What You Need to Know to Get Through a Data Disaster
A disaster recovery plan is a strategy that allows a business to return to normal after a disruption of some type. Some data disasters are brought on by outside attacks, some are the result of a natural disaster or environmental issue, and some are simply a return to normal after an internal problem interferes with business operations. Today, we’ll take a look at a few things you need to know about disaster recovery to help you mitigate the negative effects of a data disaster.
In IT, disaster recovery is focused on the safeguarding of data and information systems, but for the business it is a wholesale strategy that protects a business’ ability to function after it has dealt with an often avoidable issue. With companies now dealing with much more data than ever before, as well as customers who don’t respond positively to data breaches or downtime, having a comprehensive disaster recovery platform in place is essential to getting through tough situations that may affect your business. Let’s take a look at three things you need to know to properly manage your disaster recovery plan.
Planning is Imperative
The first misconception that most people have about disaster recovery is that it is a massively complex strategy that has a lot of moving parts that need to be handled before you can go on business-as-usual. This isn’t the case. For most smaller businesses, it could simply be a strategy highlighted by a comprehensive data backup and recovery plan. As organizations get larger, however, more detail will be necessary about how to recover systems, applications, and working conditions.
Regardless of what type of organization you run, you need to understand that if you are enacting your disaster recovery plan, there are some serious issues that are affecting your business and you need to confront them head-on. Planning out scenarios can help your team be ready to do what needs to be done to get your business back up and running fast after a disaster. You will need to know how your backup system works, who is in charge of the different parts of your DR platform, and set a responsible recovery point objective (RPO) and recovery time objective (RTO) to pinpoint how far back your recovery needs to go to get stable applications and data back and how much time you have to get that done.
Test Your DR
One of the biggest problems organizations have with their disaster recovery platform is that they haven’t tested it. In fact, nearly a quarter of businesses have never tested their disaster recovery plan. Failure to test opens up a litany of issues, including the DR platform falling on its face and leaving your organization clutching at straws. You don’t have to test the platform monthly, or even quarterly, but ensuring that your DR platform is tested at least once a year can help you avoid a lot of would-be headaches.
Since testing your DR strategy can disrupt your business and cut into productivity, some business leaders won’t want you to do it. It’s this reason that IT administrators have to push back and ensure that the system is tested at least once annually. Any time you test any system, you will inevitably find problems with it. It stands to reason that your DR strategy will have some issues, but every test provides an opportunity to fix problems. As a result, updating the DR plan with lessons you’ve learned during testing will be invaluable if the real thing needs to be enacted.
The Human Element
You may think of your disaster recovery strategy as an IT issue, but your entire DR platform is handled by humans. A comprehensive DR strategy has to include contingencies for employees. For instance, if your business’ location is compromised for whatever reason, do you have the ability to get them access to company data they need to do their jobs?
Take the COVID-19 pandemic for instance. Not many businesses had “global pandemic” on a list of their DR contingencies and it cost many organizations greatly. With governments handing down shelter-in-place mandates in the early part of the pandemic, many businesses had to invest a lot of capital, often capital they didn’t have, to ensure that their businesses could continue. Regardless of what you do with your technology, businesses are mostly human endeavors and ensuring that your policies cover eventualities like work-from-home strategies can make all the difference between being profitable and closing up shop.
Don’t get caught in-between. If you would like to have a conversation about business continuity or disaster recovery with our IT experts at Point North Networks, Inc., reach out to us today at 651-234-0895.
Top 10 Reasons to back up data
A good business owner envisions the future and what it could bring about. You may have already devoted a considerable amount of time to the good things that could happen, but how often do you picture the bad?
If you don’t imagine the worst-case scenario, you could be putting your business on the line. Are you prepared to deal with data loss or data corruption?
Data backup and disaster recovery are critical components of any successful business. Most companies rely on data in at least some capacity, so without it, operations can be stymied significantly. This is reason enough for you to have backup data. However, there are several other reasons for data backups. Here are the most important ones.
Why You Should Have a Data Backup Plan
Data backup is extremely important in today’s digital world where cyber threats are increasingly becoming a menace. As Morgan Stanley describes it, “Backing up data refers to the process of making a copy of the information typically stored on your desktop or laptop computer, smartphone or tablet.”
Loss of data could happen due to human error, accidental deletion (68% of businesses report this as the main reason for data loss), natural disasters, malicious attacks, external hard drive failure or another hardware failure, or stolen or lost devices. Data backups on a regular basis are one of the best practices all businesses must follow.
As the IT world evolves, so does the need to have backups on different devices including mobile devices or your desktop system.
Prevention from data loss
Preventing loss of data is the main reason to have a data backup. Having data backups will ensure that you are able to recover your lost data easily and continue your business operations. As most businesses now operate digitally, the importance of data has never been so crucial. And making sure that have a proper data backup plan will only ensure that your business doesn’t face any obstacles.
Competitive edge
In case of data loss, your business might come to a standstill and other, more prepared businesses will be able to take advantage of this situation. However, if you have data backups, you will be able to continue with your business as usual.
Reduced downtime
Research shows that 42% of companies faced major downtime due to loss of data. Having data backup will reduce the time spent looking for lost information. By creating a proper backup system, you will ensure that your productivity is not hampered.
A must for a disaster recovery plan
A disaster recovery plan is a set of policies and procedures you follow during a disaster. Data backup is one of the most important components of this plan as it allows businesses to get back to work without disruptions.
Having an archive
Many businesses rely on past data for present and future operations. Data backup enables them to create an archive that can be dug into to find important data whenever the need arises.
Fast recovery
Cyber threats like malicious email links, etc can result in data loss. Data backup will ensure that you can restore things before all is lost.
Reduce unwanted work
Reports indicate that more than 41% of companies face reduced productivity due to data inaccessibility. Data backups mean you can quickly find deleted files and reduce the unwanted work of searching for data haphazardly.
Better auditing
Audits are an important part of every business life cycle. With proper data backup, you can ensure that all financial, accounting or other regulatory information is available readily, making audits a breeze.
Annual reporting
Annual reports require data for the entire year or even more. Data backup will ensure that you have access to it, helping you create more detailed annual reports.
Peace of mind
With proper data backup, you can enjoy peace of mind as you will not have to worry about loss of data and how you will tackle the situation.
Disaster Recovery Process
The process of such recovery is just as important, as without it, you cannot get back into business following the loss of business-critical data. You must enable actions like incremental backup and differential backup to ensure things are fine.
This is what enables your business to maintain operations even in the face of severe disasters, like a hacking incident or a natural disaster.
While having data backup is helpful, you still need a method that ensures a quick recovery time to avoid downtime. You might consider concepts like data backup, operations, workforce longevity, and alternative working conditions when putting together your recovery plan, whether the disaster is from nature or your fellow humankind.
Your business should implement a cloud-based data backup system for increased storage capacity and a recovery tool that takes periodic snapshots of your data. Storing data on Cloud will allow you to accomplish the following:
- Data backup can be taken throughout the workday rather than only once at the end of the day.
- Cloud makes backups accessible at a moment’s notice, something which is incredibly valuable when recovering from a disaster.
When your company is under pressure from a disaster, time is critical. You don’t want to be worrying about how and when to restore your data. It helps to just have the cloud take care of these processes for you.
Other Data backup best practices
Now that you are familiar with the importance of data backup, let’s look at the ones that will allow you to save your data better and provide you with a competitive advantage.
- Always take full backups of your data
- Keep the backup of original data easily accessible
- Follow the 3-2-1 rule
- Make storing backup information on the cloud or Google Drive a habit
- Keep a check on your stored data and the last full backup
- Perform backups – full backups, differential backups and incremental backups regularly
How Point North Can Help with Backups
Start taking your data backup and disaster recovery seriously before you suffer from a situation that could easily have been prevented. Alternatively, partner with a data backup solution provider like Point North.
We enable a host of services to both large and small businesses including incremental backups, differential backups, backup services, saving backups, Cloud Services like cloud storage, full backup services, regular backups, and a lot more.
To learn more about how you can take advantage of enterprise-level data backup and disaster recovery solutions, reach out to Point North Networks, Inc., at 651-234-0895.
Frequently Asked Questions About Data Backup
Why is data backup important?
Businesses today deal with heaps of data. Most of their operations and a majority of their success depend on the data they store. If this data is lost, businesses will get crippled and will take a long time to get back to action. However, data backup can prevent this situation and have them back running in case of a loss of data.
How data backup helps businesses?
It is a process that gives businesses a competitive advantage, reduces downtime, provides an archive, allows faster recovery, reduces workload in finding the right data, enables better auditing and annual reporting and gives absolute peace of mind.
Why is it a good idea to hire a data backup service provider?
Dealing with data is a critical function and you just can’t afford to go wrong there. Having a professional partner will ensure that your data is stored safely on Cloud or remote location and that the process of data storing is followed meticulously.
Remote Work Is More Normal Now that It Has Ever Been
Remote work is more common than ever before, but it wasn’t always this way. It’s still a relatively new method of operations, and while there are quite a few benefits for both employees and employers, there are other impacts related to remote work that can have far-reaching consequences.
We want to address some of the positive and negative impacts that this remote work trend has had on society.
Housing Costs and Availability May Balance Out
Big cities might have more opportunities for employment, but the cost of housing often makes it difficult for people to commit to employment opportunities in these areas. There is often a housing shortage in metropolitan areas, and as things stand now, the country is short almost 4 million homes (as of early 2021), with most of this shortage being located in places where these jobs are considered valuable.
Remote work, if the shift to full-time remote work is utilized, means that these jobs can be filled by people without requiring them to purchase or rent a home in these high-cost locations. Someone working remotely could work remotely for a company halfway across the country and live in a place where housing costs are significantly less expensive. Some experts believe that this trend would increase the cost of living in more rural or suburban areas while decreasing the costs associated with big city life.
However, if this is to become a reality, there needs to be a balance between the increased cost of more affordable housing and decreased cost of urban living. One example can be seen in the Tulsa Remote program, where Tulsa, Oklahoma residents are offered several perks—including a $10,000 grant—to all those remote workers who come to live in the city for at least one year. This type of investment means that Tulsa has been attracting new, high-earning residents, resulting in a return on their investment of $13.77 for each dollar spent on remote workers willing to relocate to the city.
The Climate Could Benefit
It’s reasonable to think that a decrease in urban living would lead to more vehicles on the road, as the decrease in public transportation access and walkable amenities would mean more people driving from one place to another. However, what if the opposite were true? What if having more people in these less-urban locations means that there would be greater incentive for these walkable amenities or greater demand for public transportation? The climate would surely benefit if this were the case.
Remote work has also led to a significant decrease in travel for many people, such as eliminating the morning commute, business travel, cross-country air travel, etc. All of these decreased emissions could do wonders for the environment.
Let’s Be Clear—We’re a Long Way from Ubiquitous Remote Work
We’ve discussed some of the obstacles, like changes in housing costs and zoning laws, but some places simply aren’t remote-friendly. Access to the Internet limits remote work capabilities for some people, especially when you consider that much of the country still doesn’t have access to broadband Internet.
Despite these obstacles, however, we are committed to helping your business make a shift to remote work, should you desire to make that change for your organization. To learn more, reach out to us at 651-234-0895.
How Do Hardware Shortages Affect Business Decisions
How often over the past year or two have you gone to replace a device on your infrastructure, only to find that the price has increased or the device simply isn’t available? This is an issue with the current hardware shortage, particularly for business electronics. Since businesses depend on technology, it becomes critical that you understand how this shortage impacts your day-to-day operations.
As you are surely well aware, there is a hardware shortage out there for computing devices due to a component shortage. This shortage stems from semiconductors, and it’s bleeding into every facet of device creation, from manufacturing to acquisition. Naturally, this creates issues for businesses that need to invest in new hardware for their employees. Here are just a few of the ways this shortage has impacted businesses like yours.
Price Point
As the costs of components increase, so too do the costs of the devices they are a part of. This is an unfortunate side-effect of the costs of manufacturing increasing, and the consumers ultimately pay more for devices. This can also impact the costs associated with services offered by providers, as they need to purchase and maintain equipment to manage these services.
Timeline for Acquisition
With hardware being in short supply, you can expect the acquisition of any new devices to take a bit longer than usual—particularly if you are looking for something very specific. We recommend that you build out a hardware acquisition timeline so that you know when and how often you need to perform hardware refreshes on your infrastructure.
It Makes Upkeep Even More Important
Finally, since devices are more expensive and harder to come by, you should understand that upkeep of your current hardware infrastructure is even more important than before. If something critical fails within your infrastructure and you are unable to immediately replace it due to shortages, what happens? Be sure to take care of what you currently have so that you can get as much value out of it as possible before it kicks the bucket.
What We Recommend
Point North Networks, Inc., recommends that you work with us to ensure that your hardware needs are met within a reasonable time and at a reasonable cost. Due to our connections and our working relationships with vendors, we know the most reliable ways to get the technology you need to succeed. Plus, it’s always better to have someone else do the legwork for you so you can avoid the frustrations that come from devices simply not being available when you need them most.
To get started, reach out to us at 651-234-0895.
Get More Efficient with Technology and Shifts in Strategy
Collaboration is important for many businesses and it is something that takes some time to master. In fact, a lot of businesses that do pretty well struggle when it comes to getting their project teams and operational staff to work together. Today, we thought we would take a look at technologies and strategies that will not only help collaboration, but can promise rises in productivity as well.
Voice over Internet Protocol
It’s no secret that the telephone system is one of any business’ most crucial tools. What may be a secret, however, is that you don’t have to pay an arm and a leg to get the comprehensive business telephone system you need. Most businesses that still use telephone services through a telephone company are missing out on an opportunity to significantly cut their communications costs while also gaining access to some of the very best collaborative tools a business can have.
VoIP is a platform that uses your business’ Internet connection to fuel its telephone system. Not only does it provide the crystal-clear communication that customers and employees demand, it also provides options that no RJ11 cable can deliver. Services like video conferencing, text messaging, and mobile phone access make VoIP a much more valuable product than your typical business telephone service through the telephone company. With hundreds of additional features available, you can pick and choose the communications platform that is right for your needs and budget.
Cloud-Hosted Collaboration Tools
One of the positive elements that has come out of the COVID-19 pandemic is that since so many people worked (or are continuing to work) remotely that many businesses had to find a way to get their newly-remote employees the tools and resources they need(ed) to have a chance of success. A lot of businesses had moved some of their information systems to the cloud previously, of course, but the growth of cloud-hosted management software nearly tripled from March 2020 to today.
There are several platforms that work for businesses. Some choose to go with services that allow for one-button video conferencing, while others lean heavily on the message board and instant messaging capabilities. Some just provide collaborative access inside working documents. Regardless of what platform a business uses, however, it should be noted that it is all in a concerted effort to build a collaborative workforce in a time when a lot of their human resources need remote access.
Today, a business can get about any type of computing they need in a cloud-hosted platform from some of the top business software developers on the market. Google, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and others can be used to the benefit of just about any business that is looking to expand their computing capabilities to the cloud to adapt to an increasingly-remote workforce.
Move Support Off Production Workers
For many businesses, the same people that create products and services are forced into support roles due to budget constraints. If you want your team to be on point and working collaboratively, having to juggle support issues could be negatively affecting their productivity. There are several ways that you can move support off of your employees. They include:
- A rotating support schedule – Instead of having support be a major distraction for your whole staff, consider assigning one or two workers to handle support calls and requests on a rotating schedule. Not only does this provide fairness, it also ensures that your product and service support is covered as it is a crucial part of your offering.
- Hire new workers for support – If you have extra capital, hiring a support staff is one of the most effective ways to get returns out of a department that doesn’t bring in much in the way of revenue.
- Use technology – Nowadays there are artificially-intelligent platforms that can be used to handle organizational support queries effectively and keeps the amount of human resources involved with support to a minimum.
Collaboration is going to continue to be a key for a lot of businesses as purse strings tighten in the near future. Getting your team to work together improves your products, services, and your customers’ experience. If you would like to talk to one of our knowledgeable IT consultants about how to integrate the right technology to get your team working together more effectively, give us a call today at 651-234-0895.
Point North Networks wins 2022 River Heights Chamber Small Business of the Year Award
It comes with great honor to announce that Point North Networks has won the 2022 River Heights Chamber Small Business of the Year Award.
Since its start in 2005, Point North Networks has held a commitment to its clients & employees by upholding the core values that the company was founded on. We believe that honesty is the foundation for every great relationship, we appreciate the input and feedback of others, we will always reflect the highest level of quality and efficiency, we strive for long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships, and we strive to always give our clients more than they expect. These values undoubtedly led our team to win this great achievement.
“The River Heights Chamber has been fantastic for our business,” said Brian Emerson, President of Point North Networks. “We aim to be the most trusted IT firm here in the Twin Cities. Following our core values while having the support of our local Chamber has made it possible for us to uphold that reputation and make a difference to businesses in our community.
The River Heights Chamber awards its Small Business of the Year award to a business that is an involved member, demonstrates a commitment to their customers, suppliers, and employees, and demonstrates involvement with the community. Point North Networks has been a member of the Chamber since 2017 and its President, Brian Emerson, has served on the Board of Directors since 2019.
Watch our video feature made by the River Heights Chamber to learn what the Point North difference is all about.
Protecting Digital Assets a Must for Modern Businesses
Business can be difficult when everything goes right, but when disaster strikes, serious issues arise that need to be answered fast and if you don’t have a business continuity plan in place, your business will be in peril. It doesn’t matter what you do, if circumstances decide that your business needs to shut down, having a disaster recovery policy in place as a part of a larger continuity plan, will do more than you think to save your business.
Consider the Risks
Having a business continuity plan is to consider the risks your business is likely to face. Some of them have to do with your geographical location and the types of disasters that you could legitimately face, some have to do with operational downtime and the causes of that, but regardless of what risks your company could potentially face, having a plan to circumvent those potential risks is at the core of your continuity strategy.
When we talk about disaster recovery, we are talking about instances that stop your business’ ability to function. Sure they could be flood, fire, or weather, but they could just as easily be computer component or utility failure. Most businesses were not ready for the COVID-19 pandemic, which turned out to be a huge disaster for a lot of businesses. The businesses that were able to quickly pivot to deal with the problems of state-sponsored quarantine or the lingering uncertainty of operations in response to the global pandemic, were the businesses that thrived over the past couple of years.
So while you can’t rightly have a response to every problem, covering your bases to help maintain your business’ ability to operate is essential to overcoming these issues. Let’s take a look at some variables your disaster recovery strategy needs to ensure that digital assets are protected.
Data Backup and Recovery
The truth is that any business that is unable to recover data when struck by a data disaster will likely lose customers. This can happen from malware attack, component failure, or any natural disaster caused by weather. The best way to mitigate this scenario and protect your business’ data is to have a reliable, redundant backup of all files and applications. Not only should you keep an onsite backup, you need a solution to the fact that many times, that backup would be compromised due to the disaster. A cloud-hosted backup that is incrementally updated makes the most sense for almost every organization.
Think about it, a data backup service can effectively keep your whole organization from descending into chaos. Think about all the negative circumstances there are surrounding the compromise of people’s personal and financial information, and a data backup and recovery service begins to pay for itself. Here are a few scenarios:
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Ransomware attack
Your business gets hit with one of the millions of ransomware attacks that hackers are disseminating and your files are locked down. With a timely backup, you can restore your systems rather than paying a huge ransom to get your files back. There’s no telling if you would even get them back, either, a whole other can of worms that you don’t want to face.
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Natural disasters
Regardless of where your business is, disasters come in many forms. If you are knocked out of commission because of a natural disaster, ensuring all your operational data is safe in an offsite data center, it makes it easier to make the important moves necessary to get your business back up and running.
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Human error or sabotage
End users are the cause of 88 percent of all data breaches. With that knowledge, understanding your data is protected against employee mistakes, negligence, or sabotage makes dealing with an internal data breach that much easier.
Those are just three examples where disaster recovery can save your bacon. Having the ability to restore your data and applications quickly in the face of a perilous situation not only provides peace of mind, it provides stability in situations that demand it. If you would like to talk to one of our security professionals at Point North Networks, Inc., about getting a backup system in place that is right for you, give us a call at 651-234-0895 today.
5 Things that Start to Happen When you Outsource Tech Support
Surprising Benefits of Tech Support Outsourcing
When a business needs to better manage its processes, or simply deal effectively with seasonal fluctuations in workload, the in house tech support teams may not suffice. It is at such a point, when scaling in house tech support might become necessary. However, it can often be way more time consuming and costly than is viable. Moreover, once the increased demand withers away, the in house team will hav little to no use for the business process. In such cases, it is much more viable to outsource technical support staff.
What is Technical Support Outsourcing?
Technical support outsourcing can be defined as the process of hiring a third-party individual or organization to provide technical support services. The high level of skill and experience that outsourced teams bring to the table are simply unmatched. Moreover, the extent of services can be increased or decreased as per the evolving.
Factors to Consider When Outsourcing Tech Support
If your organization in inclined to hire the services of a technical support outsourcing vendor, here are some aspects that need your due diligence. These include –
Support Costs
One of the key reasons of outsourcing your technical support is cost saving. Hence, it is crucial that the charges levied by the company providing technical support to you are affordable, and more importantly transparent. If need be, you must ask for service quotations from multiple providers, before finalizing on the one which offers the maximum value!
Legal and Data Security
The service provider chosen by you should have high-end security standards in place. This will help ensure that your business data, as well as the personal and financial information of your customers stay safe.
Open Communication
For your outsourced agents to solvelve customer inquiries efficiently and achieve subsequent customer satisfaction, it is crucial that they are open and responsive to your in-house team. After all, in order to put an aligned foot forward, it is crucial for all parts of the team – in-house and outsourced to be on the same page.
Experience and Expertise
If you want your tech support team offer seamless services all throughout, it is imperative that they have both – experience and expertise, in their field. The more adept they are, the better will be their ability to handle customer requests and grow customer loyalty!
Technology and Infrastructure
This goes without saying, that the technological capabilities of your chosen tech support outsourcing service provider must be high-end and all-encomapssing. After all, the quality of service they provide will extensively depend on their infrastructure
The decision to outsource tech support can sometimes be a hard concept for IT departments or business owners to grab. It comes with trusting the chosen IT partner on a great level and being willing to let go of some control. But, with that transition comes a lot of positive gains. At Point North Networks, over our many years of providing IT support to great companies all over Minnesota, here is what we have observed tends to happen to those who we have helped make this transition.
Your team becomes smarter
Of course, your team was already made up of smart people, or else they wouldn’t be on your team! But, when employees have the right IT partner, they become a lot smarter about topics like cybersecurity and how their technology works. At Point North Networks, we take the extra step to make sure your team is empowered through self-improvement, personal protection, and engaging training that is relatable, not demeaning. This results in a lot of positive gains, such as fewer questions and confusion and an average of a 64% improvement in phishing click rates.
You save money
Of course, cost savings is one of the most well-known benefits of outsourcing your tech support. The right IT partner will also be on the lookout for opportunities to streamline your current contracts and costs and provide you with customized solutions.
Fewer headaches for all
Anyone who works in an office knows how overwhelming it can be to experience technical issues and not be able to find a solution. Your employees can spend time Googling tech solutions all they want, but that’s not their job. They deserve a trusted IT support team to guide them through those frustrations that come with failed technology or potential cybersecurity threats.
Your Business Enjoys Easy Access to New Technologies
The world of Information Technology is ever-evoloving. It may not always be feasib;e for your business to adapt these new technologies simply because of the cost barrier. Thankfully technical support companies worldwide are always doing their best to stay updated with the latest in technological capabilities as well as system software. This ensures that your business reaps all the benefits without spending heftily on such upgrades.
Your Risks are Considerably Reduced
In today’s time of ever-increasing threats of data breaches, having a reliable tech support team that ensures the safety of your business, while also taking care of compliance with local governments as well as international standards, helps your business avert any unwanted risks.
Contact Point North Networks to receive a free cyber security assessment for your business.
Frequently Asked Questions About Outsourcing Technical Support
Why do Businesses Choose Technical Support Outsourcing?
Technical support outsourcing proves to be a statrgic solution for seamless customer service. Right from ensuring cost savings to improving the quality of customer interactions, from troubleshooting issues through expert support to resolving complex technical issues to streamlining business operations, a tech support team can do it all with ease. In addition to improving the bottom line of a business, it also enables the business owner to concentrate on their core business, further contributing to the success of any modern business.
Is is a good idea to outsource technical support for a small business?
Outsourced technical support services, is viable and often much more beneficial than having a full-time in-house IT professional, even for small businesses. Since the professional can only tackle one issue at a time and may or may not be equipped to deal with all facets of your organization, their overall contribution to the business success won’t be much. On the other hand, a team of trained tech support agents with varied specialties on board, makes it much more adept at tackling any issues that your organization may face. Owing to the larger team, the outsourced tech support provider can also take on multiple issues simultaneously, thereby contributing to the overall productivity of your organization.
What are some of the pitfalls of outsourcing technical support services?
While the services of outsourced tech support companies almost always enable improved customer satisfaction, there may be certain pitfalls to this practice that you must be aware of. Inconsistent phone support or service delivery, increasing security concerns, lack of communication, and lower than expected levels of experience and expertise are certain aspects that need the due diligence of a business owner when working in tandem with technical support companies.
Will I loose control if I outsource tech support services?
You will, most certainly, not lose quality control, when you hire a third party service provider. In fact, the quality of your customer support, and your overall customer satisfaction will enhance. Of course, this can only happen when you carefully select your technical support team and ensure that there are proper quality control processes in place.
How will the outsourced team be trained for my business needs?
While tech support companies have a wide talent pool that is capable of meeting almost all account management needs of your business, if you still believe they are lacking, you can communicate your standards and requirements to the company. Alternatively, you can also arrange for the training and development of the third party service provider.
Experts Can Make or Break a Technology Implementation
When it comes to implementing new technology solutions for your business, there is always a desire to solve some sort of problem. Maybe you are not as productive as you would like to be, or perhaps there is an operational inefficiency that you hope to address or streamline through the use of the technology. Either way, the end result is the same; you are trying to make progress and move forward, not over-complicate your infrastructure.
Believe it or not, businesses of all types have to grapple with issues that implementing new technology comes with, regardless of how much IT support or resources are available. It all boils down to the central question of, “What problem am I aiming to solve with this technology?” If you understand the problem, you can start taking steps toward finding the appropriate solution. Unfortunately for businesses, however, the solution to the problem is not always clear-cut.
For example, let’s say that two companies are looking to increase the accessibility of network resources for remote employees. The obvious solution is to host these resources in the cloud so that they can be accessed from any location, provided the device is familiar and is properly secured. In this case, the problem is the same, but the solution will vary depending on a variety of factors.
For one, in the above scenario, the business’s pre-existing resources will dramatically change the way that this cloud solution is implemented. If the company has the technology infrastructure to host its own cloud server, then that becomes an option, provided that the organization has enough technical know-how to deploy, manage, and maintain said infrastructure. On the other hand, if the company does not have these kinds of resources, then perhaps the best solution for their cloud needs might be to outsource this responsibility to a managed service provider. The provider would then be able to host, manage, and maintain the cloud solution for the company.
Notice how in both scenarios, the companies are examining their problems and potential solutions, as well as the resources that will determine the initiative’s success. This is the key to making progress toward resolving problems with your IT infrastructure; if you can accurately gauge what must be done and what allows you to get it done, you will have a much greater chance of overcoming the issues associated with implementing new technology.
Point North Networks, Inc., understands the many pitfalls that organizations can face when implementing new technology solutions, and avoiding these starts with understanding your business’ current needs and the problems that must be solved. We can help you make these difficult decisions through a comprehensive network assessment and infrastructure audit that can identify potential areas of improvement. From here, you can use the information to make informed and educated decisions for your company’s technology needs.
You can count on Point North to be there for every step of the process, from identifying problems to recommending solutions, as well as implementing said solutions and training your team on how to use them effectively. To get started, give us a call today at 651-234-0895.
The Components of a Successful Business Continuity Strategy
With the future so uncertain, it’s no surprise that many organizations are turning their focus toward business continuity. There are a lot of components that go into making a successful continuity plan, and if you want to optimize your chances of survival in the face of a disaster, you need to ensure that all your bases are covered.
First, let’s take a look at what business continuity means, particularly in a post-pandemic world.
Defining Business Continuity
A lot of things can go wrong when you run a business. From natural disasters like electrical storms, fires, floods, and so on, to not-so-natural disasters like hacking attacks, ransomware, and user error, there are a lot of ways that your business’ operations could be disrupted for extended periods of time. At its core, the business continuity plan is a list of steps that must be taken following such a disaster to keep downtime and losses to an acceptable minimum. It should be noted that business continuity and disaster recovery, while two sides of the same coin, are not one and the same. Disaster recovery is simply one of the many components of a successful business continuity strategy.
The Primary Components of Your Strategy
Before identifying where you should invest your time and effort when planning for business continuity, it’s best practice to run what is called a business impact analysis, which helps to identify critical functions of your organization. Basically, you take a look at which operations would be most costly during a disaster scenario; this helps you shore them up with your business continuity strategy.
The various parts of your business continuity strategy will generally fall into one of these three categories, based on what the above critical functions are for your specific industry:
- Digital resources: Most businesses rely on data of some form or another, whether it is stored on-premises or in the cloud. Making sure that you retain access to that data in the worst of times will be crucial. Data backup systems can aid in this process and make certain that your digital assets are not lost forever.
- Human resources: Your business cannot function without its employees, so you need to account for them, too. Establishing a chain of command and guaranteeing that you stay in touch with any clients or vendors will be critical to ensuring business continuity.
- Physical resources: This includes things such as your office space, physical assets like your hardware solutions, and anything else of the sort that’s needed for your employees to do their jobs in an effective way. Especially if you rely on manufacturers or a supply chain, ensuring that this is not broken is critical to success in the face of a disaster.
At the end of the day, your business continuity strategy should be accessible to anyone who will need it, along with a list of necessary equipment, the locations of your data backups, and contact information for additional resources as needed.
Reinforcing Business Continuity
A business continuity strategy is only effective if it can be feasibly pulled off and it meets your expectations. Imagine going through a disaster scenario only to discover that your business continuity strategy simply does not return the expected results, or perhaps it doesn’t execute well at all. This is why it is important to routinely test and adjust your strategy; you don’t want to be caught unawares. Here are some details to look for when testing your business continuity plan:
- Expected downtime: Does your plan meet the expected minimum amount of downtime and the costs associated with it?
- Ease of implementation: Is your plan able to kick off without a hitch?
- Feedback from staff: Have you listened to key staff who might be able to identify opportunities for improvement?
Need a Hand Getting Started?
The world of business continuity can be a bit daunting, but in today’s business climate, you cannot afford to be passive with it. Point North networks, Inc., can equip you with the tools needed to ensure minimal downtime and disruption in the face of a disaster. To learn more, reach out to us at 651-234-0895.
