It continues to amaze me that budgeting for technology is overlooked by so many small businesses today. There are many reasons a well-understood budget is needed. This not to say a budget cannot change as the business and economic outlooks change. But overall, it is an important factor in driving businesses forward and ultimately reducing overall costs.
When most people think of great customer service experiences from a help desk, they think about the way they were treated by the engineer on the other end of the phone. As engineers, we have the privilege of being on both ends of the call on a regular basis; on the receiving end when we field calls from our clients and on the customer side when we engage vendor technical support.
The most important thing that we’ve learned is that when working with a technical support representative over the phone, they have the same goals we do – to get your problem solved.
“Your server is out of warranty…”
“Your server is older than dirt…”
“You need to replace this TODAY!!!”
We have all had these conversations with clients. Unfortunately, we have all been ignored at least a couple of times only to see a massive failure resulting in a costly and time-consuming replacement. Over the past 2-3 years as the economy plummeted, just about every business out there had to take extreme measures to cut spending. Companies have reduced their IT budgets and been forced to “Band-Aid” their existing infrastructures in order to keep their business afloat. It is essentially gambling, but it was the only option they had in the failing economy. What should you do?
This day and age, staying on top of current technology can be a daunting task. Tight schedules, spending time with family, and much needed relaxation can all contribute to not having enough time to indulge in new technologies. Luckily for busy folks, there is a way to stay on top of technology news during your commute to and from work – Technology-based Podcasts.
On a quarterly basis, we see a significant spike in the number of hours spent on spyware cleanups. It’s one of those sad but true facts that as a managed service provider we simply must deal with. This certainly is not a part of our business that is a pleasant topic for us, but inevitably we dive and tackle what the newest variant is. It’s a pain point for our clients and, more than you would believe, for our engineers.
From an application standpoint, we do everything we can to reduce our clients’ vulnerability. This includes pressing our vendors for improvements and finding additional solutions. However, there is one sure-fire method to decreasing these incidents….
RSS or Real Simple Syndication is a format used to deliver regularly changing website content. It’s most commonly used by news organizations or other online publishers to distribute new content to interested. By subscribing to the Thrive Networks RSS Feed, we will automatically send you new blog articles as they are posted.
If you already have a preferred RSS Reader that you are using, click here to add our blog to your existing list of feeds or go directly to: http://feeds.feedburner.com/thrivenetworks/blog
Wondering what you can do to improve the performance and longevity of your computer? Jim Lippie, President of Thrive Networks, was one of several industry experts asked to contribute to a SecondAct.com Technology article, “Keep Your Computer in Tip-Top Shape”. This article written by Diana McCabe explores 10 easy ways to help keep your computer running smoothly and safely.
Jim Lippie suggests the following:
