April 26, 2021
Homefield IT
Cloud ServicesIT Consulting & StrategyTech Support & Managed IT ServicesConstructionEducationFinanceHealthcareLegalNon-ProfitsReal EstateStartups
For a lot of businesses, the last 12 months have been like being on pause. Offices have been empty, people have been working from home, and everything’s been a little slower. However, as we move towards getting everybody vaccinated and people are gearing up to get back to work full-time, the economy is starting to return to something that resembles normal.
This means that if you’ve been in a position where you’ve been holding off on making major tech investments until things get busy, you’re almost out of time.
Now is the perfect opportunity to start making those upgrades and invest in new tech, because while things aren’t in full swing yet, they will be very soon. The last thing you’re going to want to be dealing with when people are suddenly ready to start spending their money on businesses like yours is a tech upgrade that makes it harder for you to properly serve your customers.
The good news is that managed services providers (MSP) are particularly well-suited to help you execute these projects.
How can MSPs help?
Managed service providers are a highly knowledgeable collective of tech lovers who know and understand how technology helps businesses grow and thrive.
Each member of the team brings a unique perspective to the table that makes it possible to serve a wide range of industries and offer the kinds of services that growing businesses need.
When you’re looking to complete strategic technology projects that give your business a boost, MSPs have the brainpower, the hands-on experience, and the technical skill needed to ensure that it’s done properly and in a way that is perfectly tailored to your business.
IT projects worth investing in now
Making infrastructure upgrades and completing strategic IT projects while you’re slow is the ideal way to prepare for the push to be open and ready when the time comes. If you’re still in the process of upgrading your website and adding an e-commerce integration when everything starts up again, you’re going to miss out on a lot of potential sales and opportunities because nothing works.
If you’re not sure what kinds of projects you could be investing in right now, here are some projects for you to consider working on before things open again.
Office moves
The best time to move your stuff is when no one is using it. It also just happens to be the best time to look for a new office, as well. Thanks to the global pandemic, around 18% of the office space in midtown Manhattan alone is available (the numbers are similar for lower Manhattan). If you’ve been putting off a move because of the challenge in finding a good space or because you’ve been too busy, this is the time to do it.
By partnering with an MSP, moving your office and getting everything set up and ready to go is easy. We work closely with you before, during, and after the moving process to ensure that your new space has all technical requirements in place that you need to run your business, from office wiring to server room setup.
New website build
Fewer things help your business stand out (and make money) the way a good website does. But these builds don’t happen overnight. They’re the result of lots of design and content decisions, and that’s not even touching on how long it can take to build the website itself.
We can help you streamline the process with our managed website solutions. We take care of everything, from planning out your site to ongoing maintenance. In the end, you have a website that is responsive for both mobile and desktop users, demonstrates your authority, and shows off your brand. We also help you with updates like blog posts and adding new pages, as well as making sure that it’s easy for your customers to contact you if they want to. And, if you’re an e-commerce business, or if you do any kind of sales through your website, we can set up a system that makes collecting payment and processing orders a breeze.
Cloud migration
If there’s one thing we’ve learned as a result of the global pandemic, it’s that businesses need to be flexible in order to survive. For a lot of companies, that meant scrambling to find a way to work from home, without sacrificing productivity and security. The cloud makes that possible.
Our team of cloud experts can help your business set up on the cloud with everything you need. We can help you find a cloud partner that offers the flexibility and security that allows you to effortlessly scale your business, as needed. And it offers protection for both your business data and confidential client information. As a bonus, because operating from the cloud requires a smaller physical footprint for your business, you’re also able to save money on the space you once dedicated to bare metal servers.
Telephone and VoIP services
Getting a new telephone system or implementing voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services, which allow you to use a phone over the internet, is tricky to do when business is booming. The longer your phone system is offline, the more it impacts your ability to easily communicate with customers.
We can help you get a telephone or VoIP solution that allows for greater collaboration, lower costs, and increased connectivity that not only helps you connect with customers, but also helps ensure that you’re able to conduct business with suppliers and contractors. A VoIP system can also allow you to reroute calls to employees who may be on the road for the business (or who are working from home) via the internet, so nothing gets missed.
Upgraded security solutions
The pandemic led to an unprecedented amount of cybercrime around the world. The result is that cybersecurity has never been more important. Data breaches cost billions of dollars in losses and fines each year and erode the trust of your customers.
Working with a managed security services provider (MSSP) makes it possible for you to get best-in-class security solutions without having to become a security expert yourself. MSSPs offer 24/7 monitoring of your network, can help you implement access controls that limit how far into your system hackers can go, and help keep your business compliant with all applicable regulations.
MSSPs can help you take protection one step further by providing security training for your staff. People continue to be the weakest link in any security chain and training can reduce the likelihood of your staff falling for a phishing attack when someone sends them a suspicious email. Phishing is a hacking technique that tricks people into giving up their login credentials using very realistic spoofs of company emails and login portals. Our training includes drills where your employees are sent fake phishing emails to test whether they can spot it.
Custom software development
Sometimes, third-party software solutions just don’t cut it. They work, but they require a lot of fiddling around to connect them with your systems or you have to manually move data around to work with them.
Software that has been designed specifically for your business eliminates all the fussing around by giving you exactly what you need to run your business. Our software experts work closely with you to design and execute the perfect software build. You get the exact functionality that you need, the ability to integrate with the tools you currently use, and you get continued support after it’s done to ensure everything is working properly.
Automations
Manual, repetitive tasks are productivity killers. They can turn even your best employees into people who don’t have a lot of enthusiasm for their jobs because they’re not focused on their zone of genius. Business automation can help. These automations remove low-value, repetitive tasks from the daily workload of employees.
Automations not only help by allowing employees to focus on high-value tasks that they do best (using the skills you hired them for), but they also help you create a more efficient business. They remove bottlenecks that slow your business down. They remove the potential for costly human error from the process. And, they open up the ability to better serve your customers by allowing you to automate activities like processing orders.
Business intelligence solutions
Big data is all the rage these days as businesses look to learn as much about their customers as possible. But one area that tends to get overlooked is how this information can be used to make data-driven decisions that help you grow your business.
Business intelligence solutions allow you to mine the data that you have within your company in real-time to make highly informed decisions that help you grow. These solutions help you replace often complex spreadsheets that can only be understood by one person and turn them into easy-to-read dashboards that anyone can understand.
We can help set up a business intelligence platform that fits your business, allows you to locate and clean raw data, and provide continued maintenance and support to help manage any changes that may occur within your business.
Email and Data migration from legacy platforms and vendors
Let us take care of your data as you move from legacy equipment onto platforms that are designed for the modern way of doing business. We work closely with you to plan and execute your data migration to make sure that everything is moved securely, your systems are properly configured to work with your data, and that nothing goes wrong once you start using your new system.
Network and server planning
If your business needs to upgrade your existing network or implement a new one, we can help. Our IT experts can help you plan out what your new network requirements are, we find the equipment that will help you achieve your strategic goals, and we take care of the installation and setup. We take it one step further, by providing maintenance after the fact to ensure that everything continues to help your business.
Backup and disaster recovery
Your business’s ability to survive both cyberattacks and natural disasters can be a matter of how well prepared you were before it happened. Disaster recovery plans and regular backups help mitigate the damage done when something goes wrong. We make sure that you’ve got everything your business needs to survive, include robust (and redundant) backups, as well as plans to help ensure that your business isn’t offline longer than necessary when disaster strikes.
Need some help getting started?
As an MSP, Manhattan Tech Support is ideally positioned to help you plan and execute your strategic IT infrastructure projects before things get too busy.
We have more than 20 years of experience helping businesses in New York implement and upgrade tech solutions that help them grow, run more efficiently, and better serve their customers.
If you’re ready to knock off a few infrastructures upgrade before the economy opens up again, contact us today.
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