What is IT?

IT Consulting

Need some IT brainstorming? With over 25 years of experience, we can help! We are happy to be part of your business strategy meetings so we can give you IT advice as needed.

One of our clients wanted to transition from running their entire business in QuickBooks to an inventory management system. We were part of the meetings that discussed needs and wants, we found several potential systems, we scheduled demos, and we helped the software vendor implement the solution.

Help Desk

When calling in, our clients have an average wait time of less than 15 seconds. We respond to emailed requests within 30 minutes.

Sometimes our clients aren't sure if they should call or email an IT issue. They'll say, it's not necessarily an emergency but.... And we say, don't worry, just give us a call.

Vendor Management

We deal with your IT vendors such as Internet Service Providers (ISP), phone providers, copy machine maintenance companies, etc. One call to us and we take care of the rest.

One of the things we often do for our clients is change Internet providers. Normally, this would be very stressful for a business because there are a lot of moving parts with two providers. Most IT support companies (MSPs) don't do this. But we do. The only thing our clients have to do is read the contract and sign it.

Networking

We network computers, phones, servers, cameras.....anything with an IP address.
Need to add a network jack to the wall? We do that.

Antivirus

Included in our service is anti-virus software for every computer, laptop, and server.

Are you currently checking to make sure every computer has anti-virus software and it's updated? We do. Our daily routine includes checking the status of antivirus.

Backups

     Probably the most important "thing" in a business is its data. Computers and servers can be replaced - data can't. That's why we implement multi-layered backups for all of our clients.

     Most of our clients have: 1) the original copy of files, 2) multiple previous versions made 2 times a day, 3) backups stored on a network device (NAS), 4) backups in the cloud, 5) and as needed a replica server.

     As part of our daily routine, we check those backups and make sure they are successfully completing.

Internet is Slow

We've all experienced a slow Internet. When this happens to our clients, if the typical troubleshooting doesn't fix it, we get on the phone with the Internet provider.

We have a client that when it rained, their Internet would get spotty. ATT would "change pairs" to fix the issue. We pushed and pushed until ATT ran new lines to the building. No more problems.

After hours IT support

We start early (7:30AM) and finish a bit early but you can still reach us from 6AM to 9PM at no extra charge.

IT Equipment Purchasing

IT equipment is a commodity. We find you the best price and purchase with your credit card. It's a win-win: you get the best price and the points.

One of our clients used to insist on buying everything himself. He bought a printer for $1700 and let us know that it should arrive in a week. We called him immediately and told him to cancel because he overpaid by about $1000.

Password Reset

We often get the call...."I can't log in!" It happens to all of us...we forget our passwords. No problem, we reset Windows and email passwords all the time.

Compliance

We can make sure you are HIPAA compliant and compliant with other security policies that your business requires.

We have a number of wealth-management clients where they must be proactive about their security. For these clients, we lock down their firewalls, have email filtering, phishing tests, make sure passwords are complex, we give quarterly onsite seminars on malicious websites and spam email.

Phishing Tests

Even if you have the best firewall and anti-virus software, it is still possible to get infected. How? Your staff can "invite" a virus through a malicious website or email. Because of that, we test your staff by sending out phishing tests.

Once, when we put on a lunch 'n' learn for one of our clients, we waiting about a week and sent out a phishing email. Almost 25% of their staff clicked on the link in the test email and 3 actually entered their Office365 email and password. We followed up with those users with some more training.

Cell Phones

We help our clients move from one phone to another. Do you have a new employee? We'll set up their cell.

Firmware Updates

Various devices need their firmware (think similar to software) updated from time to time. Most of these devices are company-wide so we do this after hours - at no extra charge.

What devices need to be updated? Firewalls, phones, cameras, etc....

PC Drivers Updates

Your computer and laptop have "parts." Those parts have firmware and software that need to be updated. Why? Sometimes because the manufacturer has found a flaw in the software or a security gap.

When something is acting strange, we do PC driver updates and that can fix the issue.

Windows Updates

This is very important. Windows updates need to be done because a large number of these updates are plugging up security holes. HOWEVER....it's good to wait until the update patches are tested by others first. Especially recently, a number of Windows updates/patches actual break things.

Email Setup

Whether you have a new employee or need a distribution group made, we'll set it up.

Phone System

If your phone system is out of date and lacks the functionality you need, we can help. We've done our due diligence and found the best one out there. And it's reasonably priced. On average we save our clients over $300/month by switching phone systems with a ROI of about 16 months.

Printer Setup

As paperless as we all try to be, we still need printers. Based on your needs, we'll suggest the best printer, order it, and install it.

Laptop Support

You have a laptop but need it to be more like a desktop? We set up docking stations with multiple monitors, real-size keyboards, and mice.

Help with Office

Microsoft Office is very powerful and sometimes our clients need some help. Whether it's Outlook, Word, Powerpoint, or Excel, we can help you figure it out.

One of our clients uses Excel to view his sales numbers in many different ways. He often calls when he needs a complicated, nested "if" statement. We are happy to help!

Whitelist Client Email

We use spam filtering for clients that need the extra protection. Often spam filters filter out good email also. When that happens, our clients email us the senders email and we whitelist it for them.

Camera Installation

IP cameras are an affordable and flexible option to add more security to your business. We'll install them and show you how to view the footage in real-time and older footage.

We have a client that stores pallets in the back of their warehouse in a gated area. We added a camera and got a good video of the thief. Our client printed a still photo of the person and taped it to the area with a note "If you take our pallets again, we'll call the police." That was enough to stop the theft.

Suspicious Email

We often get tickets from our clients that aren't sure if an email is spam or not. We scan the email and attachments before letting them know if the email is safe or not.

Office365 Management

The majority of our clients have moved to Office365 email and Office Suite. We completely manage it.

One of our clients has 3 locations. They need to send emails to each location but not necessarily to all locations. So, we set up distribution groups for each location. Now when they want to send a group email to the Auburn staff, they can.

Email Filtering

Scared about potential malicious spam getting to your employees? We use email filtering for that. We'll set it up for you and manage the settings.

This is important especially our financial industry clients. They have sensitive data that needs the most security.

Software Installation

We install whatever you need - only after we check and make sure the software is legitimate.

All PCs are locked down and need administrator credentials to install software. We had one customer that insisted we not lock down the PCs until one user downloaded and installed software with a virus.

Light Ballast Repair

Yes, we were asked to repair a ballast but sorry, we don't.

Database Development

Microsoft Access can be a powerful and inexpensive tool to use and implement. Based on your specifications, we can design one for your use.

One of our clients has a very complicated quoting system that they used to do by hand. It took about 20 minutes per quote. After we developed a database for them, it now takes about 2 minutes.

Website Development

We are technical (but unfortunately not graphic designers) so we don't do the website design ourselves but do act as the intermediary. More third party vendor management.

Recently, a web designer wanted to charge our client $1200/year to run updates on their Wordpress site. Only updates to the plug-ins, not content. We offered to do it at no extra charge so now, every month for about 5 minutes we update their Wordpress site.

Video Conference Setup

We help our clients that need video conferencing get connected with the right equipment and service. We train them how to use it also.

Connect All Offices

We have multiple clients with multiple offices. We connect all using secure VPN. Data can then be shared across the VPN safely. Resources can also be shared.

One example of shared resources is...all shared files and folders, ERP, SQL database, and phone system is on one server that supports 4 locations.

Cyber Security

We use a multi-layered approach to security (just like backups. We want to stop threats at the door so we setup and install business-grade firewalls and setup GEO filtering (filter all traffic from various countries), content filtering, email attachment testing before the email is delivered, anti-virus, and software firewalls.

Project Management

We manage every IT project to the smallest detail and communicate with our clients so they are informed every step of the way.

Security Audits

In order to be compliant, some of our clients require quarterly audits of their networks. We do that and prepare the lengthy report.

Hosted Phones

You may not need a complete phone system. That's not a problem. We offer the same functionality of our phone system but you pay per extension and we host it for you.

Disaster Recovery

Our backups allow us to restore single files for individual users to entire servers. For our clients that have replica servers, we can quickly "spin up" the replica.

Have you ever worked on a file only to realize you want to revert back to the original? Give us a call and we'll restore it.

WiFi - Access Points

We install and manage APs (WiFi) for warehouses and offices. Move your barcode scanners or laptops from one area to another with no loss of network connectivity.

Why hire an MSP?

We have seen these two situations often: 1) there is only one IT person, he is often overwhelmed, doesn't have the experience or the time to make improvements, he can't take a vacation or get sick.... 2) the business uses a break-fix IT company. That means you will only get IT if something breaks. You won't get suggested improvements or savings because "if it ain't broke...."

Supplimental IT Help

You already have an IT guy but he needs help after hours and on weekends, when he takes a vacation or gets sick. Maybe he needs someone that has other experiences to brainstorm with. We do that. We can back up your onsite IT guy.

Tenant Improvement

BEFORE our clients lease a building, they call us. We check the address and make sure we can get good Internet service. We also check the network cabling in the walls. If you have to rewire, you'll have to add it to your budget.

Lunch 'n' Learns

Our favorite is our "How to recognize spam and malicious websites!" It takes about an hour with Q&A time.

2 Factor Authentication (2FA)

Just one more layer of security. Two factor authentication adds one more separate way to authenticate a user when they are logging into something. Often used: a text message with a code.

Break-Fix IT vs. MSP

Often, companies think they are saving by using a break-fix IT company instead of an unlimited IT service company (MSP). Cash-wise, yes, you often spend a lot less with a break-fix company. However, over the long run you are losing out. Why? Because when it breaks, the IT company has to figure out what's going on which takes longer and costs you more. Also, employees know that the company doesn't want to spend money so they just deal with problems making them very inefficient and therefore ineffective. Finally, as an MSP we offer other ways to save money on IT which you don't get with a break-fix IT company.

Have a quick question?

Give us a call. We're happy to take it.

We got a call about how to change an extension from available to do not disturb. 2 seconds later, our client had the answer.

MS Exchange

We can manage your MS Exchange server. Most of our clients have gone away from that but we still are happy to manage yours.

Exchange to Office365 Migration

If you are ready to move from your own MS Exchange to Office365, we're happy to do it.

Training

We offer staff training on a variety of software and subjects.

Backup Switches

We have extra switches, firewalls, and computers so if one of yours breaks, we can use ours until your new one arrives. This is all part of our service - and won't be part of a break-fix plan.

Backup Computers

Computers can and do fail. For those times, we have spares!

Backup Phone System

We have two ways to make sure you have a backup to your phones. 1) We have a system setup and ready to go that we can take onsite immediately. 2) We can forward your calls to our system so you can get calls on your cell phones.