Boost IT

IT Management, Cybersecurity, & Cloud

IT Management

The Benefits of System Performance Monitoring

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Improving your system performance and increasing your productivity are goals every business wants to achieve. IT can be a big headache and cost you money when your system is slow or down. Therefore, system performance monitoring should be a priority against weaknesses and threats that are counterproductive and costly.

3 benefits of system performance monitoring

Prevent mistakes from reoccurring.

The truth is your staff has everyday responsibilities to concentrate on. It’s too easy to neglect IT responsibilities that don’t have their main attention. IT shouldn’t take a back seat in your business. This leads to mistakes. Chances are, your staff only think of IT when there is a problem. They fix the problem and then go back to their main duties. The fix is likely a patch for a certain period but does not really address the problem.

Instead of applying a patch, experts like Boost IT will quickly identify problems, evaluate them, and determine solutions with system performance monitoring.

Be more efficient.

Most service-oriented businesses rely on their IT system to be as efficient as possible so their employees can maximize productivity. When the system is slow, employees can’t be efficient in their work processes. When the system is down, limited work gets done. Yet many businesses continue to have employees responsible for IT when they are not qualified or don’t have the appropriate time for essential IT needs, let alone monitoring. Without the attention, weaknesses occur in the system that significantly affect performance – leading to slow processing, downtime, and lost revenue.

When you outsource to a company like Boost IT, having us provide system performance monitoring can help to improve your operational efficiency while lowering the total cost of managing the supporting infrastructure. The process, called benchmarking, helps us to continuously look at how your system performance compares to a set of key performance metrics. We’ll address problems before they occur based on the indicators.

Look at the whole picture.

To understand your business operation, it’s critical that you get the whole picture. In service-oriented businesses like engineering, architectural and healthcare industries, you rely on your IT. It must be a part of your analysis. It’s very difficult to make decisions about your IT system when you don’t understand how it affects your performance.

If you aren’t monitoring it, you could have a weakness in your IT system that is affecting everyone and not even know about it. Sometimes the effect seems insignificant – an employee deals with it. But often what one employee is dealing with, another deals with, too. Every bit of underperformance adds up.

When you outsource your system performance monitoring with Boost IT, you’ll receive monthly reports that help you see the whole picture for your IT, including how weaknesses in system performance cost money and create downtime. We’ll be able to tell you if there is an instance or a time of day when your system is underperforming. We can help tell you how certain transactions perform during peak periods of system utilization and how certain workloads will perform on a newly configured version of the database.

The whole picture can provide huge insight to make critical decisions regarding your infrastructure, software, and security – things that affect every aspect of your business. With system performance monitoring you get the whole picture plus indicators against a myriad of IT problems.

With Boost IT, you have trained and experienced professionals looking at what is going on with your system 24x7x365. We can identify problems that occur due to peak usage at certain times of the day or when a specific employee opens a file that has malware. System performance monitoring is what you need to address problems immediately and maintain optimum efficiency. We can help you determine when to make changes in your infrastructure or move to the cloud, adapting the monitoring services to your business.

For more information, contact Boost IT at 404-865-1289.

Getting Out of the IT Business

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Want to get out of the IT business? We’ve been hearing that phrase a lot lately and it’s coming from people who are realizing the benefits of outsourcing. That’s because these people aren’t even in the IT business. They are administrative assistants, engineers, real estate brokers, financial advisors, and other professionals who have jobs to do other than IT.

Why you should get out of the IT business

Focus on core competencies

There is a problem in many companies. The problem is that IT responsibilities are assigned to an employee who has other main duties, or an IT department handles various technology problems while their primary function is to assist with big data analytics. No one can be the jack of all trades. It’s a real problem and it’s distracting your employees from the strengths you need for your business to excel.

While there are some tasks that you may need to do in-house, such as the simple, everyday tasks employees do, outsource your greatest needs to a professional IT business that regularly deals with the backups, maintenance, system updates, software upgrades and complex situations.

Control operating costs

While you will still need to be involved in part so you get the services you need, saving money is one of the most compelling reasons for outsourcing. It can help reduce and control your operating costs with fixed fees for managed IT, cloud computing, backup and disaster recovery, and other services. You know the cost to budget each month and you can free up capital for use in other areas.

Increase productivity

Without the distractions of scrambling to handle IT problems and knowing that you will get the right technology for the job, employees will be more motivated, less stressed and more productive. By outsourcing Managed IT services to Boost IT, your systems will be regularly updated and monitored for optimal performance. If a problem does arise, we can identify and correct it in advance in many cases before it adversely affects your business. The speed at which a problem is handled will be so fast, you might not even realize there was a problem. With that type of support, you’ll have less downtime and smoother workflow.

Access a team of IT professionals

By outsourcing, you’ll gain access to an IT business with professionals who specialize in all types of information technology. The professionals at Boost IT receive continuous training and have proper certifications. Because we work with multiple clients and need to keep up on industry best practices, we have the knowledge to address current issues and the experience to handle complex situations on a 24/7/365 schedule. That’s a schedule that will keep your servers and networks running, reliably and securely, without the worry of who’s sick, who’s leaving your company, or who’s going on summer vacation. With that level of support, you will no longer be limited by what your in-house IT can do.

Outsourcing to an IT business that knows the ins and outs of information technology can help free up your employees so they can concentrate on their main duties while being more productive. You’ll get the technical support from experts that can align your technology goals with your company vision to help you grow. To take the next step with outsourcing, contact Boost IT at 404-865-1289 or submit a request online. To read more about how a local engineering company improved their productivity with our IT solutions, read this case study.

What’s Slowing Down Your Device?

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You rely on your device to get your work done. When your device is slow, your productivity level is affected. You have deadlines looming and risk going over budget if you can’t get the work done in a timely manner. But right now, all you can seem to do is stare at the screen, waiting for a file to load.

Working with a computer that is painstakingly slow is frustrating. Loading files seems to take forever. You’re constantly getting messages about your programs being unresponsive. You can’t afford to wait; you have work to get done.

While it might seem that the answer to a slow device is getting a new one, the device itself might not be the problem. You could have a problem with your network. Therefore, it is important to pinpoint what is slowing you down – a specific device or the network.

When the mobile phone or tablet is slow

As you work more on the go, you will rely on mobile devices that have unique problems compared to desktops and networks. If you suspect your mobile device is slow, here are a few quick fixes:

  • Simply restart your iPhone or Android phone.
  • Remove apps you no longer use.
  • Update software.

However, if these don’t work, the cause for slow processing can be very difficult to determine.

  • Find a new app. Unfortunately, some apps can really slow down your mobile devices. This is often a problem when developers don’t update their apps to be compliant with the latest iOS and Android versions. As iOS and Android evolves, minor and major changes to the OS effect how apps run. And while Apple and Google regularly notify developers with the latest changes, not all developers will comply. Therefore, you either have to deal with it slowing your phone down or find an alternative.

When the desktop is slow

  • Update software. This is one of the best ways to keep your devices operating efficiently.
  • Run anti-malware, anti-spyware, and anti-virus programs. Sometimes the only way to tell that you have an infected computer is that it is slowing you down.

When the network is slow

Too frequently, people suspect there is a problem with the infrastructure needing an upgrade when it is acting slow. But there could be some serious problems.

  • Verify you have a strong connection and that the bandwidth is appropriate for what you need.
  • Verify your computer is free of malware, spyware, and viruses.
  • Perform updates to your operating system and software.
  • Look for an improperly configured network or network port.
  • Replacing network hardware can increase speeds 10x.

These are only a few examples of the problems that are slowing down your device. Consistent slowness in the network is difficult to determine. There could be more than one problem occurring at the same time.

Boost IT can help you fix slow performance. We’ll start by looking at a few likely suspects like those above and investigate more complex problems. Once your systems are running optimally, we’ll continue to monitor them to maintain peak performance. To learn more, contact us at 404-865-1289.

How Outsourcing IT Can Help Take Your Business to the Next Level

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Managed IT services are becoming increasingly popular. Whether you have a small business with limited IT staff or a large business with a full staff, outsourcing IT can help take your business to the next level.

Filling in Gaps

A big problem with IT is that there are gaps for essential tasks that are not prioritized until there is a problem. For example, if you are a SMB, you might have one or two people assigned to handle all your IT issues. More likely, they have other responsibilities that keep them busy around the clock. There is only so much they can do in one day. So as long as the network is working well, any issues with it get pushed to the side until there is a problem. By that time, you’ve got an emergency. What’s worse is that they are not prepared for the emergency because they’ve been so busy with the other responsibilities.

The result is downtime that is both costly and unpredictable. And when you are trying to grow your business, that hiccup can significantly affect your growth. By outsourcing, you can fill in the gaps to help your business reach that next level.

4 Ways Outsourcing IT Fills in the Gaps to Help Business Growth

Consistency

When IT goes wrong and your staff is trying to find the problem to fix, your staff is distracted. They lose precious time and revenue. Costs can fluctuate because your IT might not know the problem and end up spending an unpredictable amount of time. By outsourcing, your internal staff can more consistently work on their everyday tasks. These tasks are the ones that help you leverage resources to be more efficient and competitive. There is less stress from less distractions, and you get a fixed price that you can budget for in advance while saving money.

Monitoring

Perhaps one of the most important ways outsourcing helps you grow is with the speed of service. Outsourcing provides 24/7/365 monitoring of your systems. Issues with your network can be caught behind the scenes before they interfere with your operations. You won’t even notice them. Your employees can continue to work without interruptions.

For example, if a hard drive becomes too full, it can crash your server. Managed services can monitor these systems and automatically alert your outsourced provider, who can then effectively handle the issue before the potential crash happens and becomes an emergency.

IT Support

Your in-house IT has limitations in how they can support you. Those limitations go as far as their training and experience allows. By outsourcing IT, you are hiring a company that has a staff of dedicated professionals with a broad spectrum of skills, language, training and experience in dealing with complex, everyday technical problems. It’s a surefire way to access a talented group of professionals that can focus on aligning your IT needs with your growth. They provide support if you have someone going on vacation, getting sick, or leaving the company. That’s the support you need for your business to operate smoothly and grow to the next level.

Expert Feedback

Technology is the foundation of every business model. With outsourcing, you can get feedback on how your technology is keeping up with your growth. This is a major competitive advantage as you scale your business. Your outsourced IT services team can quickly relay the status of your technology and provide recommendations that fulfill your needs for growth. With this expert feedback, you will be able to make the best strategy moving forward.

Don’t leave your business vulnerable. Outsourcing IT can help you fill in gaps that are critical for business growth. Boost IT can help your business get to the next level. We’ll listen to your needs and provide Managed Services that will complement what your staff is doing and help them to do what they do best. You’ll love the results! Learn more by contacting us at 404-865-1289.

Benefits of Managed IT Services

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To be successful in business, increasing revenue while decreasing costs is crucial. Many SMBs are turning to outsourced managed IT services because they realize that a small incremental expense, and in some cases an overall decrease in IT expenses, can mean huge gains in revenue. Managed IT services can also be a game changer because it helps SMBs be more focused on what they love to do and make them more competitive. Boost IT has seen this over and over again with the clients that we support.

Managing IT in Startup and Growth

When ABC Company moved into their first office space, they were a new startup that bought new computers, printers, and other technology. They outsourced networking services and were up and running their business in no time. As they grew from a startup to a growing company, their concentration was on getting more clients and meeting workflow demands. They needed all hands on deck to keep clients happy and work flowing.

As the technology got older and problems started to happen, ABC Company increasingly relied on their administrative personnel to handle their IT. Unfortunately, this happens all too often with growing companies. Administrative professionals manage the office so why not task them with the IT problems?

The problem is that IT is not a task that gets done around your everyday responsibilities. When growing companies share IT duties in-house as add-on tasks, they compromise their ability to keep work flowing and clients happy. Before they know it, tangible and intangible costs begin to escalate, so growth is stunted, stress is high, and disasters are likely to affect the businesses ability to function

More growing companies are realizing that they need to better control IT costs, put the focus back on their business, and outsource qualified IT professionals. They do this with managed IT services.

4 Ways Managed IT Services Benefit Growing Companies

Control IT Costs

The average company has many IT demands –  internal systems, websites, availability, development, support, disaster recovery and business continuity, among others. Addressing these demands can be costly. If you have personnel responsible for your IT, often that responsibility is not their main duty. They are not usually monitoring the IT continuously so when a problem happens, they have to take valuable time to figure out the problem or spend unbudgeted expenses to outsource a professional.

When managed IT services are outsourced to Boost IT, they are fee-based so you know your monthly costs. By managing the monthly expense, your IT costs are predictable and don’t get out of control.

Increase Productivity

Every technical failure costs you downtime. So why not have a team that works around the clock to resolve small issues before downtime occurs? Downtime also distracts administrative personnel and other staff that are tasked with trying to find solutions they are not qualified to find. That wastes precious time and dollars.

With Boost IT’s managed IT services, you often don’t have any downtime and your personnel no longer experience distractions so they can stay productive. That’s because our monitoring and maintenance system helps us to detect issues and resolve them quickly. Combine that with our training and experience, the issue is fixed before it turns into a problem. And when you do notice a problem, we are extremely familiar with your workflows, systems, people, and business goals so we can quickly isolate the problem, solve it, and in many cases make improvements to the entire system or workflow.

Focus on Your Business

When your administrative professionals are working on IT demands, their time is consumed by complex problems and they easily become overwhelmed. Too often, important maintenance that keeps your system performing optimally lapses when personnel are busy with their daily assignments, and your staff doesn’t have the tools to monitor the minute details. This puts your data at risk and hurts productivity.

By outsourcing your day-to-day IT with managed services, you get bundled solutions to optimize your infrastructure, take advantage of cloud computing, and automatic maintenance. Boost IT researches and pools together all the tools, software, and services that you would have to purchase and manage separately, and provide those to you at a fixed monthly fee. And you get a friendly team that is keeping an eye on your network around the clock.

With bundled solutions from Boost IT, we make storing and managing your data easier and give you the fast, knowledgeable technical support you need to back you up. We’ll go behind the scenes with regular software updates and performance boosts. You and your personnel can rest assured that files are being stored and backed up properly because we’ll handle it.

Get Qualified IT Professionals

Many growing companies that hire in-house IT personnel are not usually getting the most qualified professionals that understand all the ins and outs for managing and maintaining your infrastructure, data storage, and security. This is especially true if you hire IT personnel who are part-time or break-fix, meaning waiting until things break to address issues. And if you dump the IT responsibilities on your administrative support, you are even less likely to get the qualifications while increasing the stress level and downtime from IT problems.

By outsourcing your IT and Cloud Management to Boost IT, we provide professionals that are trained, experienced, qualified, and certified to handle your IT. Our professionals deal with all types of problems on a daily basis. We are familiar with recognizing and solving them quickly and cost-effectively. Our team will also help you set and work toward your business goals, or guide you when evaluating, choosing or moving to new technology vendors like internet providers, multi-functional printer vendors and new software packages, or moving to or setting up new offices, just to name a few.

Our Managed IT Services saves our clients money by decreasing their IT costs and minimizing downtime. Under our program, clients pay one flat, affordable rate and get all the technical support needed. To learn more about managed services, read What are Managed Services. To choose Boost IT as your managed services provider, or if you want to asks our clients how much we have accomplished for them, contact us at 404-865-1289 or complete our contact form.

How To Boost Computer Performance

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Your computer performance affects your productivity and can give you the competitive edge. It can also be the center of your frustration when it seems to be slow for the simplest of tasks. With more companies looking for game changers that can accelerate their growth, you need to regularly boost your computer performance to stay in the game.

Scan and Remove Malware

If your computer used to be fast and now it isn’t, there is a good chance you have malware. It can sneak into your computer and sit in the background, gradually slowing your computer performance. Doing a scan on a regular basis can help you detect and remove malware. You should also scan and remove spyware and viruses.

Clean Up Your Drives

You might be amazed at how quickly files are added onto your computer. There are temporary files, downloads, cookies, recycled files, logs, etc. that take up space and slow computer performance.  Follow the steps in our How to Free Up Disk Space using Disk Cleanup post to clean up your drives and boost computer performance.

Change Your Browser

Different browsers perform differently on devices. One that has become known for its bugs and other problems is Internet Explorer. So, if you are still using it change to Google Chrome for faster browsing.

Clean Your Browser

Regardless of the browser you are using, you should regularly clean it of its history, cookies, and cached items. 

Uninstall What You Don’t Use

Regularly review which programs and apps you no longer need and remove them through the uninstaller program on your device. And consider migrating to services in the cloud. The cloud-based Office 365 helps keep functions online so you don’t have large installations of software installed on your computer.

Get Rid of Garbage

Unless you always use a program, keep it from loading at Windows startup. Also, evaluate services you don’t need, automatic updates, webservers and database servers that are left behind by removed applications, and other not-so-helpful utilities, toolbars and add-ons.

Check Your Network Connectivity

So much of what you do is done on the network that you might not even realize it’s slowing you down. Moving your location to an area with a stronger signal can make the difference.

Computer Performance Summary

Ask for Help

It’s easy to get in over your head with fixing slow computers. And if you have an older device, there could be so many things slowing it down that the only recourse is reinstalling the operating system. Don’t do this yourself. Your time is too valuable to fiddle with the computer. Ask for help.

Boost IT can help ease the stress of a slow computer’s performance. With professional Managed IT, we keep your computers and network in tip-top shape with benchmark tests, regular malware, anti-spyware and antivirus scans, scheduled updates to software, and more. It all takes place without interruption to your employees. Plus, we offer cloud computing to help move your daily files online so they don’t take up your hard drive space.