Forbes: Does Your MSP Have Your Back?

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While small businesses, like their larger counterparts, need end-to-end services to keep them running smoothly—file sharing, software, and security as a service to cloud backups—a less-experienced MSP may simply be riding the cloud surge to keep their doors open.

As the Forbes Technology Council notes:

“…so many MSPs are newbies and/or are opportunistically hanging out where the action appears to be. It appears that the accent today is more on “provider” and less on “service.” A fair number of MSPs have taken to selling the cloud — a “best of times” development at first blush.” 

Sizing up your MSP…

Aside from basic services, does your MSP stand ready to do the real heavy lifting in times of Disaster Recovery, or handle hybrid installs with your latest SaaS applications?

SMB owners often place their networks ‘at risk’ on many fronts when timely security updates are shuffled to the bottom of their to-do lists. What’s more, just attempting to keep ahead of the latest IT developments can translate quickly to poor productivity in light of ever-changing market conditions.

Vetting your MSP…

Make sure you’ve made a list of questions to ask your potential candidate. including:

  • Do they offer more than off-the-shelf, basic services—can they tailor services to your specific needs?
  • How many years in the business?
  • Staffing: Level of engineering experience?
  • Is the service level agreement fit your needs? Penalties for not meeting requirements

Ask the tough questions….

A ‘biggie’ is making sure the MSP is SSAE (Standards for Attestation Engagements) compliant, offering 14-day retention, for example, with its managed backups, as well as “application-level protection, advanced monitoring, and multilevel intrusion prevention, SSL capability, hardware firewall, and IP-restricted FTP.”

BluWater Technology can offer your company levels of expertise tailored to your growing needs. Contact us to learn how our services can help your business run more efficiently: we improve bottom lines by bringing ‘fixed costs’ to your operation’s IT expenditures.

Outsourcing IT Functions Reduces Costs and Increases Productivity

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The  ‘Forbes Technology Council’  reminds business owners to ask the right questions before making their next IT purchase: Is that hardware, program, or application “vital, a luxury, or redundant?”

Forbes: Under-capitalized SMB faces IT challenges

In general, larger companies have the financial where-with-all to maintain an in-house IT department, leaving the under-capitalized SMB owner in a “struggle to stay afloat” during a downturn. 

“Lack of expertise” behind many outsourcing IT expenditures

Keeping up with the changes in technology can impact IT expenditures. The worst-case scenario is not knowing just how the purchase will ultimately help their business succeed. 

Consequently, decision-makers can be “overwhelmed with choices,” and an overall  “lack of expertise.”  

Budgets consume business-critical systems

In fact, according to a recent Deloitte ‘Tech Trends’ report, it is not unusual for IT expenditures to consume “as much as 70%” of the budget just to keep “business-critical systems” up and running. 

“Cheaper storage, cloud, and outsourcing have lowered…budgetary outlay(s) by 20 percent or more. Yet in an era of perpetually tight IT budgets, finding ways to redirect financial and human assets from operations to innovation remains a top…goal.“

Forbes favors outsourcing IT

Forbes recommends ‘outsourcing’ IT functions to help remedy cash-flow problems, or issues stemming from a business downturn. By offloading some, or all, of their IT operations to an experienced, MSP business owners benefit from having more time to run their business. 

Ultimately, using a  managed service provider (MSP) like BluWater Technology can not only reduce IT costs but can also add that next level of expertise to your operations. Ultimately, this leads to a “win-win scenario of saving time and money” while “improving team productivity.”

To find out how your business can operate more efficiently by using our MSP services, contact us.  We help improve bottom lines by assigning fixed costs to some—or all—of a company’s IT expenditures.

CNBC: Small Businesses Get ‘Tech-Savvy’

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‘Costs’ are not the only obstacle keeping a lot of small-business owners from embracing new tech—including outsourcing their IT services to a managed provider. 

According to CNBC, the pushback also stems from the lack of time the SMB owner has to allocate to technical issues. Yet, companies realize the critical need for new technologies to be competitive in the marketplace.

“‘Even with cost and time being a factor, many small businesses have little choice but to embrace the trend…streamlined technology is all but a necessity in modern-day commerce.'”

Salesforce survey: Over half of SMBs desire new tech.

What’s more, data from Salesforce indicates that SMBs (53 percent) would like to implement new technology in their businesses, but turn away because “it can be expensive,” or they have ongoing concerns about cybersecurity.  

Balancing ‘innovation and risk management.”

Nonetheless, as ‘The CIO Advisor’ notes, companies know full well that positive outcomes are possible with the right balance of “innovation and risk management.” 

Moreover, while many company stakeholders may think their existing network is providing the scalability they need right now, the question still remains: Is it optimized for the future…and capable of detecting and acting on future threats?

Forbes: MSP deliver cost savings and security tech.

According to a 2019 Forbes article, SMBs may not be in a position to migrate all their services to a managed IT service, but can benefit when choosing an “a-la-carte” plan; furthermore, using an MSP  can lead to cost savings and a more secure network. Added benefits include “improving team productivity.” 

Cyber attacks: An inconvenient truth…

Alarmingly, as Forbes notes, “over 40% of cyber-attacks are targeted at SMBs. Those affected, according to a recent study, never recover totally and are “generally out of business within six months.”

Contact us to learn more about the many options we can provide. We focus on your business to offer tailor-made managed IT services. You’ll like our proactive approach.

Predicting Major Disruptions to the MSP Market in 2019

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2019 promises to be a breakout year for the technology industry, with exciting advances in concepts such as machine learning and AI. However, 2019 is also a year that promises to exhibit some major disruptions or challenges, especially as they relate to MSP (managed service providers). 

Only the Strong Will Survive

As organizational dependency on technology continues to grow and technology itself becomes increasingly complex, MSPs that lean towards complacency will be pushed out of the market. Only MSPs committed to continually evolving to meet the increasingly complex needs of today’s small businesses will survive. MSPs who can expect to survive amid their counterparts will:

  • Make security challenges a top priority
  • Expand the types of services offered
  • Hire highly-skilled technical experts who can support their expanded line of services

Security is Paramount 

A successful MSP recognizes that small to medium-sized businesses need to be as prepared as large corporations against cyber threats. Almost 2/3 of all SMBs have experienced a recent cyber attack. It is no longer possible for SMBs (or their MSPs) to think they can fly under the radar against data breaches while their larger counterparts with big security teams (i.e. major corporations), fend off all the attacks. Both MSPs and SMBs must understand that enacting comprehensive security plans is paramount this year.

More Disruptions than Cloud 

Cloud technology may have seemed like a major disruptor to SMBs, but it was a disruptor that provided positive benefits. Including company access on the go and greater collaboration among organizational members. The disruption that cyber security issues will bring in 2019, will be very demanding both for small businesses and MSPs who are not fully prepared to meet the challenge.

Summary

Here at Bluwater Technologies, we see disruptors in 2019 especially as they relate to cyber security. We are determined to meet these challenges. If you would like to connect your business with a truly committed MSP in order to meet 2019’s disruptors head-on, please contact us.

We Know The Secret To Hiring Great Employees

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At Bluwater Technologies, we understand employees are one of the most important assets of a company, especially when a company provides services that require a high level of commitment to corporate clients. We are dedicated to hiring employees who possess not only a high degree of technical skills and knowledge but who are effective problem solvers as well. By following a well-rounded evaluation assessment plan for each prospective employee, we are able to have an “extra edge” when it comes to hiring only those who are able to meet, as well as exceed customer expectations.

Beyond Skills

Of course, we recognize it is vitally important for any prospective employee to possess a high level of technical knowledge and skills in order to provide outstanding service to our clients. However, we go the extra mile by developing a profile of each prospective candidate in order to assess traits such as:

  • Their ability to work with a wide variety of client styles, 
  • Leadership skills, 
  • Communication skills within a team,
  • Problem-solving skills, 
  • and their ability to effectively manage stress and resolve conflicts.

By taking this holistic approach to the overall hiring process, we are able to find the team members best suited to work with our clients.

Successful Onboarding

Once we select a new hire, we know the hiring process doesn’t stop on the first day of employment. In order for new employees to succeed in meeting the needs of our clients, we need to continue investing in our employees. This process starts right away by following an onboarding plan for each new hire. We encourage open communication with our employees and actively engage with new hires early on, encouraging them to feel part of the team as quickly as possible. We convey our corporate mission to new hires, as well as our goals and expectations. As we increase our own levels of productivity more effectively through the process of active onboarding, it enables us to increase our level of service to clients. 

If you would like to know more about Bluwater Technologies and our great team members, please contact us.