Remote Management Before we start, we?d be remiss if we didn?t remind you why managed IT services are superior to the break/fix method. All technology will fail, it?s inevitable, but with managed IT services, that hardware is constantly monitored, managed, and maintained so that small issues–that typically would be cause for concern–don?t turn into costly problems for your business. The more time and effort taken to ensure that your business? technology is running properly, the longer that technology will last. All the problems that are circumvented through remote monitoring and management will pay for a managed services agreement, and then some.  Failing Technology and Resulting Downtime Since your technology is monitored carefully, if a piece of hardware is going to fail, our knowledgeable technicians will know before it does, allowing you to replace the technology before it starts to have a negative effect on your business? operations. Under the break/fix method, once the technology breaks, that?s it. You?ll either have to get the technology fixed or purchase new technology. The same is true under a managed services agreement, but the big differentiator is that you won?t be dealing with downtime. Downtime is the most expensive part of failing technology. Sure, a server can cost up to $10,000, but if it breaks it?s going to take a long time to get a new one up and working. Think about how much revenue would be lost paying for your staff?s salaries, and all of your other business expenses, without the benefit of the revenue streams that make your business run. How long could you last like that, realistically?  Onsite Managed Services Since most of a managed IT services company?s value is keeping your technology up and running, we try not to spend a lot of time supporting your IT onsite. The simple reason is that if we can complete a lion?s share of your IT support and services remotely, it cuts down on each of our costs. That being said, however, if you need to deploy new technology, you need someone to organize your networking, or any other technology initiative you roll out, a managed services provider will be there in person to complete any assigned work.  If your technology breaks, your managed IT service provider will actively try to remedy the situation quickly to keep downtime to an absolute minimum. These technicians are professionally trained and provide all the benefits of a break/fix vendor as a part of a monthly flat-rate agreement. After all, their job is to support your business? technology.  Not All Managed IT Vendors Are the Same Since managed IT services are very common, especially for small and medium-sized companies, you then have to make a determination of which one to use. Often times, managed service providers (MSPs) will claim to be the answer for your technology cost overruns only to take advantage of the compromised position a company?s IT is in to make a quick buck.  At White Mountain IT Services, however, we understand that ours is an extremely competitive market, and take pride in bringing the value of comprehensive outsourced IT services to New Hampshire businesses. If you have any questions about how our brand of managed IT services is not only better than break/fix, but also better than our competitors, call one of our knowledgeable IT consultants today at […]

How is VoIP Different than the Normal Telephone Service? To the casual onlooker, there isn?t really any difference between VoIP and traditional telephony? the phone rings, you answer it, and you have a conversation with whoever is on the other end. However, when you?re the one using it (or at least paying for its use), VoIP offers a few advantages that set it high above the traditional approach, in addition to the aforementioned cost savings. Like the cost savings, most of these advantages can be attributed to how Voice over Internet Protocol data is delivered: over the Internet. This method allows for other useful capabilities. It is important to mention that many of these capabilities are available through a traditional phone solution, but there are those that are only possible with VoIP, and all of them will cost extra. Standard VoIP solutions usually include these same capabilities, making a traditional telephone service the more expensive (and less impressive) alternative. Here are just a few such capabilities that VoIP offers: Call Forwarding/Mobile Applications You never want to miss a business call if it can be helped, which is why VoIP?s ability to integrate with your mobile device or even an existing landline is so useful. If a call goes unanswered in the office, other numbers for that contact can be tried. Most VoIP solutions offer mobile applications that also allow calls to be answered from the mobile device in question. As a result, you and your staff are capable of maintaining communication from anywhere that there?s Wi-Fi available or that a mobile signal can be established. This means that your employees who travel for work can remain in the loop, and your productivity is that much less reliant on your team being in the office. Call Recording We?ve all been an important phone call where a key piece of information has been shared, only to later realize we can?t remember specifically what was said. VoIP solutions help to resolve this by offering the option to record a conversation, allowing you to return to different spots for reference. As an added benefit, you can also use these recordings as training materials, demonstrating practical examples of certain kinds of calls. Collaboration On a related note, VoIP can be extremely useful as a conferencing tool, as long as your team can handle it. With most of your VoIP options conference-bridging, more of your staff can participate in the dialogue. To learn more about VoIP and the other benefits it offers, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.

Control Access, Based on Role Let me ask you a question: how many people outside of your accounting department need to see the business? financials? Outside of the people involved in managing payroll, who needs to see how much each of your employees are making? There is a lot of potentially sensitive information floating around your business, and without the right solutions in place to protect it, anyone in your business could potentially access it. Role-based access management solutions can do a lot to help fix this problem. These solutions simplify the process by assigning permissions to roles, rather than individuals, so all a manager needs to do to remove a user?s permissions is to remove them from a certain role. As a result, it is easier to grant and rescind permissions as necessary without worrying about missing one in the process. The Principle of Least Privilege While we?re discussing role-based access control permissions, we should touch on the concepts behind the principle of least privilege. Consider a high-ranking member of one of your departments (we?ll call it department A). It stands to reason that the manager of department A should be able to access all of department A?s resources and data. However, the manager of department A probably has no need for the resources and data that department B or C have. Likewise, the managers of B and C each have complete access to the data they utilize but should not have this access to data controlled by other departments. Access control simply creates a relatively simple system of enforcing this kind of specified access. Multifactor for Multi-Layers of Protection While, on paper, passwords should be the apex of security measures, they have proven countless times to be less than adequate for security. The reason for this is twofold: first, the technology available to crack passwords is advanced enough to do so much faster, and second, users aren?t creating them to the standard that ?the apex of security measures? should be held to. Chances are the second reason is the one that will give you more trouble. When you consider that the launch code for the entirety of the United States? nuclear arsenal was simply ?00000000? for almost two decades, how likely does it seem that one of your employees has become lax in their passwords? This is why it makes sense to protect your resources by requiring multiple factors of authentication. Typically, to log into a system and access its data, you need to provide your identity via a username, and verify that identity through an agreed-upon form of authentication – traditionally, the password. However, if that password is easily guessed or cracked, that alone isn?t technically enough to fully verify that a user is who they say they are. That?s why multifactor was developed. It takes one factor – the password – and requires another in addition to it to fully confirm an identity. Preferably, this additional factor wouldn?t be another password – it may be biometrics, or a physical security key, or a code that is generated on demand. You have a lot of power when it comes to controlling your company?s data, so you need to find a balance between access and restriction that both protects this data and allows your business to leverage it […]

1) Screen Locking with Unlocking Authentication The first step is to accept the auto-login dilemma for what it is. Even otherwise secure business apps that you may be working with have sacrificed a crucial element of security for easy accessibility: the auto-login. Auto-logins leave a device user logged in at all times, allowing anyone with physical access to the phone to also access files and features that should be secure. Even apps with timed-out logins are insecure if they also helpfully ‘remember’ passwords so that login requires only a single tap. The answer? Take timed-out authentication into your own hands by ensuring all your company-provided phones lock the users out without another round of personal authentication. The good news is that modern phones make this quick, easy, and secure with options like retinal and fingerprint scans or visual passwords like drawing a quick line-picture that only your employee knows about. 2) Anti-Malware Software Next, you’ll want to address the fact that malware is everywhere. And no matter how much you emphasize safe phone practices, someone will accidentally visit a dangerous website or download an infected file on the company phone and contract a virus. The best thing you can do is detect this as quickly as possible by installing anti-malware on the company phones by default. Ideally, the solution you find will not only detect and alert the user of the malware but will take care of the cleanup on its own. 3) Clear Rules for Employee Device Usage Speaking of safe phone practices, employee training is another method to keep the company phones secure. For anyone who receives a company phone, be very very clear about what they are and are not authorized to do with the phone. The less ‘gray area’ you leave, the less likely that more than one or two people will overstep the bounds and look at risky websites on their work phone. Everyone with a strong sense of employee responsibility will do their best to adhere to the rules, reducing the chance that malware will find a foothold in their web browsing or email answering practices. 4) Device Location Tracking Another fact to accept early is that phones get accidentally left behind, lost, and stolen all the time. Because this is a company phone that employees can choose to leave behind when they are on personal business, you are (most likely) ethically clear to install a device location tracking program onto each company phone. In most cases, you will not need this feature or have any need to access it. However, if an employee reports their phone missing or stolen, you will be able to come to the rescue by quickly locating it through the phone’s own connection to the cell network or even a nearby wifi network. 5) Remote ‘Kill Switch’ Program And in the event that one of the company phones is actually stolen, be sure to have a kill-switch program installed. This allows you to wipe all proprietary data and company apps from the phone (in fact, it will probably wipe everything). A kill switch is your best bet for ensuring that stealing the phone and somehow spoofing or getting around your authentication measures does not expose the data you’ve worked so hard to secure. Employees should be aware of both […]

This is a big part of why we call ourselves a managed service provider, actually. How We Are Able to Track So Much One of the biggest parts of managed services is our practice of monitoring our clients? IT solutions in order to catch inconsistencies and threats. In order to do so, we utilize a collection of advanced tools and specialized software that allows us to comprehensively track and analyze all of your technology. These tools and software give us a look under the hood, so to speak, allowing us to record data and create our own historical record to reference. As a result, we wind up producing a truly staggering amount of documentation on your business? technology: Each and every device you have, from your network infrastructure to every company-owned endpoint and peripheral that attaches to it. The proper configuration for each of these devices. The date that each of these devices was installed. The licenses that your business needs to maintain, and the status of the ones you have. A comprehensive history of all service that each of these devices have received. This documentation allows us to better diagnose and resolve issues with your IT – usually preemptively – resulting in fewer interruptions and issues to keep you from accomplishing what your business is supposed to be accomplishing. Interested in finding out more? This entire process usually starts with a simple network audit, just to reveal where the business currently stands. Let us perform one for you. Reach out today to schedule yours by calling us at (603) 889-0800!