Outsourcing IT is something most Calgary organizations can benefit from. Finding and hiring internal IT personnel can be extremely difficult; it is a competitive field with rising salaries and high turnover. According to Canada’s labour statistics, there are more than 77,000 unfilled positions in the ICT sector. That forces the cost of labour higher, and competing for the best talent becomes a costly and time-consuming endeavour. Supporting your existing IT department or outsourcing IT completely can remove the burden of attracting, paying, and retaining top talent. The cost savings from outsourcing IT is one of the biggest reasons organizations consider it in the first place.
What Is IT Outsourcing?
IT outsourcing allows an organization to benefit from the depth of expertise and established team of a managed services provider (MSP) without the cost of hiring an entire department. Partnering with a Calgary MSP gives your organization the opportunity to focus on building relationships with clients, developing business goals, and growth planning – all without worrying about monitoring your network, installing patches to software, or making sure servers are up and running. Outsourcing IT by partnering with a managed services partner is a proactive method of protecting your organization, your network, and your data.
Outsourced IT partners aren’t just break/fix technicians who respond to an emergency phone call when something goes wrong; instead, a managed services partner is working to ensure that nothing does go wrong by proactively managing your network. Break/fix technicians are not motivated to keep things up and running – they are paid by the hour, so every hour of repair labour is profit. MSPs work on a flat rate, so the better they are at keeping your systems up and running, the more cost effective it is for them to provide services; it’s in their benefit and yours that they work to keep systems up rather than react to problems after the fact. It’s a proven method for efficiency, business continuity, and better uptime.
How Does Outsourcing IT Work?
When you partner with a managed services provider to outsource your IT, the MSP gets to know your organization and its goals. In most cases, it begins with a business assessment. During the assessment, the MSP will evaluate your IT infrastructure to make sure it can meet the demands of your organization, identifying weak areas and security risks while prioritizing service needs. The right MSP brings a level of expertise and specialized knowledge about your industry to the table and build a relationship with you. The goal of outsourcing IT is to ensure you not only have better uptime and reliability with your clients and customers but that you have a partner in developing a comprehensive IT strategy that aligns with your organization’s goals, growth, and compliance requirements.
Why Outsourcing IT Services Saves Money and Time
Outsourcing IT saves your organization money and time. Because organizations pay a scalable flat rate, it makes IT costs a predictable – and therefore plannable – expense as you build your strategy to achieve your business goals. When you aren’t forced to invest unexpectedly in new equipment or repairs to existing equipment, because you have a partner handling all of it, your organization’s budget can be better targeted toward growth, marketing, client support, and sales – knowing the technology and security you need to stay operational will be there for you to rely on.
How to Manage IT Outsourcing
Managing your IT outsourcing shouldn’t feel like work. It should feel like you’re building a relationship with a company dedicated to understanding your needs, with the expertise to help you apply the right solutions to help you meet your goals. At The ITeam, we pride ourselves on our dedication to delivering comprehensive IT support that moves your business forward. We do this through our commitment to these core values:
- Service – We provide an exceptional client experience from start to finish
- Accountability – We do what we say we are going to do
- Teamwork – We are here for each other and for our clients
- Passion – We bring intense enthusiasm to the delivery of excellence
- Integrity – We are committed to doing the right thing
- Growth – We believe in the continual development of our people
- IT Outsourcing for Small Businesses in Calgary
Most organizations are operating on tighter budgets than ever and investing in in-house teams reduces the budget available for other areas. Outsourcing IT is a smart and strategic move for any Calgary organization.
Benefits of Outsourcing IT for Calgary Organizations
There are several benefits to organizations that outsource IT.
Reduce Costs
When you outsource to an organization whose sole business is managing IT, infrastructure, and cybersecurity, you get the benefit of their expertise. It’s more than just the flat rate cost; it’s the peace of mind of knowing you have the best people working to help keep your data safe – people who have their fingers on the pulse of the industry, hear about threats before anyone else, and respond swiftly to take action.
Enhanced Security
The level of threat against organizations of all size in all industries is growing at a rapid rate. It’s no longer enough to implement a firewall and virus program and call it a day. External – and internal – threats require a proactive, layered, and comprehensive approach.
Experts at the Ready
You get an entire team of dedicated specialists helping to ensure your network security, but as valuable is the access you have to a virtual CIO. Most companies can’t afford a full IT department, let alone a C-level officer. But part of your outsourced managed IT is access to your own dedicated virtual CIO who collaborates with you to align your IT strategy with your goals.
Scalability
Outsourcing your IT allows you to scale your services so that you can be more agile and responsive to the needs of your business and your clients. Whether you experience rapid growth or the occasional downturn, you can adjust your outsourced IT to adapt.
Local, Secure Cloud
One of the benefits of outsourcing IT is gaining access to secure hosting and colocation services. Our servers are right here in Calgary, so you know your data is safe, accessible, and secure. Managed hosting offers continuous and uninterrupted access for the end-user, optimizing content delivery eliminates downtime.
Need more information? We’re ready to help.
The ITeam is Calgary’s leading source for outsourced Managed IT support and cloud services. We have been both recognized among the world’s 501 most strategic and innovative managed service providers (MSPs) by Channel Futures and named one of the CDN Top 100 Solution Providers by Computer Dealer News (CDN). Additionally, The ITeam was recognized as a 2020 SMB Global Hot 100.
Contact us now without delay for a complimentary business assessment from one of our IT support professionals. Call (403) 750-2540 or email sales@theiteam.ca today.
Managed IT Services for Midsize Calgary Businesses
/in Managed IT /by James WagnerAs Goldilocks discovered, some things can be too big and some can be too small, but it’s worth finding your “just right.”
The ITeam, like Goldilocks, has a “just right.” While we provide managed IT support to a variety of industries in Calgary, growing and bigger midsize Calgary businesses – with 20 – 600 staff – are most perfectly suited to the managed services we offer and where we’re able to bring the full force of our expertise, technical prowess, and depth of service commitment.
Surely Size Doesn’t Matter?
When it comes to providing 24/7 IT support, the size of the business does matter. It impacts how those services are provided and to what level the partnership can flourish. As businesses grow, their needs change from basic tech support to more in-depth consulting, larger projects, and rounding out their own in-house IT to fill in skill gaps. There are other Managed IT Service companies, like Transpera, that do a great job of meeting the needs of smaller businesses in the early stages of their growth (5-20 staff), while The ITeam is well positioned to meet the managed IT support needs of larger growth companies that do not have in-house IT (20-50 staff) as well as more established businesses that need to complement their in-house resources (50-600 staff).
Why Managed IT?
When you’re in that growth stage where you’re big enough to need to think about things like compliance and data security but not big enough to have your own in-house IT staff, a managed services provider is the ideal bridge. Even if you are big enough or profitable enough to house an internal IT team, many businesses of this size don’t want to because it takes a large investment to maintain a successful internal team. Outsourcing managed services in Calgary is often a cost effective, smart solution that lets your business focus on growth and relationship building while having the benefit of a full IT department at your fingertips.
The list of reasons why people choose managed IT services includes:
What Does a Managed Services Provider Do for a Bigger Business?
There is no industry or organization that doesn’t need to think about data security, compliance, cyberthreats, and all the other risk factors facing your business. However, if you spend your time thinking about those things it takes away from your ability to focus on core business operations. While a managed services provider offers managed IT support in the form of cybersecurity, data security, offsite replication, backup and recovery, and so much more, what they’re really offering your business is the ability to focus on core business functions while having the peace of mind that all that other stuff – the stuff that puts 60% of SMEs out of business when it fails – is being taken care of.
Bigger Midsize Calgary Businesses Are at a Crossroads
The “just right” experience that bigger midsize Calgary businesses get with The ITeam happen because most businesses of this size are in a growth cycle or have outgrown the services provided when they were smaller. This crossroads compels business leaders to decide: Do I hire an internal IT team and CIO, or do I outsource? It’s a critical question to answer, because as your business grows, you do need the insight and expertise of a larger IT support team, and you will benefit from the guidance of a C-level IT leader to help ensure that your IT strategy is capable of supporting your business strategy both now and in the future. The mistake some businesses make is in thinking that it’s always best to manage the need internally, when in fact, it’s often far more cost-effective to partner with a Calgary MSP that can offer both the scalable support your growing business needs and provides the virtual CIO guidance that ensures your strategy hits the mark.
What Is a Virtual CIO?
A virtual CIO is a C-level leader who is deeply knowledgeable about your organization, its goals, and its IT infrastructure who helps provide the insight you need to keep growing – without the $150,000-$200,000 annual salary price tag. When you consider all that goes into attracting, retaining, and replacing high-value talent like a CIO, getting access to a vCIO as part of your managed services solution can seem like an extraordinarily strategic move. When it comes to choosing managed IT support in Calgary, finding an MSP that offers a vCIO is one of the differentiators by which you can measure the value of the provider.
We’re Just Right for Many Calgary Businesses
If you are a growing business in Calgary and need a managed services partner to grow with you that is just right, we invite you to schedule time for a business assessment. Discover how we can measurably impact your IT cost while delivering peace of mind. Schedule your business assessment today.
Why Outsourcing IT in Calgary Makes Sense
/in Managed IT /by James WagnerOutsourcing IT is something most Calgary organizations can benefit from. Finding and hiring internal IT personnel can be extremely difficult; it is a competitive field with rising salaries and high turnover. According to Canada’s labour statistics, there are more than 77,000 unfilled positions in the ICT sector. That forces the cost of labour higher, and competing for the best talent becomes a costly and time-consuming endeavour. Supporting your existing IT department or outsourcing IT completely can remove the burden of attracting, paying, and retaining top talent. The cost savings from outsourcing IT is one of the biggest reasons organizations consider it in the first place.
What Is IT Outsourcing?
IT outsourcing allows an organization to benefit from the depth of expertise and established team of a managed services provider (MSP) without the cost of hiring an entire department. Partnering with a Calgary MSP gives your organization the opportunity to focus on building relationships with clients, developing business goals, and growth planning – all without worrying about monitoring your network, installing patches to software, or making sure servers are up and running. Outsourcing IT by partnering with a managed services partner is a proactive method of protecting your organization, your network, and your data.
Outsourced IT partners aren’t just break/fix technicians who respond to an emergency phone call when something goes wrong; instead, a managed services partner is working to ensure that nothing does go wrong by proactively managing your network. Break/fix technicians are not motivated to keep things up and running – they are paid by the hour, so every hour of repair labour is profit. MSPs work on a flat rate, so the better they are at keeping your systems up and running, the more cost effective it is for them to provide services; it’s in their benefit and yours that they work to keep systems up rather than react to problems after the fact. It’s a proven method for efficiency, business continuity, and better uptime.
How Does Outsourcing IT Work?
When you partner with a managed services provider to outsource your IT, the MSP gets to know your organization and its goals. In most cases, it begins with a business assessment. During the assessment, the MSP will evaluate your IT infrastructure to make sure it can meet the demands of your organization, identifying weak areas and security risks while prioritizing service needs. The right MSP brings a level of expertise and specialized knowledge about your industry to the table and build a relationship with you. The goal of outsourcing IT is to ensure you not only have better uptime and reliability with your clients and customers but that you have a partner in developing a comprehensive IT strategy that aligns with your organization’s goals, growth, and compliance requirements.
Why Outsourcing IT Services Saves Money and Time
Outsourcing IT saves your organization money and time. Because organizations pay a scalable flat rate, it makes IT costs a predictable – and therefore plannable – expense as you build your strategy to achieve your business goals. When you aren’t forced to invest unexpectedly in new equipment or repairs to existing equipment, because you have a partner handling all of it, your organization’s budget can be better targeted toward growth, marketing, client support, and sales – knowing the technology and security you need to stay operational will be there for you to rely on.
How to Manage IT Outsourcing
Managing your IT outsourcing shouldn’t feel like work. It should feel like you’re building a relationship with a company dedicated to understanding your needs, with the expertise to help you apply the right solutions to help you meet your goals. At The ITeam, we pride ourselves on our dedication to delivering comprehensive IT support that moves your business forward. We do this through our commitment to these core values:
Most organizations are operating on tighter budgets than ever and investing in in-house teams reduces the budget available for other areas. Outsourcing IT is a smart and strategic move for any Calgary organization.
Benefits of Outsourcing IT for Calgary Organizations
There are several benefits to organizations that outsource IT.
Reduce Costs
When you outsource to an organization whose sole business is managing IT, infrastructure, and cybersecurity, you get the benefit of their expertise. It’s more than just the flat rate cost; it’s the peace of mind of knowing you have the best people working to help keep your data safe – people who have their fingers on the pulse of the industry, hear about threats before anyone else, and respond swiftly to take action.
Enhanced Security
The level of threat against organizations of all size in all industries is growing at a rapid rate. It’s no longer enough to implement a firewall and virus program and call it a day. External – and internal – threats require a proactive, layered, and comprehensive approach.
Experts at the Ready
You get an entire team of dedicated specialists helping to ensure your network security, but as valuable is the access you have to a virtual CIO. Most companies can’t afford a full IT department, let alone a C-level officer. But part of your outsourced managed IT is access to your own dedicated virtual CIO who collaborates with you to align your IT strategy with your goals.
Scalability
Outsourcing your IT allows you to scale your services so that you can be more agile and responsive to the needs of your business and your clients. Whether you experience rapid growth or the occasional downturn, you can adjust your outsourced IT to adapt.
Local, Secure Cloud
One of the benefits of outsourcing IT is gaining access to secure hosting and colocation services. Our servers are right here in Calgary, so you know your data is safe, accessible, and secure. Managed hosting offers continuous and uninterrupted access for the end-user, optimizing content delivery eliminates downtime.
Need more information? We’re ready to help.
The ITeam is Calgary’s leading source for outsourced Managed IT support and cloud services. We have been both recognized among the world’s 501 most strategic and innovative managed service providers (MSPs) by Channel Futures and named one of the CDN Top 100 Solution Providers by Computer Dealer News (CDN). Additionally, The ITeam was recognized as a 2020 SMB Global Hot 100.
Contact us now without delay for a complimentary business assessment from one of our IT support professionals. Call (403) 750-2540 or email sales@theiteam.ca today.
Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 End of Life
/in Asset Management, Business Continuity, Managed IT /by James WagnerMicrosoft has reminded users that Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 will no longer be supported after October 10, 2023. SQL Server 2012 also reached its end of support July 12, 2022. There are significant security risks that come with continuing to use server software that has reached end of life.
What Does End of Life Mean?
When Microsoft schedules software for end of support, it means they will no longer provide technical support for the product. It also means they will no longer issue security updates, regular software updates, or patches. When organizations continue to use these products after their lifecycle has ended, they put their entire network at risk. Cybercriminals take advantage of these weak points to infiltrate the network.
Microsoft is urging users to migrate their applications and workloads to Azure to continue to operate securely. According to Microsoft, “Azure SQL Managed Instance is fully managed and always updated (PaaS).” Microsoft is also encouraging organizations who require on-premises upgrades to move to Windows Server 2022 and SQL Server 2019.
Migration to Azure
Current users of Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 are urged to make the migration to Azure or Windows Server 2022 as soon as possible to ensure adequate security, including receiving regular security updates to help protect their networks from malicious attacks. It is already well past the time that users still employing SQL Server 2012 should be taking steps to upgrade to SQL Server 2019. SQL Server 2012 lost mainstream support from Microsoft in July 2022. Any organization still relying on the platform will not only encounter operational difficulties but are exposing their networks to security risks, as there is no support or patching available.
Act Now to Protect Your Organization from Windows 2012 Security Risks
If you are a current Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2 user, or if you are still employing Server SQL 2012, and you don’t already have an upgrade plan in place, please contact your Client IT Manager or Account Manager to discuss the transition so that there is no lapse in your security coverage. Here at The ITeam, we understand that replacing hardware and software can be a daunting task, so if you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to reach out to your ITeam Account or Client IT Manager to discuss your options. We are here to help make this as seamless and budget friendly as possible! Get in touch today.
Does My Calgary Company Need Managed IT Services?
/in Managed IT /by James WagnerDo you question whether or not your Calgary company needs managed IT services? Some business leaders resist partnering with an MSP. Some leaders think that their companies are too small to need IT support. Others think that their respective industries are not at risk compared to others. But cyberthreats are growing, and no industry or organization is immune from attack.
The Argument for Managed IT
Technology equals productivity. Companies that can effectively leverage technology have a competitive advantage. However, that advantage can quickly be obliterated if operations are forced to shut down over a successful ransomware attack or other security compromise. And it can be the end of the organization if there is a successful data breach (60% of businesses fail within 6 months of a data breach).
What Industries Need Managed IT?
It would be easier to explain which industries don’t need IT. Every industry reaches their customers online, whether through a website, by email, on SMS, or through online ordering and ecommerce. If your organization uses technology to contact customers, sell to customers, collect data, or operate your business, you need IT.
Why Healthcare and Dental Industries Need Managed IT
Health and dental industries are obligated to meet the highest compliance requirements regarding patient data security. They also use unique scheduling and record management software. Without a managed IT partner, organizations in this industry could easily lose thousands of dollars in efficiency and clinic billing hours addressing security and infrastructure needs – needs better left to experts who can keep your clinic up and running.
Why the Construction Industry Relies on a Managed IT Partner
Construction is big business in Calgary, from commercial construction to residential design build projects. With workers spread across multiple work sites, the only way to be productive and cost-effective is to have the ability to access communications, construction software, and client data away from the office. However, without the right security protecting your construction company, you could end up with more than one project being shut down over a data breach or interruption in service. A managed IT partner helps ensure that you are protected wherever you’re working – in the office or on the work site.
How Oil & Gas Companies Rely on Managed IT for Better Security
With utilities of all kinds becoming a more common target from hackers, there is a great deal of peace of mind offered to oil and gas companies with managed IT. But it’s more than peace of mind on the line – it’s uptime, which is essential to the industry, as well as operational efficiency.
Law Firms and Attorneys Need Managed IT
A law firm is only as successful as the billable hours they have available. Wasting those hours troubleshooting technology or tracking down cyber threats takes away from the business. And any whisper of a threat to data can destroy client confidence in a law firm. The investment a law firm makes in a managed IT partner is an indicator to their clients that they take their privacy seriously. A managed IT partner helps law firms remain efficient and productive while helping improve uptime and availability.
Do Accounting Firms Need a Managed IT Partner?
An accounting firm that has a data breach disclosing client financial information could find themselves out of business very quickly. The type of information handled by accounting firms demands diligence in providing security and protection. But like attorneys, accounting professionals are most successful when they can spend most of their time working for their clients – not on installing patches or updating server software.
A Business Is Never Too Small for Managed IT
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are a growing target for cyberattacks. From 2020 to 2021, cyberattacks on SMEs increased more than 150%, according to RiskRecon and according to KPMG’s 2022 CEO Outlook, there was an 11% increase (to 73%) in concern over cyberattacks. Furthermore, only 56% of Canadian CEOs feel prepared for a cyberattack, down 17% since 2021. Because small- and medium-sized enterprises do not have the budget to have a full IT department on staff (and keeping it staffed is another costly challenge), partnering with an MSP can not only address the concerns business leaders have about cyber threats but reduce the overall risk they face.
Everyone Benefits from Managed IT
When it comes down to it, unless an organization’s main line of business is managing IT, partnering with a company whose sole purpose it really is to manage IT is more cost-effective and provides the organization with deeper levels of expertise and access to more technology than they could manage on their own.
For more than 25 years, The ITeam has been Calgary’s number-one choice in Managed IT partners. We offer fixed-rate services with a depth of expertise that can’t be easily matched. Our proactive approach to IT strategy and our ability to offer industry-specific customized solutions allows us to help keep the organizations with whom we work steps ahead of cybercriminals.
If you’re interested in learning more, request a business assessment today.
Learn more about the industries we serve:
Construction
Healthcare
Oil & Gas
Legal
Accounting
SME
How to Fight Phishing this Cyber Security Awareness Month
/in Cybersecurity /by Iteam SupportIn partnership with Get Cyber Safe The ITeam is focusing on how to fight phishing.
October is Cyber Security Awareness Month (Cyber Month) in Canada, and we at The ITeam are proud to be working with Get Cyber Safe as champions to help Canadians stay safe online.
We know that phishing is one of the most common cyber threats affecting Canadians. Knowing how to spot a phishing message can be difficult if you aren’t sure what signs to look for. After all, cyber criminals are skilled at tricking their victims into giving up sensitive information.
That’s why the best way to fight phishing is to arm yourself with knowledge. Understanding phishing and the signs to look for will help you to protect your personal data from would-be cyber criminals.
Here are a few ways you can protect yourself from phishing scams:
Learn how to recognize the different forms of phishing
Most people are familiar with phishing emails or messages. But there are other types of phishing scams that are worth knowing about:
Smishing is a phishing attempt through SMS (text message).
Spear phishing is a hyper-targeted phishing attempt. In spear phishing scams, a message is designed to sound like it’s coming from a source you know personally.
Whaling is a phishing attempt aimed at a high-profile target. For example, they might target senior executives or other high-ranking officials in an organization or government department.
Spoofing involves creating a fake website to get someone to share their personal information.
Get familiar with the signs of a phishing message
The best ways to protect yourself against phishing are knowing how to recognize the signs and being cautious any time you receive a suspicious message. Some visual signs to watch out for include:
Typos
Including incorrect sender email addresses, links that don’t go to official websites and spelling or grammar errors beyond the occasional typo.
Unprofessional design
Such as incorrect or blurry logos, image-only emails and emails with poor formatting.
Suspicious attachments
Like receiving attachments that you didn’t ask for, weird file names and uncommon file types (like an .exe).
Other phishing signs may take more time to identify, because they aren’t always obvious, which include:
Urgent or threatening language
Real emergencies don’t happen over email. Cyber criminals will often pressure you to respond quickly by using threatening language. For example, they might tell you that they’re going to close your account or take legal action against you.
Requests for sensitive information
Most legitimate organizations like the government or your bank, would never ask you for personal information over email or text message. Be suspicious of links directing you to login pages and requests to update your account or financial information.
Anything too good to be true
Winning a contest is unlikely but winning a contest that you didn’t enter is impossible. Cyber criminals may send you suspicious offers, like winnings from giveaways you never entered or prizes you must pay to receive.
Putting it all together
While there isn’t a foolproof way to spot every phishing attempt, knowing the different types of phishing scams that exist and the most common signs to look for can help fight phishing and protect yourself from falling victim to an attack. Trust your instincts. If something seems too good to be true or if it feels suspicious, it probably is. Remember: it’s always safer to delete a message than to act on it.
To learn more about phishing and other cyber threats, check out GetCyberSafe.ca.
If you have any questions or concerns about cybersecurity, get in touch.