Author: Taher

Businesses tap the services of outsourced IT support and other trained professionals primarily to save money. Outsourced IT allows you to increase your brand’s competitiveness and broaden your horizons while sticking to a smaller budget. Fifty-nine percent of companies that outsource IT services rather than hire full-time employees to see saving money as their primary motivation. Aside from cost savings, outsourcing IT services can help small business owners improve their productivity and security. When you form an alliance with a team of outsourced IT professionals, you should aim for a long-term relationship. That’s why it is crucial to do some due diligence and choose the right IT partner.

What is Outsourced IT Support?

When it comes to virtually any type of business in the world, technology is a critical part of operations. You need technology for your employees and daily operations: computers, printers, copiers, adequate data storage and backup, unique software programs, and more. In addition, everything must be protected with excellent cybersecurity. All of these things encompass your business’s IT services or information technology services. Most businessmen and women start their businesses with the mind that they can do anything they set their mind to. While this is an excellent mentality to have and provides the necessary motivation to start a booming business, it’s also important to know when to ask for help.

Nowhere is this more pertinent than with information technology, or IT. Unless you are specifically in the business of providing information technology yourself, this means you’ll have to have a strong team of IT specialists on your side. In-house IT departments are generally only a viable option for expansive businesses that will have enough work for the IT staff to do on a daily basis. Therefore, the better solution for most companies is to hire a managed service provider or MSP. These companies provide all different levels of IT support to their customers (businesses and organizations like yours). Their main goals are to make your life easier and to help your business grow and thrive.

Benefits of IT Sourcing

Outsourcing your company’s IT needs to a managed service provider offers a host of benefits. At the top of the list, outsourced IT providers reduce your in-house staffing burdens and payroll costs while providing your company with the most qualified and experienced experts in the industry. However, that’s certainly not the only advantages these tech partners provide. Here’s a look at some of the top benefits of working with outsourced IT services.

1. Access to the Best Talent Pool and Technology

Professional IT companies handle technology all day. All specialists working at outsourced IT services are trained in their specific area of tech, and they stay updated on the latest in cybersecurity, technological hardware and software advances, updates to data cabling practices, and more. Moreover, whenever you need updated software or hardware, they know the most effective and affordable options.

2. Choose Your Level of Service

Most IT outsourcing services offer different tiers of service. You choose your level of service and pay a flat, monthly, quarterly, or yearly fee for them to provide whatever services are in that tier. Sometimes, businesses simply hire them to be “on-call” when they need them. Because of this, you can basically pay for exactly what your business needs. If you own a large business and constantly need IT service assistance, choose a more hands-on level of service. If you only occasionally need help with an IT problem and generally just need someone to help you hook up new computers, networks, or equipment from time to time, choose a lower tier of service. You can also change levels of service, based on your changing needs.

3. Reduced Costs Across the Board

Outsourced IT services only work when you need them, so you’re paying for what you need and not for downtime. It can be expensive to hire, train, and consistently employ an in-house IT team. Moreover, in small and mid-sized businesses, these staff members generally have a lot of downtime. Hiring them makes more fiscal sense in the long run, and you’ll undoubtedly get better service.

4. No Need to Manage an IT Team

In many cases involving an in-house IT department, it’s the manager or director who is taking care of the tech team and micro-managing their day-to-day tasks. This leaves little time to actually run the business. With outsourced IT, they will take care of your needs. The whole point of hiring managed IT service providers is to lessen your workload and anxiety. You should be able to hand over the “tech reigns” to them and let them keep your business in a continuous flow of utility, without hitch or interruption. This is what they’re trained to do without your involvement.

5. Improved Compliance

Meeting compliance is a major pain point in many industries. Government rules and other regulations are complicated and always changing. An outsourced IT support can take on this burden for you and set you up with the software you’ll need for perfect compliance and greatly improved risk management.

6. Less Security Risks

A large part of an outsourced IT’s role is to be aware of current cybersecurity threats. With many businesses and organizations, personal and private data is being stored. In the event of a security breach, this data could be stolen, destroyed, held for ransom, or otherwise tampered with. If it is employee data, a breach like this could mean loss of faith in the company and even lawsuits. The same goes for loss of client and customer data — or patient data in the case of health care providers. In these situations, whole businesses can collapse. Fortunately, cybersecurity is best handled by professionally managed service providers. These experts know the current strategies hackers are using to obtain login information and sensitive data. They will construct a thick barrier between you and any potential threats. Moreover, they’ll be monitoring your security 24/7, so if something does happen, they can nip it in the bud as soon as possible. They can also provide cybersecurity training to your staff.

7. Increased Efficiency

Outsourced IT experts don’t just react to disasters, ranging from viruses to unexplained downtime, to malfunctioning software. Rather, they help you avoid these disasters. As a result, instead of wasting hours and dollars cleaning up a mess, your company pays a predictable subscription fee, and they take proactive measures to ensure your tech is working smoothly. In addition, outsourced IT services boost your company’s efficiency by helping you leverage your tech tools to the best of their capacity.

8. Faster Implementation Time

In addition to leveraging existing tools, they allow you to implement new tools faster. Rather than waiting as your in-house staff researches new tech tools, you simply tap into the expertise of your managed IT services. While your in-house staff often would be starting from scratch, an outsourced IT has likely solved that problem or a very similar one in the past, and they can bring that experience to your situation. In addition to cutting down research time, an outsourced team of IT professionals know how to implement programs and equipment quickly. They can customize the solution to your company’s unique needs and then train your staff on how to use the tools, eliminating a painful learning curve or the inefficient use of new tech.

9. Levelling the Playing Field

Working with an outsourced IT services company gives you a competitive edge over similar-size competitors who may not be leveraging their tech tools to their full capacity, but your company’s relationship with a managed IT service provider can take you a step further as well. In essence, an MPS levels the playing field, and it expands your pool of competitors by giving you access to the tools used by large companies, scaled to your needs. That simultaneously increases what you can do and the image of ability you can present to your clients, helping you soar above the rest of the pack.

Should You Simply Manage IT Yourself?

We don’t recommend that. Again, entrepreneurs and leaders in business are unique creatures in that they genuinely feel that they can accomplish anything they set their minds to. We’ve already covered why this is absolutely excellent for getting great business ideas, bringing them to fruition, and creating businesses that thrive and grow. But at certain times, it is critical that you release the mentality that you should handle it all. As an owner or manager, you simply don’t have time, and your talents and abilities should be put to better use than managing IT. While we will assert time and again that information technology is absolutely essential to your business, it is crucial that you find the best-managed service provider to assist you in handling your IT. Do what you’re best at and leave the IT to MSPs.

Cost Associated with Small Business IT Support

One of the most significant challenges small and medium business owners are facing is deciding about IT support and the maintenance of their IT infrastructure. It’s a battle between hiring a full in-house department or outsourcing IT services for their business. Because hiring an entire internal IT team is an extravagant affair, most companies are turning to outsourced IT support providers. Outsourced IT support falls under two categories:

• Fully Outsourced IT Support: This type of IT support is suitable for companies that do not have a stable IT department. Your company will delegate its entire IT department to the outsourced IT team.
• Partially Outsourced IT Support: This is suitable for companies that already have existing IT personnel and want specific IT needs to be met. Your company controls the services that the IT support firm will provide and when they will be provided. In such arrangements, the IT company is usually tasked with filling IT expertise gaps in the company and performing complex tasks that the in-house team cannot complete.

For any company looking to outsource IT services, the cost of these services ranks among their top considerations. How much should you pay for managed IT services? Outsourcing IT support is deemed cost-effective because of the expertise, years of experience in tech, and the services that will be provided by the external team. But what Is the price behind being cost-effective? The cost of outsourced IT support can vary significantly due to several factors:

• The type of IT support you want; partial support or fully managed
• The location of your company
• Your exact business requirements
• The level of expertise you desire
• The state of your IT infrastructure

Business owners find it almost impossible to know how much IT support should cost as most managed service providers do not provide this information on their websites. When they make calls to different managed service providers, they realize that pricing is not uniform. These different pricing structures can be very frustrating as there is no online catalogue to choose from or a one-price-fits-all formula. Below are the most common pricing structures implemented by outsourced IT companies:

Managed IT Services Pricing Models

So, exactly how much should you expect to pay for IT support? There are six famous managed IT services pricing models that you can review as your starting point. The section below describes each pricing model and its attributes. All of them have advantages to offer companies, but there must be a close relationship between what the model provides and the IT needs of your company.

• Monitoring-Only Pricing Model: the monitoring-only pricing template provides system monitoring and notification. In this case, multiple different service levels may be adopted. For example, an IT company may be allowed to charge for additional compensation activities identified through remote monitoring. This pricing model may apply to companies that are typically offered services such as; antispam and antivirus updates, backup monitoring, disk optimization, operating system services for a flat monthly fee.
• The Per-Device Pricing Model: The premise of the per-device pricing template is to develop a fixed rate for every type of gadget that is supported in the client’s environment. The benefit of this pricing model compared to other managed IT services pricing models is that it simplifies the pricing format for your services and makes it easier for potential clients to give quotes and for MSPs to demonstrate costs for prospects. It also makes it easier for the IT company to change the monthly service fee as the client adds devices.
• The Per-User Managed Services Pricing Model: The per-user pricing model is somewhat identical to the per-device pricing template. The distinction is that the fixed fee is billed per end-user monthly and comprises support for all gadgets used by each end-user. These devices include laptops, office PCs, smartphones, tablets, and any other gadget that the company might use.
• The Tiered Pricing Model: It is the most famous pricing model used by managed service providers. The principle is to build multiple bundled loads of services with each progressively costly service providing more services to the client company.

The tiered pricing model provides the IT company and your company as the client the flexibility needed to implement a comprehensive managed IT solution.

• The All-You-Can-Eat Pricing Model: The all-you-can-eat pricing template is very alterable and comprises on-site support, remote services, and bench and laboratory time for an entire company at a fixed fee monthly. It also provides all-year-round services or support during specific hours or days of the month and bills extra charges for services provided outside these hours.

The main aim of this model is to provide the client with the capability to budget for their IT support costs.

• The a La Carte Pricing Model: In the a la carte pricing model, the IT company provides services that address the particular needs of the company. These services could include data backup and disaster recovery and patch management. This pricing model gives clients the capacity to choose and pay only for the services they require. It also allows them to construct a customized package of IT solutions for their company.

Technical Support Offshore vs. Domestic

When considering the cost of your outsourced IT support, the location of your would-be partner’s matters. A domestic technical support team, for example, consists of IT professionals located in the same country where your business is headquartered or located. On the other hand, an offshore outsourced IT service will be located in another country, as the name suggests. You have to weigh the pros and cons of hiring either offshore or domestic technical support. Either way, these outsourced IT professionals will help free your team from IT duties, allowing your people to focus on their core skills to help achieve your brand’s goals. Below are several factors you should consider when hiring offshore or domestic IT support:

1. Cost

Whether you’re tapping the services of a domestic or offshore outsourced IT support, there will be considerable savings compared to running an in-house IT team. Outsourced IT teams can handle your inquiries and technical support requests even after office hours, so your operations will not be disrupted. Offshore teams may offer greater savings than domestic teams, although costs for these services have increased in the past years.

2. Regulatory Concerns

Outsourcing a portion of your business may be subjected to certain laws. It is generally easier to tap domestic technical support services, considering your business already follows existing local, state, or federal legislation. With offshore teams, you need to ensure compliance with the other country’s existing rules and be alert for any changes.

3. Staff Turnover

When you hire outsourced IT support, they practically become extended staff for your company. With domestic technical support professionals, you will often be assigned a dedicated contact person who knows your business well and keeps track of your specific IT issues.  On the other hand, offshore teams that offer lower employee wages and manage numerous accounts will most likely distribute the workload. This means that the service level might vary or suffer, depending on who handles your requests.

4. Cultural Differences

Outsourcing companies, whether domestic or offshore, provide proper training to their staff. However, some cultural disconnect might be experienced with offshore teams. Another issue will be the language difference, where dialects may affect the quality of interaction. The dialect issue may also be true for domestic IT support teams.

5. Advanced Skills

The demand for advanced technical and digital skills has stripped many off-shore locations of available talents. Existing talent pools may demand higher prices, which negate the cost benefits of outsourcing offshore.

6. Intellectual Property and Customer Data Protection

Safeguarding intellectual property and valuable customer data is a top priority for any business. When outsourcing to offshore teams, data can become more vulnerable to theft and potential unlawful distribution. While these managed service providers will ask their employees to sign NDAs, the legal systems will vary from country to country. Onshore teams may benefit from the tried and tested legal framework and enforcement in the United States when it comes to intellectual property protection. When looking for reliable IT outsourcing services, it is crucial to consider these factors. At times, a hybrid of onshore and offshore teams might be beneficial.

7. New Outsourcing Trends

In a recent survey, businesses still see outsourcing as an enabler for transformation, but companies cited other factors when hiring outsourced IT services. Businesses are now looking into disruptive technologies such as cloud, automation, and microservices.

• Cloud: Roughly 68 percent of industry leaders now employ cloud platforms as digital enablers. This allows easier access to much-needed applications, whether hiring offshore or onshore IT teams. The primary concern with cloud technologies is still data security. However, none among those surveyed worry about the performance of public or private clouds.
• Automation: With advancements in automation and AI, companies adopting such technologies allow businesses to explore new operating models and gain advantages over competitors who hesitate to embrace automation.
• Microservices: More and more IT outsourcing providers are introducing microservices and solutions. These services can be turned on or off depending on the needs of your business. Within changing business landscapes, such features provide great flexibility. Businesses also see microservices as a key to simplifying their operating environments.

Your decision regarding outsourcing your IT needs will play a significant role in the resilience of your brand. The impact of global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be denied. With the challenges of the new normal, outsourcing will be an essential tool for organizations to achieve their strategic goals. If you are considering working with outsourced IT support professionals, we’ve got you covered. Below are things to consider when hiring IT outsourcing services.

7 Things to Look for with IT Support Outsourcing

When technology hiccups result in IT downtime, your business can lose hundreds to thousands of dollars per minute. Some estimate downtime losses from around $5,600 per minute to as much as $540,000 per hour. There are also cyberattacks to consider. If your small business experiences a cyberattack, you may end up dealing with averages damages of up to $1.43 million. Aside from monetary losses, you will also deal with collateral damages. Your brand’s reputation might suffer and your business operations could be disrupted. IT outsourcing services can help you prevent these issues. Here are some things to consider when hiring an IT provider:

1. Level of IT Support Provided

When hiring outsourced IT support, you want to find out what is and is not covered by the contract. Ask questions during the sales meeting that go beyond the basics. Knowing an IT company’s unique selling proposition is nice, but you also want to know their weaknesses, so you can set your expectations realistically. Do they offer managed IT services, cloud services, and cybersecurity, among others? You have to know what’s included. Ask for extra details before signing, because you don’t want to find later on that the services vital to you are not part of the deal.

2. Proven Track Record

Other than deep knowledge of existing technologies, your would-be outsourced IT partner should have experience relevant to the kind of IT support you require. Likewise, the company’s staff should demonstrate outstanding qualifications that fit your needs. If you also have an in-house IT team, you need to make sure that processes will be in place to keep things running smoothly. You can ask the IT outsourcing services company for references or relevant projects they have recently completed. Remember that outsourcing will only be successful if you know your partner well.

3. Up-to-date Infrastructure and Technologies

Technologies continue to evolve, and things get obsolete fast. As a small business, you will entrust some core business services to your outsourced IT. This is why they need to be reliable and able to keep up with the ever-changing business and IT environment. A good outsourced IT service will operate using the latest hardware and software, and invest in upgrading the skills of their team members as needed. They must also have access to the specific technologies that your business requires. Ask whether they work with specific software or hardware brands. While this is not a deal-breaker in itself, it might cause problems later on if they put their vendor relationship above the needs of your business.

4. Good Communication and Client Management System

Whether you’re hiring outsourced IT services right next door, or from the other side of the globe, what’s most important is good communication. Find out how you will get in touch with them when you have concerns or tasks. Access to a client management system also demonstrates the level of maturity of the IT outsourcing services. It shows that the company has defined processes they follow when performing tasks or resolving tasks for you.

5. Guaranteed Response Time

Guaranteed response times go hand-in-hand with good communication.. As a small business, you want things done as soon as possible. Resolving issues within a defined time frame ensures that your business operates smoothly and your customers are satisfied.  Guaranteed response times will depend on the level of IT support you are paying for, or the priority level of issues your raise. You need to set parameters to define response times and resolution times.

6. IT Outsourcing Services That Fit Your Budget

Every penny counts when you are a small business or a startup, so what you spend for services must be well accounted for. Ask your potential outsourced IT partner about fixed project costs or a pay-as-you-go setup to find out which type of budget suits your situation. Ask if they will bill you monthly, quarterly, or yearly, so you can budget accordingly. Inquire about discounts if you have an internal IT team who will work with them.

7. Size of Team and Number of Clients

Your IT support will likely be co-managed by your potential outsourced IT services for small businesses with other companies they serve. You need to know this information, so you have an idea of what to expect in terms of service. You also want to find out the size of their team, and the types of expertise available among their staff pool. This will help determine the level of support they can provide.

Hire Outsourced IT Support and Open More Doors to Success

As a small business owner, you need to work smarter, not harder. Outsourced IT opens more opportunities for you. Whether you are looking to increase your brand’s capacity, save on operational costs, or ensure uninterrupted service for your customers, outsourced IT services are affordable solutions that can help you achieve your business goals. Let our team of outsourced IT support professionals at Data Magic help your company grow and evolve. If you want to learn more about how other organizations are using our services to their advantage, contact us today!

You might know this, but password strength and best practices are one of the most important aspects of your cybersecurity. Here’s a scary statistic for you: in 2019, 80% of data breaches were caused by a compromised password. Password best practices are that important. But it’s getting increasingly difficult to follow the best advice simply because there are so many passwords.

You have passwords for your personal accounts, like your bank, utilities, and even your email. Then you have passwords for your professional accounts. Many of you may be using your personal email accounts to conduct business. So your password usage crosses between personal and professional.

Providers know that passwords are important so they’ve stepped up their security protocols. Adding things like secondary and multi-level authentication. These are great features that help protect your data, but it also makes things far more complicated.

Password Managers Are a Necessity for Better Security

Did you know that the average employee has 191 different passwords? Consider that. And then you need to recognize that many of these platforms also need secondary authentication of some method. It’s a lot to remember. Most of your employees will forget passwords.

More dangerous, a high percentage of them will reuse the same passwords or similar passwords with slight variations. Those are terrible practices. If you use the same password across multiple accounts, only one needs to be compromised. The bad actor will have access to all the accounts that share that password. And, if they get your email, they can easily change passwords on any account linked to it.

Scary stuff. Especially when you’re dealing with a lot of high-end data or even compromising your own personal financial information. So what’s the best way to keep all of your passwords unique without forgetting them? By employing a password manager.

A password manager can store all of your passwords, create long, complicated passwords for you and store them, so that you don’t have to remember any of the information. All you need to remember is the main password for the manager itself.

Your password manager does the rest. And it’s actually more secure because the password manager is making up passwords that have nothing to do with the user personally. One of the top ways hackers access passwords is by using social engineering to “guess” at possible scenarios. It’s not possible when the passwords are auto generated.

Choosing Your Password Manager in 2021

There are some great password mangers on the market. Some are free and others have paid services. You should do your own research on the offerings to make sure they have the plans that work for you. Here are a few of the popular ones on the market:

• LastPass.  LastPass has a freemium basic plan and the single or family plans are only a few dollars every month.
• DashLane. DashLane has password management for individual users and for businesses.
• Keeper. This password manger has plans for individuals and businesses and is highly rated.
• 1Password. This password manager comes with a range of services for businesses, teams, families, and individuals.

There are a lot of password managers to choose from and any of them would be better than reusing passwords or using faulty, easily guessed passwords.

A password manger can help bolster your cybersecurity and make your life a lot simpler. It’s definitely easier than having to reset your password, every time you forget one. Which, let’s be honest, your probably do at least a few times every week.

Have a Question? Reach out any time at: Datamagic@datamagicinc.com or 469-635-5500.

In recent years, Microsoft has overhauled its office suite and business apps more than once. In Office 365, the company moved virtually all users to a subscription model but added all sorts of new functionality to justify the change.

But thanks to multiple service tiers, not all business users got the same sets of functionality. This led to a decent amount of confusion among customers.

Then Microsoft went and changed the name again, from Office 365 to simply Microsoft 365. When they did so, once again they added new features and functions, and once again they shuffled around their various business plans.

This all leads us to today. Microsoft 365 is a truly impressive and powerful business suite. But too many business leaders are confused about what exactly it is— not to mention what is and isn’t offered in each package or pricing tier.

Here at Data Magic, we have been helping small businesses of all sizes with their IT needs since 2003. It’s our mission to educate and empower businesses throughout the changing landscape of business IT. With that goal in mind, here’s our comprehensive guide to Microsoft 365 in 2021— with a focus on what makes Microsoft 365 Business Premium the compelling choice for most businesses.

What Is Microsoft 365 for Business?

Microsoft describes its Microsoft 365 offering as “your productivity cloud across work and life.” It’s a unique blend of the Office apps you know and love, plus robust and powerful cloud and security services. Depending on the level or package you choose, Microsoft 365 can also contain device management and other company-wide IT and access controls.

Microsoft 365 is the successor to Microsoft Office 365, which itself offered a great deal more than just the Office suite Microsoft is well-known for. Over the years, Microsoft continued packing more and more functionality into its Office 365 platform. Productivity and collaboration tools like Teams joined cloud tools like OneDrive and SharePoint in fleshing out the platform.

Microsoft continued to add more and more functionality, including security and deployment tools. Office 365 grew to the point that calling it an office suite no longer made a ton of sense. Yes, the office suite was (and still is) a central component, but the product contains so much more than that now—hence the name change. Now known as Microsoft 365, it’s an all-in-one solution for an incredibly wide range of business IT needs and functions.

Unfortunately, many business leaders still think of Microsoft 365 (or Office 365) as essentially a bundle of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook. There’s so much more to it now, and we want to help business leaders like you learn about everything Microsoft 365 has to offer in 2021.

Understanding the Four Levels of Microsoft 365 for Business

Not every company needs the same features or levels of support. And if you’re only using half the features in a business suite, you probably don’t want to pay full price.

Microsoft recognizes this reality. In an effort to meet the needs of the most businesses, the company offers four levels of business service within Microsoft 365. We’ll cover the basics of each of these service tiers below. Then we’ll focus on some of the biggest value-adds within Microsoft 365 Business Premium and show you how those features can improve your IT operations.

Microsoft 365 Business Basic

As the name implies, Microsoft 365 Business Basic is the most barebones offering available. On the plus side, it’s cheap, at just $5 per user per month on an annual commitment. However, we can’t recommend it for most businesses as it contains only the web and mobile versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

The Business Basic plan does include cloud services like Teams, Exchange, OneDrive and SharePoint. It also has the same security and compliance tools as the other bundles. But most conventional businesses with any office staff are going to chafe without access to the desktop versions of the Office suite.

There’s no PC and mobile device management or advanced threat protection in this bundle as you might expect. It’s also missing Microsoft Bookings.

If your business is highly mobile and your users won’t need desktop-class Office apps, the Business Basic plan can save you money. But for most companies in 2021, it’s not the right plan.

Microsoft 365 Apps

Microsoft’s other budget plan is called Microsoft 365 Apps. This plan costs $8.25 per user per month on an annual commitment and gets you the full suite of premium desktop applications, including these:

• Outlook
• Word
• Excel
• PowerPoint
• Publisher (PC only)
• Access (PC only)

OneDrive cloud services are also included, as are web and mobile versions of the Office suite.

However, there’s a lot missing here. You don’t get Teams, business email, exchange support, or a host of other advanced features.

This is the bundle for companies lacking in digital transformation, essentially. If all you need is the Office suite and little else, Microsoft 365 Apps could be the bundle for you.

Microsoft 365 Business Standard

Businesses looking for a more robust plan should start by considering Microsoft 365 Business Standard. Of the two full-featured business plans, Business Standard leaves off some advanced features in exchange for a lower cost ($12.50 per user per month on an annual commitment).

Business Standard customers enjoy access to the web, mobile and desktop Office applications, plus the standard suite of cloud services (that’s Teams, Exchange, OneDrive and SharePoint). They get Exchange-powered business email and calendaring, robust collaboration tools including guest links and syncing across devices, and the latest in Microsoft’s security and compliance offerings.

Business Standard users also gain access to Microsoft Forms, Lists, and Bookings—three apps that can transform external and internal communication.

The Microsoft 365 Business Standard plan is a potential choice for many businesses. That said, the few things that the plan leaves out have the potential to be truly transformative. Below, we’ll outline the features and functions that are reserved for Business Premium customers. You can then determine whether these powerful additions are the right call for your business.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium

Microsoft 365 Business Premium is the most expensive and most robust of the four plans, at $20 per user per month on an annual commitment. That additional expense gives your business some impressively deep features that the other plans lack.

The Microsoft 365 Business Premium Plan contains everything that’s included in Business Standard, plus the following transformative features and functions.

On the cloud services front, Business Premium users enjoy Intune and Azure Information Protection (AIP). Intune is a cloud-based tool for both mobile device management and mobile application management, while AIP allows for document discovery, classification and protection.

Another massive addition to Business Premium is Microsoft’s advanced threat protection package, which includes access control tools, the ability to remotely wipe devices, Microsoft Defender and more.

Most crucially, Business Premium gives you tools for both PC and mobile device management. As your business grows, it becomes crucial to control your employees’ devices, both for employee experience and security purposes.

For companies that need advanced features like MDM, advanced threat protection, conditional access, and the ability to remotely set up, update, or even wipe machines, Microsoft 365 Business Premium is the best solution.

The same goes for companies that are partnering with a Managed IT services firm for their IT needs. Managed services firms will almost always offer implementation and support for device and app management, so they will operate most efficiently when that advanced framework is available to them.

Three Crucial Features Exclusive to Microsoft 365 Business Premium

We want to home in on three specific features that are exclusive to Microsoft 365 Business Premium and that are crucial for businesses who want to manage their digital assets well.

These features aren’t necessarily the easiest to understand or to implement. In fact, the complexity may be more than you want to handle yourself. If you haven’t implemented these features yet, you may well want to partner with a managed IT services firm like Data Magic to do so.

But one way or another, you certainly want to take advantage of tools like these. They give businesses so much more power and flexibility in their control of devices and files, increasing both productivity and security in the process.

Conditional Access

Conditional access is the term for managing who has access to what, when, and from where. Companies of any complexity are sure to have some files that are too sensitive for all users to access (and, worse, modify).

For example, most of your employees have no business looking at your company’s financial documents or data. But if those files are stored on a network without conditional access, anyone can access them (or, worse, steal the data or share it outside the company).

Conditional access is what allows you to limit files and folders to the appropriate audience, time, and even location. Your employees need access to the right files at the right time, but leaving access wide open is a recipe for disaster.

All packages of Microsoft 365 Business offer limited access control, such as guest links to files and permissions-managed sharing within OneDrive. But only Business Premium gives you additional Advanced Threat Protection and Information Rights Management. If you want full control of conditional access, you need Business Premium.

Intune

If you aren’t a tech professional, Intune is the sort of feature that’s easy to gloss over. But the power and productivity of this service are deeply impressive when it’s used to its fullest potential.

In a nutshell, Intune is Microsoft’s solution for mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM). Using this service, you can control what can and can’t be done (and installed) on company devices. Crucially, this control isn’t limited to Windows PCs. It extends to mobile devices and tablets as well.

You can even use Intune to control how people’s personal devices interact with your network. Microsoft Intune can identify organizational data and keep it separate from a user’s personal data.

Mobile Device Management (MDM)

There are more mobile devices (laptops, tablets and smartphones) connecting to your corporate network than ever before. Whether company-issued or BYOD, these devices pose a security risk and create a device management headache.

Microsoft’s mobile device management (MDM) tools greatly simplify the process of managing these devices. You can decide what services employees can and can’t access from personal devices, and Microsoft’s excellent Advanced Threat Protection package keeps corporate data safe when accessed through apps like Teams and Outlook.

Additionally, you can set organization-wide IT policies and then enforce them on company-owned devices. For example, most organizations lock down company-owned devices so that users cannot install software without IT’s approval. Many also take the step of enabling remote wipe on company machines so that a lost laptop doesn’t turn into a security nightmare.

You can also require enrollment of personal devices for users who want full access on their device or limit access to specific applications (such as Teams and email, which are both protected using Exchange Online Protection and other tools).

Mobile device management and associated tools are incredibly robust and powerful, and we’ve only scratched the surface of what they can do here.

Questions about Microsoft 365 Business Premium? Data Magic Can Help!

The powerful tools in Microsoft 365 Business Premium have the potential to transform how you get work done. However, they can be a handful to implement if you don’t have a highly technical background.

If you have questions about Microsoft 365 or aren’t sure about how to roll out certain components of Microsoft 365 Business Premium, our team can meet your needs. We can oversee the setup and implementation of advanced features like conditional access, Intune, and mobile device management, among others. Whatever your organization needs, we can identify and implement it.

Ready to get started? Reach out below!

Employee monitoring has become a more common question as so many companies move to remote work environments. How do you make sure that your employees are being as productive as they could be? How important is employee monitoring? Does my company need to invest in solutions?

When you consider employee monitoring for productivity, there are other ways to manage employees that might be more beneficial. There are downsides to monitoring. You don’t want to invest in technology that logs your employees to the point that you’re micromanaging them or making them feel negatively toward the company. If you’re concerned about productivity when employees are working remotely, the statistics seem to indicate the opposite is true. 77% of remote workers indicate that they are more productive and 80% experience less stress.

Productivity is not the only reason to monitor your employees. Data breaches are also a concern, and it’s important for companies to realize that most cybersecurity risks are associated with employee use and misuse. This is not usually intentional. However, having protocols in place to be able to log and control employee access to your sensitive data provides a way for you to track issues and guard against threats.

Should You Invest in Employee Monitoring?

This isn’t a one-size-fits-all question. Some companies do well with different types of monitoring. For larger enterprises, a data environment that allows your team to grant authority, or access, based on the employee’s needs for certain data can be an excellent benefit. It’s unobtrusive but serves to log all access and changes to documentation, which provides exactly what you need to delineate responsibility.

For smaller companies, there are many types of software that are developed specifically to monitor employee use. Some of these options take screenshots and even use the webcam to take images. As you might imagine, some of these options can seem fairly off-putting to employees. For most companies, it can be an excellent idea to discuss these monitoring options internally and to get a good understanding of how staff members feel about them. You don’t want to increase employee turnover rates in your quest to improve productivity. A staff that’s happy often works much harder and is more productive, so there is a balance in this decision-making process.

The danger in using very invasive monitoring is that your employees may not feel comfortable with that level of oversight in their homes. It’s also often unnecessary. If managers are screenshotting every time an employee is away from their desk, the employee may feel over-monitored, and it can damage performance. A Harvard Business Review article on the topic indicated that heavy surveillance can damage trust between the company and employees and went on to explain that only 30% of executives believed the data would be used responsibly.

However, with that caveat in place, there are many monitoring options that are unobtrusive and excellent to help with productivity and cybersecurity.

Types of Employee Monitoring

Many of the software and tools you currently use do allow some level of oversight. If your employee is in your company’s database, you should be able to log who they are and what they’re accessing. There are also many tools available. Here, we’ll discuss a few options.

• Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams is an excellent organizational tool. It wasn’t developed to monitor activity, but you can use the features to do just that. The Microsoft usage reports and teams reports can help you form a good picture of productivity and use within the Teams environment.
• Monitoring Software. There are many types of monitoring software available, and we’re not going to do any specific reviews here. However, we can make recommendations for the best options, if this is something you’d like to add. Employers are not the only ones using monitoring software. As schools and Universities went online for the pandemic, many made monitoring software mandatory for students, as well. Each of the offerings is slightly different, but most of these applications are installed on the device, and they record information. This might include recording what tabs are open, what pages the user is looking at, monitoring keystrokes, and even turning on the camera to take video and still-frame images. Many of these options also allow you to retrieve screenshots.
• Phone Monitoring. Phone monitoring can be an excellent addition because it allows you to collect and use data that would otherwise be lost if the employee didn’t note it anywhere in the customer’s files. Many VoIP systems have extensive reporting options to help you collect data through this communication method.
• Microsoft 365 Reporting. There are many reports that could be helpful for the employee and employer including:

1. Email Activity by User
2. Contacts Activity
3. Calendar Log Events and many others

Are You Looking for Managed IT Services in the Dallas and Fort Worth area

At Data Magic Inc , we provide robust managed IT services to help our clients make the best decisions when it comes to their technology solutions. If you’re currently interested in learning more about employee monitoring, give us a call. We’re happy to assess your current processes and make recommendations that work for your specific business model.

Every company is different. With new hybrid and remote work models becoming more popular, it’s important to make sure that your cybersecurity is strong and that your staff is well-trained for this new environment.

Any lingering questions? Reach out below!

Why are business leaders choosing Co-Managed IT in 2021?

There is a shift happening in the marketplace where businesses are increasingly choosing to outsource specific roles to Managed Service Providers. There is a realization that it is not effective for larger entities to outsource all IT roles. After 100+ endpoints, it’s important to have an internal IT manager or team. However, the IT budget does not always grow as fast as the IT department needs to. Therefore, IT leaders are choosing to outsource certain tasks to ensure the organization can have the proper technical support while sticking to its allocated budget.

Shifting to Co-Managed IT can seem like a daunting task. Our goal with this guide is to give you the tools you need to be successful in this transition.

Step 1: Evaluate multiple providers

This is without a doubt the most important aspect of transitioning. See our E-Book on 10 Questions to Ask a Potential Co-Managed IT Firm in 2021 for some ideas on the interview process. In addition to these questions, consider the below points:

1. Evaluate at least 3 providers – You want to make sure there are a wide variety of plans and proposals presented. It’s also recommended to have at least 2 meetings per group that you are considering. Anyone can fake the first meeting. Ask them the direct questions found in the E-book. Spending enough time with the individuals at each organization and uncover the good, the bad, and the ugly.
2. Go visit their office – Go look around. Is the office a mad house? Is it organized and efficient? How is the physical security? This tip can reveal a lot about the management and employees at a potential provider.
3. Ask to speak with an engineer – The level 3 engineers are going to be the most honest individuals you may ever meet. They usually don’t care about the sales process and will tell it how it is; a great way to get some honest expectations around working with this provider.
4. Always get references – This is a must! Get at least 3 references (ideally more) and actually call those individuals. This should be nonnegotiable.

Step 2: Clearly define Outsourced/Augmented IT role before agreement begins

When you fully outsource your IT operations to a Managed Service Provider (MSP), they assume all responsibility of an organization’s IT infrastructure and network security. However, as a business gets larger, it will not make sense to outsource ALL roles. However, it also won’t make financial sense to bring everything in-house (usually). So, a mixture is not only common, but growing in popularity. This mixture will require the company leadership, in-house IT, and outsourced IT to set clear expectations of roles.

Here are some examples of clearly outlining outsourced roles:

• Server management: Changes made to the server, security audits, updates, and migrations are done by the MSP.
• Backup and Disaster Recovery: The MSP manages the data backups onsite and offsite. They monitor, test restore, and all the other plethora of items associated with data redundancy.
• Level 1, 2, or 3 help desk: Outsource lower level or higher-level help desk tickets to the MSP.

I’m sure you can see why internal IT departments outsource. Imagine the backup scenario, for instance. In-house, you may need a dedicated individual for that one role. That is a big expense for just one role. The other option is to have them take on additional roles. That’s great, but that spreads them thinner which will inevitably lead to a ball being dropped. Unfortunately, the ball cannot be dropped even once when it comes to data backup or network security. Too much at stake.

Step 3: Onboarding with a new IT company 

This is a critical part in the process. You may have been blown away by the sales process/person, but now it’s time to see if the organization can back it up. On the flip side, the sales process may have completely sucked but you decided to give the provider a try anyway. Just because an organization puts a lot of time and effort in sales does not necessarily mean they will put the same level into their service, and vice versa. This phase will flip the rocks to see what’s under the nice haircut and polished presentation.

Factors to consider:

1. Is there a clear timeline and expectation for onboarding?
2. Did they meet or exceed this expectation?
3. Were you informed and comfortable with every step in the process?
4. How was communication? If communication and response is not quick in the “new client” phase, you better believe it will not get any better.
5. Did the provider provide excellent recommendations to improve your workflow, or did they just provide recommendations that will make them more money and do very little for your productivity?

Here is the unfortunate truth: If anything is dropped, delayed, or unsatisfactory during onboarding you need to understand that’s probably not an anomaly and may be present for the remainder of your partnership. If multiple items went wrong, then you have a critical question to ask yourself: Do you halt the transition and restart the process at Step 1? Or are you going to be okay with the level of response and attention to detail that you received during onboarding?

If the onboarding is smooth, communication is on point, recommendations are helpful, and the timeline is met, then congratulations! You probably found the right Co-Managed IT Firm.

Bonus Tips for a successful transition to a Co-Managed IT Firm:

1. Speaking from experience again, Managed Service Providers usually love Co-Managed IT partnerships. It frees them up to handle very specific roles for the client which makes them more efficient, and profitable, overall. Because of this, they are often willing to come down slightly on their typical managed service price. Whether this is the per workstation, user, or server price. See the full article on Managed Service Pricing HERE. Granted, you don’t want to push them too hard on the price. If you think they are the right fit, it’s not worth starting the partnership on a bad foot by requesting drastic adjustments or ultimatums.
2. Tool kit! A good MSP has a ridiculous number of security, network mapping, and other productivity tools they utilize to support their customers. Oftentimes, it’s cost prohibitive for an-house IT to purchase some of these tools. Since MSPs support so many endpoints, their per device price goes down quite a bit. Usually, they will have little to no problem providing access to some or all these tools. This can provide a significant value proposition for your internal IT. So, make sure to ask the provider what tools they will utilize to support your organization and see if your team will be able to leverage any of them.

If you have any questions about transitioning to a Co-Managed IT Firm, please send us an email at datamagic@datamagicinc.com.

Thank you!