Does Your Small Business Need IT Support
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Are you a small business owner that needs technology to automate most of the monotonous tasks? If so, you should think about having a remote IT Support team to help you achieve the daily tasks at a cheaper rate whilst focusing on your core business needs. IT support services differ from one business to another. If you are considering outsourcing your IT support team, here are some considerations to help you make a wise choice
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Understand your Business Type
It is quite crucial to understand the type of your business and your key customers because the Level of IT Support depends on this. If you are an online business and all you require is a functioning website, then the support level you require is low. You need someone to manage your website and help you carry out the SEO tasks. That is all you need and require.
However, if you are running a company that is physical or a brick mortar model then you need a greater level of IT Support. You need PC set up for all your employees, possibly a server, multiple backup drives, remote desktop set up. After the initial set up, you need ongoing tech support to maintain the performance of the devices, to solve the recurring issues when using peripheral devices or emails or even virus and cyber-security problems.
Different Type of IT Support services that are available
If you have at least $85,000 to spare for your small business, then you can hire a full-time In-House IT Staff. This kind of investment is quite big for a small business owner. It would be much lesser cost to outsource your IT needs. There are many managed service provider companies that offer IT support to multiple businesses and organisations. You can opt for a monthly subscription service or pay for what you use. Providers like Computit, offers 24/7 support, help desk, onsite and remote support.
Additionally, there are some sites that can help you get started on IT support. For starters, Udemy is a great place as it has many courses to help you understand about IT in a business environment.
To Conclude, as a small business it is best to outsource your IT needs to an MSP company and let them help you. Computit, is now offering free IT assessment for your business and will assist you in choosing the right plan. If you have any further inquiries, please call or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Outsourcing IT can Double your Business Profits.
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Outsourcing IT work has become a common practice for enterprises all around the world. Around 69% of them are outsourcing to reduce the costs whilst the rest of them are doing to create an avenue for business transformation. If you are a new business owner or an established company currently contemplating to outsource a chuck of your business especially the IT department, you can be assured to squeeze some profits with us.
The Benefits of Outsourcing IT:
1. Pay for only what you need
Outsourcing your IT gives you flexibility to use the services only when you need them. Or that is how our company roll. We want you to avoid unnecessary costs by providing immediate support and resolving the issues in minutes. We provide 24/7 IT support with proactive monitoring.
2. Exposure to great expertise
Our friendly staff are highly experienced in providing onsite IT support and remote IT support. We handle various types of clients including manufacturing, hospitals, deliveries, architects, lawyers and much more.
3. Focus on your business goals
If IT is not your core business then outsourcing them is the wisest idea, so that you can focus on growing your business. This means your company can focus on growth and becoming an expert in the field whilst we take care of the rest.
If you need further information on how we can help you directly, please give us a call or send us an email on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Our friendly staff are always keen to help.
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Coronavirus and the benefits of a remote adaptable workplace
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Currently workplaces are struggling to perform business as usual due to the Coronavirus outbreak. As of now, Over 3000 people died, more than 109,935 cases confirmed and 60,703 recovered (Worldometer, 2020). According to the Guardian “Coronovirus is having devastating impacts on the global economy, stopping travel, slowing manufacturing in China and hitting the stock market hard”. So how can we save our businesses from huge losses during this pandemic?
Many international companies and tech giants are implementing remote working options for their employees due to increase in health concerns. In fact, the majority of these companies are seeing little to no disruption with business as usual. However, small to medium businesses are really feeling the heat, finding it hard to continue with their more traditional office hours of 9 to 5. As the virus continues to spread and affect more countries, it's critical for more if not all businesses to adapt to a more remote friendly workplace.
Benefits of a mobile friendly workplace
The key benefits of having a remote workplace for employers and employees:
Employees:
• Better flexibility
• Less commute which means less environmental impact,
• better work-life balance,
• Saves time,
• increased productivity,
Employers:
• Increased productivity,
• Less spending on different types of equipments
• Employer retention,
• Spend more on business infrastructure than office space
How can a business step into a remote adaptable workplace?
The first step you must take as a business is to call your IT company about setting up a remote desktop workplace for your employees. If you are not satisfied, then call us for a quality service and a cheaper rate to implement it for you. Also, start working on productivity applications and time management systems to track your employees' progress. Some apps that you can use for productivity are ToDoist, Calendar, Slack, Trello and Hootsuite. In this way, we can tackle the current inefficient workplace model that will soon be immensely affected by the pandemic.
Conclusion
Well, not all companies can be fit into remote working model. However, if you are a company that predominantly does all the work on the internet then it’s time for you to implement it. If you are confused about how to do this, we will help you. Free Assesment / Quote call us today.
References
Guardian, March 2020. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/audio/2020/mar/09/will-the-coronavirus-trigger-a-recession
Worldometers, March 2020. Retrieved from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
3 Apps to Make your life easier in 2020
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As a Managed Service Provider company that develops custom software solutions for our customers, we love innovations that directly improves people’s lifestyle. Our three favorite apps for this year are:
1. Uber Eats
Uber Eats is not just an online food ordering app anymore. It can also bring your everyday grocery at your doorstep. Yes, you heard me right, you can order grocery from your favourite store using Uber Eats. Currently it is under testing phase, but soon it will be available to all of us.
2. Google Translate
It can get frustrating sometimes when someone tries to explain something in a foreign language in a foreign country. The Google translate app claims to have around 109 languages that allows instant translation. There is also speech translation in 40 languages. Its like your own private translator everywhere you go.
3. Microsoft To Do
It gets confusing when there is so many to-do list apps on the market, especially when you really need one. Having used many apps, Microsoft To Do seems to top them all. Their cloud syncing feature across all platforms – Windows, Android, iOS, Mac and web is quite amazing. This app allows you to organize all your lists in one place making it easy to get things done. In this app you can create tasks and share and invite people to edit the list. Also, it allows you to change the outlook of the app to your favourite theme colour. Why wait now, download this app to be on top of all things.
If you love these apps and want something like this as a custom solution for your company, call us straight away.
Onsite IT support services are often considered as too expensive and not quite efficient when compared to remote IT services. The usual rumors are:
1. “It is way too expensive –it costs more money than outsourcing IT support.”
2. “Less productivity – Having someone on-board all the time even when there is no technical IT work, is loss of productivity.”
3. “Not so effective – just because they are in-house doesn’t mean they know all about IT. “
Well, you might agree with these statements, but let’s not jump into any conclusions without understanding the key features of Onsite IT support services and how it is provided in these current days.
Onsite means ‘service at your doorstep’. Although remote IT service is a great choice for some businesses, onsite support also plays a vital role. In fact, receiving both onsite and offsite services would be better than having just either of them. Having someone remain on your site for a temporary basis ensures that they will take care of your essential IT issues, especially for organisations that heavily rely on specialized equipment. Saying all this, what exactly are the key benefits of onsite services
1. Not all problems can be fixed remotely:
Agree or not, let’s be honest there is a limit to fixing systems remotely especially when there are hardware issues involved.
Imagine fixing the water line of your house without any contact, you might call that a bit foolish. This is the similar case when you try to fix a hardware issue remotely. It simply doesn’t work like that. Having an IT service provider that can send someone onsite quickly or having an in-house technician can help resolve such issues swiftly without any further delays. Thus, saving your time and money.
Also, having an onsite support can lead to more accurate diagnosis which you may think it is unrelated but could be the actual source of the problem.
So, when you choose your IT provider ensure that they provide onsite IT support when required. At least you will have a peace of mind that when your hardware is broken, someone is on the way to fix the issue.
2. Easier to ask for IT help:
Let’s face it, it is a bit embarrassing to call the remote IT helpdesk for all your small enquiries. I’m pretty sure you might have hoped to see a friendly face rather than talk to total stranger on the other end of the line and trying hard to explain what’s wrong with your PC and resolving the issue.
How much easier is it for you to call your IT service provider that provides onsite support or your in-house technician. You will be more proactively seeking help and having most of your IT issues resolved before it reaches its saturation point.
3. Greater Flexibility
Nowdays most of the services are designed to suit customer’s need and they provide great flexibility. The two things you must look into before choosing an Onsite IT service provider are:
1. Pay as you go – only pay for the technician’s contact hours.
2. Temporary contracts – when you need an IT technician just for a short period of time. Maybe to cover up for an employee during their holidays or for a major system tranformation or to fix a hardcore technical issue. Look up for providers that offer such flexibilities
4. Faster and reliable service
Onsite services are ideal for scheduled maintenance and emergency support. It ensures that you’re problem is solved quickly with high impact.
5. Pay as you go service
Most of the Onsite IT Providers offers pay as go service. Which means you only pay for the service that has been provided to you. How good is that? No more montly shocks for underutilised service.
We are pleased to announce that Computit is now QAssure certified and GITC accredited company.
Holding QAssure and GITC accreditations makes us eligible for government buyers who are searching for accredited suppliers.
QAssure accreditation is for ICT suppliers to be considered for Queensland Government work managed by CCIQ – Queensland’s peak business body – and the Queensland Government.
GITC accreditation is an agreement by suppliers to use the GITC Framework terms and conditions managed by the Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation
Both GITC and QAssure accreditations are not given without considerable checks and balances. Only ICT suppliers that are credible and fit for purpose are accredited. We are selected as one of the best ICT suppliers in Queensland.
Verification of valid GITC accreditation for Computit Pty Ltd can be viewed on the QAssure website at www.qassure.com.au
Computit is a sound ICT business and qualified goods and services provider. You can have confidence in our quality and services without any second thought. To learn more about our services contact us on 07 3871 1222 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Gone were the days when to start-up anything new was similar to gambling, either you win or lose because, of lack of enough information and not able to predict what will be the possible outcome. But, now-a-days we are living in the era of technology; everyone tries to gather as much as possible information on Internet and that comes from websites and web pages. If a business is not having a website it cannot dream of flying high as it is invisible on web. Websites have a huge impact on the sales of a business. Here are some reasons why having a good website is mandatory:
Visual Presentation: We easily remember what we see. 90% of human brain power to understand things depends on what is visible to eyes. A website with good design caught the attention of customers.
Fly High & Always Available: Business cards can be seen by people only whom you give it to or people who pick it up from your business. Whereas, a website can be accessed anywhere on the planet 24/7 with an internet connection.
Easily Updated: Information on a business card cannot be updated until it is not printed again and it is limited to its size too. On the other hand a website is not limited to size and the information can be edited, any time.
Customer relations: On a website customers can give feedback on your products. Customer support can be provided through website, it strengthens the seller-customer relationship. This is an excellent way to have better understanding of the customer’s needs and to access what areas need to be improved.
This sounds like the title of a children’s book, but unfortunately the issue highlighted in the press this week is more concerning than a story. The pre-loading of the SuperFish software on the Lenovo machines introduced a vulnerability to users even before they unboxed their new laptop.
There are several issues with the pre-installed application, one is that it is an ad-injector which inserts adverts into your browser based on what you are searching for, and without being an expert at identifying these you might be directed to sites to purchase things without understanding why.
To do this more effectively, Superfish also installs a root certificate which allows them to see traffic on encrypted websites, like your banking website, that you might have considered private and secure.
This is a bit like me giving out the keys to your house and could be abused by other malicious people and used to capture passwords and other personal information.
AVG detects and removes the Superfish add-on. If you have attempted to download something it was bundled with then AVG would have detected and blocked it advising the user it was an ‘unwanted application’ and potentially harmful.
This means no part of it was ever installed – good for existing AVG users, but what about if you have purchased a Lenovo and then installed an anti-virus product, the risk here is that full removal of some parts are difficult to remove as they are embedded into the system.
This week Lenovo has been re-active to this anddeveloped a removal tool which you can download here. There are also manual instructions available should you want to do this yourself.
There is a much wider issue for consumers though, it’s becoming very difficult to know which products and manufacturers to trust and who is doing what with our data.
There are discussions in the tech industry on improving transparency so that consumers can once again have confidence in brands.
I believe that over the next few months we will see progress in a more coordinated effort by the security industry to protect users from these types of applications.
If you are at all concerned then be sure to run a full system scan from you Anti-Virus product and ensure that the updates have been run. If you’re running an expired product then either renew it or download the AVG AntiVirus Free solution here.
Android phones can be tracked without using their GPS or wi-fi data by studying their power use over time, a study has found.
A smartphone uses more power the further away it is from a cellular base and the more obstacles are in its way as it reaches for a signal.
Additional power use by other activities could be factored out with algorithms, the researchers found.
They created an app designed to collect data about power consumption.
"The malicious app has neither permission to access the GPS nor other location providers (eg cellular or wi-fi network)," the team - Yan Michalevsky, Dan Boneh and Aaron Schulman, from the computer science department at Stanford University, along with Gabi Nakibly, from Rafael Ltd - wrote in their paper.
"We only assume permission for network connectivity and access to the power data.
"These are very common permissions for an application, and are unlikely to raise suspicion on the part of the victim."
There are 179 apps currently available on Android app store Google Play that request this information, the team add.
Activity such as listening to music, activating maps, taking voice calls or using social media all drain the battery but this can be discounted due to "machine learning", the report says.
"Intuitively the reason why all this noise does not mislead our algorithms is that the noise is not correlated with the phone's location," it says.
"Therefore a sufficiently long power measurement (several minutes) enables the learning algorithm to 'see' through the noise."
The tests were carried out on phones using the 3G network but did not measure signal strength as that data is protected by the device.
'Stuffed with sensors'
"With mobile devices now becoming ubiquitous, it is troubling that we are seeing so many ways in which they can be used to track us," said cyber-security expert Prof Alan Woodward, from Surrey University.
"I think people sometimes forget that smartphones are stuffed full of sensors from gyroscopes and GPS to the more obvious microphones and cameras.
"This latest work shows that even that basic characteristics (power consumption) has the potential to invade privacy if monitored in the right way," he added.
"We are approaching the point where the only safe way to use your phone is to pull the battery out - and not all phones let you do that."
Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31587621
In AVG’s latest “App Performance Report” for Q4, we’re looking again at the anonymous data from over one million AVG users, compare it to our first report, and reveal what apps are the most resource-hungry on their phones.
When looking at one million of our users, we found many interesting trends that might just surprise you:
Spotify is now the No 2 resource consuming app overall
Out of our total user base, 638,716 users had the music streaming service Spotify installed: what they perhaps didn’t know is that Spotify is now the second most resource-consuming app in the store (up from rank 5 in Q3).
If you’re low on battery, space or data, keep that streaming to a minimum!
The changing gaming landscape
In our previous report, uber-popular FarmVille and Puzzle & Dragons topped the charts for the most resource-hungry games for Android. However, they were nowhere to be found in our Q4 roundup. A closer look shows Puzzle & Dragons and FarmVille suffered from a 50% and 43% decline respectively in installed user base in Q4 when compared to the beginning of the year (Q1/Q2).
New games such as Boom Beach and Deer Hunter 2014, however, appeared out of nowhere and secured the top spots in both usage and resource usage (not surprisingly, they’re games after all!).
Samsung’s New Updates
After the rollout of Android 4.4.2 (October 2014), we noticed a new entry in our top battery drainers that run immediately at start up. Samsung’s Security Policy Update service, officially named Samsung KNOX™, automatically checks for security updates and downloads these automatically. While Knox is a great addition to having a full-featured antivirus product installed, a number of users and even journalists have publicly complained about not just the amount of notifications shown but also a 30-40% drop in battery life.
As mentioned in this ZDNet article, this feature cannot be turned off as mentioned by the Samsung Technical Support: “To ensure that your device always has the latest security to protect you and your data, Samsung will occasionally send security updates to the device as needed. I’m sorry to inform you that there is no option to disable these updates”.
While we can’t stress enough that security on mobile device is critical, handset makers need to ensure their product does not reduce battery life or impact overall performance drastically.
Self(ie) awareness
Taking selfies was “the” cool thing to do in 2014: selfie sticks, selfie apps, selfie phones all flooded the market. Unfortunately, some of these apps can be quite draining on a device’s battery. A new app called Candy Camera – Selfie Selfies crept up to number 7 in the top battery hungry apps that run in the background. We suggest avoid apps like these as they only should drain battery when you’re actively running them!
Maps & Navigation
Did we spend more time navigating and looking at maps? With more time off over the festive period, both Waze (Social GPS Maps & Traffic) and also Google Maps climbed into the Top Usage Chart:
Less gaming, more talking
Another seasonal effect: compared to Q2 and Q3 of 2014, we spend much more time on social networks and communicating through messenger apps instead of gaming. While we still spend most 49% of our time gaming on our Android devices compared to 62% in the previous quarter, social and communication apps rose to 11% and 10.3% of our total usage (compared to 6% and 3% respectively before)
Again, find a full list and all the data in our app report here.
So what are you supposed to do if you’ve got one or even many of our resource drainers installed? Find out in our top tips in the next blog!
Source: http://now.avg.com/top-10-apps-that-ruin-your-smartphone-mojo/
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