If you’re a small to medium sized business currently looking for IT services in Miami, you’ve come to the right place!  Connections for Business has been providing IT services in Miami for the last 30+ years!

Give us a call today to learn more.  We’d be happy go over all the IT services in Miami we can offer your company and how we can start saving your business money.

In today’s economy, everyone is looking for ways to save money.  Especially in important areas, like IT, that
are generally a big high on the budget side.
Here at Connections for Business, we’ve been helping small to medium
sized companies like yours for the last 30 years save money and now we want to
help you!  Continue reading to learn 5 ways to save money using managed IT services.

In order for your business to successful operate, you need to be
dependent on the information in your network.
With things such as network failures and security breaches resulting in
costly shutdowns, the last thing you want is to be left behind.  We believe when you decide to work with us,
and allow us to take over your managed IT services, you’ll be extremely happy
with the end result.  We also believe
that when you work with us, you’ll find we can teach you at least 5 ways to
save money using managed IT services.

The following 5 ways to save money using managed IT services may not
sound like new information to you.  It could
also be that you’re thinking they’re all related.  Both are most likely true.  Understanding how they can help you save
money however, is a completely different story.

Top 5 Ways to Save Money Using Managed IT Services Provided by
Connections for Business:

1. Constant
   monitoring
2. Expert
   Installations
3. Combat
   Network Threats
4. Maximize
   Profitability
5. Ensure
   Technology Supports Business Processes

When you allow professionals, like Connections for Business, to handle
your installations (from hardware to software), we will work with you to make
sure your current technology supports business processes.  You’re also getting constant monitoring which
helps combat network threats and by minimizing network threats you’re helping to
maximize profitability!

What are you waiting for?  More
than the top 5 ways to save money using managed IT services?  Give us a call then! We’re more than happy to answer any question
you might have.

If you’re looking for cost effective, customized IT support services
for business lower costs, you’ve come to the right place.  For the last 30 years, we’ve been helping
small to medium sized businesses with all of their IT needs!  We pride ourselves on the fact that not only
do we deliver customer solutions designed specifically to meet the needs of our
clients, but we do so by providing IT support services for business lower
costs.

Not one single business is like the next.  Even if you’re running a company that’s
similar to another, we understand that each business has different IT
needs.  Our goal is to provide your
business with the absolute best individualized, long term IT business solutions
that will help your business reach it’s full success.  Therefore, we will work with you to customize
the best IT support services for business lower costs.

When it comes to technology and what your current needs are today
versus what your needs might be as soon as 6 months down the road, you need an
dependable IT solution you can count on.
We’re confident in our abilities to provide your company with all of
their IT needs.  And to do so in a way
that’s cost effective!  Imagine around
the clock support – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Our clients continue to work with us for two
main reasons: 1. Our technical expertise and 2. Our philosophy of going the extra mile to get the job done.

We can provide support for your entire infrastructure, from networks to
servers to databases to applications and work stations.  We focus on providing our clients with high
quality, timely IT support in the most efficient and cost effective manner as possible.

Call us today to learn more!
We’re happy to give you a complete rundown of the many services we offer
and how we can help your business today.

It’s 4:30 on Friday afternoon when you get the message that a key vendor will not be able to deliver what they promised on time, which will in turn cause YOU to miss a critical deadline for your most important client. Frustrated, you call the vendor, who instantly denies ever being told about the deadline. You know deadlines were discussed but can’t find it in your original written agreement. You then turn to your e-mail only to be forced to dig through hundreds of messages to try and find the e-mail where you conveyed the importance of this project being delivered on time, but you can’t find it because it was deleted.

Sound familiar? Or perhaps you’ve been in a similar situation where you’ve had to “dumpster dive” for old e-mail communications?  Think about it – almost all of your business communications and negotiations are performed via e-mail, making them important documents to keep for reference.  And since you send and receive hundreds if not thousands of e-mail messages annually, it just makes sense to have a simple and easy way to find old communication threads. But this isn’t just a convenience issue, it’s a legal one.

What Every Business Is Required By Law To Do

Some industries have strict federal guidelines on storing e-mail communications (financial institutions for example). But what most people don’t realize is that ALL businesses must comply with the Federal Regulations on Civil Procedures, or FRCP. In this instance, ignorance is far from bliss – it could put you and your organization in serious legal trouble.

The amendments, which went into effect on December 1, 2006, mandate that companies be prepared for “electronic discovery.”  Simply put, that means you must know where your data is and how to retrieve it. Failure to do so can lead to fines or loss of a lawsuit.

But I Have A Backup…That Means I’m Okay, Right?

Wrong! E-mail archiving is not the same as conventional e-mail backups. Backups only enable you to restore your e-mail servers to a previous point in time in the event of a disaster.  An e-mail archive (unlike a backup) is indexed and searchable, which means you can find e-mail communications based upon various criteria, such as date, subject, sender or receiver address, attached files, or any combination of the above.

Aside from the legal issues, e-mail archiving just makes sense. Murphy’s law dictates that you’ll need an e-mail the minute you permanently delete it; that’s why it’s smart to archive your inbox. Plus, it will make searching your inbox infinitely faster (not to mention easier) AND prevent your inbox from getting so overblown that it stops working due to file size limitations.

At the beginning of this year, we started to offer a complete email archiving solution to our ConnectCare clients. If you want to set up an e-mail archiving solution for your company, give us a call at 954-920-9604 or e-mail us and we’d be happy to help you!

I was at an attorney’s house the other day, helping him setup his home network to run his practice. He asked a simple question… do I need to bother with passwords at home? Seems like it’s just a pain. I asked him whether he let friends on his wireless network when they came over. His response of “Yes” was my answer back as well! Always protect your sensative data. Here’s my top 5 issues that I deal with all the time on client networks:

1. Weak Passwords. You know you need to have a stronger password, yet “password” is still the #1 password used by computer users. For maximum security, your password should contain numbers and letters, both upper and lowercase combined.
2. Lack of Education. Most viruses and spyware are invited by the user; therefore, if you want to make sure your employees don’t download viruses, take the time to educate them on what new viruses are circulating and about common scams.
3. Lack of Maintenance. No software is perfect, which means security loop holes will be exploited by hackers the minute they are discovered. That’s why it’s critical to keep your security patches up to date.
4. Plug and Surf. Computers are NOT designed “ready to go” out of the box. Before a phone line, ethernet cable or wireless card is anywhere near a new computer, certain security needs to be installed and/or configured. Ideally, this should include virus protection, multiple spyware scanners and a program that runs in the background to prevent malicious software from ever being installed.
5. Do It Yourself. Setting up a network, applying proper security measures and downloading and installing software can be tricky. Large companies have IT departments. Small business owners should also ask for advice or even hire help. It’s worth the extra cost.

I perform 3-4 network assessments each month, and I’m constantly amazed at the number of networks that are virtually unprotected! In almost every case, the owner thought they were protected… they thought their “IT guy” was taking care of things. If you’d like to have your network checked free of charge, let us know. We’d be happy to help!

Here is a short video recapping The Top 5 Mistakes.

I recently listened to an interview with David Avrin, author of the book, “It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Who Knows You.” His message is pretty simple but powerful: the more your marketplace KNOWS your brand, the more sales and profits you’ll generate. I highly recommend his book since it contains a lot of good, common sense strategies for small business owners. Here are a few of the tips from David that I wanted to pass on to you and my other readers:

You Can’t Control Your Brand:

You can only INFLUENCE it. I actually thought this insight was very powerful. If you think about it, your ‘brand’ is formulated in the mind of your customer. It’s the feeling they get when they think of your company, product or service; but since the CUSTOMER generates the feeling, only they get to decide what that association is. To that end, your brand is the sum total of everything you do. For example, you eat at a restaurant where the food is outstanding but the bathrooms are dirty, the waiter is rude and they get your drink order wrong…twice. Unfortunately, the food may not be enough to get you to come back again.

 An Important Question You Should Know The Answer To:

As business owners we spend YEARS perfecting our services, working on our operations and building our business – yet most of us only spend minutes thinking about what message we want to portray to the marketplace. During this interview, David posed the following idea: “What question do you want to be the answer to?” For us, it is “Who do I trust to take care of my computer network?” 

Marketing Is Not A Department:

Most people think marketing is just about web sites, brochures and postcards. Not so. Marketing should infiltrate every aspect of your business. To that end, make a list of every touch point you have with your customers and prospects and ask yourself, “Am I being INTENTIONAL about how we interact with our clients to make sure we are fulfilling our brand promise?” That would include often overlooked areas like how you answer the phone, or what you print on the invoices you send out.

 Being “Good” Is Not Good Enough…Anymore:

With SO many choices, being “good” at what you do is no longer an advantage in the marketplace – it’s the entry point to doing business. Think of how many “good” restaurants you go to, or how many “good” stores you frequent. Chances are they deliver a satisfactory product or service, but not one that blows you away. In order to truly win the hearts (and wallets!) of our clients, we have to work on being outstanding.

I love what our clients are saying about us… what do your clients think of you?

Admit it; you have some bad habits when it comes to maintaining the security and “health” of the high-tech tools you dearly depend on. Since it’s a fresh, new year, we thought it would be appropriate to point out the top 5 bad habits you should work on fixing this year.

1. Not backing up your data.  Funny how most people start their confession of not backing up their data with the words, “I know it’s bad, but…” If you know, then why are you still doing it? There’s absolutely no good reason to let this one continue. Call us and we’ll hook you up with a solid backup plan that will make sure you can be back up and running again FAST.
2. Relying on tape drives to backup your data. This is almost as bad as bad habit #1. Why? Because tape drives have an average failure rate of 100% – and that’s not a typo. It’s not a matter of “if” but “when” is your tape drive going to fail. Trash ’em and get a better system in place!
3. Using weak passwords. If you’ve ever used the word “password” as your password, we’re talking to you! A good password should contain a combination of numbers and upper and lower case letters.
4. Not installing the latest security patches and software updates. Once a new patch is released by a software vendor, it acts like a green light for hackers who instantly implement viruses and scams to take advantage of those individuals who don’t regularly update (patch) their system.
5. Printing and storing paper documents for everything. The cost of installing a document imaging (also called document management) solution has come down dramatically, and it is now easier than ever to implement. Plus you get the added benefits of saved storage space, saved time in searching for documents, instant access to any paper file via the Internet, fewer lost files, less chance of losing critical documents to fire, water, or wear and tear, AND a cost saving on paper and ink. With all these benefits, why on earth would you still stick to your Stone Age paper filing system?

Want help in breaking any of these bad habits? Call today for a no-obligation, no-pressure consultation on how we can help you break these bad high-tech habits for good! 

One of the New Year’s resolutions I often have is to get more organized and better manage my time. After all, who doesn’t want to get more done?  But a big mistake many people make is thinking ONLY in terms of “more” when it comes to getting things done. Why is this a mistake? Because chances are your plate is already full of to-do items; if you want to accomplish MORE, you’ll have to actually start thinking about what you are going to STOP doing in order to fit in the more important tasks that move you closer to your goals.

As we all know, only about 20% of the things you do deliver 80% of the results you want to achieve. Therefore, in order to “get more done,” you have to clearly identify what that 20% is and focus on doing more of those activities, and delegating or ignoring the 80% of time-wasting “stuff” we all get caught up in doing. What are some big time wasters?

•  Not having a plan for your day and reacting to whatever shows up.
• Constant texting or online surfing. For many, this is a huge addiction and distraction that can waste HOURS.
• Checking e-mail every 5 minutes.

 Last year, I turned off my email alerts in Outlook as I found each time I heard the chime, I was distracted and drawn into my email. Instead, I look at it three times a day. A friend also introduced me to a book by David Allen called Gettings Thing Done. In it he outlines a fantastic way to bring a basic structure to your ToDo list, allowing you to empty your mind of all the “things” you are worrying about and actually GET THEM DONE! I’m still working through the process, but for the short time I’ve been doing it, the results have been amazing.

To help you right now, one thing you can get off your plate is to stop worrying about your network. We’ve got an entire team of skilled and passionate people who will become your complete IT department, for an incredibly affordable cost. Frankly, you owe it to yourself to find out more about this service!

How Do Leaders Put Their Employees in Unnecessary Danger?

 Where were you during the Great Blizzard of 2010? Stuck in an airport? Trapped on mass transit? Holed up in your office? Or, were you like me, snickering in chilly South Florida. Either way, Business Leaders have much to learn from the Great Blizzard. Remember, Winter is long from over. I am blessed to have viewers from all over so, what about disasters that might strike your region?

In this episode, I take a look at some of the dangerous mistakes leaders made during this crisis and how you can learn from them to Prepare Prepare Prepare! I’ve also got a companion video below showing you some of the emergency items we keep on hand here at Connections. If you’ve got a suggestion for something I missed, please comment and let me know.

By the way, I’ve got a new Hi-Def camera so please crank up the definition to at least 720 in the lower right hand corner of the video when you start playing.

Emergency Kit Ideas

Part 1 of 2

Part 2 of 2

Look for more great info on preparation here http://www.ready.gov/

Get a detail on what’s in my Personal Survival Kit in the third video on this post

Get started on your Business Continuity Planning here

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