Think Ahead

• Have you checked prices and availability of services for the new location? Internet, telephone, TV, and security are all common services you need to keep in mind.
• What technical requirements will there be? Data cable runs to each office, locations for shared resources such as printers and fax machines, and is there a good server room available?
• Will you need to hire help for the move or setup of your existing equipment?

Plan the move

• Work out responsibilities for each person to ensure everything goes smoothly. Who will be packing, unpacking, and organizing everything?
• What time restrictions are you working under? A weekend or can the move be completed gradually over several days?
• What will need to be set up first at the new location? Servers, phones, or the people themselves?

Check everything, and then check it again.

• Check with each provider before they leave to ensure everything is working properly. Is the Internet connection up? Do all of the phones work? Can you send faxes?
• Document the new network. By knowing exactly what equipment is installed where and how it is configured you will prevent a lot of issues later when changes or repairs need to be made.
• Test every system thoroughly. Especially the ones not often used you want to know each is working now so you don’t have them down later when you do end up needing them.

By taking the time now to plan ahead, you will save yourself a lot of time and effort later. Call us today if you are planning an office move, and we will be glad to help you make the most of it.

It is a nightmare scenario for any business to face. Office productivity grinds to a halt while stress levels quickly escalate to panic mode. But Carla Koen, office manager at Graham Smith Construction, knew exactly what to do. It was time to call iProvIT.

In the summer of 2011, Graham Smith Construction contracted with iProvIT to provide managed IT support. Now the ultimate test of that arrangement was at hand.

iProv had set up the office network storage device, including a data mirroring function to keep an exact copy of all data on two separate hard drives. Normally, this configuration would be enough to keep the office productive while technicians correct problems. But this failure was not normal.
A hardware failure had taken both the main data store and the mirror copy offline. The company’s entire operation was now at risk.

Fortunately, iProv had planned ahead. While mirrored drives are an excellent way to keep company data safe and accessible, a failure of the RAID controller can lead to this exact scenario.

When iProv first recommended a cloud-based off-site data backup, Graham Smith, owner of Graham Smith Construction, was a little bit skeptical. After all, he was investing in a fully mirrored solution. But, in the end, the economics of the cloud solution made good sense. So, the cloud backup system was put in place.

Now, with the hard drives out of commission, it was up to the cloud backup to save the day. Within hours, the iProv team had restored the most critical data, and got their office staff back to work. The remaining 25 gigabytes of business data were soon fully restored.

“It’s the best $25 I’ve ever spent” remarked Graham Smith about the cloud backup plan he had purchased from iProv.

What could have been a major disaster turned out to be a minor inconvenience. All thanks to a well-engineered and executed data backup and recovery plan from iProv.

How do you find the best IT Support in Arkansas? Use these four easy steps.

Step 1: Be Proactive and PLAN

As a business owner you will never wake up and decide that you NEED “IT Support”. But, one thing you already know is that you need your computers to work.

The unfortunate truth is that many business owners wait until their systems come to complete stop to call us! Imagine waking up tomorrow morning, walking into the office and nobody is working. They all look at you and at the same time say, “THE SERVER IS DOWN!”

That is the most expensive way to leverage an IT Support Professional. Usually, it is a COMPLETELY RANDOM stranger that comes in and works for an astronomical rate but you pay it willingly because you need your computers to work.

If you get one thing out of this article, it is this… do not wait for your server crash. Start planning now. For a small business, the total costs accrued when a server crashes is usually over $10,000. Don’t wait. Start planning now.

Step 2: Ask Friends About Various IT Support Providers

We all know, personal references are by far the best way to find good contacts. So, start there. Call friends that have small businesses, post a message on facebook, or ask the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce. Then, after you get a list of companies, schedule a meeting and tell them, “I am interested in finding an IT partner that can help make sure my computer systems never go down.”

This is a strong statement, but it is important to give expectations immediately. And remember, we are having this conversation because you know that you need your computers to work. And if there is trouble, you’ll need fast response that doesn’t break you with high unexpected costs.

Step 3: Meet with the Engineers

It is important that after you feel comfortable with the company you are about to deal with. So meet with their engineer that would be assigned to your company. This may seem odd, but the engineer is usually not the sales guy. And unfortunately, no matter how much you like the sales guy, he will walk out and you will never see him again. Your engineer is who you will rely on when things go bad. You will be in a panic and you need to make sure you like the engineers, not just the sales guys.

IT guys are infamous for forgetting about tasks you assign them. So, be sure to ask these questions:

1. “How would I assign tasks to the engineer?” – You should have a phone number, email, and at least a secondary contact person.
2. “How do the engineers verify that tasks don’t get lost in the shuffle?” – As a business owner, you need to verify that the IT support company has some type of task management system.

Step 4: Ask what their plan is for continued maintenance

Computers need to be maintained. Just like a car requires an oil change, computer require normal maintenance too. An IT support company should have a plan in place for performing maintenance.

Because, remember, you’ll only call them when you’re computers are not working and you need your computers to work.

1 My computer won’t turn on! – There are a lot of different reasons this can happen, but by far the most common on is a loose connection. Make sure and take a look at the back of the computer, the monitor, and the wall outlets and make sure everything is plugged in properly. Actually feel them and make sure they are plugged in tightly, it is easy for something to not be plugged in all the way and yet look fine to a casual glance. If that isn’t the issue, then try a few other simple things like check the breakers and make sure your power strip is still functioning.

2 Why can’t I access the internet? – This is one I am sure we have all encountered. The first thing
I would try is to reboot the machine and see if that helps. Sometimes the computer can get a little hung up and just needs a reboot. Next I would unplug your router/modem for a few minutes and plug them back in, if all of the (usually) green lights don’t come back on, it might be time to give your ISP a call and see if there is an outage in your area.

3 My computer is running really slow. – Computers need regular maintenance in order to keep running in top condition or, over time, they will slow down. Running a few built in programs such as check disk and disk defragmentation will help eliminate errors and keep its speed up.

4 I get a lot of pop-ups while browsing the web – I recommend you get an add-on for your browser called Adblock Plus. This is a free program that will block a lot of those annoying popups you get while surfing the web.

5 My antivirus keeps popping up and saying something about renewal… – This is not a popup to ignore! Keeping your antivirus renewed will allow you to receive updates and protect your machine from the constantly changing viruses on the internet.

6 Where can I download programs? – There are a lot of places on the internet to download
applications, but many of them are not safe. If you are looking for a specific type of program and not sure which one to get then check out the downloads section of CNET.com. All of the programs here are safe to download and most have reviews to help you find exactly what you are looking for.

7 My printer isn’t working. – This could be due to your computer or the printer itself. If the printer is beeping, then check for paper jams, or check the user guide that came with it and see if it tells you what the issue could be. If you think it is your computer then make sure your print queue doesn’t have a frozen job in it. If that doesn’t fix the issues, you might try reinstalling your print drivers from the CD that came with your printer.

8 Somebody told me to try a different web browser? – There are several big browsers out there and it’s a matter of preference to which one you should use. I recommend using Firefox or Chrome if you haven’t given them a shot before. Internet Explorer is clunky and slow.

9 My computer keeps turning itself off. – Next time it does that feel the side of the tower or the bottom of the laptop, depending on which one you have. If it feels pretty hot, then your machine might be over-heating. One simple thing you can do to help this is go buy some canned air and get the dust out of your machine.

10 Do I need a “Firewall”? – Yes! If your PC is on the internet then it needs both antivirus and firewall. Windows comes with a built in firewall, you can find it under control panel, or you can find a 3rd party firewall online. For businesses with quite a bit of PC traffic a physical firewall device is a great investment to help keep your computers safe from hackers and many other Internet threats.

Free Password Management Software

It can be so frustrating, right? You want to buy a cheap plane ticket right now because the “cheap ticket deal” ends in 15 minutes, so you’re ready to checkout, but the site needs you to register or sign in. You don’t recall ever using this site, so you try to sign up as a new user, only to find out you apparently are already a user, and now the site wants you to log in. If you didn’t remember signing up, how are you supposed to remember the username and password you gave yourself? Ahhh! Only 5 minutes left of the “cheap ticket deal!”

We all know that because of security reasons we’re not supposed to be using the same password every time we create a new account on a different web site or piece of software. If an unauthorized user finds out your single password, he will have access to every account you have online. It’s just not smart. So, how do we go about remembering all the many passwords we have? Write them down? Great, so now I have to keep up with some piece of paper? Use variations of one? Good luck trying all those variations until you get to the right one. Lucky for us, there are free software applications and sites out there for just this problem, which is also known as password management. Here are a few I suggest.

• LastPass
  This is a web-based application that requires a master password and will “remember” usernames and passwords for you as you enter them. LastPass is by far better than the competitors, but they’ve been getting beat up in the press recently for their security vulnerabilities. Although they say they’ve handled the problems, you should be aware that your passwords are stored (albeit encrypted) on a web server in never-never land. The part about this tool that sets it apart from its competitors is that your passwords follow you even if you are on different computers. There is no need to save anything on a flash drive or even backup your “password vault.”
• Keepass
  Keepass was my favorite password manager until LastPass. The problem with Keepass is that it is a file that you have to keep up with. Your passwords are not on a web server, so there are less security problems, but that also means that you do not get the added feature of your passwords “following you” onto multiple machines. You should know that there are some “unsupported” ways to allow Keepass to “follow you” onto multiple machines utilizing DropBox. But, I still recommend LastPass.

My Conclusion: Use Lastpass. There is a 99% chance you’ll love me because it is the best product out there. But there is also a 1% chance you’ll hate me because your account was hacked… but that’s a small percentage, right?

What makes Google Apps the right move for your business?

• It’s accessible from everywhere. Whether you are at the office, home, or on the road, your workspace will be consistent.  Whether you are on your own computer or someone else’s, your documents, calendar, and email are all available, as Google Apps is accessed from any web browser, anywhere – no software installation necessary.
• A usable email interface. Traditional webmail systems are awful compared to Gmail. You may have heard of SquirrelMail, Horde, SqWebMail, or RoundCube, and lord help you if you have had to be productive in any of those webmail interfaces. Gmail is tried and true – webmail has come a long way.
• Eliminates manual document revision. Google Docs stores your word processor documents and spreadsheets in a centralized location and gives you the opportunity to share the original document with others in your organization.  You’ll always know which revision of a document is the latest and greatest copy.
• No need to purchase upgrades. We’ve all used Microsoft Office and know how frustrating it is to purchase software only to find out that it’s outdated in a year.  With Google Apps, you’re always on the latest version of the software. Everyone gets hands-off upgrades from Google, so that’s several headaches eliminated.

iProvIT regularly helps businesses in the Little Rock area embrace new cloud technology.  Perhaps Google Apps is the right move for your business.  Making the switch is easy – just give us a call to get started.

What really matters is how it affects your day-to-day life. The reality is, there are some amazing ‘cloud’ tools and services available today that do make life a little easier.
Here are my top 6 favorite cloud apps that I recommend to everyone.

6. – When Google first launched Google Docs in 2006 I was skeptical. A lot has changed since then, and I now use Docs every day. While there are some features I miss from Microsoft Office, the pros now outweigh the cons.

5. – Google’s Gmail is cloud email at its finest. The threaded format keeps my email chains in context, so I always know the context of my messages. Powerful filtering and rules keeps my inbox organized. My email in the cloud ensures that I have access to email no matter where I am or what device I am using.

4. – Evernote allows me to save notes, pictures, websites, and other information to a single point. It’s like having a centralized enhanced memory and I love it.

3. – Flickr provides a solution to one of my biggest fears–losing my photos. Years ago when I had my very first hard drive failure, I lost some family photographs that I didn’t have backed up. Now with Flikr’s pro service, I upload my full resolution photos and never worry about losing my precious memories again.

2. – HootSuite is a social media dashboard that allows me to access my Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social network accounts from a single interface. Convenient and powerful.

1. – Dropbox. Ranking the other items in this list was a little challenging. But there was never a doubt about what item is number one in my book. Just like Flikr secures my photos, Dropbox secures all of my files. And just like icing on the cake, Dropbox is free!

Over at Startupnation there is a good article on the reasons you might want to buy a small business server. Here are a few key reasons from the article listed below.

• Prevent a lack of or improve data coordination between employees.
• Backups make data loss an inconvenience rather than a disaster.
• Protecting your data with anti-virus and anti-spam applications.
• Regulate data access to employees and non-employees.
• The possibility of hosting your own website.

Still not sure if your business is ready for this step? Sometimes it’s just best to call those with the knowledge and experience to help you make your decision. At iProvIT, we can assess your business and help you set up a server that will serve your company well for years to come.

Do you know exactly how much you spend on IT support for your office? To get to this number, you need to first look at your company financials. Let’s break this down.

First, see if there is a place within your expenses that will accommodate “technology.” The typical account is “professional services” but you really need a sub-account; something like “IT support costs”. If you already have something like this, look carefully at the transactions because more often than not, equipment costs have been placed under the same umbrella, and really they need to be moved into a different account for assets or a capital expenditure.

Second, evaluate what other costs are involved. For example, time loss and productivity costs.

1. Managing Vendors: How much money did you spend talking to vendors that an IT guy could have handled? 
   1. What is your average hourly rate and how much productivity did you lose by talking with the vendor yourself?
2. Productivity Loss: How much money did you spend performing IT functions?
   1. What about the rest of your staff? How much money did the company lose by working on a computer for one hour versus doing client work for one billable hour?
3. Network Downtime: How much money did you lose based on network downtime? 
   How many users were affected by this? How many servers were affected? Did email go down? Did Internet go down? 
   1. What kind of labor costs were involved in getting back online?
   2. Was valuable information lost? Will employees be forced to now double enter data because of the loss?

This number can be difficult to come to, but give us a call and we’ll calculate it for you!

The formula might look something like this:

Managing Vendors = (Total Revenue / # of Employees / 260 (working days) / 8 (hours per day)) * total hours spent talking to vendors

Productivity Loss = (Total Revenue / # of Employees / 260 (working days) / 8 (hours per day)) * total hours spent doing IT work internally

Downtime Loss = (Total Revenue / # of Employees / 260 (working days) / 8 (hours per day))* total hours spent doing IT work internally

If you’ve read this far and you’ve answered these questions, then you have “dollarized” how much money you could potentially be losing each month by not moving to Managed Services!

We provide our clients better support and increased uptime, while saving on overall costs. Our clients are able to control and reduce their overall operating costs by paying a flat-fee. We’ve found that our clients appreciate being able to budget their IT costs and avoid fluctuations in their costs from month-to-month. Don’t waste productivity time figuring this out yourself, give iProvIT a call today, and we’ll do it for you!

There is a great article over on Carolina Newswire on how to determine if managed services are right for you. Here are a few of the key points that they cover:

Hourly vs Managed Services: Hourly can cost less by reducing time spent, but at the cost of support time. With Managed Services, you pay for your support with a flat monthly rate.

Check your costs for IT services last year and compare to the cost of managed services.

Check your Managed Services agreement annually and make sure it continues to suit your companies needs.