Network Solutions Unlimited Blog

For many years now, there’s been a bit of a fear of AI—artificial intelligence—in the workplace, all while it has been put into practical use more and more often in many businesses. This all ties back to the work of Alan Turing, who (amongst his accomplishments in computing) created what we know as the Turing Test as a means of gauging how intelligent a computer is. 

We get it—nobody likes to think about the prospect of being impacted by a cybersecurity incident, but it’s like any other unpleasant event in that it is best to prepare for it. In fact, today’s businesses can invest in a cyber insurance policy to help prepare for such an eventuality.

Let’s go over some of the ins and outs of cyber insurance so that you are prepared to make the best choice of provider for your business.

Let me ask you a question: how much did you pay Google for your Business Profile? Unfortunately, if the answer was anything other than “nothing,” you’ve been scammed. Google has actually announced that they are taking legal action against scammers who impersonated the company in order to defraud small businesses.

No matter how big your business is, you’ll always have technology expenses. It’s just a fact of the current workplace, and your profits will be inexorably tied to how well your IT works for you. Furthermore, the more IT costs rise, the more impact small and medium-sized businesses will feel from them. Today, we wanted to address this issue and how you can minimize the frustrations that stem from seemingly uncontrollable technology costs.

Look, we get it: remote work has become a bit of a topic of contention lately. While employees have been relishing the benefits that remote work offers them, many employers have been doing everything they can to bring their workforce back into the workplace.

Now, it wouldn’t be unfair for you to assume that we would push remote work as a managed service provider because we just so happen to assist businesses in managing it as a part of our services. This is true enough…but we aren’t the only ones with an opinion on the topic.

A lot of companies are making large technology investments, in fact, if you are here now, you are probably thinking about making such an investment for your own business. One problem that growing companies have is identifying and investing in the right technology. Today, we thought we would give you a couple of tips on how to go about making technology investment decisions that will be the most advantageous for your business.

While protecting the credit card data you collect from your customers and clients is obviously important, you likely also have a line of credit for your business’ use that you need to think about as well. Let’s turn our focus to that card for a moment and discuss some tips and best practices to keep this company resource safe.

The cloud has proven to be an extremely useful tool for the modern business. Not only does it provide anywhere-anytime access to applications, processing, storage, et al; it also delivers those products as a service, allowing you to budget for recurring costs rather than major upfront ones. This provides your organization with functional, supported, and secure computing environments that eliminate a lot of the support costs that traditional computing environments require. It sounds like a perfect scenario for small and large businesses alike, but things aren’t always what they seem, as a lot of cloud users have found that they have incurred several hidden costs by using cloud platforms. Today, we take a look at these hidden costs.

Whether you’re referring to an individual’s personal needs or their work-related responsibilities, the Internet has become an essential component to most processes. Unfortunately, financial limitations often make sufficient connectivity unattainable for many. This is why the Federal Communications Commission stepped in last month to provide some assistance.

As the business world remains restricted in their operations, costs have been a consideration that organizations need to put some serious thought into. Fortunately, there are many ways that you can invest in technologies that significantly benefit your business operations without breaking the bank. Let’s go over five ways to maximize your benefits, without maximizing your investments.

There was a time when business was run through the printer. These days, there are many digital solutions that can really limit the need for high-volume printing. Today, we’ll take a look at how the average business can cut their printing costs and do it while improving their business using print management.

It isn’t exactly a secret that small and medium-sized businesses appreciate any opportunity to reduce the amount of money they have to spend to successfully operate. One means that businesses of all sizes have used to do so has been VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephony. Here, we’ll explore just how VoIP solutions are friendlier to a business’ budget.

It’s the holiday season, and shoppers are flocking to stores to find the perfect gift for anyone: the gift card. However, these handy little plastic rectangles may not be so perfect after all. This year, they’ve been a key component to a business email compromise scam that has been popular in the past few months.

There are a few sounds that are familiar to any office: keys clacking away, coffee being sipped (or slurped), and the rattling, squawking hum of the printer. Yet this image presents a crucial question: do you know how much your printer is costing your business each time it is used? In today’s blog, we’ll review how you can calculate this investment.

No matter how you look at it, technology is expensive. You’ll rarely look at your IT invoices without cringing a little on the inside. However, it’s important that you take a glance at these every once in a while to understand just what you’re getting from your technology budget. Ultimately, you want to ensure that your IT purchases are yielding a positive return on investment, and therefore, providing value for your organization.

Fact: if the technologies an organization depend on become unreliable, then widespread problems and losses in productivity persist. Therefore, it’s crucial for every modern business to have some kind of IT support plan in place. What’s your IT plan look like?

There are multiple approaches to IT support available for the modern business. While each approach is inherently different, they all achieve the same thing: providing professional IT assistance. Choosing the right IT support plan is dependant upon your company’s IT needs and budget. To help you make the right choice, consider these three options.

Having an In-House IT Department
Having an in-house IT staff is a most-efficient way for businesses to cover their IT needs. However, hiring and retaining IT staff can be a costly endeavor that may be out of reach for smaller companies. Meanwhile, for companies that can afford their own IT department, they can run the risk of overloading the schedules of their IT staff with time-consuming maintenance tasks.

All-too-common situations like this will often force technicians to forgo implementing new, money-saving IT initiatives for the sake of keeping the current systems running. Therefore, IT departments that are feeling this productivity pinch will want to consider supplementing the workload with co-managed IT services. This is a solution Network Solutions Unlimited provides where we come alongside your IT staff and assist them with routine IT maintenance in order to free them up so they can work on bigger IT projects.

Break-Fix IT and Help Desks
Another common approach for SMBs is to rely on an outside IT support system for when something goes wrong with their technology, like a break-fix IT company or a charge-by-the-hour IT Help Desk service. Granted, these are reliable ways to solve IT problems, but they can lead to high IT costs that are impossible to budget around. Plus, the break-fix approach fails to get at the heart of a lot of IT problems, which can often times be easily prevented with a proactive approach to IT maintenance.

Although, when it comes to IT maintenance, it’s inevitable for equipment to break down and for assistance via phone calls to be required. At Network Solutions Unlimited, we provide this kind of hands-on support for your broken technology. However, unlike the typical break-fix company which charges for support by the hour, we provide this service at a flat-rate as part of the managed service agreement, meaning that an employee experiencing a technology issue doesn't have to hesitate to contact Network Solutions Unlimited for a fix due to the fear of breaking the company budget.

Taking the Proactive Approach With Managed IT
For SMBs looking to gain access to professional IT support that won’t break the budget, managed IT service from Network Solutions Unlimited is the way to go. Managed IT is a unique offering that’s designed to minimize IT issues and downtime by taking a proactive approach to IT maintenance. Plus, thanks to managed IT being offered as a service, it’s an expense that you can budget around. This is a great way to make professional IT service affordable, costing you way less than having to onboard new IT staff or pay for a break-fix technician to come and resolve an issue.

When every modern business needs IT support, managed IT puts professional IT support within the reach of every company, no matter the company’s size or budget. Have a conversation with Network Solutions Unlimited today to learn how managed IT can meet and exceed your company’s IT needs!

Running a business is challenging, especially when it comes to juggling your assets and your IT budget. That’s not even mentioning managing your workforce, or delegating tasks out to those who are qualified to perform them. While you’re busy with all of these responsibilities, chances are that there will always be one task within your organization that’s better handled by a professional: your IT management.

Some businesses have a hard time admitting that they don’t have someone skilled enough to perform certain tasks. Plus, IT management and maintenance isn’t something that you want an inexperienced worker handling. The truth about situations like this is that outsourcing is, in fact, a valid option, and one that shouldn’t be dismissed - especially for small businesses. Sometimes small organizations don’t have the time to deal with routine maintenance, while others have trouble attracting top talent. Both scenarios inevitably lead to technology that isn’t cared for properly, and will eventually break down.

For this specific reason, outsourcing IT management and maintenance is one of the most valuable outsourced services that your business can implement. After all, you started your business for the purpose of providing a service you love, not to manage your technology solutions. If you want to focus on maximizing the quality of your services, you need someone watching your technology that can keep an eye on it 24/7. You just might find that your goals are all within arm’s reach at long lost.

One of the major benefits of managed IT services is the fact that your technology will be handled by a professional technician, rather than untrained employees. You don’t want just anyone performing maintenance on your business’s IT solutions. Imagine what would happen if the person in charge of your IT were to mishandle or mismanage your technology - expensive downtime could ensue, and your budget could be burdened with frustrating repair costs and replacement fees. Of course, one of the most crippling parts of a hardware failure or downtime event is the data that’s lost when a server goes down. Unless you have support ready and on-hand to help you get through the incident as quickly as possible, an unexpected data loss incident could break your business badly enough that it can’t recover.

When you outsource your IT to Network Solutions Unlimited, you can eliminate this uncertainty and ensure maximum uptime. Network Solutions Unlimited is ready to assist you with your technology at any time, and we make it our goal to minimize downtime and prevent technology difficulties altogether. Our managed IT services can be helpful even if you have an in-house IT department. Chances are that they’re bogged down with IT work, be it upgrading to better technology or applying routine maintenance. Our technicians can assist them and provide a second opinion when it’s needed, as well as free up time by eliminating issues altogether.

Our technicians want to see you make the most of your business, and we’ll use our expertise to limit the IT roadblocks you encounter so that you can focus on your goals. To learn more, give us a call at (217) 428-6449.

The traditional telephone system has been a staple in the office for decades. However, your typical landline telephone system hasn’t aged well, and has been left relatively useless in the wake of better, more flexible solutions, that are designed to save your business money. Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, is a great tool that can be used to improve your business’s ability to grow.

Instead of using telephone lines to send and receive calls, VoIP takes advantage of your Internet connection to transfer your voice. Most businesses already have an Internet connection in their office, so it makes more sense to cut costs and eliminate telephony expenses, when they’re not something that you explicitly need.

Differences Between VoIP and Traditional Telephony
If your business doesn’t already utilize VoIP, it should, especially considering the fact that you can significantly cut down on operational costs. Here are some of the main advantages that you can expect to receive from a comprehensive VoIP solution, and how it can improve operations:

• Additional features: A traditional telephone system may support services like caller ID, user blocking, call forwarding, and conference calling, but VoIP provides other services that are designed to improve collaboration. Unlike the traditional phone, VoIP can be both a hardware or software solution, allowing your users to either call on a physical phone component, or a software-based VoIP app that can be accessed on your device, be it desktop, laptop, or smartphone. As long as you have an Internet connection, you can use your work phone number from anywhere. Some VoIP solutions even offer video conferencing, which allows for instantaneous “face-to-face” communication.
• Decreased costs: Paying for both a landline telephone and an Internet connection is just silly. Landlines are often bundled with other services that you may not want or need, which can put unnecessary strain on your budget. If you use VoIP, you’re basically using something that you already have: your Internet connection. This helps to minimize costs, especially for long distance calls.
• Flexibility: Is your business growing? Are you adding new users left and right? Traditional phone lines take a huge amount of work to set up, especially if your workforce is growing quickly. Besides, adding new phone lines can often mean a major remodeling project, which is expensive and unnecessary. With VoIP, you don’t have any of these problems. All you need is an Internet connection, and the necessary bandwidth to sustain the traffic.

If your business needs a solid new communications solution, VoIP can be a valuable asset that can save you money and headaches in the long run. To learn more, give us a call at (217) 428-6449.

Saving a little on your technology can go a long ways, but cutting too many corners can lead to additional problems and expensive downtime. Here are a few ways you can cut costs without creating long term issues.