Know Your IT Help Desk Better

IT help-desks represent the busiest and most important of the business operations as they are in direct communication with the customers. They are responsible for making a business competitive and efficient. ITSS (IT support services) have expanded in a major way as companies expand their operations, ways of handling hardware and software issues, troubleshooting networks, and accomplishing other complex tasks. With a fully functional department, offering well managed IT services organizations are taking it as a challenge to present a distinguished customer service to its customers.

Let’s understand the segregated tasks of the IT help-desks:

Level 1 support helps to filter calls and provide prompt troubleshooting. The resources at this basic level deal with password resets, PC configurations, etc.

Level 2 caters to issues that include laptop or user device support. Here, resources resolve customer queries by troubleshooting on one hand and hardware installations as well as in-house repairs on the other.

Level 3 support goes even higher to aspects such as server repairs, database administration, data centers, etc.

Level 4 concerns with people outside your organization. This is typically an external part of the IT support services and includes hardware and software vendors.

An evolved help desk should have these properties to ensure productivity and achieve an adequate return on investments.      

Well groomed face of the organization should be a prerequisite: Apart from the technical competencies, the IT service providers need to be backed by soft skills as their responsibility is to display a well-groomed face of the organization to the consumers.

Proactive participation: This is another key feature that adds up to the skill sets of a matured ITSS system. It helps companies anticipate issues and solve them with minimum downtime.

Flexibility and adaptability: This 4-level structure may not be applicable to all the organizations.  The help desk must retain a flexible style of working to respond to any kind of problem that comes up abruptly.

Help desk analytics: An analysis of the performance, issues, challenges, and achievements of the help-desk would map out a better road to a problem free and planned growth.

Teamwork rewards: An effective Help Desk demands teamwork. While it requires personnel of various technical levels, it is important that they gel as a team.

Net Activity, Inc. is a leading provider of IT support services since 2002. We have teamed up with the right people and the right technology to support your IT infrastructure. Our help desk support system is well staffed with trained experts to provide you excellent and satisfactory service. You can be assured of a hassle-free service after an agreement with us. Allow us to manage your IT services and we would never let you down. Contact Harry Bhatia over the phone at 2165035150 X 206 or visit us at http://www.netactivity.us/contact.html to know our service options.

Source: http://www.netactivity.us/blog/know-your-it-help-desk-better/

NetActivity VOIP and Cloud Computing Solutions

How Will Cloud Computing Shape in 2017

Cloud computing solutions have transformed many businesses over the last five years, but experts believe that the market has something more to explore, may be called as a second wave. The cloud market will acquire a faster pace in 2017 as organizations seek to gain relatively more efficiencies as they scale their compute resources for better customer services, says Forrester Research in a new report.    

The analysts of Forrester Research say that the foremost trend comes with the enterprises. Enterprises, especially the big budgets, data centers, and complex applications are now looking at the cloud space as a viable place to run their core business applications. Forrester found that 38% of the 1,000 plus North American and European enterprise infrastructure technology decision makers are building private clouds comprising of 32 percent procuring public cloud services and the remaining are planning to implement some form of cloud technology in the next 12 months.

Cloud predictions for 2017:

Regional players will see an increase in adoption – The global public cloud market is growing at a 22 percent compound rate. With the increasing demands of cloud based applications, it will become a herculean task for the major companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, and Google to service every unique request. This indicates that the small regional players will gain more importance in the upcoming years.

Cloud costs will decrease – In 2017, with their best practices maturing, the IT executives will get better at containing cloud costs. The cost management tools from AWS, Cloudability, Cloudyn, etc. are available that are capable of cutting off the cloud computing architecture costs by sharp 10% by monitoring their consumption.

Private clouds will undergo hyper convergence – Hyperconverged infrastructure solutions will offer pre-integrated compute and storage resources helping organizations get their cloud implementations running faster. Forrester recommends that organizations consider HCI as the foundation for their private cloud development, particularly for new workloads that demand rapid, automated scale-out. 

There will be containers for managing software code – Software developed for cloud apps can now be managed with the help of containers like Linux containers, which will be available in every major public and private cloud platform by early 2017.  The developers will be able to consume them directly and can build their own stacks to power micro services development.

Public cloud will house enterprise apps – Recent survey has found several companies hosting enterprise applications in AWS, indicating that CIOs have become more comfortable hosting critical software in the public cloud. According to Forrester, this trend will continue as CIOs rely more heavily on public cloud providers.

Net Activity, Inc. is a team of expert professionals providing cloud computing services in Ohio. We have eased the process of migration to cloud technology for many of our clients. We engage the clients to holistically study their business requirements with our learned and trained professionals. You can get in touch with Harry Bhatia http://www.netactivity.us/contact.html at 2165035150 X 206. 

Source: http://www.netactivity.us/blog/how-will-cloud-computing-shape-in-2017/

5 False Impressions About Managed IT Service Providers

“I like to do it myself”, says a traditional businessperson. Do you think the same way? If not, you have progressed into a modern approach. Businesses have transformed processes and they no longer survive alone. They require assistance to stabilize their operations and multiply results. One such aid is – IT Managed Services. Many turn to the Managed Service Providers (MSPs) for maintaining a 24x7 monitoring of servers and managing a constant network uptime. However, some still fear the negative consequences of hiring MSPs’ services.  

Let us clarify the details:

The costs of hiring an MSP will surpass that of hiring an internal IT resource:

Yes. The initial cost is quite a bit. However, there are packages you can choose from. On the other hand, having an internal resource would cost you salary plus overhead expenses (insurance, taxes, vacation, sick days, etc.)

Internal IT person is not required:

Hiring an MSP doesn’t mean that you will have to fire your internal IT resource. For trivial or day-to-day matters, your internal resource is quickly reachable. Outsourcing operational support to a Managed IT Service Provider assists internal IT departments to fill the gaps in their day-to-day responsibilities.

Outsourcing IT is a preferable option only for large corporations:

This stereotype has existed until recently. Now, businesses of all sizes are able to outsource their IT functions. Small and medium sized businesses also have started utilizing the managed services as they can save time for other important things.

They will not understand our business:

There is an ever-existing fear. Will they take it very lightly? Managed Service Providers are third parties who are responsible for a consistently managed IT functioning at your office and managing it rightly. Many organizations just cannot trust anyone when it comes to operating a part of their responsibilities. Managed Service Providers are experts in doing their job and in some cases better trained than your existing internal IT resource. So, you can trust them and their job.

All of the IT jobs have to be outsourced:

Just because you have decided to outsource, it doesn’t imply that you have to hand-over 100% of the IT services to the MSPs. Businesses can choose to have the MSPs work on a customized service sheet highlighting on specific business areas. 

IT Managed Service Providers are a group of well trained, experienced and professional IT resources who dedicatedly serve customers manage their IT infrastructure. Net Activity, Inc. is one such provider of IT support services in Ohio. Their monitoring solutions at a fixed price take the worry and anxiety out of knowing that your systems are up and running. If you wish to try their result-oriented services, please contact http://www.netactivity.us/contact.html Harry Bhatia at 2165035150 X 206 or read the details by visiting IT Managed Services.

Source: http://www.netactivity.us/blog/5-false-impressions-about-managed-it-service-providers/

How Empowering the IT Help Desks Will Help Your Business

IT help desks occupy an important position of your business, especially the software companies. They chair representatives who directly communicate with the customers and have a huge responsibility. It is important to have an automated process in place for enhancing the efficiency of the help desk staff. Empower your help desk professionals with access to real-time data to deliver hassle-free internal support.

When you empower the IT service department, you are progressively preparing for a massive clientele. A help desk can help your customers and helps to ensure that your company satisfies their requirements.             

Here are a few ways to enhance the power of your IT help desk:

Define your objectives clearly – Set pre-defined goals and explain them to your IT service employees so that they understand and implement them well. For example, delivering resolutions in customers’ first call would help building repute in the industry.

Equip the latest technology – You can expect the systems up & running only when you care for them. Likewise, you can expect the IT services to function uninterruptedly when you equip them with the latest technological set-up.

Create a catalogue of services online –Make your service catalogue available online so that customers can easily access the necessary details at their convenience without having to make calls. This will also save time for your resources at the help desk in attending to the most basic questions.

Train your executives – Properly trained help desk executives deliver satisfactory service with fewer escalations. Training also boosts their morale and encourages them to deliver quality at its best.

Collect open-ended feedback – It is essential to gather feedback from the users and customers. This would assist you in improving performance of your team. Also, do not forget to share the feedback with the individuals, as they will learn from the negatives and feel motivated from the positives.

Implement a justifiable rewards & recognition plan – Employees always appreciate rewards. Reward the help desk officials and executives when they achieve a target and they will go out of the boundaries to serve you better.

Software companies in Cleveland are struggling to win a tough competition and one of the best ways to be among the best is to have a professional and properly functioning IT help desk, where most companies lack. Customers appreciate if the business people listen to them and answer them quickly.

Net Activity, Inc. has comprehensive support plans that include a 24x7 server monitoring and help desk service. You can gather details from Mr. Harry Bhatia at 2165035150 X 206 or visit http://www.netactivity.us/contact.html for a quick view. We will be happy to help you.

Source: http://www.netactivity.us/blog/how-empowering-the-it-help-desks-will-help-your-business/

Don’t Overlook This - Tips to Secure Your Cloud Data

Cloud-based security is here to stay. Be it Google Drive and Dropbox are some of the most comfortable and convenient data repositories for saving your data online, allowing you easy access at any place or time where internet is available. Although the convenience seems tempting, one must look into the security concerns while moving personal and confidential data over the cloud platform.

Rule No. 1: Backup Data Locally
It is a good practice to create electronic copies of your data so that you will be able to access it wherever you are without losing the original data. It also helps in case you lose the original data or it is corrupted. It is as simple as setting up an account in the cloud and remembering the credentials.
Another option is to have a manual backup of your precious data in an external storage device, which helps you when there is no or slow internet accessibility.

Rule No. 2: Avoid Storing Sensitive Information
As everyone is aware of the discrepancies of the internet privacy and the vulnerability internet security is exposed to, it is wise to avoid your highly confidential moving up to the cloud. Mainly, it is advisable to avoid putting up documents containing passwords for any of your accounts. This way you can stay confident about keeping the files that you need to access frequently.

Rule No. 3: Use Cloud Services that Encrypt Your Data
Look for cloud service providers that safeguard your privacy by offering local encryption for your data, which provides an additional layer of security. This method will also protect your data against the service providers and administrators. It would be even better if the cloud service also guarantees encryption during the uploading and downloading phases. The additional step of encrypting and decrypting your data may take a little while longer to sync and access your files, but it is worth it.

Rule No. 4: Encrypt Data Before Moving it to the Cloud
Encrypting data here means you would be able to apply passwords and generate secret key sequences to your files before you upload them to the cloud server. If your provider does not use data encryption, you can prefer to use a cloud protection app, which will solve your purpose.

Rule No. 5: Apply Two-Step Verification
As the first line of protection, you can maintain a strong password (as suggested by the internet) for all your online accounts. Also, instead of relying on a strong password created by you years ago, try to change them frequently and not repeat it across the many online accounts on your name.

Your data is really precious and you cannot afford to allow it to be leaked. While moving to the cloud, it is necessary to follow the above tips so that your data remains safe. You also need to hire the services of a cloud service provider who has a relevant experience and good customer reviews. Net Activity, Inc. can be of great help as they have been in this business since 2002. They are a team of professionals who are proficient, trained, experienced and friendly. If you wish to know more about the services offered, contact Harry Bhatia at 2165035150 X 206 or visit

Source: http://www.netactivity.us/blog/dont-overlook-this-tips-to-secure-your-cloud-data/

Tips to Choose a VoIP Service Provider That Does IT Right

In the recent times, VoIP service providers have crowded the market and made it difficult for businesses to choose the one that would actually do what they commit to. You may have made the toughest of your decisions while moving to VoIP services from the traditional phone set up and you would definitely not expect your business to face down times due to a poor telephone network.

Promoting managed IT services that save money and provide greater functionality, is like marketing of any other service, which means that the providers must take into consideration the time-honored factors of price, promotion & distribution. With all the sophistication in their pitching styles, it is possible for you to get trapped in a non-rewarding deal. So, we have stated a few points that to help you select a reliable VoIP service provider in Ohio.

Ask to explain things & talk out of the acronyms – The telephone technology is full of acronyms. They may be comfortable using terms like VoIP and PBX but you, as they may overwhelm a customer /the SMB owner. In a confused state, you may not even understand what they are trying to explain and consequently you may miss important details of the technology you will be using thereafter.

Demand a complete solution – Do not forget that you are on the demanding side. Understand the details of how the VoIP services offered by the provider will influence their businesses. Look at what’s unique in his offerings. Also, study their previous works and customer feedback so that you get a brief about past experiences of businesses like you with the service provider.

Plan & implement wisely – Ask the provider to spend a weekend at your business set up (pre-installation planning) to understand how the present system works and where is the need to rebuild things. A good installation plan will make the configuration easy for you. It really makes a difference.

Safety must be the first commitment – A recent study revealed that about 40% of the VoIP users did not have specific plans to secure their VoIP deployments. The end-points of your VoIP systems are vulnerable to attacks right from their operating systems to internet protocols and management interfaces of VoIP phones. It sounds scary; it also means that there is a lucrative chance for those who sell VoIP security services. Check if your VoIP provider includes a security plan in his package to cut down on the cost of hiring another provider selling security services.

Training as a part of service – Plug n play does not imply installing software and leaving the rest. The automation also requires users to be trained to know how the new software will help them reduce efforts. It is a bad idea to leave users baffled on a completely new set up of devices. Ensure that your VoIP provider will train you on using the VoIP systems.

Well, if you are convinced that these tips will help you build a better VoIP network that never fails, you may consider another advice from us. Contact Net Activity, Inc. for any assistance related to VoIP services.Net Activity has been in the business since 2002. The business caters to the IT industry by providing Hosted, IP based and On Premise Phone Systems. You can visit http://www.netactivity.us/contact.html  for fairly priced quotations of VoIP services or contact Harry Bhatia at 2165035150 X 206. We welcome your suggestions too.

Source: http://www.netactivity.us/blog/tips-to-choose-a-voip-service-provider-that-does-it-right/