22
Jun, 2022
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4 Steps to Improve Your IT Decisions

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Businesses are rarely successful without the ones steering the ship having the ability to make great decisions. Whether it’s managing your workforce, supporting your customers, or procuring the right equipment to best facilitate productivity, good decision making will be at the heart of any organization’s success. Let’s examine how you can make better decisions as they pertain to your technology solutions.

The most important part of procuring any new technology solution is how it will impact your workflow. With so many technology solutions out there, you need to implement those that make sense for your business. To ensure this happens, consider the following four suggestions.

Consider Alternative Costs

Implementing a new solution is wonderful, but only if your staff know how to use it. If you try to implement a solution to enhance productivity, you’ll need to also consider the return on investment in terms of how much time you’ll have to spend getting your team on board with it, along with the time spent training and testing your staff on its use. It might not seem like an immediately apparent cost, but we assure you it is a very real one.

Involve the Right People In the Discussion

When discussing new technology implementations, it’s important to get the perspectives of the people who will be using it. This might mean asking your staff, particularly experienced employees, or other stakeholders and management. With these valuable perspectives on your side, you’ll be able to make the most educated decisions possible about any new technology implementation project.

Choose Your Partners Carefully

When it comes time to add new solutions to your infrastructure and processes, you’ll want to work with businesses that have your company’s best interests at heart. In other words, the vendors you work with should be invested in your company’s success rather than just looking for their next big sale.

Remember to Set Achievable Goals 

Without realistic and achievable goals, any new technology implementation will be doomed to failure. Big changes might be a big deal for your business, but only if they have direction. Otherwise, you could wind up being mired in the processes that drag your business down and prevent it from making any forward progress. With clear objectives and goals, you’ll be able to optimize your chances for success.

When it comes to implementing new technology, it’s best to leave this important task to professional technicians with years of experience and expertise. NuTech Services can consult your organization on the best path forward. To learn more about what we can do for your company, reach out to us at 810.230.9455.

25
Mar, 2022
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3 Strategies to Help Stretch Your Technology Budget

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When you run a business you have so many variables to balance and so little time to do so that technology inevitably becomes an essential cog in your ability to manage everything. Unfortunately, technology isn’t cheap and the technology that you think you need may not be a viable purchase this year. Today, we thought it would be good to identify three strategies that can help you save money, while also getting the benefits that technology brings. 

Identify Inefficiencies

When you need to make every dollar count, it’s hard to pull the trigger on big-ticket technology purchases. The best way to stretch that money is to identify the places within your business that could benefit the most from some technology spending and target the solutions to those problems. The best way to do this is to take some type of baseline measurements of your business’ operations. The more moving parts your business has—and they all have plenty—the more work identifying these inefficiencies will be. Once you find what ails your business, however, it won’t take long to find the technology that can help reduce those inefficiencies. 

For example, if your business has ten employees and two of them have two displays on their workstation,  and they are getting 50 percent or more done than the rest of the crew, it tells you it probably isn’t the worker’s fault with one display that they aren’t pulling their weight. By investing your money in eight new monitors, you can expect a certain amount of increased productivity, and therefore returns that will satisfy that investment. There are situations all over your business that can be made more efficient by some type of technology, you just have to find where to slot it in.

Invest in Training

If your business has a shortage of resources available to purchase new technology, investing your money in training your employees on using the technology you do have can go a long way toward making your business the well-oiled machine you need it to be. Of course, training itself is a costly endeavor, but if your business is looking for ways to stretch your capital, focusing on efficiency and security training is a great way to redeploy funds. 

The better trained your workforce is, the better they will be at their jobs; or at least that’s the sentiment. You know something? It’s not far-fetched. Think about all the inefficient situations that a worker could get into. Think about how they interact with the technology that is in place in your business. Think about how many times work has been ground to a halt because an employee wasn’t as prepared as you want them to be. By investing in their training they can only improve. In fact, according to a study conducted by the Association of Talent Development, companies that invest in comprehensive training programs see 218 percent higher income than those that don’t. 

Additionally, with today’s threat landscape the way it is, it’s essential that your whole staff has knowledge about how to identify and confront phishing attacks and other exploits coming in from outside your business. As far as security goes, investing in training isn’t just about boosting your revenue metrics, it’s about keeping threats from decimating productivity through negative situations that happen when your business gets hacked; not to mention the ding in customer relationships that can happen when your business is exploited.

Outsource 

In 2022, outsourcing is a great way to mitigate financial exposure brought on by demand. In fact, partnerships are quickly becoming standard operating procedure for many companies that are looking to get more from less and control costs. When it comes to technology, outsourcing typically means partnering with a managed service provider such as NuTech Services and utilizing cloud services rather than purchasing and managing all of your IT infrastructure yourself. 

There is some debate whether utilizing a cloud-based platform helps your ROI, but what isn’t up for debate is that using hosted services will allow your business to gain access to computing that wouldn’t be possible on a shoestring budget. Since the cloud platform typically charges per user or per GB used, you can actively control your technology expenses and get the computing you need as an operational expense.

Partnering with a company like ours allows you to do the same, but also provides your organization with several services that are aimed to increase the value of the offering. Some of these include:

  • Comprehensive backup and disaster recovery
  • Remote monitoring and proactive management of all IT
  • Best in Michigan technology procurement
  • Dynamic cybersecurity tools
  • Patch and licensing management
  • Vendor management

And more. 

Your business doesn’t have to have a massive IT budget to be innovative. Give us a call to learn more about how we can help you transform your business’ technology and training platforms at 810.230.9455 today. 

11
Mar, 2022
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Understanding Microsoft Services’ Price Hike

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If you are a subscriber of Microsoft 365 or Office 365, you might find that your service plan will soon cost you a bit more. We just wanted to give you a warning in advance so that you’re not caught off guard, as well as to let you know we are here to help you adjust your plans if need be.

Microsoft’s Price Increase is Out of Our Hands

Whether we are the ones providing you with Microsoft’s services or you work with another provider, there is no denying that there will be an increase in the costs associated with Microsoft’s services. The reason has nothing to do with us; rather, it’s coming from Microsoft themselves, and not all businesses will be able to absorb the price. To help counter this, we want to help you make the most of the services you pay for. Let’s take a look at some of them!

How We Can Help You Get the Most Value from Microsoft’s Tools

We’re pretty familiar with the services offered by Microsoft, so trust us when we say that there are tons of tools in this toolbox that you’ll find helpful moving forward. Here are just a few of them:

Microsoft Teams

Teams is Microsoft’s dedicated collaboration platform, and it’s a pretty great one. It gives your team all kinds of ways to communicate and collaborate, from voice and video calls to instant messaging. You can even use it in collaboration with other Microsoft tools to share files and be more productive. Speaking of which…

OneDrive

The business version of OneDrive gives your organization all of the features of the free (or personal) version, but with so much more, including the ability to share documents on multiple devices and browsers. OneDrive provides users access to all the documents they need, provided they have the permissions to access them.

SharePoint

SharePoint is similar to OneDrive in that it is also a document-sharing tool, but it functions more like an intranet solution for your employees to document and share processes. Basically, SharePoint is just another means to be more productive.

Microsoft Bookings

Scheduling appointments can be difficult, especially with packed schedules. Well, Microsoft Bookings places the responsibility for this on the client by presenting them with a list of your available times. They can then book the time for themselves, making this much easier for you.

Azure Information Protection

AIP adds an additional layer of protection for your data security, something which is particularly helpful when out of the office and the safety of your network. Access permissions are also available through this tool, so you can adjust who has access to specific parts of your infrastructure.

Intune

Intune allows you to control data access on your business’ devices, including those owned by your employees. You can think of it like a type of mobile device management and a way to control the dangers of it.

Power Automate and Power BI Pro

Automation can empower your business to make better use of its data. Power Automate and Power BI Pro give you the power to connect processes without the need for complex coding skills, allowing you to fully leverage your data, organize it, and reveal key insights that can aid your organization moving forward.

We’ll Help You Make the Most of All Your Business’ Tools

Regardless of the price increase from Microsoft, we will always strive to help your business make the most out of the resources at its disposal. To learn more about how we can make this happen, reach out to us at 810.230.9455.

7
Mar, 2022
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Hardware Shortages are Having a Major Effect on Future IT Plans

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If you have tried to replace any hardware over the past couple years, chances are you were either met with significant disappointment or a hefty price tag. There is currently a hardware shortage—particularly for business electronics—and the entire business technology industry is reeling from it. If your organization depends on technology, as many do, you need to understand how this shortage could impact your day-to-day operations.

The shortage itself stems from a semiconductor shortage, something which bleeds into all parts of device creation, whether it’s manufacturing or acquisition. Here are some of the ways that this hardware shortage can affect a business like yours.

Price Point

As components’ prices increase, the costs of the devices do as well. Unfortunately, this is also a part of the hardware shortage, as the cost of manufacturing drives prices up. Consumers ultimately wind up absorbing the costs, and it could also impact the prices offered by providers of other goods and services.

Timeline for Acquisition

Hardware is in short supply, so you can expect the timeline for acquisition to be extended beyond what you might otherwise experience. We recommend that you put together a timeline for when you want to replace or acquire specific hardware, as this will help you prepare well ahead of time for when it’s time for a hardware refresh.

It Makes Upkeep Even More Important

Since devices are more expensive and harder to find, you will want to make sure that you are taking proper care of your current infrastructure so that it lasts as long as possible. The idea here is to prolong the life cycle of your current technology long enough to outlast the hardware shortage and/or to keep it in proper working order long enough to establish a plan to replace it before it fails.

What We Recommend

We believe that NuTech Services is best equipped to help your organization acquire the hardware it needs to succeed, particularly during this difficult time. We have connections all over with hardware vendors that want to get you the technology you need to keep operations in check. Furthermore, it’s just easier to have someone else do all of the heavy lifting; this gives you opportunities to focus on keeping your business running as efficiently as possible. With us on your side, you’ll never have to worry about devices being unavailable when you need them.

To learn more about our services, give us a call at 810.230.9455.

29
Mar, 2017
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Tip of the Week: Looking to Save Money? Try These 4 Proven Business Tactics

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Unless you have the good fortune to be running a large, well-funded business, you’ll always want to find ways to cut out unnecessary costs and improve the way your organization functions. When you’re cracking down on your budget, you might notice that even making a small change to your spending could yield quite a large return in the form of savings. We’ve compiled four ways that your business can start making more for less.

Be Mindful of Utilities
You might not notice the benefits right away, but we promise that smart monitoring can yield results. Since nobody is in the office at night, you can turn off lights and monitors that nobody will use. While it might be annoying to make the rounds at the end of the day to turn off unnecessary technology, it can save you quite a bit on your next electric bill. Turning down the heat or air conditioning when nobody is in the office accomplishes the same thing. You can use smart lights and thermostats to conserve energy consumption, and over time these investments will pay for themselves. If possible, arrange your office in a way which helps you get the most natural light from windows to cut down on electricity consumption.

Pay for Skills Rather Than Experience
When you create a job opening, do you include all sorts of qualifications, including a minimum amount of experience required? This is usually how it works since businesses typically look for only the best candidates, but the best candidates usually demand top dollar. If you want to save some money during the hiring process, look for workers who have the skills required to perform their tasks rather than industry experience. Experience is something that they will gain while working for you, so you benefit from bringing them onto your team at an entry level salary, using hard work as an incentive to achieve better pay and benefits.

Recycle Your Unneeded Equipment
Have you ever tried to trade in your old technology to vendors? Doing so can often get you a discount that can make it easier to afford new equipment. You might be surprised by how many companies offer these kinds of incentives, so be sure to ask about it next time you reach out to the organizations you procure your hardware from.

Try Outsourcing as Much as Possible
One of the best ways to make up for shortcomings in either the skills department or your budget is outsourcing. These days, if you can think it, you can outsource it. A particularly great way to save money is by outsourcing the maintenance and oversight of your IT infrastructure to NuTech Services. Our trusted IT professionals know how best to help you get the most out of its technology.

We’re confident that these four methods of saving money can help your business achieve more flexibility in your budget. What are some of the best ways your organization has saved on operational costs? Let us know in the comments.

11
Sep, 2015
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3 Benefits of Outsourced IT That Let You Do More For Less

b2ap3_thumbnail_companys_it_budget_400.jpgCost drives business, this much cannot be denied. When the technology your business relies on fails, you have to get it repaired or replaced quickly in order to keep the resulting downtime from damaging your business. The traditional method of computer repair is much like when your car is in disrepair. When your technology isn’t working properly, your organization reacts to the problem by calling your friendly neighborhood computer repair guy.

The technician will come to your office and try to fix the technology that is broken. When they figure out they can’t fix the problem on the spot, they will give you a quote. The time and materials of summoning these technicians to the office will cost you money, so will the replacement technology, and most notably, the downtime you accrue. Add that to the variable cost of fixing the malfunctioning technology, and your business has a real problem.

At NuTech Services, we offer a proactive IT support platform that utilizes remote monitoring and management software to ensure that the technology that’s attached to your network, and your network itself, is up and working properly. Additionally, our whole IT services platform is billed in one monthly payment.

If you add it up, you are saving money in every aspect of your business. You not only remove the variable costs of keeping your IT running smoothly, you also get proactive support that in many cases gives you the time to replace hardware BEFORE it fails, saving you from the doldrums of company wide downtime.

The fact is that small and medium-sized businesses need to cut their technology support costs if they want to compete with larger organizations. There are a myriad of benefits that come from a managed services provider like NuTech Services handling the administration and support of your technology. Besides the obvious cost savings, two other huge benefits include:

  • Comprehensive Support: A major speedbump SMBs have when shopping for any service that claims to help their business, is the quality of that service. For those that worry that our managed services are too good to be true, we employ certified and trustworthy technicians that are proficient in finding solutions for today’s most challenging business technology problems.
  • Single Point of Contact: As an alternative from having to manage several vendors, our IT service offering provides you with a single point of contact for all of your technology needs. Since we understand the intricacies of your network, we can get issues resolved faster.

Managed IT services can provide you with many other benefits as well. For more information about how our managed IT services can benefit your organization, call us at 810.230.9455 today.