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April 7, 2021

How to Balance Your IT’s Value Against the Cost

No matter how you look at it, technology is expensive. You’ll rarely look at your IT invoices without cringing a little on the inside. However, it’s important that you take a glance at these every once in a while to understand just what you’re getting from your technology budget. Ultimately, you want to ensure that your IT purchases are yielding a positive return on investment, and therefore, providing value for your organization.

Analyzing the Costs
While most users will understand cost in its literal term, it’s critical that you consider the other factors that make up cost. By definition, cost is what you give up in order to attain something else. Cost primarily focuses on what you’re giving up instead of what you get, so it tends to look at concepts such as pricing or other manners of investment. Cost can also include factors other than monetary value, including time, effort, or other resources. Analyzing cost can help you optimize the way that your assets are applied, thus reducing the amount of waste and ensuring the desired outcome for your organization. That being said, the cost of an item is only half the battle.

Analyzing Value
If cost is what you give up in order to receive something, then value is what you get out of something. Value can be inherently based on financial gain, but many times value is actually the total yield versus the total investment. One of the best examples is starting off communications with a new client, as one good action could create a considerably more valuable relationship with them as time goes on.

An example where we can see the difference between cost and value for technology would be purchasing a new workstation. It’s one thing to look at the price tag, but this doesn’t give you the whole picture. Your old workstation hasn’t cost you much financially because you paid it off a long time ago, whereas a new computer is of considerable cost. However, your old workstation might suffer from issues related to outdated operating systems or components, making it a difficult piece of technology to work with from. The value in this case is saved time and enhanced productivity.

Calculating Your IT’s Value
If you ever need to calculate how much a certain action or decision will cost your company in terms of value, you can try to compare it mathematically. After all, numbers don’t lie. This helps you keep track of what you’ve invested, as well as how much you’re getting in return for your investment. To determine the value of something, you can use a simple “x=y” equation. In this case, the invested cost is “x,” while the result (the value) is “y.”

Now, let’s try out an example. You need to determine if your business’ technology investment actually equals productivity. In this case, you can use a simple ratio method. Let’s say you invest $25 into a workstation and increase productivity by 10% when investing an extra $30 will improve efficiency by 17%. If investing $31 only raises productivity by 16%, instead of investing more in something else, you just narrow down the cost until you have achieved the maximum value per dollar.

Need help planning your IT costs, value, and strategy? Download The 3 Essential Tech Systems You Must Have in Place To Grow & Protect Your Business” workbook here.

 

By admin
April 5, 2021

A Document Management System is the Modern Filing Cabinet

Do you realize how much paper you use each year? Do you realize how much paper you have stored in your office? Do you realize that none of that is necessary? Today, digital filing systems as a part of a document management strategy can keep you from wasting your business’ resources on paper, filing, and printing. Here’s how:

Introducing a Document Management System

What if a file cabinet could:

  • Independently sort out and organize the files it contains
  • Work with your other business solutions to put these files to their proper use, on a variety of devices
  • Simplify collaborative processes
  • Assist you in your business continuity preparations
  • Pull the files you are looking for via a simple search interface
  • Protect the files you have stored in it, while ensuring you remain compliant to industry-based regulations
  • Enable secure access for your remote workers

All that is possible by integrating a Document Management System into your business’ IT infrastructure. Not only can you get all your documents from almost anywhere at any time, you can cut down the substantial costs associated with file storage and retrieval. 

A cloud-hosted DMS can cut document retrieval time and storage costs, dramatically. It’s also a massive benefit for those workers who need access to paper documents, but work outside of your business. Remote work is more prevalent today than ever before and giving your staff the ability to have any time, anywhere access to any file they need can be very beneficial for your workers, your customers, and your bottom line. 

If you would like to learn more about how a comprehensive document management system can help your business cut costs and give you remote access to files that you could only access by going to your office before, call the IT experts at Net Activity at 216-503-5150.

By admin
April 1, 2021

HTTPS Becomes Default For Google Chrome For Added Security

For the last month or so, Google has been testing the notion of using HTTPS as the default protocol for all URLs a user types into the address bar. Those who have been experimenting with Chrome’s latest Canary build have already seen the new feature in action, and the company has decided to forge ahead.

In the next stable release, it will be formally incorporated into Chrome’s browser experience. Android users can expect to see it when they update to version 90, which is slated to be released on April 13. The iOS rollout is scheduled for an unspecified date later this year.

This is all a part of Google’s ongoing effort to bolster safety on the internet. In this specific instance, the goal is to attempt to thwart “man in the middle” attacks that see hackers intercept un-encrypted web traffic and either steal data or inject malicious code into the data stream.

Chrome team members Shweta Panditrao and Mustafa Emre Acer explain further:

“Chrome will now default to HTTPS for most typed navigations that don’t specify a protocol. For sites that don’t yet support HTTPS, Chrome will fall back to HTTP when the HTTPS attempt fails (including when there are certificate errors, such as name mismatch or untrusted self-signed certificate, or connection errors, such as DNS resolution failure).”

If you’re interested in testing the upcoming feature before it reaches the stable channel, you can do so by enabling the ‘experimental’ flag. Just go to:

chrome://flags/#omnibox-default-typed-navigations-to-https

And enable the option to have HTTPS as the default navigation protocol. Once there, you’ll also have the option to choose either a 3-second or a 10-second timeout to give the browser enough time to determine the availability of the HTTPS URL.

This is an unquestionably good change. Kudos to Google. We’re looking forward to seeing it in the stable release.

By admin
April 1, 2021

5 Security Issues Your Business Needs to Look out For

Cybersecurity is a constant battle, but there are significant steps you can take to keep your IT defenses strong and effective, one of which is to increase your knowledge of security threats. Here are five common ways your business systems can be infiltrated.

1. You are tricked into installing malicious software

There are countless ways you can be tricked into downloading and installing malware. One is by downloading software from torrent websites. When you visit these sites, you are told to download software in order for the site to load properly. Once downloaded, the malware that came with the software infects your system. In other cases, hackers send emails with a malware-infected attachment.

Luckily, there are steps you can take to avoid accidentally installing malware:

  • Never download files from an untrusted source. If a website is asking you to download something, make sure it’s reputable and reliable. Double check the URL of the website as well, as hackers can spoof legitimate websites and use similar but slightly altered URLs, such as “www.g00gle.com” instead of “www.google.com.” If you are unsure, it’s best to avoid downloading and installing the software.
  • Always look at the name of the file before downloading. A lot of malware is often deliberately given names similar to those of legitimate files, with only a slight spelling mistake or some unusual wording. If you are unsure about the file, then don’t download it. If you know the sender, you may contact them to verify the file’s authenticity.
  • Always scan a file before installing it. Use your antivirus scanner to check downloaded files before opening them.
  • Stay away from sites with torrents, adult content, or those that stream pirated videos. These sites often contain malware, so avoid them altogether.

2. Hackers obtain admin privileges

Many users are logged into their computers as admins. Being an administrator allows you to change settings, install programs, and manage other accounts. The problem with this is that if a hacker manages to access your computer with you as the admin, they will have full access to your computer. This means they can install other malicious software, change settings, or even completely hijack the machine.

Even worse is if a hacker gains access to a computer used to manage the overall IT network. Should this happen, they can control the entire network and do as they please.

To avoid these unfortunate situations, limit the administrator role only to users who need to install applications or change settings on their computers. Installing antivirus software and keeping them up to date, as well as conducting regular scans, will also help reduce the chances of being infected.

3. Someone physically accesses your computer

Your system can also get infected with malware or your data can get stolen because someone physically accessed your systems.

Let’s say you leave your computer unlocked when you go out for lunch. Someone can just walk up to it and plug in a malware-infected USB drive, which can infect your system. They can also manually reset the password, thereby locking you out.

An easy way to defend against this is to secure your computer with a password. You should also lock, turn off, or log off from your computer whenever you step away from it. You can also disable drives like CD/DVD and connections like USB if you don’t use them. Doing so will limit the chances of anyone using these removable media to infect your computer or steal data from it.

4. Someone from within the company infects the system

A disgruntled employee can compromise your IT systems. They can do so much damage such as deleting essential data or introducing highly destructive malware.

The most effective way to prevent this, aside from ensuring your employees are happy, is to limit access to systems. For example, you may find that people in marketing have access to finance files or even admin panels. Revoke unnecessary access rights and ensure that employees only have access to the files they need.

5. Your password is compromised

Passwords are typically the main verification method businesses use to access their accounts and systems. The issue with this is that many people have weak passwords that are easy to crack. To make matters worse, many people even use the same password for multiple accounts, which could lead to a massive breach.

It is therefore important to use strong and different passwords for your accounts. It’s best to also utilize multifactor authentication, which requires users to present more than one way to verify their identity such as a password plus a fingerprint or a one-time code.

If you want to learn more about securing your systems, contact Net Activity today.

 

By admin
March 29, 2021

Policies that Every BYOD Strategy Needs to Abide By

One of the most effective means for a business to shave a few dollars off its budget (and potentially boost employee engagement, for that matter) is to adopt something called a Bring Your Own Device policy—effectively, an agreement that allows their team members to access business-owned documents and files on devices they personally own to get their work done. While these policies have been shown to be very effective, they also need to be carefully considered so they can be adopted appropriately.

Let’s take a few moments to review some practices that are recommended for a secure BYOD implementation.

Determine Acceptable Parameters

 

  • Device and OS Requirements. For your productivity to remain intact and for your organizational security to be preserved, the tools your team brings to use need to meet the baselines that you set—otherwise, there is likely to be a shortcoming that leaves an opening. Certain workflows may require a specific operating system to be used, simply for the processes to be compatible. Keeping track of your team’s chosen hardware will help you determine if their devices are eligible to participate.
  • Accepted Software. On the topic, your business workflows should have defined software solutions identified for your team to use so that processes can flow smoothly. Make sure your team knows that they are expected to use these titles for their work processes and that they are expected to have certain protections in place on their mobile devices before they can use them to work.
  • Upkeep Policies. When using a personal device to access your business’ network, there needs to be some supported expectation that the user will ensure that the device remains functional and secure. This could mean that only authorized dealers or professionals are authorized to perform basic maintenance tasks and that these tasks are carried out promptly.

Security Preparations

 

  • Encryption Policies. In terms of protecting your data from the prying eyes of hackers, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more effective method than encrypting it. Considering this, it is important that you encourage/require encryption to be put in place as a part of any BYOD policies you implement.
  • Password Standards. We know we know… the importance of secure passwords is a topic that has been covered frontways, backways, and every which way for a long time. However, once people start to follow these guidelines, we’ll stop bringing them up. When it comes to strong passwords, make sure your team is using them on all their devices, and that these devices are set to lock if an incorrect password is repeatedly entered.
  • Data Handling Guidelines. Where your data is concerned, you need to also establish the proper means for it to be stored and accessed while an employee is using a personal device. Ideally, your BYOD plan will have the means to block any data transfers to an insecure device as well as establish the proper procedures for accessing this data.

Necessary Prerequisites

 

  • Data Removal Circumstances. When an employee’s device has access to your company’s data via a BYOD strategy, it is critical that you retain the means to rescind that access as needed—like if a device is lost or stolen, or if an employee leaves the company. You may also want to include the right to review an employee’s device for company-owned data so that it can be removed if they were to leave so that your data isn’t brought elsewhere or abused.
  • Lost or Stolen Device Procedures. On the topic, your team needs to have a reporting process to follow should something happen to their device that will help to ensure that mitigating actions can be appropriately taken. Reinforce that these reports need to be promptly submitted to help minimize the potential impact of such occurrences.
  • Breach of Policy Consequences. Finally, you need to establish how employees will be reprimanded should these policies go unheeded or disregarded. While the loss of BYOD privileges is a common tactic, you should also seriously consider what is acceptable before an employee should be terminated. Once these distinctions have been made, share that information with your team when they opt into your BYOD implementation, so they are aware of the severity of such indiscretions.

A Bring Your Own Device policy is an essential piece of the modern office’s IT considerations and is something that we can help you out with in much more detail. Find out what needs to be done by calling 216-503-5150 today.

 

 

By admin
March 25, 2021

Steer clear of these mistakes when migrating to Microsoft 365

Migrating to Microsoft 365 is easy and simple, but if you’re not careful, you may find yourself facing problems that can keep you from getting the most out of this comprehensive suite of productivity tools. We’ve listed some of the common issues organizations encounter when migrating to Microsoft 365 and how you can avoid them.

Not having enough bandwidth

Migrating your files and systems over to Microsoft 365 requires a large amount of bandwidth, which can result in slower internet speeds during the migration process. If the migration is carried out during business hours, you and your employees might struggle to do tasks online, such as sending emails and holding video conferences. To avoid this problem, schedule the migration after regular business hours or on a weekend.

Also, if you are already noticing slow speeds and service interruptions before deploying Microsoft 365, note that these issues will likely get worse after implementation. This is because Microsoft 365 services require a large amount of bandwidth. Ask your internet service provider to check your existing network connection to ensure that it can handle the migration and the day-to-day operations of Microsoft 365.

Lack of end-user involvement and buy-in

User involvement is key to the success of any IT project, including migrating to Microsoft 365. Make sure your end users know what to expect during every stage of the migration process. For one, let them know how long migrating to Microsoft 365 will take and how it will affect their tasks. Starting the migration without informing users that their files and email will not be accessible during the process can lead to productivity loss and resentment toward the new platform.

And to ensure you get your employees’ buy-in, train them on how to use the new platform. Introduce Microsoft 365’s apps and features, and explain how these can help them enhance their productivity and efficiency. This will ensure that everyone is familiar with the Microsoft 365 environment, preventing any disconnect or confusion, and pave the way for a seamless migration.

Rushing the process

While it’s tempting to try and migrate all your data at once, it would be foolish to do so. Successful migrations take months to plan, prepare, and execute. They are best done in stages. If you’re migrating your email accounts, for instance, it’s recommended that you move your emails to Exchange Online before gradually rolling out other apps. This way, all the data you need will be carried over to Microsoft 365 without any loss or corruption.

Stuffed mailboxes and large files

If your users have too many emails in their inboxes or have a lot of large files, the migration process could slow down significantly. Encourage your staff to archive their inboxes and delete large, unnecessary files to ensure that the process goes smoothly.

Outdated software

If your business is still using an older version of the Windows operating system (OS), such as Windows 7 or Windows XP, you’ll have trouble using Microsoft 365. The productivity suite works best with Windows 10, so if you’re planning to implement it, factor the cost, time, and effort it will take to upgrade your OS into your migration plan.

Doing the process yourself

On paper, migrating to Microsoft 365 seems like a simple and straightforward process. This leads many businesses to believe that they can do it on their own. However, without proper guidance from experts, you may run into problems that can harm critical business operations.

Ensure an error-free migration by partnering with us today. We’ll show you the proper way of migrating your business’s systems to Microsoft 365 without affecting your day-to-day operations.

By admin
March 22, 2021

Attract Customers With These 7 Types Of Video Content

Do you want to bolster your marketing campaigns? Then create videos and post them on social media. It doesn’t take much to make videos — you can finish high-quality ones using your smartphone and accessible video editing software. This makes them one of the most cost-efficient ways to target and convert potential customers. Here are seven types of video content you should consider.

Business introduction or behind-the-scenes

If your company lacks an online presence, one of the best things you can do is give customers direct access to your staff and your product. Take your viewers on an office tour and show them how a product is made, or broadcast your business’s launch event.

Make sure to invite as many viewers as you can, but remember that most live broadcasts can be saved and viewed later. You’ll likely want to keep the video available after the live broadcast has ended.

News and trending topics

Current and live event broadcasts are great not only because they’re fresh, but also because they give your audience something to share.

Facebook Live and Instagram stories allow people and businesses to share recent information, trending news, and other relevant stories. For example, you can stream a live cooking show while engaging your viewers by hosting a Q and A in real time OR during the show.

With these features, you can instantly reach millions of viewers in mere seconds.

Ask me anything (AMA)

You may be getting a lot of conceptual questions about innovative ways to use your product or service, what direction the company is heading, and so forth. There’s no better way to address these questions than to do a personal and unscripted AMA segment.

Should you get a good turnout, make sure to keep questions and answers moving in a relevant and interesting direction. There’s nothing wrong with updating everyone on what you had for breakfast, but addressing service bugs or product feature requests will be a lot more beneficial for wider audiences.

How-tos

Whether it’s a soon-to-be-released product or a simple rehash of an existing one, there’s no better way to guide customers than by using how-to videos.

Not only do these show existing clients the best way to use your product or service, but it also allows potential customers to see both your product and your customer service philosophy in action. Saving these videos can be invaluable as you continue to get questions about your products or services — it’s an easy way to build a video reference library for sales and support.

Webinars

Webinars are events held on the internet that are attended by an online audience. They allow for online participation, thanks to real-time audio and video feeds.

In addition to video images, presentation slides can be broadcast and run in sync with the rest of the presentation. You can also make use of the screen capture functionality to show your viewers an application or a website. Webinars also offer various interactive opportunities such as chat, polls, surveys, and tests.

Live broadcast announcements

You can post live broadcast updates on social media platforms about an upcoming product, service, or event. These can make your announcement far more interesting and personal than a press release or faceless status update ever will.

Text-based announcements and pre-recorded videos severely limit how you address the “fine print” questions from customers. Think of live broadcasts as a chance to hold your own personal press briefing and address questions after your scripted announcement.

Social media reports indicate that Facebook users spend three times longer watching live broadcasts than pre-recorded videos. There are a handful of different services to use for live video broadcasting. Deciding which one is the best for you can depend on a lot of different variables, such as the length of your content and the demographics of your target audience.

Promotional videos

Use social media to offer a special promotion to anyone who tunes in to a live broadcast. Your promotional videos should portray your business in a positive light and make people want to do business with you.

Nowadays, many companies use influencers to attract people. If you have someone who’s familiar to your audience promoting your business, you’re likely to get the attention of potential customers, especially those who are hearing about your product or service for the first time.

Remember that promotional videos should be straight to the point and should last no longer than 10 – 15 minutes.

Call us with any of your questions and we’ll be happy to assist you in adding value to your business with today’s best live video services.

By admin
March 15, 2021

Your Google My Business Profile is More Important Than Ever

If you’re like most businesses who managed to remain open during these trying times, you have had to make a wide range of changes. The question is, are your customers aware of them? Do they know your new business hours or your COVID-19 precautions? Is your only communication tool a piece of paper taped to your door? Now is the time to take advantage of one of the most potent business communication tools available: Google My Business.

Is Your Business Still In Pre-COVID-19 Mode?
It has been about a year since most organizations had to enact radical changes to their business model in response to the pandemic. Unfortunately, some businesses could not adapt (through no fault of their own) and didn’t survive to see the New Year.

For those businesses that were able to evolve, now is no time to rest on your laurels.

Even as vaccinations roll out, the reality is things will never return to the exact way they were pre-COVID. For better or worse, your business needs to make any temporary changes permanent to provide the experience your customers have come to expect and even rely upon. Moreover, now is the time to enact any changes you were putting off in hopes of things returning to “normal.”

Most customers, even those that have worked with you in the past, will likely use a Google search to look up your company, get your phone number, check your online menu, check your business hours, etc. Google is their first impression of you, and their repeat stop to grab basic information about you. You can control the data Google displays about your company by managing your Google My Business Page.

Update Your Google My Business Page
Your Google My Business page manages the public information that Google displays when your business appears due to a person’s search. Hopefully, when the pandemic first stuck you altered your business operations (opening, closing hours, etc.) and in response, you updated your GMB account to reflect these changes.

If you haven’t, now is the time to review the information you have there. Have you updated your business hours or services offered? Ensure the contact information on your GBM page corresponds to the NAP (the Name, Address, and Phone Number) you have on your website.

Your NAP is vital because Google uses your Google My Business page to provide local searchers with information about your business. If this information is inaccurate, you reduce your business’ ability to get your message out and for customers to get in touch with you.

Moreover, if you want your business to turn up in a local search, your GMB presence needs to be as accurate as possible. Remember, as far as Google is concerned all search is local, and if your information isn’t correct, Google may show a competitor’s information instead of yours.

Finally, getting your business on Google doesn’t happen automatically, there are some steps for you to take. if you haven’t claimed your Google My Business account, you are, as we noted, limiting your business’s ability to be found. Of course it shouldn’t need to be said that if your business doesn’t turn up in search, your bottom line will suffer.

One more thing: we’ve been talking primarily about Google’s My Business page, but you need to be doing this across all of your social media accounts too. Everything should be accurate, because some of your customers will have their own preference for finding your business.

By admin
March 10, 2021

Does Your Organization Have Enough Bandwidth?

A lot of business is being conducted over the Internet right now, in terms of communication and transactions alike, which makes a business’ capability to remain connected to its clientele even more important. Now is not the time to wonder if your business is as connected as it should be, which means that you need to know how much bandwidth you have available—and that what you do have is sufficient.

Does Your Business Have Enough Bandwidth?
Obviously, if your business is experiencing bottlenecks, the answer to this question is no. Unfortunately, many organizations will simply adjust and adapt to these inefficiencies and “make it work” (to a point, at least). Despite this, you need to be sure that you at least know how much bandwidth your business should have to meet its needs.

In addition to this, it is important to be sure that your Internet service can support your needs. With so many options—including Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), Cable Modem, Fiber, Wireless, Satellite, or Broadband over Powerlines (BPL), and more—you need to know if your capacity is sized to match your consumption, and that you’re getting all you can for your investment.

When it comes to your broadband, here are some important things to keep in mind:

Run a Speed Test
A speed test is a great way to establish your current access to bandwidth and whether it is sufficient for your productivity. An internet consultant will have plenty of testing tools to use, but you should also take a moment to visit speedtest.net or another speed testing utility to help inform your conversation with them.

Here are some measurements to examine:

Ping, or latency, is how you measure the reaction time of your connection. For instance, how quickly a webpage can recognize that another tab has been opened. Issues here could come from your Internet service provider (ISP), an improperly configured firewall, router, or modem, and your overall bandwidth. A ping of about 20ms is good, as a lower ping indicates a better-performing connection.
Upload and download speed are another important consideration, as the speed of the data that you push out of and pull into your computer will help you evaluate your bandwidth. As downloads are typically more common than uploads in the business setting, it is normal for bandwidth to be more focused on downloads.

How Wi-Fi Will Factor In
Wi-Fi is a significant utility in any office, especially with the mobility that so many offices rely on nowadays—particularly when personal space is as large of a concern as it is now. This makes the prospect of losing connection in the office such an issue.

Unoptimized wireless can seriously hinder business productivity, and these issues are only worsened by insufficient bandwidth. Productivity issues are often the inciting factor behind the use of shadow IT, where these obstacles lead employees to install and utilize unapproved software without your knowledge.

Does Your Business Need More Than You Have?
If its bandwidth is insufficient for its needs, your business simply won’t have the capability to support its services sufficiently for your customers. In this way, your bottom line could be seriously impacted by any holdbacks—especially with so many of your customer-focused services being based online.

Your broadband is what also allows your team to work productively. Today’s popular conferencing solutions require a large amount of bandwidth to work effectively, and while VoIP isn’t all that resource-intensive, it does require some reliable bandwidth availability. Without the resources to support your processes, they are guaranteed to become a problem sooner or later.

Lean on Us for Help with Your Connectivity
It isn’t a secret that the Internet plays a mammoth role in modern business, in such a way that a prepackaged, one-size-fits-all strategy just won’t sufficiently fill. With Net Activity in your corner, you’ll have a resource to turn to so that you are sure to get the connectivity you need to compete and grow.

For any assistance with your company’s use of technology, give us a call at 216-503-5150 today.

By admin
March 8, 2021

What You Need To Do Before Committing To A New VoIP System

There comes a time when every business needs to invest in a phone system: they’re buying a new phone system for their new location or they’re upgrading from an older system. Regardless of the reason, they’re ready to make the commitment.

Your phone connects you to your customers, so you need it to be reliable. You want it to have a specific set of features (such as voicemail, call waiting, call forwarding, conferencing, recording, etc.) and you want your investment to be supported for years to come. The question you have is, “Where do I begin?”

First and foremost, finding the right phone system can be a pain. Doing research online leaves you sifting through site after site as you look for answers only to find way too much information – and most of it isn’t worth your time.

As a business, you’re about to drop serious money on a new phone system, so you want to know you’re getting what you pay for. Unfortunately, the phone system business is a competitive one, which means it’s hard to find websites, reviews and data that isn’t biased or skewed in some way. There are countless websites featuring deals that aren’t really deals, or websites hosting reviews sponsored by a phone service provider. This isn’t helpful.

So, what is helpful? Here’s what you need to know.

Most phone systems are essentially the same. There may be a few features that vary from system to system, but most VoIP systems will all have the most important features demanded by businesses. Your best bet is to define your phone needs before you start searching for a system. Chances are it won’t take long to find what you’re looking for – if you ignore the clutter.

What you really want to find is a stellar service provider. You might get caught up in trying to find the best phone with the best features, but none of that matters if you don’t get good service to go along with it. You need someone who will be with you every step of the way, from setup and installation to configuration and the all-important support.

You need someone you can rely on. That way, if anything goes wrong or you have questions, you have someone you can call. The fact of the matter is that most people aren’t and never will be VoIP or phone system experts. Business owners have too much on their plates to learn – from scratch – about a new phone system.

This leads to the questions you should be asking before you commit and buy a new system:

  • Who is setting up my new phone system?
  • Will they customize it for my specific needs?
  • How do I get help if my phone system stops working?
  • Who do I call if I have additional questions?

As you vet potential vendors, get exact and direct answers. If they beat around the bush, that’s a red flag. They should be able to answer all of your questions in a language you understand. If they don’t answer your questions, or you aren’t happy with the answers, find a different vendor.

There are many vendors who will send you a system and leave the rest up to you. If you know what you’re doing and have the time to set it up, it’s no big deal. But that isn’t most of us. And forget about support. If anything goes wrong, you’re on your own.

The best thing you can do when searching for a new VoIP phone system is to find an honest, reputable, local phone system reseller that you can verify will do the following:

  • Set up the system.
  • Customize the system for your business’s specific needs.
  • Offer personalized and continuous support and training.

In most cases, the answer lies with a dedicated and experienced IT services firm that knows technology. This is the kind of company that not only checks the boxes but can also ensure that your system works with your network without any hiccups.

The bottom is this: Do your research. Ask questions, get answers and be confident in your decision before handing over the credit card and signing on the dotted line. You’ll be much happier that you did!

By admin

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