To Outsource, or Not to Outsource: That is the Question! Should You Keep Your IT Support In-House or Look to an External IT Company?
Your IT systems are fundamental to the smooth running of your business. You want to make sure that whoever looks after your IT is highly skilled, efficient and dependable. If you are used to keeping your IT support in-house, the thought of handing over control to an IT company may be unnerving. What if they don’t live up to expectations? What are the financial implications? What about vendor accountability?
In this blog I am going to look at the subject of outsourcing, some of the main objections and how ultimately, with the right IT Company, outsourcing makes good business sense.
OK, let’s start with objection 1: ‘I don’t want to deal with multiple vendors who always pass the buck’
Dealing with multiple vendors can be a real headache. Blame is often shifted around and you can end up wasting valuable time as piggy-in-the-middle trying to resolve IT issues.
However, if you outsource to a company who include liaising with 3rd party vendors as part of the support package this burden can be lifted and IT issues resolved without infringing on your time. The companies can work together to troubleshoot issues more effectively and the end result will be a faster resolution time.
Objection 2: ‘IT is already one of our biggest overheads, outsourcing IT support will just add to IT expenditure’
This is a common misconception – outsourcing IT can be the easiest way to cut IT costs.
For example, if you compare the salary of a 2nd line technician at £25,000-£35,000 to the cost of contract IT support (a team of 1st, 2nd and 3rd line engineers providing unlimited remote and on-site support) for a company of 50 employees at £12,000-£17,000 per annum you can see a reduction of over 50%. In this current climate, these savings are hard to ignore.
Objection 3: ‘Issues are resolved quicker when IT support is in-house’
Everyone wants a speedy response to their IT issues so they can get on with their work. But what happens when your technician goes on annual leave, is off sick or doesn’t have the skill set to solve IT problems?
Have you considered that outsourcing can actually improve productivity?
If you outsource to an IT company with a wide pool of highly skilled engineers, you not only have access to the round-the-clock support but your IT issues can be resolved quicker and more effectively by a team who are continually training to keep up to date with all the latest technologies.
Objection 4: ‘My technician has worked here so long; he understands the business inside-out. I don’t think I’ll have the same level of continuity or trust with an IT company’
Good IT companies will assign a dedicated person who is responsible for understanding your business needs and will be held accountable for the level of service being provided – a Client Services Manager, Account Manager or a dedicated Technical Engineer. A forward-thinking IT company will do everything they can to attribute to the success of your business as they have a vested interest – your success is their success.
Objection 5: ‘I won’t get the same level of service from an IT company’
It’s not all about fixing issues; an IT company can proactively manage your IT infrastructure and handle procurement of hardware/software, 3rd party liaising, anti-virus/anti-spam management, business continuity and disaster recovery, research of relevant new technologies and much more.
Because of the resources available and the wide-ranging experience looking after a variety of businesses, an IT company can give you a level of service which goes above and beyond the limited experience of just one technician.
Outsourcing your IT will allow you to focus on your core competencies, leaving IT issues to be dealt with by engineers of a calibre that only large organisations can usually afford to employ.
Do you have any other objections? I would love to discuss these with you! Get in touch via email: suzie@supremesystems.co.uk or call me on: 0121 3090060
Suzannah Evans, Business Development Director, Supreme Systems
MoreShare and Share Alike – The Joys of Using SharePoint: Microsoft’s Software Platform for Collaboration, File Sharing and Web Publishing.
We’ve been using SharePoint for a while here at Supreme and have introduced the platform to a number of our clients.
OK, I know we’re partners with Microsoft so you may call me biased but I’m pretty impressed with SharePoint and I’m going to tell you the reasons why!
1. SharePoint is great for simple file sharing:
Along with most companies, we have a fair amount of documentation which we need to share and access when we’re either in the office or at home. Personally, when I’m out and about in meetings I like to be able to access files easily. Using SharePoint I am able to easily gain access to files from anywhere using a secure login. I can show potential clients PowerPoint’s or other documents on my laptop which I’ve been working on using my desktop in the office or my laptop at home. It means that a colleague can be working on a document at the office, save it on SharePoint and I can have it on my laptop wherever I am. The built-in version control and permissions management makes editing files safe and avoids the confusion of multiple versions of the same document.
2. SharePoint can deliver your business needs for an Intranet/Extranet
Fancy having your own, private internet for your company? A place to share important news, policy documents and information?
When we want to share some good news within our company like getting a new certification or accreditation, we post it on the intranet home page. This is a great communication tool that goes alongside our regular internal meetings so that everyone is up to date with company developments. It’s a good place to store important documents such as Fire Safety Regulations, Annual Leave Request Forms and Company Handbooks so they are easily accessible to everyone. There is also a shared calendar which is a great way to keep track of employee annual leave.
3. You can access SharePoint from virtually anywhere with an internet connection without purchasing a Server!
The familiar Microsoft SharePoint Server technology is available as an online service as part of Office 365, Microsoft’s latest offering in Cloud Technology. Office 365 brings together online Office collaboration software for email, document sharing, web conferencing and more. I’m going to be exploring Office 365 and what it can do for your business in my next blog so keep an eye out!
If you would like more information about how we can take care of your IT so you can focus on what’s important to you, give me a call on 0121 3090060 or send me and email to suzie@supremesystems.co.uk
MoreToday’s Top Tip – Creating Secure Passwords!
Here at Supreme we are passionate about IT, continually training to keep up to date with the very latest technologies, ideas and news in the IT world.
However, what I’m going to show you today is one of the oldest tricks in the book!
As technology is increasingly integrated into our every-day lives we find that we have to remember more and more passwords so we can securely log in and out of our various devices and accounts. If these passwords are not secure, we become vulnerable to hacking and our personal information/ reputation can be compromised.
Here is a step-by-step way to easily create and remember very secure passwords.
1) Think of a random fact, for example: ‘I like Supreme’ – but don’t use this one as it’s on this blog…
2) Delete the spaces between the words: ‘IlikeSupreme’
3) Swop out the letters for symbols and numbers. So this becomes: !l!ke5upreme
4) For an even more secure password, go one step further and add a number at the end which is meaningful to you: !l!ke5upreme2009
Simple, yet effective!
You can check the strength of your password using Microsoft’s password checker here:https://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/password-checker.aspx
For more information about Supreme Systems please take a look around our website. Have you met the Supreme Team yet? Click here to get introduced!
MoreMy PC Died But Our Trusty Supreme Technicians Had Me Back Up and Running Within an Hour!
Monday morning began like any other day, I got up and ready for work, had a cup of tea and buttery crumpets then made my merry way to the Supreme offices singing a little happy song. Ok, so I probably looked bleary-eyed and wasn’t singing but you get the idea.
On arrival I switched on my PC and sat down to write a quick task list for the week. After a moment or two my PC stopped making its usual buzzing and whirring sounds so I looked up at the screen. I did not like what I saw: ‘Cannot locate operating system’….
For the last year or so my PC has worked perfectly well with Windows 7, thank you very much. I performed the classic ‘switch it off, switch it on’ procedure but the PC stopped booting-up at the same point and showed the same error message.
Luckily for me, I have access to some pretty brainy IT Technicians so I called one of them over. He took one look at the screen and shook his head. He told me that if a PC has a legitimate operating system but cannot locate it the usual suspect is a faulty or old hard drive. My PC’s hard-drive was getting a bit old so it was looking like the culprit.
The engineer removed my PC for further investigation.
At this point it was about 9.15am and I had a lot of work that needed doing, emails to send, documents to write etc.. How was I going to get things done sans my PC?
Well, thanks to some careful planning by our technical team I was back up and running before 10am!
You see, the team have what is known as a ‘hot-spare’ PC in one of the tech cupboards. This is a PC that is configured, networked and really to roll in the event of a computer conking out. We have also all been advised to save EVERYTHING on our Server so we not only increase the shelf-life of our PCs but can still access our work if disaster strikes.
The hot-spare was plugged in, attached to my monitor after quickly creating a new Outlook profile all of my emails were loaded in minutes. All I needed to do was find a new screen saver!
It just goes to show that with experts on hand to plan ahead and take care of issues when they arise you can experience little or no downtime when it comes to working your socks off!
Why don’t you see for yourself?
If you would like more information about how we can take care of your IT so you can focus on what’s important to you, give me a call on 0121 3090060 or send me and email to suzie@supremesystems.co.uk
MoreWhat Would Happen to Your Business if Your Server Suffered Major Downtime? Why Having a Disaster Recovery Plan in Place is Vital for Businesses.
If you are a small business owner there are two words that can make you go weak at the knees and NOT in a good way – Server Failure.
Servers are fundamental to the running of most businesses these days and if they die it can mean your business grinds to a halt. Buying new Servers, getting them installed and restoring them from the back-up can take anything up to three weeks. It’s the stuff of nightmares.
“But I’ve got Anti-Virus and my Server has worked OK so far…what could POSSIBLY go wrong?” I hear you say!
OK, here are some of the situations where your IT can suffer major down-time:
No 1 – Fire, Theft, Flood, Earthquake
Where your IT infrastructure is severely damaged or rendered unusable by a natural disaster or if you suffer a theft.
No 2 – New Virus Attack
If a virus attacks your Server and causes software corruption or component failure. Robust Anti-Virus protects against most viruses – however, new viruses are being created all the time. If a patch or ‘antidote’ for a new virus does not apply in time, your IT can be compromised.
No 3 – Systems Failure
Server component failure – Due to; faulty part, overheating, age, wear & tear, accidental spillage/breakage
No 4 – Deliberate act of sabotage
Where an employee or somebody outside the business deliberately compromises your IT equipment or data.
I’ll let you in to a secret… 999RESTORE can have you back up and running within a few hours and none will be the wiser.
999RESTORE is Supreme Systems’ Disaster Recovery Package
Here is how it works:
Step 1 – An Account Manager and an engineer works with you to create a Disaster Recovery Plan that meets your unique requirements and specifications.
Step 2 – Engineers visit your site and, using specialist DR equipment, create an exact replica of your Server software.
Step 3 – The replica is stored on a Supreme Systems Server in our secure Server Room where it is maintained, managed and updated and most importantly it’s GOOD TO GO when you most need it.
Step 4 – In the event of a virus attack, systems failure or deliberate act of sabotage Supreme Systems will deliver the replica Server and you can be back up and running within 4 hours. In the event of a natural disaster where your equipment is totally destroyed, your replica server is available for you to remotely access from a spare laptop or home PC.
Engineers will then begin the process of recovering your old Server using your back-up. You are free to use the replica server for as long as it takes to purchase a new Server or rebuild your original Server.
If you would like to discuss your options regarding disaster recovery contact me at the office on 0845 524 0035 or email me at suzie@supremesystems.co.uk
MoreWhen is a Back-Up Not a Back-Up? When Your Back-Up Device FAILS! How Supreme Makes Sure That Your Data is Available for When You Most Need It.
If you own a business and your data is important to you, you will have some sort of system in place for backing it up. Whether it’s via tape drives, a NAS device, a back-up Server, a portable storage device, Online or Offline (or several other options) you know that your business data is safe because you have a perfect copy.
However, back-up devices (like all technology) can fail. This can be due to many reasons, some of them being hardware failure, a service failure on the Server, the back-up device reaching capacity (…Or because someone forgot to change the tape, doh!)
This means that when disaster strikes or you simply want to recover an old copy of a file you are unable to do so because the back-up simply isn’t there.
As an IT company it is our responsibility to ensure our managed services clients’ data is protected. First of all we insist that a robust back-up device is in place and then we take certain steps to ensure that the back-up device is actually working.
And how do we do this?
Well, firstly we set up alerts to notify us every time a back-up takes place letting us know if the back-up was successful – but even this cannot be 100% accurate. To be extra safe we run what are known as ‘test restores’ every few months. A test restore involves an engineer creating a file, backing it up and then destroying the file. The engineer then attempts to restore that file from the back-up device and confirm that the back-up device is doing what it is supposed to do!
This gives our clients complete peace of mind when it comes to the protection of their business data.
If you are concerned about the reliability of your back-up device or you would like more information about stabilising your IT environment please contact me on 0121 3090060 or send me an email suzie@supremesystems.co.uk
MoreEvery Little Helps! How Supreme Systems Lend a Helping Hand..
As well as rolling out large IT projects and providing heavyweight IT Support, here at Supreme we understand that ‘help with the little things’ is often what our clients really appreciate.
Take last month as an example when one business owner called us for some advice…
This MD has a fairly young business with 20 staff – all of them use laptops or PCs. As he’s a trusting guy, he had allowed his staff open access to the internet on their PCs during working hours. Unfortunately, a few of his staff abused their freedom and spent a lot of time browsing the net & going on social networking sites rather than getting on with work. The potential damage to his company’s reputation coupled with the high costs associated with time spent by his staff using the internet had become a serious concern.
As a business owner he doesn’t have time to check up on his staff’s internet use all day – he’s got more important things to do! He was unsure how to fix the problem – on one hand he wanted his staff to be able to use the internet for work-related browsing and also check their personal emails and social networking sites at lunchtime but on the other hand he wanted them to get on with the work he’s paying them to do!
Luckily…We had just the solution for him. We have helped a number of our clients restrict internet access by implementing a powerful piece of software which controls what users view on the web. It restricts all sites that are seen to be inappropriate and well as sites which are illegal so that the internet can be used as an effective business tool without the threat to productivity or increased legal liability. It protects the network from web-based threats of viruses, spyware and other malware that presents a considerable business risk. It can be configured to allow access to certain sites (such as social networking sites or personal email accounts) during a set time (such as midday or out of office hours) so users can still have a certain amount of freedom – in their own time.
We implemented the solution and now he can relax, safe in the knowledge that his staff are not wasting valuable time or putting his business at risk…At least not in the area of web abuse!
Problem Solved!
Web misuse at work is becoming an increasingly common issue – if you would like to find out more about how you can increase staff productivity, guard your business from web-based threats and protect your company’s online reputation call the Supreme Systems office on: 0800 001 5942 Or drop me an email at- suzie@supremesystems.co.uk
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Help! I’ve Deleted Some Important Files and I Need Them Back! A Short Analogy of How Supreme Restored Calm and Saved the Day
Last week we received a frantic call from a client who had accidentally deleted some important files. The user – a Sales Executive for a large manufacturing company. The files contained some vital data and could potentially lose the user a big sale.
Although the client was unsure of exactly when the file was deleted, our engineers were confident that the file would be successfully restored. Why you ask? Well our continuity planning with this client helped us develop a backup and restore strategy that included daily backups (daily overwrite) plus bi monthly and monthly offsite backups held at our data centre.
Our engineers quickly established that the file was not in the daily or bi monthly backups (they also checked the drive where the file had been originally stored just to make sure that the file had not been renamed or saved to a different location – these things happen!)
The final check was in the most recent monthly backup and what do you know..? There was the rogue file!
It was quickly restored back to its original location, the client was informed and they confirmed that this indeed was the missing document. Peace, joy and happiness reigns once more!
To discuss your Backup & Restore requirements or if you would like more ideas on how you can design an IT Continuity plan for your business please drop me an email at this address:
suzie@supremesystems.co.uk or Tweet me: @supremebunch or connect with me via Linked In: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/suzannahevans
Of course, I’d also welcome a good old fashioned call on the telephone! You can contact me at the office on: 0121 309 0060.
MoreHelp With The Little Things! How To Easily Create Multiple Addressed Labels or Envelopes To Send Out Christmas Cards To Your Clients!
‘Tis the season to be jolly and send out cards to your clients and prospects to wish them a Happy Christmas and New Year! Not only is this a traditional, festive gesture but it also lets them know that they are important to you.
We’ve had a few calls from clients this week who want to send out multiple cards but have had trouble trying to print out labels or envelopes and don’t have the time to hand-write all of the addresses as well as the message inside the cards.
I’m going to show you step-by-step how you can easily use Microsoft Word 2007-2010 Mail Merge to create Labels or Envelopes that will make the whole experience of sending out cards a lot more enjoyable! I’ve put links to the Microsoft website for other versions.
First you need to create an excel document with all of your clients contacts information separated in columns (eg: Full Name, Company Name, Address 1, Address 2, Address 3, Post Code) and save it.
To create labels:
Open a new Microsoft Word document and click:
Mailings tab>>Start Mail Merge>>Step by Step Mail Merge wizard
Select labels and click:
Next: Starting Document
Click on Label Options and select how many labels you would like on each page (I usually go for 30 per page)
Click: Next: Select Recipients>>Browse
Then select your Excel file and press OK. Select the recipients you wish to mail merge press OK
Click: Next: Arrange your labels>>More Items
Click: More Items and insert each line of text one at a time into the label in the top left hand corner(eg: Full Name, Company Name, Address 1, Address 2, Address 3, Post Code)
At this point you’ll need to space out the text on the label how you would like it to appear for all of your labels.
Then click: Update all labels. This will replicate your first label across the whole page.
Click: Next: Preview your labels
Your labels should now be created! You can preview the labels using the relevant functions to the right of your screen.
Click: Next: Complete the merge
At this point you can edit individual labels (this will open a new document) or print them if you are happy with them.
And there you go!
Don’t fancy printing labels? The process for creating envelopes is very similar – just select envelopes instead of labels and follow the directions on Mail Merge Wizard.
For information on older versions of Microsoft Word visit the Microsoft website: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/word-mail-merge-a-walk-through-the-process-HA001034920.aspx
Or http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294683
If you enjoyed this blog and would like to know more about Supreme Systems please visit our website www.supremesystems.co.uk
MoreI Just Clicked On a Link in an Email and A Virus Took Over My PC! How Supreme Systems Came to the Rescue and Removed the Malicious Software…
Last week we received a call from an anxious Accountant from a West Midlands based Accounting Firm. Their work was being interrupted by annoying pop-ups with error messages. More to the point these pop-ups had started right after the user had opened an email and clicked on a link to an apparent Anti-Virus… Not sounding good so far, eh?
We work with a number of Accounting Firms and it is particularly important that their data is protected due to the fact it contains scores of their clients’ confidential financial information. The Accountant feared the worst – that their PC had been severely compromised.
Technical Engineer Rashid took the call and connected remotely to the PC to take a look at the pop-ups. Due to the content of these pop-ups it was evident that a virus has indeed infected the PC. He set about running a Virus Scan to try to detect and control the virus but the scan did not pick this up – this usually means that the virus has been intelligently created to bypass basic scans.
After checking the system settings and common locations he found traces of the virus. This particular virus was an application virus – one that spreads by installing software onto a PC. It disables all access to the system’s configuration settings and can even disable the legitimate Anti-Virus software within a basic account.
Rashid then tried using a feature called System Restore which is built into Windows. It is designed so that if the system becomes unstable due to system changes it can be restored to a previous, stable version. He used the feature to successfully revert the system back to a pre-virus state. ‘What about all of the Accountant’s work?!’ I hear you cry! The system was restored without affecting any documents, pictures or any other data that the user had been working on post-attack.
Nice one! Another happy customer.
The moral of the story is: Be aware! Our Help Desk receive many calls like this one because unfortunately, the number of incidences where viruses hiddene within emails have been introduced to a network is still on the rise.
So be aware! Do not open emails or click on links from people you do not know or do not trust. If you suspect your PC is infected with a virus give the Supreme Team a call on: 0121 3090060.
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