Why IT Support Services Is Important For Your Company?
All companies, regardless of their size now need IT support services, even on the Gold Coast. Large companies can often afford their own internal IT, but even those are now deciding that having outsourced IT services on the Gold Coast is more cost-effective than paying for in-house IT support and all the expenses that go with it. With almost all small to medium-sized companies being reliant on the internet for much of their business and the increasing complexity of doing so, IT support is becoming more important every day. WHAT CAN IT SERVICES DO FOR YOUR BUSINESS? IT SUPPORT IS AN INVESTMENT Some people invest in the latest technical apps for their business only to find in a few months the software is outdated and almost obsolete. When you hire IT support services you’ll never need to purchase software again and your office will have the latest top of the line equipment that is tailored specifically for your particular application. You won’t have to worry about paying fees, costly updates and unexpected fees. Everything will be covered in one price you can negotiate to suit your business and budget. This gives you financial security knowing all your office expenses in advance so you can do proper costings and budgets. ENHANCED OVERALL SECURITY Data security is fast becoming a major issue with all businesses and anyone working on the net. Cybercrime and data theft are getting so expensive to protect yourself against that this alone is worth hiring an IT Service to look after for you. They can provide instant backup and monitoring services so you never need to miss an opportunity online. EMAIL AND CUSTOMER SERVICES Often a business is too busy to answer all the emails they receive, monitor the phone lines and provide 24/7 chat services, your It support services can help provide the right solution for your business at the most competitive prices. Your customers deserve the best quality service possible and without it, they will look elsewhere meaning you are losing business. Having the best and latest technological advances will ensure your customers are happy and receiving the service they expect. This will allow you to build your reputation and reinforce your brand. LESS WORRY AND MORE TIME LOOKING AFTER YOUR BUSINESS Computer issues are a real pain and waste time and resources. When you invest in IT support on the Gold Coast you can bypass the worries and let the professionals look after any technical problems while you are free to focus on the important aspects of your business. MAXIMISE COMPANY EFFICIENCY All companies today are looking at ways to cut costs and be more efficient. When you invest in IT Services on the Gold Coast you are increasing your companies potential and efficiency at the same time using the latest highly effective service that strives to maximise productivity while giving you the best possible return. IT support services are vital for any business that wishes to remain competitive and safe in the fast-moving world of the internet. Having your data and records protected and instantly recoverable after issues with cybercrime, natural disasters or human error is vital in keeping the business alive.
Read MoreEffectiveness Of IT System | Managed Services Gold Coast | Netlogyx IT
Ransomware, poorly functioning servers, outdated software – just a few of the factors that can be slowing down your business and creating unnecessary stress for your employees trying to complete their work with a computer that won’t co-operate. Effectively managing your IT systems, you rely on every day to run your business is a big job that only becomes more involved as your business grows which is why you may want to think about getting a professional to assist in setting up and maintain effective IT systems within your business. This doesn’t mean you need to completely change what you are currently doing if the systems you have in place work well overall a few tweaks may be all that is required provided it’s flexible and can adapt to growth within your business. However, if you are experiencing poor productivity due to poor/slow computer systems you want to investigate. Is it slow Internet connectivity, outdated systems that constantly crash or a combination of these IT-related issues that waste work hours and are costing you money you need to make some changes. Leaving these issues unresolved will impact your business growth. Poor IT planning is a direct result of a poor understanding of your businesses requirements. While you can’t avoid some IT related expenses you can minimize them by accurately estimating and effectively managed by a skilled professional. Does IT support focus on ad hoc issue resolution, instead of preventive maintenance? Each time a problem blows up, you have no other choice but to get outside help to fix the problem. This is costly and can cause budget blowouts. Implementing an IT management service will prevent such blow-outs and as it is generally a monthly fee you can forward plan and budget far easier knowing how much you are up for. Hiring an IT team is just one part of the equation. If you don’t stay on top of training keep track of new innovations and how to use them, you won’t be staying on top of new developments you can implement to improve your business or similarly you may not be aware of new security threats and bugs and how they can be prevented from impacting your business.
Read MoreDoes Your Business Need A Digital Upgrade?
Before you start making major changes you need to assess and evaluate your business goals and objectives. When you have narrowed down the areas you need to apply digital systems and how you want them to function it will make the application and changeover a smoother process. The importance of using an experienced professional can’t be stressed enough. It will ensure your transformation is a smooth one. They will sit down and discuss your goals and tailor a plan based on your needs. They need to be able to assess your business and engage technology that can fulfill those business goals and expectations. As every business is different, their digital requirements will vary depending on the industry, size of business and what they want to achieve. What is essential for one company won’t be relevant to another and vice versa, which is why you need to continue to implement new technologies. Once you have begun to implement the use of your chosen digital tools and services, you’ll start to see your business is able to run more efficiently, saving you both money, time and resources. By failing to adapt to the changing tech landscape, you are seriously undermining your potential to thrive.
Read MoreWhy Is Backing Up Your Data So Important?
Keeping duplicate copies of your most important information saved and stored in a remote location is a safeguard in case anything goes badly wrong with your computer. Backing up files actually doesn’t take up a lot of time and in the event, something does go wrong it will save you a lot of headaches down the track… e.g. Computer crashes – Never a good time to have a computer crash and the likelihood you will lose data is high. Computer virus – malicious viruses can corrupt files and disable your computer system. Your hard drive fails – hard drives have a limited lifespan and can fail suddenly and without warning. When this occurs, there is the risk of losing months or even years of irreplaceable files and if it happens close to a deadline the timing can be a total nightmare! Physical computer damage – Files of laptop users are at a higher risk. While laptops have the advantage of being light and portable it comes at the price of reduced durability. Laptops are quite sensitive and are easily damaged when dropped or if food/drinks get spilt on them. Theft – computers are an easy target for thieves and cannot always be kept secure whilst traveling. It’s quite simple, if you value what’s on your computer the smart thing to do is take steps to protect your information. You can always re-do work but precious files like family and travel photos are irreplaceable. Most users regularly back up their files to their computer hard drive, but in the event of a total computer breakdown, this will not protect your information and files. The best option is to save the data to a separate location like an external hard drive or a large-capacity pen drive to best protect your files. Keep in mind this method is only as secure as the device you’re backing up to. When saving your files on physical devices, the backup device needs to be kept in a different location than your computer and is also at risk of damage or loss. It’s important to copy your files often to ensure backups are up to date and all recent work is protected. Despite your best intentions, you may forget to copy your files as often as you should, leaving a large amount of recent work unprotected. Another safe and effective method of securing files is an online backup. Files stored online are safe from damage your computer, and if something goes wrong with your machine you will still have remote access to your information from any computer with internet access. This means files can be quickly and easily restored to your computer from a secure online server. For more information on how to keep your data safe contact Netlogyx at 07 5520 1211
Read MoreUtilising IT Systems To Maximize Your Business Productivity
Businesses need productive and engaged employees working on executing tasks that achieve the goals aligned with the organization’s strategic objectives. And, if execution is the key to running a successful business—How do you increase your business productivity to achieve your strategic goals? ? WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF USING BUSINESS PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE: Incorporating the use of technology to maximize your business productivity allows you to create a platform to achieve true business success. Business productivity software gives organizations the tools to overcome many of the challenges executing their business strategy every day. Increasing the productivity of the business involves changes like automation of various processes which allow for faster communication and more efficient time management. CONNECT VIRTUAL TEAMS WITHIN THE COMPANY. The creation of employee portals and team sites aid staff to work productively across the organization, despite their location or team. It opens up the lines of communication making it simple for employees to reach out to others on similar projects or seek information from others within the company. MOTIVATE YOUR EMPLOYEES WITH TECHNOLOGY. Using information gathered from online performance evaluation, managers can review and compare current skills with the skills needed for advancement or other opportunities that present themselves within the company. It can also help uncover employees strengths and help to find them in a position within the company that utilisies those strengths to the best of their ability. If you uncover factors decreasing better performance, the company needs to review the reasons why it is happening and eliminate the issue through the use of additional training or increasing staff. KEEP TRACK OF BUSINESS PRODUCTIVITY AND EMPLOYEE PROGRESS ON GOALS. Online business productivity software solutions enable managers to track progress easily throughout every phase of project completion and be on top of any issues that may arise promptly offering reinforcement and coaching to keep performance and deadlines on track. This will achieve greater business productivity because your organization is staffed with a workforce is continually being educated and expanding their skill set. When your staff are happy and feel a sense of pride in their job, they will work harder for you. Encourage your staff by rewarding them for their successes, using both monetary and non-monetary incentives. REVIEW PERFORMANCE Today’s technology gives us advanced reporting and business analysis capabilities that give you a more in-depth understanding of your businesses performance, your customers profile and preferences and any relevant market trends. You can use that information to develop or redesign your strategy to keep your results on track.
Read MoreOffice 365 For Business – Gold Coast IT Solutions
OUTLOOK The email service, task management, calendar application, and contacts manager included with business Office 365 subscriptions are under the Outlook branch of the web brand. It includes Outlook Mail, Outlook Calendar, Outlook People, and Outlook Tasks. Microsoft also introduced an email feature called Clutter with Office 365. Clutter memorises user’s preferences regarding relevance and importance of their emails. It analyses the user’s pattern of behaviour about email subjects, if user keeps ignoring emails from a certain sender or subject, Clutter files those emails to a folder with the same name in Outlook. HOSTED SERVICES The business plans for Office 365 offer access to cloud-hosted versions of Office’s server platforms on a software as a service basis, which include Exchange, Skype for Business, SharePoint, and the browser-based Office Web Apps suite. The SharePoint’s OneDrive for Business program provides each user with 15 GB of online storage. OFFICE APPLICATIONS Some plans for Office 365 do also include access to current versions of the Office desktop applications for both Windows and OS X for the duration of their subscription. For Office 2016 on Windows, it is installed using a “click-to-run” system which allows users to begin using the applications almost immediately while files are streamed in the background. All updates to the software are installed automatically, this includes both security updates and major new versions of Office. If an Office 365 subscription lapses, the applications become read-only and the editing functionality is disabled. Full functionality is restored when the new subscription is purchased and activated. COLLABORATION TOOLS Office 365 includes several productivity applications that are designed to cover collaboration needs at the organizational, departmental and team levels. Currently, the list of collaboration tools includes OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams, Yammer, Skype, Outlook Online and Delve boards. There are several approaches to defining the role of Office 365 collaboration tools in an organization. The main considerations that influence the choice of a certain tool depend on communication needs, team size, project specifics, and keeping in mind the employees’ personal preferences. Depending on what you need to do, each collaboration tool suits a work situation. SharePoint Online is often used as a platform for corporate intranets and portals, much the same way as SharePoint On-Premises does. At the same time, SharePoint Online comes not only with team sites but also with communication sites and hub sites. Microsoft Teams allow collaboration channels for public and private communication, as well as voice and video conferences. Outlook Online hosts email-based collaboration. Yammer is used for communication with business users outside of the organization and enables forum style team communication. Skype for Business supports instant messaging, VoIP, audio, video and web conferencing. As for Delve boards, they allow creating boards to group together and share related documents. Additionally, there are Office 365 Groups that represent rather a technological capability within the suite than a tool apart. Office 365 Groups allow creating separate collaboration spaces in other Office 365 tools. An Office 365 Group can be organized in Outlook, SharePoint Online, Yammer, Microsoft Teams and other collaboration tools to diversify the native collaboration capabilities of these applications. For example, if a team collaborates in a Group in Yammer, its members automatically get a team calendar, a shared Outlook inbox, a SharePoint library, a SharePoint team site, a shared OneNote notebook and Planner. UPDATES The Office 365 platform have implemented a rolling release model; updates to the online aspects of the service are provided once every quarter.
Read MoreHow To Grow Your Business Using Big Data And Analytics
Data, particularly big data is a big thing in business circles. It will help your business make smarter decisions based off solid evidence. What data is relevant to your business Choosing a source and type of data to use can be overwhelming for many business owners. The first thing is to work out what insights your business needs and asking the right questions. Do you want to improve your customer service or get feedback on a new product? Do you have a clear understanding of how your customer interacts on your website? The next step is to decide how you want to collect this data. Where will you source your data from? You may not think your small business generates much data but you would be surprised! Have a think about your business activities, common places to source your data are in-store sales figures, your social media platforms, newsletter subscriptions and traffic to your website. These figures will give you a benchmark and put you in a position to do something with the results. This is when we bring in the analytics software and tools to assist you with interpreting your customers’ decisions and movements. Big data tools If your customers are interacting with your product or service via your website you want to understand their movements. Google Analytics is a free tool that will give you data on a range of things from website performance to user behaviors. CRM tools are a great way to track, generate and manage your incoming leads effectively. Majority of social media platforms have inbuilt data analytics capabilities so you can easily track how your social media activities are performing. You will also need a safe place to store this data. Dedicated cloud and hosting services will not only store it securely, but they can also analyze multiple data sources simultaneously. Usually, this is done via a customisable dashboard using simple graphs and charts. This could help you determine the pricing of your inventory, identify new customers and even pinpoint what content your audience takes notice of. The insights you get from big data can help you make smarter decisions that will ultimately grow your small business.
Read MoreWhat Is The Real Cost Of An Ineffective IT System?
Here in Australia, IT issues cost business roughly $3,456 every year for each employee. So if you are a small business with 10 employees, that’s $34,560 annually in lost productivity. Servers that randomly disconnect; software updates that take your computer hostage and demand money for its release; files that cant open on the out of date XP OS you’re using… Its time to upgrade your IT system. Ineffective IT Systems create stress for your employees who become frustrated with fighting against the computer to complete their work. Managing the systems that run your business is a big (and time-consuming task) and it only gets more involved as your business grows. HERE ARE 10 SIGNS YOU NEED TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT YOUR CURRENT IT: YOUR SYSTEMS AREN’T IN LINE WITH THE BUSINESS NEEDS. Constantly trying out new technologies is not always the best plan of attack. If what you are currently using works, then stick with it. Provided it’s flexible enough to adapt to your growing needs, there is no cause for concern. If you are worried about the current technology or technologies you are using are preventing you from growing your business, then it’s time to change your strategy. COMPLAINTS FROM CLIENTS. Receiving multiple complaints is something you can’t ignore. It could be because your data is not being handled correctly, is not being forwarded onto the right departments or your reporting systems aren’t efficient. Or, the technologies that run your business are no longer supporting the demands of your customers. Either way, these problems can be prevented if you invest in the right technology and have the right systems in place to handle the demands. YOU ARE UP AGAINST UNEXPECTED IT EXPENSES. Inadequate IT planning results in poor understanding of your businesses requirements which results in wrong tech investments and lack of foresight and forward planning. Although unplanned IT-related expenses are not totally avoidable, they can be considerably minimised if IT costs are accurately estimated and effectively managed. For this, you need the high-level knowledge of IT experts. DATA IS LOST. 99% of data loss is directly related to the way you save, share, and handle your data. Do you have a system that encrypts your data before it is sent to a backup storage? Do you have adequate spam, anti-virus, and malware protection? Are you controlling user access to data? If you are losing data, chances are you don’t have correct safety measures in place, or they are failing. SLOW IT SUPPORT. Your IT staff need to be fast and responsive in attending to your IT issues to avoid problems falling through the cracks. LOSS OF PRODUCTIVITY. Poor productivity in the workplace is often a result of poor/slow computer systems, it could be your slow Internet connectivity, applications constantly crashing, outdated systems or a combination of IT-related issues that chew up employees time and ultimately cost YOU money. If these issues remain unresolved, it can affect your business growth and you may lose your high-performers. THERE’S NO PLAN IN PLACE FOR GROWTH. Your IT supports your business goals and your growth. If your IT strategy is not adequate or not aligned with your goals, you are just wasting your money. THERE’S NO SAFETY NET, DISASTER RECOVERY OR BACKUP STRATEGY SHOULD DISASTER STRIKE. Do not underestimate the need for every business to prepare for worst-case scenarios. Being a small business is no excuse not to have a plan in place as anyone, anywhere could be a target. Your disaster recovery plan should be created and implemented by experts with a thorough understanding of your business operations – consider all the possible aspects that could go wrong and identify all the viable solutions to the problems being considered. YOUR IT TEAM ISN’T IN TOUCH WITH THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY AND SYSTEMS. Hiring an IT team is only one element. Unless you are on top of training with key vendors and have a system to keep track of new innovations and how to use them, you could be missing important developments that could improve your business. Similarly, you may also not be aware of new security threats and bugs and how they can be prevented from impacting your business. YOU ARE ALWAYS BRINGING IN IT SUPPORT FOR ISSUES THAT COULD BE PREVENTED WITH MANAGED IT. Your IT support might be mostly centered on ad hoc issue resolution, instead of preventive maintenance. So, by the time a problem blows up, you have no other choice but to get outside help to fix the problem. This can be a costly exercise and a mean a blowout for your budget.
Read MoreRemote IT Support
WHAT IS REMOTE SUPPORT? • Remote support is a secure service, which allows representatives to help the client to solve their computer problems remotely. This can be done either by displaying the steps to take through screen sharing or the alternative that involves taking control of desktops to perform tasks remotely. Most times, remote support is used in conjunction with a phone call to provide support. • This allows the technician to diagnose the problem and play with several potential steps to provide a resolution to the issue and verifies the resolution that has been implemented. Remote support is always done via the Internet. This allows the technician to work from their workstation and eliminates the need to move the computer which can be a big hassle for the client. A desktop sharing software is what is used to feed the remote support trouble-shooter with rapid-fire screenshots from the screen of the problematic computer. Also, mouse clicks and keystrokes are captured by the remote support trouble-shooter and sent to the technician which allows them to view what is happening on their client’s computer and work out what action to take to resolve the issue. REMOTE SUPPORT BENEFITS Now that you understand what remote support is let us explain the benefits of the service for your business. • EfficiencyThis is one of remote support’s biggest benefits. This is because it cuts out the time that would have been used on travel to see a client, getting the job done more efficiently. The only downtime involved in remote support is connecting the remote support software online. • Multi-taskingThis is a worthwhile benefit for those who keep asking why to use remote support. It allows the technician to successfully complete several jobs. This allows the technician to have a number of billable hours taken care of in a shorter time period. • After HoursRemote support is perfect for after-hours jobs that may occur. This generally applies to issues such as Windows updates and server errors. It is the perfect solution for situations where clients have an issue but don’t have the time for the technician to work on the problem.
Read MoreHow To Give Your Business A Digital Transformation
The process of digitally transforming your business requires strategies and should be treated more as an ongoing process rather than a one-off overhaul. A well-executed transformation will get you the business rewards and achieve digital excellence. KNOW YOUR GOALS Before you even start to consider putting any changes in place, it is essential for you to evaluate and assess the objective of your business. If you’re a sales team that relies on cloud computing, then your needs are going to be very different to a company with factories to produce. When you know your long term business goals you can identify the key areas where applying digital systems will make your business run more smoothly. HIRE AN EXPERT Utilizing a professional with ensuring your transformation is a smooth one.Sit down and have a chat about your goals so they can work out a plan around your needs. You need someone who can thoroughly asses your business and engage technology that fulfills those business goals and expectations.Every business is different, and their digital needs will alter depending on the sector. What is essential for one company may not be useful for another, which is why you need to continue to implement new technologies. Once you have begun to move over to digital tools and services, you’ll start to see your business is able to run more efficiently, saving you both money, time and resources. By failing to adapt to the changing tech landscape, you are seriously undermining your potential to thrive.
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