Does Your IT Partner Keep Up With the Latest Technology?
Those first few months with a new managed services provider can really be a thrill. They took a close look at your tech and made some significant changes. They showed you what you were doing right and wrong. Then they made some suggestions, asked you to loosen the purse strings, and, after a few investments, your tech was sleek and new. But too often, after your MSP gets your tech to a manageable level, the next step is … complacency. Sure, they monitor your networks and step in to fix what breaks, but you always stay in a low-trajectory, status quo mentality. “Good enough” seems just good enough, and the initial excitement and momentum are lost. Pretty soon, you are wondering where exactly your technology is going, and your IT partner seems to have put your business on the back burner, along with their other long-term clients. It just doesn’t seem as if you are keeping up with the latest technology.
At SBT Partners, we make it a point to never stay complacent. New technology is meant to be utilized. This isn’t about change for the sake of change or spending money that isn’t in the budget. It is an active plan to use the latest and best IT to your advantage, so your employees are using the best tools to get the job done, you find new and better ways to serve your customers, and your workplace stays modern and competitive in a tight market. Let us introduce the new tools we are using by the end of Q4 2020, what these exciting innovations mean for our clients, and, most importantly, it will illustrate how at SBT we follow our own advice and use technology to its fullest potential.
Our Q4 Internal Tools and Technology Upgrade
To optimize our ability to provide highly responsive and secure service deliverables, we are constantly evaluating technology and toolsets. Our longtime clients will be familiar with SolarWinds MSP, an application we use for remote access, monitoring, and patching. This technology has been improving, and, based on these changes and our security-first approach, we have upgraded three major tools:
Datto RMM – Our remote monitoring and management of laptops, desktops, and servers will all be accomplished through this application. On the client-side, Datto RMM will allow you to right-click an icon in the status tray, take easy screenshots of errors, and open tickets directly from the application. Datto RMM also serves as a dashboard, and you can see any open tickets and run on-demand functions from the open menu.
Auvik – This application allows us to monitor and manage network infrastructure, including firewalls, switches, routers, Wi-Fi, and SAN. It now features exciting new abilities that allow us to see real-time ISP usage, including past history. We will be alerted of high web traffic and have expanded capabilities to examine internet speeds and overall network performance. Best of all, we can use a real-time network map that gives us the ability to see and respond to network loops and other network-related issues faster.
Webroot – This is a massive upgrade to our antivirus and malware abilities. With Webroot, we can monitor more threats and provide more protections compared to our existing anti-virus protection.
These new tools will be available to all our existing clients by the time this blog is live. While our customers will see very few changes on their end, for SBT Partners, this new technology represents a significant step toward modernizing our cyber security offerings and maximizing our clients’ uptime. While these new technology advancements may seem like small improvements, they are a part of our promise to our clients to provide them with the best possible IT support.
The Modern Workplace, How SBT Partners Uses New Business Technology
One of the most important pieces of advice we give to our clients is to embrace change and new technology. Your business should never be complacent with “good enough,” because once your business takes this mentality, you are already slipping behind the competition.
Don’t let this happen; reach out to SBT Partners today. Our modern workplace assessment takes a close look at how your business uses technology. We weigh needs against performance, make improvements as necessary, and introduce an IT roadmap that is both flexible and intelligent.
