Tag: business it costs

  • 10 Questions Your New IT Provider Should Be Asking YOU During Onboarding

    10 Questions Your New IT Provider Should Be Asking YOU During Onboarding

    Much of our content is focused on what you should be asking your existing or future IT provider – from what services they cover, what cyber security protections they offer and how they will deploy their solutions to meet the needs of your specific office environment.

    The flipside of the coin though is the information they need to gather from you to best meet your needs, and if your IT provider hasn’t asked you any of the following questions, we would definitely consider that a red flag. How can their solution be tailored to your needs if they have no idea what those needs are?

    Here are the top 10 questions your IT provider should be asking you during onboarding or in your first year of service with them:

    1. What specialized business software do you use? As an IT provider it’s important we establish a relationship with your existing software vendors (especially for specialized business software) early on to help manage these tools on your behalf.
    2. How many devices does your business have? How many are used outside the office? This is a dual question with one purpose, we need to know about these devices so we’re making sure to cover the basic support items needed to keep them running, including backups and updates. Devices used remotely also need to be counted but the setup for those may involve getting in touch with those employees directly to deploy the solutions we use.
    3. How many servers do you have (including virtual machines)? Again, if we don’t know about it, we cannot support it and we even find in our client assessments they may have servers running that they weren’t even aware of. Any device on your network that’s internet connected and not receiving regular maintenance is a potential threat vector and we can make recommendations to discontinuing devices not in use.
    4. What was something your previous IT vendor provided that you would like us to continue? Regardless of the reasons you may have for switching IT providers (and if you’re thinking about doing so but aren’t sure how to get started, we have a kit available to help) there were probably some aspects of the service they provided that you feel were beneficial. This might include a certain kind of reporting they provided or a preference for how meetings are conducted. It’s good to establish the groundwork for continuing these preferences early on so your new provider can adapt routines to meet these preferences.
    5. What was something your previous IT vendor did that you did not like? Again, it helps us to know what your experiences have been in engaging with IT vendors and how we can best support your business. Maybe you didn’t like how they went about billing you for services or how they handled ticketing, whatever it was its invaluable information for your new provider.
    6. What projects do you have in the works? Whether it’s just an idea or something that was started and never finished, your new IT provider will want to help you meet your project goals.
    7. Do you have any cyber security frameworks or compliance goals your business must meet? Whether it be HIPAA, CMMC or you would just like to beef up your cyber security in 2024, it’s good to discuss this topic individually especially if your organization must meet specific cyber security requirements.
    8. Who provides your telecom and internet services? Networking support and phone maintenance is often included in many technology plans, it is helpful for us to know who provides these services for you. If you’re not happy with the current providers we can also offer recommendations for alternative solutions and we have even helped customers save money on these bills if we find they’re being overcharged.
    9. How often would you like to meet to discuss the services we provide for your company and any upcoming goals? At Valley Techlogic we host what we call a Technology Business Review (TBR) at the minimum annually, but we can also have these more frequently if the client desires.
    10. What minimum service requirements would you like us to adhere to? Whether it be our response time to tickets, how often we provide updates or specific tools you would like us to provide or help your company utilize – ideally your IT vendor will tailor your plan to YOU.

    Which is something Valley Techlogic does for our clients, our IT service plans are tailored to meet our clients’ needs and their specific setups. If you would like to learn more you can get started here.

    Looking for more to read? We suggest these other articles from our site.

    This article was powered by Valley Techlogic, an IT service provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.

  • 5 Ways to Reduce Your IT Costs and Eliminate Wasteful Spending

    5 Ways to Reduce Your IT Costs and Eliminate Wasteful Spending

    In 2023 it feels like the cost of everything is skyrocketing, from eggs being $10 for a dozen, to the price of a used car being up 61% compared to 2019.

    Consumers and business owners alike are scrambling to cut costs where they can, and as a business owner you may be tempted to target your technology spending.

    While technology spending is usually a tiny fraction of the overall cost of running a business (4-6% annually is the average), it’s still a commonly targeted sector. This is usually because it’s one of the least visible items business owners spend money on. While tangible products your business needs day to day are more obvious, a good bit of the money spent on technology in a business is for prevention or maintenance.

    Whether it be software upgrades, new peripherals that function behind the scenes, or money spent on cybersecurity efforts, these are purchases you may not see the obvious immediate benefit from especially if you’re not tech savvy.

    These “invisible” costs occur and leave business owners wondering, do I really need this service or product?

    The answer is a resounding yes, for the most part. While money spent on preventative measures is often a tough pill to swallow, the money you would have to spend recovering from something that could have been prevented will be even tougher (and costlier).

    However, there are some areas of technology spending that are worth taking a look at. We have found that many business owners who utilize our services are already paying for redundant IT services, they just didn’t know it.

    Another example is we have had many clients that sign up with Valley Techlogic, and upon reviewing their internet bill or phone bill we find that they’re drastically overpaying.

    Here are the five ways we suggest cutting your IT spending in 2023:

    1. The first one is touched on above, check your internet bill. As with consumer internet services there are often specials that can be taken advantage of to reduce your overall cost, but if your internet service costs have ballooned out of control it might be time to look for a new provider.
    2. The same is true for your phone service, especially if you’re still using landline phones. Switching to a VoIP service could save your business a substantial amount, but if you’re not ready for that yet you can also just see if all of the lines you’re paying for are being used. We’ve found during customer audits they often have phone lines that ring to nowhere and can be safely disconnected.
    3. Another thing you can do is look for redundant services, if you have several programs aimed at cybersecurity they may have overlapping services – allowing you to cancel the one with the least features. Also, if you’re a Microsoft 365 customer you could consider switching your users to Premium to take advantage of the security features provided by Microsoft directly (at an often greatly reduced cost to stand alone products).
    4. Consider whether virtualization will reduce your hardware costs. There’s a lot of talk about “moving to the cloud”, but for many business owners that’s a nebulous topic. To put it in a nutshell, there is a significant upfront cost to moving your business’s data to the cloud, but you will reap the reward on the backend from reduced infrastructure costs.
    5. Finally, consider whether it makes sense to hiring internally or outsource your IT help. For larger businesses hiring IT staff can make sense to handle the load of their business, but for medium to small businesses hiring a dedicated person is often much more expensive then having a technology service plan through a provider like us. Even for larger businesses, having a technology service plan from a provider can make more sense than continuously hiring additional staff to address an additional need for help.

    If you need help reviewing your IT spending to find out whether it’s in line, or whether a service plan through us can help you address this topic and many more – schedule a consultation with us today.

    Looking for more to read? We suggest these other articles from our site.

    This article was powered by Valley Techlogic, an IT service provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.