Tag: Hosted Solutions

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Technology

VoIP Can Bring A Lot of Value

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Business technology can often augment communications and make collaboration easier, but administrators sometimes believe that these added perks come with a considerably higher price tag. When a solution comes around that can save money, like VoIP, business owners should consider it with serious intent to invest, as it can usher in an age of improved operations and efficiency for your employees, as well as a higher bottom line overall.

VoIP Improves Inter-Department Communication
Landline telephones in the office have been dated for quite some time. Even if they were once necessary to get in touch with coworkers and other departments, they are now quite antiquated compared to modern solutions. After all, there’s no guarantee that an employee will be available to take your call, as the workplace is filled with countless tasks that often require their full attention. Sure, you could leave a voicemail, but there’s no guarantee that the employee will see the message until it’s too late to respond. Since Voice over Internet Protocol doesn’t rely on your employees having a traditional handset, and instead has them using more mobile devices, they’re more likely to be available when you need them most.

VoIP Is More Flexible
Some organizations have employees who aren’t always able to work in the office for a variety of reasons. Perhaps they are simply on the move for conferences so often that they are just never in the office, or perhaps you have employees who work remotely from time to time (or even permanently). VoIP lets you stay in touch with these employees in the same way you can with your in-house team. Since VoIP can be used on mobile devices, laptops, and even desktops, it doesn’t matter where your employees work, as long as they have the VoIP application and a headset. In this way, VoIP is much more flexible than any traditional landline.

VoIP Allows for Additional Features
Landline phone services tend to have features built into them, but many of them are decided by the cable company that provides your telephone service. These features are often not what your business wants or even needs. VoIP services give your business all the features needed from traditional landline telephone services, including conference calling and voicemail, but with lots of additional features that add a quality to your business’ ability to communicate. You can take advantage of video conferencing and instant messaging built right into your VoIP solution. By going through a VoIP provider in this way, you save money by only paying for services you will use rather than those your cable provider assumes you want.

To get started with a VoIP solution today, reach out to us at PHONENUMBER.

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Casserly Consulting Blog

Tip of the Week: How to Find Success With Remote Workers

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Thanks to mobile devices and remote access, businesses around the world are freeing their employees from the tethers of their desks and allowing them to work remotely. Some companies have employees that work remotely all of the time, which presents the question of how you keep them connected to the workplace, productive with their time, and part of your business’ culture. This week we’ll go over some tips to help your remote employees be as successful with their time as possible.

Accessible Solutions
Communication technology is important for your in-house workers, but it’s practically essential for your remote workers. Think about the following solutions before you implement any sort of remote work for your business:

  • Virtual private networks: If your employees need to access sensitive information while out of the office, a virtual private network is the best way to do it. A VPN provides an encrypted connection to keep prying eyes away.
  • Voice over Internet Protocol: A phone system makes communication much easier, but it’s a little messy to have employees use their personal phone numbers while they make calls to clients or contacts. Instead, you can have them use VoIP, a software-based phone system that can be used on desktops, mobile devices, or laptops.
  • Remote desktop software: Sometimes you have employees who only work remotely half the time. These employees likely still have computers on-premise, so they can use a remote desktop software to access important data and files on their work computers while out of the office.
  • Cloud-based applications: Applications hosted in the cloud are great for employees both in and out of the office, as they can be accessed on any approved device–not just the workplace’s desktops.

Ensure Proper Documentation
Project management is one of the keys to get the most out of your remote workers, as they aren’t always there to witness all developments on a project as they happen. Breakthrough moments happen all the time in the workplace, and the remote worker doesn’t get to witness these or be aware of them as they occur. This makes proper project management incredibly important, as without documenting all of the progress on a project, tasks could be repeated unknowingly and resources might not be available. Smart project management makes it easier to get work done while staying connected to the workplace.

Be Inclusive
Even if they aren’t in your office, you need to remember that remote employees are still a major part of your team. Since you don’t see them every day, it can be easy to forget they exist. Be sure to check up on them once in a while, as remote workers don’t receive the social aspect of the traditional workplace. They’re sure to appreciate the human interaction, and it will help them feel valued by your organization.

COMPANYNAME can help your business’ remote employees stay connected to your workplace. To learn more, reach out to us at PHONENUMBER.

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Casserly Consulting Blog

5 Useful Cloud Apps for Small Businesses

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The cloud is a great tool that lets businesses take advantage of goods and services in never before seen ways. How does your organization use the cloud? Developers are trying to leverage the cloud to best assist businesses just like yours with their day-to-day functions, all the while improving flexibility and access to important information. Here are five cloud-based applications that your organization can benefit from.

QuickBooks Online
Quickbooks is one of the major accounting and payroll services out there, and Intuit has developed the platform for use in the cloud environment. QuickBooks Online can help your business build out invoices, track sales and expenses, manage accounts, download bank transactions, and schedule your invoices. QuickBooks Online is also compatible with many different devices, and it works well with over 300 other cloud-based applications. This provides your business with a dynamic and affordable solution.

Evernote
Evernote, a note-taking application, is now accessible through the cloud. Following this migration, users have discovered that Evernote is more functional and quick than ever before. Evernote can even save, and archive information found online so that it can be accessed at any time. Evernote has also added encryption to keep stored information safe.

DocuSign
You sign countless documents year after year. If you could get rid of all the meetings and time spent traveling to locations just to sign specific documents, how would you use this extra time? DocuSign makes this dream a reality by providing an application designed for this express purpose. You can remotely sign documents for a myriad of purposes, cutting down the time spent in between getting to a meeting location and signing the actual document.

Slack
Slack is a great communications system that can integrate with other project management and productivity cloud apps. Slack includes many features designed specifically to help your projects finish as quickly as possible, all while including various features, like message boards and instant messaging, so that all users can be kept in the loop on progress.

Asana
Asana is a cloud-based project management software that can be used for collaboration between projects, allowing you to set parameters and milestones that can be worked toward. This gives your team a way to visually gauge how much progress they are making on a project, as well as provides them ways to meet their deadlines, share files, be more productive, and create opportunities for success.

What are some cloud apps that you use to get more work done throughout the day? Let us know in the comments.

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Casserly Consulting Blog

Is Your Cloud Solution Actually a Money Pit?

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The cloud has proven to be an extremely useful tool for the modern business. Not only does it provide anywhere-anytime access to applications, processing, storage, et al; it also delivers those products as a service, allowing you to budget for recurring costs rather than major upfront ones. This provides your organization with functional, supported, and secure computing environments that eliminate a lot of the support costs that traditional computing environments require. It sounds like a perfect scenario for small and large businesses alike, but things aren’t always what they seem, as a lot of cloud users have found that they have incurred several hidden costs by using cloud platforms. Today, we take a look at these hidden costs.

A study from Research In Action polled 468 CIOs about their cloud usage and the costs associated with them. Many admitted that cloud investment was one of the largest expenses their organization would have from a technology point of view. The study went on to find that while a majority of CIOs considered the “hidden” costs of this technology, much of the concern is alleviated by the reputation of their vendors. Some of the potential problems they considered include:

  • Having to put forth more effort to properly manage vendors, and their corresponding Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
  • Bottlenecking and the impact poor cloud performance could have on brand perception, productivity, and customer support.
  • The increased cost of solving complex problems inside cloud environments.

Are these concerns justified? Sure, but they are hard to measure. Many businesses just haven’t developed a system to properly quantify the perceived loss in revenue tied to cloud inefficiency. In fact, most companies don’t have updated, automated methods in use to track and manage their cloud performance.

Costs of Scalability
Many organizations also run into cloud cost overruns when dealing with the scale of their cloud platforms. Costs associated with over-provisioning (buying too much), under-provisioning (buying too little), management, and administration of cloud hosted environments present costs that may not look significant up front, but over time can have negative effects on the overall profitability of a business. Understanding the amount of space/processing you’ll need to meet your organization’s needs is almost always going to be a fluid situation, but understanding how they affect your business’ bottom line is crucial to mitigate unwanted monetary responsibilities or cost overruns associated with the cloud platforms you utilize.

Going Too Far
Cloud platforms are nice, but you don’t have to look much further than your personal situation to see how the ease of use these platforms provide can get expensive pretty quick. For the individual, costs add up quick thanks to cloud-based streaming media and other platforms that come in a subscription model. You’ve got Netflix, Spotify, Hulu, and many, many more that are relatively cheap. Microsoft Office 365 is exceptionally useful and affordable, providing unparalleled value for about any computer user. The more you subscribe to, the more costs add up, which is why you’ll want to design, and stick to a dedicated plan to avoid overextending yourself, or your organization.

Utility computing in the cloud, whether it be applications, storage, processing, or some other form, is extraordinarily valuable, but only if you understand how to avoid paying more than you should for your cloud assets. The knowledgeable technicians at COMPANYNAME can help you come up with cloud deployment strategy, while also helping you avoid cost overruns typically associated with these assets. Call us today at PHONENUMBER to learn more.

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Technology

What’s Behind so Many Businesses Switching Their Phone Systems to VoIP?

b2ap3_thumbnail_voip_is_great_400.jpg The office telephone has been a staple in the business environment for generations, but the extent that each organization uses their telephone will vary. Factors like the number of users, telephone handsets, and wiring required will influence how much use you get from your telephone solution. However, these questions don’t have to be as difficult to ask if you consider the many benefits of a hosted phone system.

We’ll discuss some of the best reasons for using a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and what it can offer your business.

Fewer Costs
A traditional telephone system is provided by your local telephone company. Sometimes these agreements include services that aren’t needed by your organization, like television or otherwise. This can be frustrating, as all you want is the ability to use a telephone, and instead you’re forced to go all-in on some entertainment package that you won’t use.

VoIP doesn’t demand that you sign up for any extra services. In fact, you actually wind up saving money thanks to VoIP using another service that you’re already paying for–your Internet connection. With VoIP, your voice is transferred over the Internet rather than through the traditional telephone lines. Just keep your bandwidth in mind, as VoIP will likely use up more resources than your other network-connected services.

A Simplified Infrastructure
There’s a reason why you take so much time to plan your cabling infrastructure before implementation, and that’s because it’s not easy to make changes once you’ve set your network up. Of course, this also requires that you anticipate growth, which isn’t always easy. For all you know, your business can grow substantially over your first few years in business. How can you anticipate such growth?

While VoIP can’t predict the future, it can help you adapt to change with one-time setup costs. You won’t have to tear down walls or run new telephone lines just to accommodate new employees. All you have to do is contact your VoIP provider and add new users to your system.

More Flexibility
How many phone numbers do you have? Chances are that, as a business owner, you have your personal cell phone number, as well as your in-house number for company affairs. You wouldn’t be the first professional to think that it would be extremely convenient to have all of your numbers on one single device. Thankfully, VoIP offers a solution for this dilemma, too.

With VoIP, you and your employees have a great way to access your work-related phone numbers and contacts. Since VoIP can be used on desktops, smartphones, and even the traditional telephone handsets, it’s a customizable experience that lets you use your phone solution in the way you prefer. Plus, the extra accessibility allows your employees to be productive off the clock too, which can be great for getting ahead.

No matter how you look at it, VoIP can be a valuable investment for your organization. To get started, reach out to us at PHONENUMBER.

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Cloud

Moving to the Cloud? Be Wary of These Hidden Costs

b2ap3_thumbnail_cloud_software_deployment_400.jpg Efficient utility software deployment has been a priority for businesses for much of the past three decades, but today’s software developers are beginning to more frequently offer their titles as a service, giving end users the ability to utilize powerful software solutions from anywhere, for what is often a reasonable monthly payment. The dissemination of useful computing resources from the cloud, whether it’s a private cloud server, or a public cloud platform through a reputable cloud provider, can be of great benefit to your business.

In a recent study, it was predicted that 59 percent of the cloud computing workload will be generated from SaaS offerings by 2018. This figure correlates with the trend of more and more businesses hosting their software in the cloud. To successfully move your company to the cloud, it first has to navigate the process of virtualization, while remaining mindful of several other variables. Here are two major factors you must consider if your business is looking to implement a cloud solution.

Integration Considerations
You cannot assume that your company’s mission-critical applications will automatically integrate with every cloud service that’s on the market. Connecting an existing service that you rely on every day with a new cloud service requires testing and special considerations to be made regarding integration requirements. By not first doing your homework about what your new cloud service requires, you’ll put your company at risk of downtime and lost resources from encountering an issue like incompatibility.

The Need for a Reliable Connection
If your business plans on relying on cloud services, you’re going to need a reliable connection. This includes making sure your in-house network has enough bandwidth to support accessing your cloud services at peak hours, as well as a consistent Internet service from your ISP. Often times, companies that make the move to the cloud will upgrade their Internet package before officially switching over, seeing as cloud services are more data-intensive than typical Internet activity. Another component to look into is the connection and uptime of your potential cloud service provider.

Both of these factors must work together flawlessly in order to provide you with a cloud service that enhances the operations of your business. To ensure that your company gets the most out of the cloud and experiences an issue-free adoption of cloud services, give COMPANYNAME a call at PHONENUMBER for professional IT assistance.

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Cloud

Study Finds that 45% of Virtual Machines Would Run More Efficiently in the Cloud

b2ap3_thumbnail_i_choose_the_cloud_400.jpg By now you’ve surely heard about the benefits of cloud computing, but a new survey by TSO Logic might be just the proof you need to make the leap to the cloud. The survey analyzed 10,000 physical servers and 25,000 virtual machines, and the results are quite revealing!

At the end of the survey, TSO Logic found that 45 percent of virtual machines would run more proficiently if they were managed in the cloud. At 45 percent, this is a pretty significant chunk of servers. The reasons why cloud servers outshone their hardware-based counterparts varies. In 26 percent of the inspected machines, both on-premise and virtual machines suffered from a critical problem called over-provisioning. Basically, this means that the machines were set up in a way which caused them to use more resources than they have to work with.

InformationWeek reported that TSO Logic’s CEO Aaron Rallo came to the following conclusion: “Migrating them to the cloud and right-sizing them there would result in a 36 percent savings over their current operating cost.”

While any amount of savings is welcome in business, a large figure like 36 percent is particularly impressive. The expenses of implementing cloud solutions can be easily covered by the cost savings, and this efficiency only serves to further reduce cost savings. This cloud migration scenario also makes for the perfect time to upgrade older server units as well, since you can save money and reduce the odds of hardware failure with a hardware refresh. InformationWeek reports: “A secondary finding was that merely upgrading systems to the latest generation of servers, whether on premises or in the cloud, would also result in considerable savings. Twenty-five percent of the physical servers surveyed were more than three years old, meaning they dated back into the Intel Nehalem chip era of 2013 and its predecessors.”

Yet, this prompts the question, “Do I really need to take these measures when everything seems to work just fine?” Inefficiencies might not be an immediate problem, but if there are enough of them, they will begin to accumulate and create problems for your organization. Instead, It’s best to use these proactive measures to keep problems from happening in the future. That’s what this study seems to predict, anyway, and it makes sense.

If your business is ready to get the most out of its cloud solutions, reach out to COMPANYNAME. We can host your servers in the cloud so that you don’t have to worry about their management and maintenance. Furthermore, we can offer a complete and thorough IT assessment so that you know exactly what your organization needs to accomplish with the cloud. To learn more, reach out to us at PHONENUMBER.

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Cloud

Educate Yourself About the Cloud Before Choosing a Cloud Provider

b2ap3_thumbnail_the_cloud_rundown_400.jpg As a business owner, you’ve probably heard plenty about how the cloud can improve operations and make your life easier. While it’s certainly capable of doing both, it’s important to understand what, exactly, the cloud is. How do you select the proper solution for your organization’s specific needs?

What is the Cloud?
The cloud is a way of computing that allows your business to store and access data in an online environment. To put it simply, you’re using someone else’s computer for the purposes of storing data. This computer or server is managed and secured, either by your business’s IT department or by security professionals within public cloud providers. As long as you have an Internet connection, you can access your data from anywhere at any time, and scale resources to match your particular needs at any given moment. This flexibility is the greatest benefit that the cloud offers businesses.

By using a cloud solution, you can cut your costs and increase mobile productivity substantially. The cloud can also improve internal collaboration across departments through shared storage space. In general, cloud computing is such a solid investment that you’d be hard-pressed to find a business that doesn’t utilize the cloud in some way, shape, or form.

We’ll discuss the three types of cloud solutions in detail so you can make an educated decision regarding your business’s cloud investment.

Public Cloud
The public cloud is a place where the general public can store data within a cloud environment. It’s set up in a way which allows users to access only their own part of the cloud. Of course, this also depends on the provider, but it can be either a free or paid service for however many resources you use. For a good example of how the public cloud works, look at G-Suite (Google’s cloud services), Microsoft Office 365, and Dropbox.

Granted, the public cloud still has its downsides. If you lose your Internet connection or you’re traveling without access to the Internet, you’ll have problems accessing your data. Plus, some providers are known to change the locations of stored data without informing you of the change, which could become problematic. Another major concern is that you won’t have complete and total control over your security standards.

While the services work for their price and are good for consumers, the public cloud might fall short of business expectations. A more customized solution can be found in the private or hybrid cloud.

Private Cloud
When we talk about the private cloud, we usually refer to one of two setups. Sometimes a company has the resources to host their own cloud solution, but in other cases, providers might offer an isolated section of their infrastructure for exclusive use by your organization. The provided solution is based on resource usage, while the private cloud that’s hosted on-site tends to be a bit more costly due to hiring IT staff to maintain it. Either way, the private cloud offers substantial improvements in terms of security, while requiring a bit more loving maintenance.

Hybrid Cloud
The hybrid cloud is a solution designed to utilize qualities of both the public and private cloud to achieve a similar level of service to both. By reaching through an infrastructure’s firewall to access resources, it effectively allows for a similar level of service as a public cloud with exceptionally more powerful security solutions. The hybrid cloud is ideally for use by organizations that need the customization it offers.

Which type of cloud are you interested in? To learn more about your options, give us a call at PHONENUMBER.