solve all operational problems related to your business can be a real setback. With experts dedicated to ensuring that your computers are running properly, people can do their jobs and you won’t have to worry about productivity hitting a wall when something does break.

2. Professional Consultation
Simply put, small businesses who invest in IT and get consultation from experts in the field are more likely to thrive than those that don’t. It’s for this reason that investing in IT support should be a prerequisite for any business, no matter what size. IT solutions for computer software, hardware, and more recent innovations like VoIP phone systems and cloud storage are pretty difficult to understand unless you’re a certified IT technician. But when a company’s only job is IT, there’s nothing more important to them than keeping up with technology. Providing good consultation is what keeps their clients happy, and ultimately helps small businesses grow.

3. Security
Security can be a big problem for many small businesses, largely because hackers know that most companies of this size don’t impose tough security measures. This is usually due to either a lack of knowledge about the threat out there, or because the perceived cost of being protected is too high. And internet bots don’t care how small the business is. They’re just automated hacking programs going through a list. If your server somehow makes it onto that randomly-generate list then the damage caused can be pretty extensive. Being up-to-date with security measures should be a huge priority no matter the size of your business. And again, unless you’re in the IT industry, it’s near impossible to keep up with all the latest preventative measures.

As a small business owner, IT support is an absolute necessity if you want to stay productive and grow your company. Check out some of our case studies below and see if our  fully managed Beyond Support (™) IT service can help you do just that.

http://rippleit.com/why-small-businesses-need-it-support

The Relocation Process

If you don't have an IT support company for your small business, you should start looking for one. The internet is a good resource for information, because it is convenient and time-efficient. A search using the words, "IT Consulting Company," is a good way to start your internet research. A search engine will give you great results. Make sure to read the client reviews and testimonials before hiring a IT company.

  http://www.tvgconsulting.com/tvg-consulting-answers-the-question-will-an-it-consulting-company-assist-my-company-in-the-relocation-process/