Telesys Voice and Data Blog

With so many new technologies being introduced and innovation at the highest levels in human history, you’d think that ubiquitous access to bandwidth Internet would be high on the list of the priorities of ISPs and for residents of every jurisdiction. This doesn’t seem to be the case. With the disparity between urban and rural bandwidth Internet offerings growing by the day, we look at the causes of the gap and how companies plan on getting Internet access to people in areas where the population may be low.

A little background would tell you just how much some places are behind others. To start, 15 million Americans don’t have access to broadband Internet. Beyond that, they pay more for it than almost any people in a first-world nation; and, if that wasn’t enough, the average speed available is slower and less reliable. Furthermore, it seems as if the Federal Communications Commission, the federal regulator of such things, finds no problem with this--and if there was a cherry on top, they seem to be foregoing assessment and analysis of the problem for more nationalistic rhetoric stating that new strategies that have been implemented after the fall of net neutrality laws are “removing barriers to infrastructure investment, promoting competition, and restoring the longstanding bipartisan light-touch regulatory framework.”

This despite two FCC commissioners saying things like the FCC’s statement is “ridiculous and irresponsible,” and “biased, flawed, and woefully incomplete.” The politicization of what traditionally is an objective report, is one of the many problems that the people of the United States are facing in regard to Internet availability. Unfortunately, this has been an ongoing problem for the better part of two decades. Let’s move away from politics to look at some of the ways that the country is making out with Internet access.

Internet Service Providers
An Internet Service Provider (ISP) is a company that, well...provides Internet service and support to customers. ISPs don’t have to be huge media conglomerates, but many of them are, and while they mostly provide in-home service, and “business-class” service, they do a lot more than that: they provide an essential service to everyone that needs it. It doesn’t seem like there is any difference in the two, of course, but there is. It is this qualification that allowed FCC chairman Ajit Pai to effectively take down the net neutrality laws in 2017. It was all in the name to allow ISPs to be looked on as less of a utility (which they most certainly are) and more as a service; thus, paving the way for infrastructure investment.

So, in layman’s terms, the ISPs needed incentive to build access to Internet where it wasn’t, and have been given the run of the Internet to make this happen. That would be great if ISPs, especially the major ones, had a strategy in place to make these infrastructure investments, but it seems, at least on the surface, that the only thing they did have a strategy for is to reap the benefits of the dissolution of the net neutrality laws.

No matter how you slice it, the ISPs that distribute broadband access in the U.S. (and in the U.K. for that matter) aren’t doing a great job at serving their customers. As of May 2018, the United States ranks 47th in the world in average bandwidth speed, while the U.K. ranks 51st. At the same time, only four nations’ businesses pay more for high-speed Internet than businesses do in the United States (at $60.14 per month). At least in the U.K. the average price for high-speed Internet is under $37 per month ($36.83).

If those figures weren’t bad enough, before the newest era of deregulations, ISPs have been accused of pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars for fiber optic infrastructure that never materialized. Skeptics say that most of that was tax subsidy and it was utilized in creating many of the wireless networks that we all utilized today. So, whether or not the ISPs did, in fact, invest that money back into infrastructure or not, many people would argue that it was not what that money was appropriated for and that it should be a giant scandal. Since it wasn’t, it’s fair to assume that the truth is somewhere in the middle as many of these investments were made before the great recession at the end of the last decade. Besides a lot of that capital would have been going to state utility telecommunications contractors and not the ISPs themselves. If ISPs need public assistance to lay this infrastructure it stands to reason that the public should get some of the benefits. Of course, this isn’t the case and it just makes the ISPs positioning in this case seem awful questionable.

Affordable, High-Speed Network
For those who don’t put the onus on the ISPs for a lack of infrastructure investment, there is always the same argument, it’s not the companies, it’s not the Feds, it is the local municipalities that are not working with the powers that be to get people Internet. This is where the situation gets really strange. Over the past 15 years or so municipalities have begun providing Internet access to themselves and their citizens. This is normally because they were tired of paying the ludicrous rates ISPs had demanded; or, more likely, where ISPs have failed to build high-speed infrastructure. Cities like Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Santa Monica, California have laid infrastructure for government and business use.

This seems like a decent enough investment for public money as it has enough recurring income generated to pay for the system and the maintenance for it. As more cities began to jump on board, there suddenly was dissent from legislative bodies. As the dissent grew louder, laws started to pop up all around the U.S. limiting, or in some cases prohibiting municipalities from building broadband networks. As of the beginning of this calendar year 18 states have outlawed municipalities from investing in broadband infrastructure, effectively limiting their ability to provide high-speed Internet to their constituencies.

If you are thinking, “why would they do that?” You don’t have to look much further than the enormous contributions by the telecom lobby, led by telecom heavyweights Verizon, Spectrum, and Comcast. Effectively, the ISPs, whose purpose is to provide broadband services to customers, are paying legislators to eliminate their competition. Some of the states in the study have a lot of areas where there are two (or less) options for broadband Internet service, while two of the states have millions of people who don’t have access to ANY broadband Internet, which up until the net neutrality law kicked in on June 11, 2018 was regulated as a Title II utility. Imagine living in a place where you had no access to electricity or running water?

According to the Federal Communications Commission, 39% of rural Americans don’t have access to the Internet, and the ones that do, pay more for worse services. So, while almost a quarter of urban residents simply can’t afford broadband Internet service, at least they have the option to get it if they did. Now there are some remote places in the country to be sure, and some people that live in those places don’t necessarily care if they have access to high-speed Internet anyway.

Solutions
The basic problem is that broadband access hasn’t reached big stretches of rural America, so the major solution would be to lay the infrastructure necessary to get them the high-speed Internet they need. That takes capital, and the current FCC hierarchy has promised that with the repeal of the net neutrality laws there will be a boom in network infrastructure investment. With market forces working to dictate investment strategies, rather than heavy-handed and expensive regulatory ones, time will only tell if this will become a reality.

Another solution to the problem could be the proliferation of wireless Internet services that meet FCC standards for “high-speed”. The truth is that depending on huge publicly-traded telecoms to invest in places where it may be decades before they can see any type of return on investment lacks incentive, so only time will tell if the people who need access to high-speed Internet will get it.

If your business could use faster and more reliable Internet service, the IT professionals at Telesys Voice and Data may be able to help. Contact us today at (800) 588-4430 for more information.

On the surface, you might think that customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) are the same exact thing. However, they both have very specific niches for a business--particularly when it comes to managing organizational assets and interactions with consumers. Here are some of the specific situations in which you’ll find these solutions helpful.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
A CRM solution is specifically designed to provide a service-oriented organization with a way to communicate with clients--both current and prospective. A CRM solution can be used to automate certain functions, which makes for a much easier sales funnel in several ways. The ways a CRM can improve a business:

• Better customer communications
• Organization for your sales teams
• Revenue creation
• Ability to target potential customers
• Customer loyalty and satisfaction

All in all, a dedicated CRM can help keep your customers devoted to your brand or product, securing your business' future through repeat sales and building leads that work to build revenue. In short, it’s the ideal way to manage operations, onboard new clients, and guide them through your sales process.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Rather than work on the consumer end of the business model, the enterprise resource planning solution is designed to help a manufacturer manage internal operations, as well as many other functions that contribute to optimizing efficiency. You can think of the Enterprise Resource Planning solution as the central hub for your business’s assets. Some of the ways that a business benefits from an ERP are:

• Procurement and distribution of assets
• Seamless data sharing between departments
• Streamlining communication between departments

In short, an ERP is meant to keep your business’s internal operations as streamlined as possible through constant connectivity to important assets and resources. It allows for seamless data sharing throughout your organization to ensure efficiency between the separate departments at work within every manufacturer. This effectively makes your business' internal processes much more streamlined.

It’s easy to see why the two could be confused, but a ERP and CRM are two fundamentally different solutions as they are for two totally separate types of businesses. The ERP hopes to increase profits by streamlining the way that you approach your internal operations, while a CRM improves profitability by optimizing the revenue creation strategies your business uses.

How would your business benefit from these software solutions? To find out how, reach out to us at (800) 588-4430.

How much money does your business waste on managing its technology solutions? You might be surprised by the answer to this question. Depending on the way that your organization takes advantage of technology, you’ll have different needs than other businesses, but no matter what kind of organization you manage, it’s critical that you try to get the best return on investment for your solutions.

Let’s start by talking about the way that the average business might leverage technology maintenance solutions. Depending on your business’ staffing capabilities, you might have an in-house IT department that is responsible for general upkeep and maintenance. If you don’t, then chances are that you are either having your employees manage the maintenance of their own technology, or your devices simply aren’t being maintained as well as they need to be. Either scenario isn’t ideal, especially since you can’t take any risks nowadays when it comes to your technology maintenance.

For example, let’s say that a mission-critical patch has been issued for an important piece of software that your organization relies on. Without it, you would be at risk of infection from all manners of threats, including some of the nastiest ransomware on the Internet. Devices need to be periodically updated with the latest threat definitions to ensure that they don’t go unprotected. But the issue here lies in the fact that it’s time-consuming and troublesome to update several devices at once with the latest patches and updates.

Let’s take this a step further and think about a hypothetical worst-case scenario. What would you do if your organization were to suffer from a crippling data loss incident? In the event that our organization falls victim to a flood or fire, your data infrastructure could be destroyed… unless it’s backed up and maintained off-site.

Another service that presents substantial value for any business is one that supplies some form of proactive maintenance and management. This can be an effective way to keep your network free from threats, while keeping all your infrastructure monitored and in working order. Since an outsourced provider can accomplish this maintenance remotely, you can see much less downtime and higher degrees of productivity.

This type of maintenance can be difficult to come by for small businesses if they choose to do it themselves, but a managed service provider can keep your organization from having to stomach some of the largest expenses a thoroughly monitored, maintained, and supported IT infrastructure can incur. Not only do you save money by not adding salaries to your budget, but you also save time and resources by outsourcing the majority of the time-intensive work elsewhere.

To learn more about Telesys Voice and Data’s professional managed services, call our consultants today at (800) 588-4430.

One of the inevitabilities of working with the cloud is that you have to face a tough question; what kind of compliance requirements are there for cloud-based data? If you’re storing data for your business in a cloud-based environment, it becomes your responsibility to know where and how this data is stored--particularly if you’re not the one doing the actual cloud hosting. How do you maintain compliance when you seemingly have so little control over how your computing platform is managed and maintained?

It all starts by asking your cloud provider specific questions about how compliance is handled, as well as what terms are written into the agreement that you have with them. We’ll go over some of the details that you’ll need to address.

The Cloud Can Be Tampered With
Naturally, one of the major concerns that businesses might have about cloud compliance is the idea of how this data is being managed, maintained, stored, and transferred. This also means that it can be changed or intercepted while it is in transit. Therefore, the key concern is that data could be changed without the user’s knowledge. Those who are concerned about the legal ramifications of this should focus on learning who is hosting the data, how it is being maintained, how it is being transported from the hosting site to your infrastructure, and who can see this data. This line is further blurred by the differences between the public and private cloud. In other words, is your data being stored alongside someone else’s data? Are there partitions put into place that limit access based on role and organization? The question of security is of the utmost importance and will be a major point that you’ll need to hit for compliance’s sake.

What Can You Do?
Using the above statements as a springboard, you’ll need to think about how your business plans on securing cloud-based data and ensuring its compliance with any regulations your organization is beholden to. You start by first assessing just how deep into cloud computing your organization actually is. Depending on the importance of certain data, you may decide that a combination of private and public cloud platforms present the ideal solution. For sensitive information, an internal network or private cloud is ideal, while less sensitive or important data is stored elsewhere.

Next, you’ll need to consider who is managing this data, and what kind of agreements you will have to make to guarantee its safety. Is it being managed by an in-house department or a third party? If it’s a third party, for example, you’ll need to determine responsibilities and consequences of failing to adhere to compliance guidelines. It’s also important that you know what types of security and backup solutions are being used to protect your assets.

Since your organizational reputation and integrity is on the line, your best bet is to find a way to design, deploy, and support a private cloud solution onsite for any data that could possibly be subject to regulatory compliance. Otherwise, you may find that any cloud-hosting company or colocation service won’t have your immediate needs top of mind.

Telesys Voice and Data can help your business ensure security of your cloud solutions. To learn more, reach out to us at (800) 588-4430.

Mobile technology is allowing businesses to make great strides in the way that they conduct their operations, but one of the key reasons why it has been so helpful is that it decreases their costs considerably. Thanks to developments in the way that mobile technology works, it can be fit into pretty much any business model, all the while improving your return on investment for your expensive technology solutions.

In terms of cost reduction, the most notable one comes from always being connected to the office. Without the need to be on-site, mobile computing give a business’ employees all of the tools needed to perform their daily duties from wherever they happen to be--whether it’s at the coffee shop down the road or a hotel while away on a business conference. Mobile devices break down barriers in the quest for profitability, making them great investments. One great example is a Chromebook. While it isn’t as powerful out of the box as a full-fledged workstation, it has the potential to be just as great of a solution with the proper support as long as you stick to certain software titles.

Mobile devices also present a challenge when it comes to security, though. When more devices have access to data of a sensitive nature, it’s placed at more risk of being exposed to potentially dangerous entities. Therefore, you need to take measures to ensure that it’s secure; otherwise, you could be placing the future of your entire business at risk. Preventative solutions are of the utmost importance and can be the end-all-be-all for keeping hackers and user errors from sabotaging your chances of success.

For example, mobile device management can be a critical way to shore up weaknesses in your mobile device strategy. Mobile device management contains several solutions that allow your organization to take action against common scenarios involving the management of mobile devices. If you lose a device, you should be able to easily (and remotely) wipe any data that’s found on it so that it can’t be accessed by those who find it. This means that your organization doesn’t have to worry as much if a device is ever lost or stolen.

Another aspect of a mobile device management solution is whitelisting and blacklisting applications, which keeps your employees accountable and responsible with which mobile applications are downloaded to their devices. You can keep employees from downloading time-wasting or malicious apps so that you don’t have to worry about them throwing away their workday on Facebook and Twitter. Furthermore, the devices will remain as secure as can be, relieving some of the stress that can come from whether or not your employees are downloading unnecessary or dangerous apps on devices intended for business.

User control is a great way to control risk associated with mobile devices. Simply put, if your employees don’t need access to a certain kind of data, then they shouldn’t be able to access it, period. For example, your average employee doesn’t need access to payroll information or other sensitive data. Giving their accounts access puts it at risk if they ever lose their device or install some kind of malware that gives access to this data to unsavory characters.

Another great solution for keeping data safe is to deploy a Virtual Private Network (VPN). The VPN sets up a virtual encrypted tunnel between your network and your staff’s devices, inherently creating a much more secure data transfer situation than would be typical over normal networking means.

By taking better care of your devices from a security standpoint, you eliminate the costs associated with potential data leaks and other issues. Furthermore, you allow for increased productivity for all employees involved, giving them the option to work more hours remotely or off-site. It’s the ideal way to connect all of your business’s employees without putting your organization at risk.

Does your organization need a mobile device management solution, or are you having trouble integrating mobile devices into your everyday workflow? Telesys Voice and Data has an answer for that. To learn more, reach out to us at (800) 588-4430.

How often do you see smart technology in headlines? The term is thrown around a lot, and it’s because there are countless products circulating in both the consumer and business environments. These connected devices range from smart forks to smart cars, so you can imagine that there are a fair number of useful (as well as useless) applications of this technology. How has it changed in recent months, and what will smart technology look like in the future?

For Your Person
Smart products are produced for a variety of reasons with one of the more practical ones being monitoring your physical wellbeing. One of the best and most recognizable devices for this purpose is Fitbit, which has ushered other companies dedicated to health monitoring devices through the door. Health bracelets, watches, and smart fabrics all contribute to this trend of connected devices encouraging people to care more about their health using technology.

These devices contain microprocessors, sensors, and energy sources, and they contain the hopes and dreams of engineers who have worked tirelessly to create some of the most compact technology solutions on the market today. These devices are so useful that there were 125 million wearables shipped in 2017 alone. Here are some of the most popular smart technologies on the market today:

• Fitness trackers: The most simple fitness trackers can count your steps and estimate calorie loss, as well as distance traveled, sleep quality, and speed.
• Smart watches: Some smart watches can track fitness information, as well as other features that work with other apps on your mobile device.
• Smart clothes: As you might imagine, most smart clothes are typically designed for use with fitness. There are self-cooling shirts that react to your body temperature, as well as yoga outfits designed to help your yoga posture.

For Transportation
Automobiles have also made great strides in smart technology. You’ll see cars that offer everything from heads-up displays to screens that can showcase all kinds of content. Some cars are even capable of driving themselves, though this is a technology that’s still developing. The concept, however, is that connected technology is fueling future transportation initiatives. It’s thought that in the future, this will be a major part of the automobile industry.

Technically, smart technology in cars has been being used since 1996. Every single car that has been manufactured since has a built-in on-board diagnostic system. This helps mechanics understand some of the intricacies of vehicles by accessing data stored by the computerized system. You may have even used some of these diagnostic tools yourself when you see your Check Engine light turn on.

Some smart enhancements go beyond the practicality of diagnostics and simply make the user experience better. There are navigation systems designed to help users make their way to their destination, as well as control interfaces for temperature, media, and gear status. There are cameras that activate while your vehicle is in reverse to help drivers safely back up, as well as side-sensors to detect when something is a little too close for comfort.

Augmented reality could also make a move on smart cars. Windshields and rear-view mirrors with augmented reality can (and likely will) become standard features on new automobiles. Google and Apple have begun to design devices for integration with these smart car features, allowing for a consistent connection for use with music or other media.

For Your Home
Most smart devices are designed of use in the home. There are some that have no business being connected, but there are others that are designed to save on energy costs and other practical uses. The most popular smart devices include Amazon Echo and Google Home. Since they can perform multiple different roles and control certain devices, they are quite helpful. Other devices used in the smart home include locks, cameras, lights, thermostats, and anything else that can be controlled digitally through a smartphone app.

Several of today’s most used appliances come with smart technology installed, including refrigerators, ranges, faucets, washers, dryers, dishwashers, vacuums, and so much more. Questions have arisen about the practical use of many of these smart appliances, but their major draw is that they get smarter and more efficient depending on how they are used. They can lead to lower energy costs in the long run and effectively offer value for a longer length of time than a normal device. Just about all smart technology has this principle in mind.

While smart technology generally comes with a higher price tag than usual, this is only because it hasn’t become mainstream yet. Once more of these devices flood the market, the price of it will drop considerably. How will your organization leverage smart technology in the future? To find out, reach out to the IT professionals at Telesys Voice and Data.

Compliance laws regarding the storage and dispersion of healthcare records were implemented with the intended purpose of urging healthcare providers to better take care of their patients’ personal information, but how effective are they? Unfortunately, there are many providers that have failed to meet the standards for the HIPAA and HITECH compliance laws, and it has brought a hefty price tag along with it.

In 2016, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Department of Health investigated several data breaches that led to a considerable sum being claimed in response to violations of these compliance laws. In what totaled to 12 settlements following the investigations of data breaches caused by failure to comply with these laws, as well as one monetary civil penalty, these claims amounted to approximately $25,505,300 in fines.

Compare this to the more recent data. In 2017, there were only nine HIPAA settlements that produced a total of $19,393,000, as well as a single monetary civil penalty paid, a considerably smaller sum than the previous year. Clearly something is working here, but what is it? Perhaps it’s the fear that being negligent with important data could mean a large sum raining down on the heads of those who fail to adhere to these laws.

What’s even more interesting are the types of violations that led to these penalties. While the majority of these involve a failure to protect protected health information, or PHI, and its digital counterpart electronic protected health information (ePHI), there are a couple of outliers that are interesting to look at. Here are some of them:

• Insufficient ePHI access control
• Impermissible disclosure of ePHI
• Careless handling of PHI
• Multiple HIPAA violations
• Delayed breach notifications
• Lack of security management process
• Lack of a business associate agreement

The majority of the issues revolving around HIPAA and HITECH compliance come from an inability to secure mobile devices, failure to implement proper security processes, and delaying breach notifications for far too long.

As for HITECH specifically, a recent lawsuit was filed in federal court against 60 hospitals over alleged failure to adhere to the HITECH Act. Specifically, these hospitals failed to adequately provide records and documentation for 50% of their patients within three business days of the request. This is one of the specific requirements for securing funding through the HITECH Act, so you can understand that this was quite a big red flag for government.

Consequently, these 60 hospitals from the state of Indiana now face charges totaling over $1 billion for failure to provide records as required, despite receiving the incentive payments totaling around $324 million. Additionally, these hospitals face claims that they violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and the False Claims Act for claiming that they were HITECH-compliant, when in reality they failed to meet the requirements of the regulation.

Not all practices fail to adhere to HIPAA and HITECH, though. Is your practice one of them? Answer with confidence today by reaching out to Telesys Voice and Data at (800) 588-4430.

Data backup is one of the most critical parts of protecting your business, but there are a lot of moving parts that need to be considered before implementing a solution. For example, did you know that data backup and disaster recovery are two different things completely? While they may both be involved in the business continuity process, the two represent equally important, yet disparate, parts.

Do you know what the major difference in them is? Data backup focuses on creating data backups in the event that you are to suffer from a loss incident. Disaster recovery is the act of actually restoring the data backup as well as any other operational function that may have been interrupted by a incident. In many senses, data backup is the event that begins the process while disaster recovery ends it, ensuring that your organization recovers swiftly and efficiently.

There are several features that contribute to a successful data backup and disaster recovery solution. Here are just a few of them:

Recovery point objective: How much data needs to be backed up (and ultimately restored) in the event of a loss incident in order to continue or sustain operations? For a higher RPO, you will want to restore as much data as possible.

Recovery time objective: How long will it take to have your backed up data restored in order continue or sustain operations? Time is a luxury that you don’t have when your organization’s future hangs in the balance. The faster you can recover your data, the less downtime you’ll suffer from.

Depending on the type of solution you have in place, your RPO and your RTO will vary. A quicker RTO will likely result in a lower RPO, as the more data you need to have restored will cause longer recovery delays. You will have to alter your recovery plans based on your particular configuration. It is also worth mentioning that not all backup solutions are as effective as others.

Tape backup, the staple solution for many years, needs to be manually run in order for you to get back in business following a disaster scenario. Furthermore, due to the cumbersome nature of tape backup, it’s possible to lose at least a day’s worth of data. The alternative, network-attached data backup and disaster recovery (BDR) with cloud functionality offers faster recovery times and more thorough recovery options. All you have to do is restore the data to any device via an Internet connection. Since modern data backup solutions can take snapshots frequently, it’s a great way to minimize data loss and ensure protection from the increased downtime that many data loss situations would produce.

Does your business need help implementing a new data backup and disaster recovery solution? Telesys Voice and Data can help. To learn more, reach out to us at (800) 588-4430.

Social media has been an emerging technology in recent years, and has produced many threats. Hackers have learned that they can take advantage of these communication mediums to launch dangerous new attacks on unsuspecting users. With enough ingenuity on a hacker’s part, they can potentially steal the identity of a social media user. Here are some of the best ways that your organization can combat identity theft through social media.

First, it helps to understand why social media is such an attractive vector of attack for identity thieves. For one, the anonymity provided by the Internet has long been a staple reason why it’s been commonly used by hackers to steal sensitive information from organizations. This was (and still is) done through spam and scam emails, but nowadays, strategies have changed enough where individuals have to be more cognizant of their personally identifiable information, because by using social media constructs like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and the like, they are much more exposed. Enterprise-level spam filters are readily available to all kinds of organizations, prompting hackers to step up their game and create nefarious new ways of stealing information.

Spear phishing tactics were the result of these efforts. Intending to bypass the likes of spam blockers and content filters through seemingly legitimate sources, phishing tactics come in a variety of forms, with the most successful of these coming from sources that hide the true intentions of the one making the attack. The Internet can mask the true identity of hackers so that they can seem to be someone else, either in an email scam, social media attack, or otherwise. This is known as spoofing, and has been a infiltration tactic for decades.

In particular, social media can provide attackers with a lot of information without them working too hard. Think about the kind of information that you might have on your personal Facebook or Twitter feed. Do you have a phone number? What about an email address or physical address? Do you have any information about the musicians you listen to, or the books that you enjoy? All of this information (and more) can be used to help a potential scammer steal your identity and use it for various ill offenses - the gravest of which could be stealing your identity and using it to attack those you hold dear.

Imagine what could happen if someone were to steal the credentials to your social media pages and use them to impersonate you. They could fool all of your closest friends and family into giving up whatever information they are looking for. For example, they might be able to coax your parents or loved ones into parting with personally identifiable information such as your Social Security number or credit card number, which could be used to open new lines of credit or make fraudulent purchases. Regardless, the threat posed by identity theft through social media is considerable, and you must take precautions to ensure that you don’t fall for these traps in the future. Here are some ways that you can make sure this doesn’t happen.

• Be on the lookout for suspicious activity on your accounts: If you suspect for even a second that your accounts have been compromised, be sure to change your passwords so that they can’t be used to hurt those closest to you.
• Look out for dangerous messages sent to you: If you suddenly receive messages from those who you haven’t heard from in a long time, and their behavior is suspicious, perhaps it’s best to ignore these messages or alert those who you think may be affected.
• Limit the information you share on social media accounts: Information can’t be stolen if you don’t choose to share it. Consider implementing more powerful privacy settings for your accounts.

Businesses are just as vulnerable to spear phishing attacks as individuals, if not more so. If you are like billions of others, social media has become an important part of your life, and quite possibly, your business. To ensure that you are doing what you can to protect yourself and your organization from the threats that social media and other innovative communications technologies enable, consider reaching out to the IT professionals at Telesys Voice and Data.

You might see 3G and 4G on your mobile devices and wonder what it all means. If so, we have an answer for you, and just in time for a brand-new iteration: 5G. With this new technology on its way, it’s time to take a look at what exactly 5G should be capable of, and how it can differentiate itself from its predecessors.

Your business relies on technology to ensure operations proceed smoothly, but the way that it’s managed can have a major impact on the way your company functions. Think about it like this: if you have software solutions hosted on different computers, but not in any centralized location, only those computers will be able to use these solutions--potentially hampering your staff’s ability to be productive. How can you make sure that this doesn’t become a major problem?

Centralizing your company’s IT assets should be a priority, as it promotes accessibility and flexibility for your entire company. When you have your business network assets centralized in one location, all sorts of possibilities open up. For example, you don’t have to worry about data being inaccessible at any point, which can often be a major hurdle.

For a lot of businesses, centralization means hosting company assets in a place where every single employee can access what they need to do their job. In essence, it means utilizing an innovative technology plan led by cloud computing. Cloud computing is the act of making assets available through the virtual environment known as the cloud. It can be something as simple as email access, or it can be something as complex as infrastructure hosting. Either way, the point that we’re trying to get across is that it’s a centralized location for important information.

There are many important factors to keep in mind that stem from centralizing your business’ IT. Here are just a few of them.

• Near-constant access: Hosting applications and programs in your cloud solution allows for access to just about anything that a business might need to remain active. Since access is near-constant, your employees will be able to work remotely if needed, allowing them to either catch up on missed work or get ahead from anywhere there is an Internet connection.
• User-based delegation: If your employees have access to all information on your network, you’re managing a considerable amount of risk. You can limit how much damage is done through limiting data access based on user roles. For example, the average employee doesn’t need access to personally identifiable information, like your HR department would.
• Security: Since most of your assets are located in one place, they will be easier to protect and secure in the long run. Of course, this type of security also needs to extend to devices that access this information. With the right amount of control over security, your business can fully take advantage of centralized IT assets.

We’d like to round this out by suggesting a centralized way of managing your IT assets as well, and that’s by outsourcing the responsibility to Telesys Voice and Data. We can remotely monitor and maintain your infrastructure without the need for an on-site visit, thus redirecting valuable capital to projects that can help you build revenue. To learn more, reach out to us at (800) 588-4430.

We are going to switch things up a bit and walk you through a retelling of a ransomware attack through the eyes of a business owner. Usually when we talk about these types of threats, we approach it from our perspective and talk about what you should do to prepare and what the threats are, but we wanted to try to show you what an event like this could feel like, for you, in your position, and in your own eyes. We hope that this will raise awareness of how crippling an event like this can be on your company, and we hope you let us know if this perspective helps you, your colleagues, and your staff get a more personal sense of what ransomware can do. Enjoy!

What a day it has been!

Typically, when I have a day like I just had, I wouldn’t sit here and write about it, but since our story is sure to help people, I thought that I should. Besides, my adrenaline is still pumping, and I don’t think I can sleep yet anyway.

The day I had was terrifying but started just like any other. I got through my morning routine and made my way to the office. I even stopped at the shoppe to get coffee. Once I entered the building I knew something was wrong. I had two employees beat me to the office. They were milling around almost aimlessly in the hallway. Before I even reached my desk, I was inundated with bad news.

“We are locked out!”
“What are we supposed to do?”

After getting past my employees into my office, I tried to ascertain what the problem was. It was evident very quickly that we had a major problem on our hands.

@!#?! It’s ransomware! I can’t believe it!

It could only be ransomware.

I wasn’t sure what allowed this to happen. Did one of my staff click on a bad link? Was our network vulnerable from the get go? Since the ransomware had spread onto the network, I could tell that the affected computer had to be used to manage other endpoints, pushing ransomware to all the endpoints the terminal had managed. This is why the computers that were on the network had the same message. This means that it ended up stealing usernames and passwords to open each endpoint and lock down the data on them.

It is during this period that the entity that unleashed this beast on us would look to take as much data as they could. It turned out that my company was using a global password configuration and the ransomware spread throughout our network like wildfire. So, when I was met with the message, I knew exactly what I was dealing with.

I never for a second thought that it would happen to us. Our business doesn’t deal with major financial institutions or medical records, so it would seem to keep us safe from these kinds of security breaches. I guess I’m just the latest person to ask, “why us?”

For those who don’t know, ransomware is any type of malicious application that “kidnaps” the data and holds it for ransom. It can shut down the files of a single computer, or in our experience, it can spread over the network to several endpoints; effectively shutting down operations for long stretches of time. I wanted to share my experience to help you know what to expect if you are one of the unfortunate business owners that have to have all the answers.

Don’t Panic
No matter how prepared you are for something like this, at first, you feel panic. Typically, you are immediately overwhelmed and are left kind of dumbfounded, glancing around the room, looking for answers that aren’t there. Regrettably, if you are doing that, the damage is done and there is nothing you can do about that. Scenarios race by in your head and the more they turn negative, the more the fear builds up in the base of your neck, in your throat, or in the pit of your stomach. You need to stay as calm as you can and begin troubleshooting immediately. The thing about ransomware is you can’t just wait it out. Once that wave of fear subsides, you have to make a measured response, because you likely have people that are on the clock, and an IT infrastructure that is locked down.

After the initial shock, I went to work.

Fighting Ransomware
I learned quickly that there are two main types of ransomware:

• Locker - Malware that locks the computer or device.
• Crypto - Malware that encrypts data and files.

The type we were unfortunate enough to encounter was WannaCry, a crypto ransomware that has infected millions of people worldwide by taking advantage of an unpatched Windows vulnerability. As a small business, our technology management was pieced together, but after this event, and all we’ve learned from it, we will definitely be sure to make our staff cognizant of how to avoid situations like this.

For us, we had three machines infected with a variant of WannaCry. The ransomware stated that if we pay $300 in Bitcoin for every machine that was locked, we could get our data back... and the clock was ticking, literally.

At that point, we had three options. We could abandon the machines and buy new ones, we could pay the hackers that had encrypted our data, or, we could attempt to restore our systems.

Part of me wanted nothing more than to just abandon the machines, bust our IT budget for the year and be done with it. We instead decided to try to restore the machines to a prior version, because paying the hackers was never a real option. First of all, any person that could inflict this kind of fresh hell on a small business was not to be trusted; and, I felt if I were to pay the ransom, there was no guarantee that we would a) get our files back; or, b) not get harassed again by the same people.

Since cost was a factor, we reached out the IT professionals at Telesys Voice and Data, and they walked us through the process of restoring our terminal and the two machines connected to it. Luckily for us, they had the knowledge and expertise to help us get through this horrible time. We will lose quite a bit of work, but, as of right now, it looks like we are going to come out of this whole thing much better than the majority of companies that have dealt with it.

I know we were lucky. I know we have to try harder. I know we aren’t out of the woods just yet, but I have to thank the people at Telesys Voice and Data. They really came through for us!

Ransomware attacks are rampant. If your small business isn’t proactive about its network security and if you don’t train your people on what to look for, you could be dealing with a problem that could potentially sink your business. For more information about ransomware, WannaCry, or other threats your organization faces today, call us today at (800) 588-4430.

Does your business have trouble with managing and maintaining your technology? If so, you’re not alone. Many small businesses struggle with even the most basic elements of IT maintenance. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just take this responsibility and shift it off of your employees? The best way to approach technology maintenance is to implement managed IT services.

Small businesses often neglect IT maintenance because they can’t afford to hire in-house technicians. These kinds of skills are in high demand, which often means that small businesses--with their limited budgets--have trouble finding technicians that they can afford. Furthermore, these skills might be region-locked, meaning that they are more difficult to find in certain areas than others, making it challenging to find the skills you need, when they’re needed.

A lot of businesses tend to do one of two things: have their current employees (who aren’t trained IT technicians) perform most of the work, or they simply don’t get the work done at all. Both of these situations are far from desirable. Either the work will get done poorly, or the work doesn’t get done at all. In fact, a project implementation gone wrong could be even more costly if it has to be redone, putting even more pressure on your organization.

In these types of situations, it’s helpful to have someone you rely on to get the work done right. Managed IT services allow small businesses to take advantage of many services that allow them to focus on creating revenue, rather than managing technology. Your company can leverage all of the great technology solutions that larger businesses don’t think twice about. Whether you need supplemental technology maintenance or full-on management of your in-house network, Telesys Voice and Data has you covered.

We offer several services to small businesses in your area, including:

• Security solutions: Spam protection, content filtering, antivirus, and firewalls
• Business continuity: Data backup, disaster recovery
• Communications: Voice over Internet Protocol, email hosting
• Network management: Remote monitoring and management
• Software and hardware procurement

Does your business need help managing technology? Telesys Voice and Data wants to make sure that you’re always on top of your technology maintenance. To learn more, reach out to us at (800) 588-4430.

Ransomware is a growing problem for businesses, being one of the most difficult threats to remove from an infrastructure. Not only is it easy to spread, but difficult to avoid as a whole. How can your organization prepare for this threat? It starts by being mindful of how ransomware is spread and how your employees react to it, both now and in the future.

Ransomware locks down files on your business’ infrastructure. Through ransomware, it’s easy to cripple a business by limiting access to important information or files located on an infrastructure. If the user fails to pay the ransom, they risk losing their data for good. Even if they do pay the ransom, there’s no guarantee that the hacker will give up the encryption key. The user is presented with a conundrum; pay up for a potential to get your data back or ignore the request and hope for the best.

Ransomware was primarily spread through the use of spam when it was first introduced to the online environment. Hackers would create ransomware campaigns to spread it to as many users as possible, hoping that any number of them would choose to pay up rather than lose access to their precious files. As time went on, however, ransomware became used in a more targeted fashion. Rather than claim as many targets as possible, hackers instead chose to go after only those who were most likely to pay up with spear phishing tactics designed to fool even the most stalwart and mindful user. In many cases, these targeted attempts were made against businesses, whom value data more than the average end user might.

These spear phishing attempts are incredibly difficult to identify for the untrained eye, and the amount of damage they could inflict on your company is untold. Your employees need to be able to identify potential ransomware threats. Even the cautious approach might not be enough, however, as the future of ransomware could potentially hold even more dangerous threats. Already, hackers are taking advantage of threats that can be purchased on the online black market, including ransomware threats, vulnerabilities, and even lists of targets. How can a small business protect themselves from such a prominent threat?

It all starts by remaining as mindful of security best practices as often as possible. By this, we mean trusting no suspicious message in your inbox without first double-checking any information found in it. If you receive an unsolicited message with an attachment claiming to be a resume, bank statement, shipping information, or anything else that seems out of place, think twice before downloading them. The same can be said for any links that cannot be verified as secured.

Is your business prepared to handle the next generation of ransomware? While we don’t know what the future holds, we know that you can confidently face it with security services from Telesys Voice and Data. To learn more, reach out to us at (800) 588-4430.

Every business needs technology support. This statement is more true today than it has ever been before. As your organization adds new technology to its infrastructure, it will naturally grow more complex and difficult to maintain. Thankfully, you don’t necessarily have to go about this alone. By working with an outsourced third party, your business can take advantage of all kinds of great solutions for a fraction of the cost.

Depending on the way you go about technology maintenance, you can either wind up investing in your business’s future or wasting vital capital. Traditional break-fix IT strategies take a responsive approach to IT maintenance. By this, we mean that you’re reacting to issues as they crop up rather than preventing them outright. This is not the ideal way to approach IT maintenance, as you will spend more time and resources addressing issues that could have been avoided in the first place. Instead of traditional break-fix, you should consider investing in a more preventative approach to technology maintenance.

If you want preventative solutions, your business is better off working with a managed IT service provider like Telesys Voice and Data. Managed IT takes advantage of solutions that are designed to detect issues before they become costly problems. This affords your business ample time to resolve them, which mitigates downtime and the costs of replacing technology. Here are a couple of ways that managed IT can help your business save time and money:

• Security: Have you ever been the victim of an online security threat? Chances are that if you have, it’s a situation that you’ll never want to suffer from again. The issue with security is that it’s costly and embarrassing to be hit by a hacking attack. You not only have to remove the threats from your infrastructure, but you also can’t work until it has been done. Furthermore, you might be subject to fine and other regulations regarding data privacy, which is just the icing on the cake. Preventing these issues with a firewall, antivirus, spam blocker, and content filter can make for a much more tolerable security situation.
• Hardware issues: A computer breaking down can be a considerable problem for your business. Hardware failure could mean a workstation or even a server unit breaking down, which could lead to data loss or a loss of operations. If you can use remote monitoring and management to provide maintenance as needed, you can keep the risk of a hardware failure at a low. Furthermore, you can detect signs of hardware failure early on if you’re monitoring your network, which helps you avoid unexpected hardware breakdowns.
• Data backup: Imagine that your entire data infrastructure has just been destroyed due to an unforeseen event, like a data breach or a natural disaster. What do you do? If you haven’t taken any action to ensure your data is safely backed up, it’s likely that your business won’t be able to function as intended for quite some time. This puts your future in jeopardy. Proactive solutions like Data Backup and Disaster Recovery, or BDR, can ensure that your business suffers minimal downtime and data loss in the event of a disaster. Furthermore, you should have a comprehensive business continuity strategy implemented to guarantee you know how to react in the event of such an incident.

Does your business need managed IT support? Telesys Voice and Data can help your business take better care of its technology. To learn more, reach out to us at (800) 588-4430.

Cloud computing is one of the best ways that your business can compete with larger enterprises. Today, you can adopt the cloud and take advantage of countless services, but are you doing so yet? If not, we’ll help walk you through some of the best ways that your organization can leverage the cloud.

Of course, the type of cloud you will need depends on several factors, including data control, maintenance responsibility, and the complexity of your operations as a whole. You will generally be choosing from a public, private, and hybrid cloud for your business’ needs. With each of these comes new benefits and challenges to overcome, however, so you’ll want to consider all options before going all-in on a solution.

Public Cloud
If your business has a limited budget, the public cloud may be an ideal solution for you. The public cloud allows users to take advantage of the cloud without investing in on-site cloud infrastructure. You can use all of the great parts of the cloud, including storage, access to cloud-based applications or services, and communication solutions. The public cloud offers a great starting point for businesses that want to utilize the flexible cost the cloud offers, and don’t have the assets available to invest in anything more complicated. Some of the services provided through public cloud solutions include Google’s G Suite and Microsoft Office 365. Yet, it’s not all rainbows and sunshine for the public cloud, as the lack of customization and control may deter some organizations.

Private Cloud
Where the public cloud provides general catch-all solutions for businesses that don’t want to manage or maintain their own infrastructures, the private cloud offers hosted or on-site solutions that need to be maintained by an IT department of some kind. Basically, you need to have the infrastructure to manage a cloud system, as well as a team that can provide maintenance for it (unless you have arranged to outsource this--more on that later). Private clouds are in high demand because they allow businesses to easily customize their solutions to suit their needs--particularly in regard to network security and scope of services offered. Private clouds are best for businesses that want to maximize control over their data and know exactly what they want out of the cloud.

Hybrid Cloud
If neither the public nor private cloud are attractive to your organization, then perhaps a mixture of the two will provide the best results. A hybrid cloud takes all of the benefits of a private cloud and combines them with public cloud offerings thereby allowing for a customizable and flexible solution that is built specifically for your business’ needs.

The best part of this is that you can have an outsourced provider like Telesys Voice and Data host your cloud infrastructure so that you don’t have to. It’s the best way to take advantage of the best of both worlds. To learn more, reach out to us at (800) 588-4430.

The sad truth about computers is that when they inevitably break, you have to get them fixed; or, you have to order a new one. When PCs started to be utilized for mass productivity, however, businesses had to find a better way. It’s been years since the first managed services provider hung out their shingle, and over that relatively short time the managed services industry has grown to be a $150 billion-a-year industry. The combination of IT becoming an important part of nearly every business resulted in the obvious demand for affordable IT support. This trend has seen many businesses cutting IT staff to make way for outsourced managed services, and all it provides. A problem that both businesses, and the MSPs that they hire, face is that computers eventually break.

For years now businesses have had to set aside capital to fix and replace their information systems; capital that could be better served invested elsewhere. Managed services tries to put a flat rate on every piece of IT you need managed and comes up with a consistent billable figure that not only allows a business to plan their operational IT budget more accurately, but allows them access to the expertise they may have lacked without a dedicated IT administrator. MSPs form of proactive maintenance can go a long way toward providing the kind of longevity that any organization would want from their hardware; but, while we can do a lot to protect your systems from failure, there’s no way to definitively know when a piece of hardware is going to fail.

When technology breaks, it leaves a hole in your functioning business that has a cost attached to it. If it's a switch or a router, or even a workstation that needs to be replaced, it’s cheap enough. The cost to replace an in-house enterprise server, however, is between $5,000 and $20,000 dollars. Couple that with the fact that hardware prices that had been dropping for a decade have begun to rise, it suggests that it won’t be getting cheaper to replace a physical server unit anytime soon. At Telesys Voice and Data, we like to think of ourselves as solution providers, and today there are more options than ever for the housing, management, and maintenance of an organization’s computing infrastructure, including storage and applications.

When your server is about to fail, and you need a new one, buying a new one has to be a no-brainer. So how do you go about it? How do you get the data from the old hardware to the new hardware? What about networking? With so many factors to consider, relying on the experts is a must. If you have in-house technology professionals, they probably have this process worked out as to not cause the business a lot of additional problems. After all, a failed server carries with it enough anxiety without the additional fear that goes with not being able to do the work that is required to sustain profitability. But, if you don’t have dedicated IT personnel on staff, the process might get a little overwhelming.

Let’s assume that (for this example) your organization’s file server is about to fail and you don’t have any contingency in place. What variables do you need to consider?

1. Are you backed up?
2. Do you have failover?
3. In-house or Cloud
4. Migration plan: RTO & RPO
5. Functionality and Security

Are You Backed Up?
Has your organization put in place a backup function? Before we start in on a new server, every business should be utilizing a comprehensive backup and recovery system. Not only do you protect your data (one of the most lucrative assets your business has), but it also gives you failover options that many organizations might not have. Our Backup and Disaster Recovery system features incremental backups and the ability to use the device as a failover server, so your business isn’t dealing with sustained downtime while you replace or repair your server.

Do You Have Failover?
A failover system is a system in place that allows you to protect your organization from system failure. By having a system to continue to access critical data, you can keep business moving while you replace or repair vital hardware. As stated above, our BDR gives temporary failover server capabilities to ensure the smoothest transition you can expect.

In-House or Cloud?
The big decision many businesses have to make nowadays is where to host your server. There are pros and cons to moving your infrastructure to the cloud, as today a well-designed-and-implemented cloud server is often more beneficial depending on the needs of your organization. The average business has multiple servers, so when one is on the verge of failure (or fails outright) and you are forced to use your failover platform as a temporary server, considering a move that will allow you to manage to get the server up and running again efficiently has to be a consideration. There are many cloud-hosted options to consider. Performing the cloud vs in-house determination. When your hardware gets old (or your software is), you have to start to consider your options. Let’s look at some variables you should be cognizant of when deciding whether or not to move your computing infrastructure offsite.

In-House Computing - The traditional method of computing, some would argue, is tried and true. You purchase the hardware outright, you license the software you need, you equip it with the storage you need, and you manage and maintain it in house. The server unit itself is a big expense, but most small to medium-sized businesses could justify the purchase if it was between losing data and continuing efficient production. You have to ascertain what the costs are and see if a new onsite server is cost effective for you.
Cloud Computing - If your computing infrastructure needs to be replenished, there are several great cloud-hosted computing options your business could consider. From affordable public cloud solutions to resource and capital intensive private cloud solutions, the cloud has options for any business that needs to upgrade their computing infrastructure. The cloud also helps organizations that want to put an emphasis on remote work and collaboration.

Migration Plan: RTO & RPO
When migrating data onto a new server from backup, you need to understand the costs of doing so. That’s why disaster recovery experts have defined the necessary metrics you need to understand when recovering data after a server failure (or any major data loss incident). They are Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective. (RPO). In the context of data recovery, the RTO is a measurement of the amount of time your business can go without storage or applications while they are restored, while the RPO is a measure of how far back data recovery needs to go to get your organization up and running efficiently. Typically the two values work against each other, so determining how much data you need and how fast you’ll need it by to keep your company functional becomes extremely important.

New and Old, Side-By-Side
Once you have your new computers up and running with all the software and appliances configured, make sure to leave your old system up (if possible), even if a hardware failure is imminent. This will allow you the time to ensure that your new server is working optimally when it matters most. After you’ve ironed out all the kinks, you then can shut down and recycle your old server.

There are many more tips and tricks we can give you to ensure that in replacing your old technology, you are getting powerful, effective, and reliable upgrades. For more information about proactive managed services that can tell you if it’s time to refresh your hardware, call the IT professionals at Telesys Voice and Data today at (800) 588-4430.

How much does your business rely on technology to keep your organization running forward? As business technology becomes more complex, it’s becoming increasingly popular for organizations to have their own internal IT departments to manage and maintain it. Yet, small businesses don’t often have the necessary funds for such a feat. How can your company afford quality IT service? You can start by pursuing managed IT solutions from a managed service provider.

Unlike break-fix IT solutions, which depend on your technology breaking down, managed IT solutions aim to keep your technology in proper working order, as well as take action to proactively treat issues before they become long-term problems. Here are some of the best ways that managed IT can help your organization take better advantage of its technology.

Guaranteeing Flexibility
Let’s say that you choose to hire more employees for a specific department of your business. This means that you have more users, which can lead to more software licenses needed, more email accounts to archive, more endpoints to secure, and much more. Basically, as your workforce needs change, so too must your managed IT service agreement. Telesys Voice and Data offers scalable solutions that can be customized to fit the needs of your business.

Supplementing In-House Maintenance
Let’s say that you do have an in-house technician or a small group of workers dedicated to IT maintenance. They might be able to get most of their work done, but generally speaking, your in-house technicians probably have their hands full. They might have their hands full with acting as help desk support, or they might be too busy maintaining the status quo to help the everyday worker with their technology. A managed IT provider helps to augment and work beside your in-house team to create greater success for your organization as a whole.

Working with Your Vendors
You work with a lot of vendors to give your company the access to the products your organization needs to be successful. This includes hardware vendors for your workstations and server units, software developers for all of your productivity suite needs, and any other service providers that you have. Reaching out to all of these can be time-consuming, which is why managed service providers like Telesys Voice and Data offer vendor management services to create a single point of contact to keep your attention on your business and not your vendors.

Improving Operational Efficiency
Your business will generally function better by working with a managed service provider. The reason for this is simple: hands-off IT maintenance that takes up little, if any, of your time. Telesys Voice and Data can remotely monitor and maintain your business’ technology infrastructure to provide as much of a hands-off approach to IT maintenance as you can get. To learn more about what Telesys Voice and Data can do for your business, reach out to us at (800) 588-4430.

How many documents does your organization accumulate just by simply staying in business? There’s no doubt that you’re sick of the traditional filing cabinet, which is both hard to move around and a pain to organize. Thankfully, modern technology solutions have afforded businesses just like yours with the ability to host and manage documents in a digital, cloud-based environment.

Cloud-based document management solutions provide your business with a ton of great benefits and opportunities to improve the way your business stores and manages files. Here are some of the most notable strengths and weaknesses of this approach.

Easier to Organize and Access
Storing files in a document management system is much like storing files into folders on your workstation or in-house network. It’s much easier than color-coding with tabbed folders. Just imagine being able to store each of your related files in a cloud-based folder system and always knowing where specific files are located, depending on the type of file you’re looking for. You can save time and energy by making your files easier to find. Furthermore, you can access documents and other important files on any connected devices, allowing for more flexible for your workers.

Easier to Navigate
You’re familiar with how a search bar works in both your web browser or online search engines like Google, but what if we told you that you could add this ease of searching to your file storage? Imagine being able to enter in your search credentials for your physical documents, and you have a great reason to implement a document management system in the cloud. All you need to do is plug in your searches and find the files that you’ve been looking for, and it couldn’t be any easier.

Easier to Preserve
If you were to suffer from a fire in your office, would your paper documents survive the disaster? Our guess is “no,” which leads us to the next big question: how can you properly back up your physical file storage? There isn’t a way to do this without wasting a considerable amount of time and money on making copies of each record your business stores. If they are digital files in a document storage system, you can simply implement a data backup and disaster recovery solution to properly preserve documents in the event of the worst.

The Risk: Data Security
The concept of storing data online or in a network-connected cloud system comes with the added likelihood of a data security risk. What if a hacker infiltrated your company’s network? They would be able to indiscriminately steal your company’s documents or access information that’s not for their eyes in the first place. Therefore, you need to consider security issues a top priority for your organization should you implement a document management system. Furthermore, you need to ensure that your data is properly backed up so that even unexpected incidents don’t sink your productivity.

Is your business ready to get rid of physical file storage and instead focus on a digital documentation system? Telesys Voice and Data can help. To learn more, reach out to us at (800) 588-4430.

For the modern business owner or executive, making smart business decisions has become a necessity. Margins are small, efficiency is key, and if we were to be completely honest, business is a day-in and day-out grind. In the course of doing business much is made of cost reduction and curtailing inefficiencies that lead to wasted capital. Much is made of collaborative systems that allow for remote access. Much is made of protocol, process, and performance. With so many moving parts in every business, there has to be the “glue” that allows for cohesive actions to be taken. That “glue” is software.

IT is a multi-trillion dollar business ($3.5 trillion in 2017 according to Gartner), and enterprise software, that is the software that businesses use to conduct business, makes up for around a tenth of it, at $351 billion. Any way you slice it, software is a significant expense for most businesses. This month, we are going to take a look at the types of software that businesses use most, what they use it for, and how to decide a certain software works for your business.

Business software comes in many types. It includes custom systems, cloud systems, and programs you buy off the shelf anywhere. Businesses have been using software for decades; long before the PC revolution changed the economy forever. Today, there are very few businesses left that don’t rely on any software at all. At first software was extraordinarily pricy, but as demand went up, prices went down and now even the smallest business can utilize much of the same software that their enterprise counterparts use.

For our purposes we will split the software businesses use into three separate categories. They are: security, operations, and relationships.

Security Software
We’ll start with security software, since without it, you may not even need the other two types. Security software is, as the name suggests, the software you use to keep your organization’s computers free from threats. Any computer with an operating system will have some security built in, but for a business, you are likely going to need more, and in some cases, a lot more.

The first thing you’ll need to know about security software is that you are in danger. Your data is being targeted by innumerable entities that are looking to steal it from you for their own gains. In fact, for every threat that is developed to breach network security, there has to be a solution created that mitigates it. This fact has led to a massive security market in which consumers, even the IT-savvy ones, are left overwhelmed and scratching their heads. Some threats include:

• Ransomware
• Phishing
• Viruses
• Malware
• Trojan horses
• Denial of service (DDOS)
• Hackers
• Human error
• Sabotage
• And more...

Conversely, if you are able to stop these threats before they get in to your business’ computing network (or onto the PC where you do your business computing), you will have a secure computing environment 100 out of 100 times. This is why it is essential for small business owners and technology executives at larger businesses to understand what they need to do to ensure that threats can be intercepted, destroyed, or avoided completely.

Some examples of security software include:

• Access control - As the name suggests, access control provides a construct in which to manage permissions for the people inside and outside of your organization’s network to access certain parts of your computing infrastructure.
• Antivirus - For good measure we’ll add anti-spyware, anti-malware, and any other program that is designed to take the teeth away from any unwanted program on your network or PC. An updated and maintained antivirus is your best hope if threats somehow make it onto your network or PC.
• Backup software - Part of building comprehensive organizational security is having a plan in case a threat gets through. Having a backup system in place is essential; and, today there are enterprise-level software solutions that will help your entire organization protect the data your staff depends on.
• Firewall - The firewall is a virtual wall that aims to keep any threats out of your network or PC in the first place. As mentioned above, many computers come with firewalls installed, but an enterprise firewall that is constantly updated and maintained is your best chance to avoid trouble all together.
• Intrusion detection/prevention - Intrusion detection is a system that continuously scans your network or PCs for malicious activity or policy violations. Intrusion prevention actively works to mitigate any malicious activity or policy violation.
• Security information and event management (SIEM) - A system that provides real-time analysis of any alerts, allowing administrators to automate the process of threat analysis and logging.
• Spam protection - Generally found in a dedicated email filtering solution, or as a part of a unified threat management system (UTM), spam protection deciphers incoming emails and determines which emails are delivered and which ones aren’t.

Keeping your network free from threats will go a long way towards running an effective business. Speaking of which, in the management and operational side of your business, software has also become extraordinarily important. In fact, without some forms of productivity software, your business may not even exist.

Operations Software
When you talk about operations software, we mainly mean the software that is used to complete the work your organization does. Productivity software is made up of all the applications used to complete the work.

There are millions of different applications that people use to get work done. In fact, there is effectively software created each day to fill in the gaps left by other pieces of software. If security software is the walls around the city, operations software is the city itself, providing the infrastructure for goods and services to be rendered.

Productivity software comes in many forms and has been designed to make human work easier. Whether your staff depends on simpler, less-resource-intensive programs such as word processors or spreadsheets; or, they depend on graphics studios or resource-intensive video-editing or 3D rendering suites, productivity software is where the goods and services your business offers get built in earnest.

In business, some of the most utilized productivity applications come delivered in cloud-hosted suites. This allows the developer to provide businesses and individuals value, while still maximizing their software’s profitability. One example would be that Microsoft Word has more demand than PowerPoint, but by bundling Word, PowerPoint, Excel and the rest of their productivity apps into a cloud-based package: Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft is able to offer all these useful titles as a monthly service, delivering enterprise products to users and, through these apps’ collaborative capabilities, strengthening their value proposition to consumers.

Some types of productivity software for business include:

• Project management software - Effective management of a project is essential to its success. With project management software you can assign work, manage timelines, deadlines, and collaborate with others.
• Office suites - Generally it is comprised of a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a presentation app. Most will also offer an integrated email and calendar app, a database manager, note-taking app, website tools, and more.
• Accounting software - A business needs to manage its money, but today’s accounting software can bring with it a lot of nice additions that are designed to help meet any organization’s needs.
• Industry-specific software - Advertising-to-zoning, and every industry in between, developers have made a software that will help your organization be more efficient.
• Custom software - Having a custom piece of software developed that directly meets your needs is a good way to boost your organization’s efficiency.

With the cost of doing business going up, investing in the right operational software will go a long way toward improving productivity and helping you build a better business. If you want the best business you can manifest, however, our last type of software is essential.

Relationship Software
Business is all about creating relationships. Business owners and executives have relationships with their staff, their staff have relationships with their vendors and customer, their vendors and customer have relationships with other businesses, and other businesses are in open competition with you. Without properly managing your relationships, your business will have a hard time being successful.

From a business perspective, if operations software is the city, relationship software is all the people; and, since chances are you are building your product or service for people to use, managing relationships has to be a priority. Typically, the software that allows you to best manage the relationships you have are also the most difficult to master and are expensive.

When people think of relationship management, they typically think of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), but there are more types of relationship management tools that may fit your business better. There is Professional Services Automation (PSA) software that has been developed for professional services like lawyers and IT professionals. There is Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software developed for manufacturers and distributors. All this software is developed with one thing in mind: managing the relationships you have to keep business moving efficiently.

No relationship is more important than the one you have with your customers; and today, managing their expectations of you is more difficult than ever. With social media being what it is to our society, managing expectations, demand, and being able to properly support your products and services are essential to maintaining a healthy business. For the smaller business, online marketing, social media, and maintaining an active role in the community in which you work is extremely important. By utilizing software to make your social media and marketing activities a little easier, you can cut down on the time you are focusing on maintaining your relationships and spend more time developing and producing products and services that are valuable to your consumers.

Some additional relationship management software to consider include:

• Content management system - If you plan on being active on the Internet, finding a content management system that allows you to quickly and affordably manage your website is a good plan.
• Social media management software - Having a central hub to be able to manage all of your social media initiatives can save your organization plenty of time and money.
• Human resources software - Not only do all your employees depend on your HR department for the administration of their work experience and their professional development, you typically depend on them for quite a bit (often including payroll). Having a dedicated HR software can streamline what is a time consuming and often frustrating part of doing business.

Software is important to every business. If your organization is looking to put together a software management strategy that will help you get all the software you need to manage, operate, support, and market your products and services, the IT professionals at Telesys Voice and Data are the ones you need to call. Contact us today at (800) 588-4430 and learn how to make your business more effective through software.