Phantom Technology Solutions Blog

Every organization relies on its IT to be available when needed. Some businesses can’t function at all without them. However, if a business isn’t keeping up with the management and maintenance of its IT, it can lead to downtime. Today, we’ll explore proactive IT maintenance strategies and how they help businesses minimize downtime in various ways.

Many small and medium-sized businesses have serious difficulties when they try to balance their technology needs against the limited resources at their disposal. Fortunately, this serious issue can be resolved effectively by working with a managed service provider (or MSP). The approach that these professionals take outpaces the value that more traditional forms of IT support have been able to offer—whether that support is through an external provider or even an in-house team.

Your IT team plays a crucially important part in your business machinations. However, many small and even medium-sized businesses may not have the in-house resources to effectively cover their needs. If this could easily describe your business, you might want to consider outsourcing some of your technology management needs to a managed service provider. 

Cost is a massive issue for nearly every single business out there. You have to have a measured approach to investment to maximize the ability to create returns. One of the best ways for companies to do this in technology is to partner with a managed services provider. “Why?” you may ask. We go into three ways we can bring value in today’s blog. 

Making IT decisions while balancing the user experience—including their complaints—can be exhausting. As a decision maker for your business, you have a budget to consider, as well as a timeline to manage. You’ll have to say no, which no one likes to hear, but it’s a necessary part of running your organization effectively.

The other day, we talked about an assortment of security issues that could very well cause harm to your business if you aren’t prepared for them. We wanted to continue that conversation and discuss the things that you need to be sure are done so you are, in fact, prepared.

There are a few options out there for businesses to turn to for IT management. Many hire an in-house IT team, and many of them suddenly find that their in-house team is exceptionally busy. Some may even find that not everything is able to be accomplished by this team simply because of how many challenges are on the ever-growing docket. Fortunately, these businesses have another great option to turn to, in addition to their in-house team: managed IT services.

Most computers you’ll find in the workplace are PCs that run Windows, but Apple is also a major player in the computing and technology landscape. Apple produces sleek and high-end hardware using efficient operating systems, but it’s not all sunshine and rainbows for Apple products and their users. In fact, at one time, they recommended the most absurd fix for one of their products: slamming it on the desk.

It’s no shock that business executives are already busy enough, but you need to add “knowing more about your IT infrastructure” to that list if you haven’t already done so. It’s critical that you are on the same page as your IT staff, and this relationship will fuel productive relations with both your technology and the staff utilizing it.

Technology management is a challenge for small businesses, especially those that have limited resources at their disposal. There are a lot of decision makers that are under the impression that they cannot afford to take proper care of their technology, so they put it off until their technology starts to fail. So, we ask you this question: if not now, when is the appropriate time to take care of your technology?

Worker burnout is more prevalent than ever, and it can lead employees to experience negative effects such as stress, exhaustion, depression, and frustration. Do you see any of these symptoms in your IT workers? Let’s take a closer look at how burnout is impacting the IT industry and your IT talent, as well as some ways you can address it.

If you are like most businesses, you don’t consider a new IT project until you need to upgrade your current systems. It can be something like adding some new hardware to your network, migrating to the cloud, or adding new applications to your operations. No matter the project, though, there is one thing that is certain: you need professionals on your team to make sure it goes smoothly. This is where co-managed IT comes into play.

We all know that there are many nuances to managing and maintaining technology in an effective and efficient way, but who exactly is in charge of these tasks at your organization? Do you have a dedicated IT resource that you can trust to get the work done, or do you rely on your other employees to stay afloat? If it’s the latter, we have some bad news for you, as well as a silver lining to it all.

It can be a challenge to keep your business technology and solutions in proper working order. This goes doubly for businesses who don’t have time or resources to handle day-to-day management, let alone implementing new solutions that can improve operations. Thankfully, outsourcing gives small businesses like yours the opportunity to better manage their technology, and it’s all thanks to managed services.

It doesn’t take a genius to understand the importance of IT maintenance and management, but it’s often easier said than done to make sure it happens properly. A new survey from Gartner suggests that this might get even more challenging, as IT employees are increasingly more likely to leave their place of work than other, non-IT employees.

While browsing our website, chances are you will come across the term “managed service provider” or “MSP” more times than you can count, and that’s typically how we would describe our business model. However, we realize that this term might not necessarily mean much to you—at least, not without some context. Today, we want to clarify what MSPs do and how we can revolutionize the way you conduct business.

Have you heard of Log4j? If we asked you a week ago, you almost certainly did not. Now it is dominating headlines as one of the largest cybersecurity risks we’ve ever known, and your business needs to act immediately to make sure you aren’t at risk.

When it comes to your network security, there is a lot your company can do to take it seriously. However, one thing that a lot of organizations neglect is actively monitoring their networks for things that don’t quite make sense. Why is it so important to monitor your network, and how can you make sure that it happens in a way that is proactive for your company?

While it might be terrifying to imagine a scenario in which your business were to suffer a devastating event that threatened its future, you as a responsible business owner must consider any and all possibilities. If you don’t, all of the hard work and investment you have made in your company could be for naught. Technology is one aspect of your company that must be examined with intense scrutiny and prepared for with preventative measures to keep your future secure.

These days, if you are not taking cybersecurity seriously, then you are waiting for something bad to happen that could potentially destroy your business for good. While the number of threats out there has increased significantly over the past couple of decades, so too has the number of powerful security options out there. In fact, one way that you can leverage these solutions to your advantage is to use “self-healing” security software, the concept for which is pretty neat.