Easy Solutions for Common IT Problems of SMBS in Tampa

According to the US Small Business Administration (SBA), big businesses have eliminated 4 million jobs while small businesses have provided 8 million jobs since 1990. Quite evidently, small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) are the backbone of the US economy, accounting for 54 percent of the entire sales. Their presence is especially crucial in growing cities, such as Tampa, which require a solid financial foundation to become a promising business hub in future. Shouldering this critical role is not easy. That is one of the reasons why small businesses should always be ready with adequate IT solutions. Tampa and other US cities have growing SMBs, and it’s imperative that they have a reliable Managed Service Provider (MSP) support at the helm.

Here are the five common IT problems faced by SMBs in Tampa, along with the best possible solutions:

Data Storage

Most SMBs in Tampa lose a lot of time and resources in physically storing sensitive data and business information. Cloud storage is the optimal solution to encounter this issue.  MSPs can expertly initiate and manage the data storage process in popular file hosting service providers such OneDrive or Dropbox.

Social Media Analytics

More than the Google result pages, SMBs have a higher chance to engage their potential customers through social media. Along with a thorough use of Google Analytics, Tampa-based MSPs use innovative tools, such as Crazy Egg and Gecko Board, in order to find the exact areas where visitors are taking most interest.

Mobile Security

As SMBs have started relying a lot on smartphones, mobile security has become a big concern due to high incidents of stolen or lost devices. MSPs make sure that data-sensitive mobile devices are secured with data wiping or encryption. They can also enable the mobile users to wipe or lock the information from a remote location.

Web Conferencing

Conducting meetings with offshore clients over the phone is not a cost-effective scenario for many growing SMBs. MSPs can install and monitor the highly favored web teleconferencing solutions, such as Adobe Connect and Fuze Meeting Pro, and help small businesses stay in touch with customers on a daily basis without burning a hole in their pockets.

As SMBs have started flourishing in Tampa, reliable MSPs have also made their presence known and they are ready to provide any required support. If you are a small business looking for IT solutions, Tampa is an ideal location to help you get rid of the problems. Just research well, choose your preferred MSP, and let the experts handle your IT processes.

Three Best Practices for Successful Mobile Application Development

Be it listening to some latest music on the go or performing crucial tasks related to your business, we use a number of mobile apps in our personal and professional lives. These applications are extremely interactive and you can access them through internet-enabled mobile devices. If you are a developer, you may have your own methods of developing apps. However, if you want to research more on mobile application development, Tampa-based IT firms have something to enrich your knowledge. These companies adhere to some of the best practices pertaining to usability, competitor research, methodology, and performance. Here are the best practices they generally follow to build dynamic mobile apps for customers.

1. A Cloud-based Platform

There are benefits of building mobile applications for individual platforms in their native language, and by using software development kit (SDK). However, developing apps on a mobile backend as a service (MBaaS) platforms will help you build dynamic apps on various platforms such as Android, iOS and Windows. If you have time and cost constraints, a cloud-based mobile app builder is the perfect solution for you. You can also use the right project management, testing, reporting and tracking tools to develop mobile apps.

2. Competitor Study

Mobile app developers must learn from their competitors. You can test your competitor’s apps and research on various apps available on app stores. Make a note of the benefits and the drawbacks of these apps. It will help you develop some really usable and functional applications.

3. User Centric Approach

Even some of the best applications will fail to please customers if they are not user-friendly. Therefore, develop apps that have intuitive design and score high in terms of usability. You can build user-friendly mobile apps by focusing more on the graphical user interface (GUI) of individual platforms. Usability is the key to the success of mobile app development as well as to improving the acceptance rates.

When it comes to application development, Tampa based businesses have the knowledge and the expertise to build user-friendly mobile apps. You want to develop apps that have higher acceptance rates. Therefore, take note of the best practices and implement them. 

Benefits of Managed Services for the Health Care Sector

According to the global market research and consulting firm, MarketsandMarkets, managed IT services will be a $50.83 billion market by 2019. This rapid growth can be attributed to the many benefits it carries for different types and sizes of businesses. Managed services are designed to take the burden of maintaining IT infrastructure from the organization and place it in the hands of a team of qualified professionals. This outsourcing gives entrepreneurs peace of mind that their computer systems and Internet networks are operating without any hitch, and employees are doing their jobs without interruption. The struggling healthcare sector of the US, which is burdened with mounting costs, can particularly benefit from this service model. A number of healthcare providers across Florida are keen to leverage managed services. In Tampa there are thousands of companies in the healthcare space that are offering an array of hosted solutions. Here are two ways their solutions can benefit your medical business: 

Mitigates Security Threats; Improves Patient Care

With the nation’s healthcare facilities powered by electronic health record (EHR) systems, protection of patient information has become a top concern for hospitals and medical practitioners. Poorly managed networks are highly vulnerable to sophisticated security threats, putting highly confidential patient data at stake. Under the terms of managed services, security patches are regularly updated to minimize the security threats and keep patient information safe. 

 

Then, connectivity issues prevent hospital staff from conveniently accessing patient files at the time of medical emergencies. Managed service providers (MSP) make sure that the network is up and running, so that both hospital staff and doctors can access data round-the-clock for quick decision making. 

Keep Operational Costs in Line

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 40 percent of resources spent on healthcare are wasted mainly because hospitals use antiquated processes and systems. Investing in managed services can cut back on their long-term costs. Outsourcing IT management tasks will help hospitals save a lot of money in four ways:

·         They will no longer have to employ an in-house IT team.

·         With a technology partner handling all their hardware, software and internet issues, hospital staff can better focus on their core jobs. This will help increase employee productivity.

·         It will cut down capital expenditure relating to procuring, maintaining and upgrading of hardware and cable systems.

·         Quick diagnosis and troubleshooting will improve network availability and scalability. This, in turn, will help reduce operational expenses.

Between mounting healthcare costs and a rapidly aging population, managed services are what can make a difference. Healthcare providers across the US are embracing managed services. In Tampa, too, hospitals are switching to these cutting edge solutions. If you have business in this industry, select your managed service partner today, streamline your systems and improve patient care.

Power Your E-Commerce Site With PHP

Be it electronics, office supply, handicrafts, pet food or any odd product, online stores let you reach out to a global clientele, reduce costs and increase your profitability. PHP web development services have revolutionized ecommerce by helping expand the functionalities of the web-stores and improving their look and feel. No wonder, more than 35 percent of web traffic originates from PHP websites and thousands of successful stores leverage PHP’s open source shopping cart solutions to launch attractive websites. Tampa, the US’s tropical paradise and a budding technology hub, is riding the ecommerce wave big-time. If you are an entrepreneur looking to set up your online business, IT companies in Tampa can help you build your PHP-based web-store. Here are the several ways such a website can boost your business:

Access to Open Source Codes

The biggest benefit of using PHP is that you get all its excellent features absolutely free of cost. Under the General Public License (GPL), you don’t have to pay a penny to access the source codes of this web development platform.  Along with PHP, its associated software such as MySQL and Apache come free of cost too.  This significantly reduces the development cost.

Huge Community Support

This open source platform is supported by a very large developers’ community, whose members are dedicated to enhance the quality of coding. Whenever developers are in need of technical assistance, the community is right there to offer it. Not only developers, end users, too, benefit from this large network of developers. Online tutorials and instant help from community members help you troubleshoot the problem instantly and avoid disruption.

Ad Tracking

Launching an online store is not all; you have to market your products to your target audience as well. At the same time, you have to track the performance of your advertisements to calculate the returns on your marketing investments. Embedded with analytic software, PHP websites allow you to track your ads, keep a count of unique clicks, and measure conversions. In addition, they allow you to perform split tests to analyze the efficacy of various ads.

Payment Options

Secure and user-friendly payment system is the prerequisite for a successful online business. PHP-based websites allow you to offer your customers just that.  These user-friendly sites allow store owners to accept credit card payment via a secure merchant’s account or any other third party payment services. They also allow them to use other payment gateways such as PayPal and Authorize.net.

Product Management

PHP-based ecommerce sites not only provide support for numerous languages and currencies, they also let you easily collect sales taxes, launch promotional offers, and perform shipping calculations.

Supports Efficient Email Marketing

Emails are the pillars of your marketing strategy. Unlimited, sequential, auto-responders that come as default feature with PHP websites enable you to run multiple email campaigns simultaneously. In addition to sending mass mails to customers and prospects, these features allow let you send personalized mails to select customer groups. In addition, they allow for the integration of third-party auto-responder service, which can improve e-mail deliverability rates and can automate the entire campaign.

Supports Any Size and Type of Store

Whether you intend to build a giant store or a small ecommerce site, you can create your storefront in a jiffy and in a limited budget with PHP-based platform.

 

Scalable and Future-Proof

With more and more shoppers accessing online shopping sites from their mobile devices, it is important for business owners to create responsive sites that perform impeccably across the devices. In addition to allowing you to create responsive ecommerce sites, PHP also allows you to expand your site’s features to support your growing business. Its rich plethora of libraries and extensions make this possible.

With deep knowledge of the changing technology landscape, IT companies in Tampa can enable their clients to build PHP-based responsive web-stores tailor-made just for their businesses. Select a trusted name in the industry and take your business to the next level.

Dot Net Powering Rapid Application Development Across Tampa

When it comes to building robust applications rapidly, worldwide developers rely on the Dot NET Framework.  Microsoft Dot NET is not just another software solution, it’s a comprehensive package which contains necessary class libraries – collection of coded templates – that helps to improve the interoperability of disparate systems and platforms, subsequently speeding up the development process. When it comes to custom application development, Tampa-based IT companies are extensively leveraging this robust framework to create solutions for hundreds of organizations. Below are the many benefits of this Microsoft-based application development framework:

Speed: In today’s competitive business landscape, time is money and Dot NET allows for efficient utilization of time by facilitating rapid development of robust web applications.

Broad-spectrum: The platform supports the creation of a broad range of business applications including customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management, accounting and XML web services applications.

Ease of Deployment: With its simplified deployment model, this flexible architecture allows companies to streamline their software infrastructure, subsequently helping reduce costs and complexity of maintaining their software assets.

Interoperability: Thanks to its cross-platform compatibility, Dot NET solutions easily interoperate with existing applications. This allows the companies to better leverage their existing software assets while adding new software services to improve productivity and team-efficiency.

Scalability: For a growing company, it is important to have computer applications capable of handling increasing amount of work to accommodate the organizational growth. Applications premised on Dot NET framework can process a huge amount of data without compromising quality and security.

If you are planning to invest in custom application development, Tampa-based developers can create robust Dot NET products from ground up.  However, be sure to work with a trusted name that has proven expertise in project management processes and work methodologies, because reliability is the key to any smooth operation.

Three Enterprise Application Development Trends To Watch Out For

Enterprise application development plays a pivotal role in your business. You need an IT partner that understands the way you work. To gain a competitive edge, work with a firm that employs the best programming practices, coding guidelines, standards and structured framework programming techniques. No matter whether you are developing a simple website or an advanced application, you need unique design and an easy to understand user interface. However, before looking for professional IT companies in Tampa to meet your development needs, it’s important to learn about some application development trends. Here are three of them:

1. More Use of Development Tools

The process of web application development is complex and it has evolved considerably over the years. This implies that developers are required to improve their skill sets even more with changing business needs. Consequently, there will be an increased use of development tools. With more use of these tools, you will get applications that only enhance your development team’s productivity, but also their skill sets.

 

2. Omni-Channel User Experience

One of the major trends that you should watch out for is ubiquitous user experience across different channels such as desktops, smart phones, tablets and self-service platforms.  Whether you need an application for business-critical tasks or want to stay updated with the news updates on the go, the need for a pleasing user experience will grow in the years to come.

3. Increasing Demand for Web and Integration Services

Versatile applications should be able to communicate and work seamlessly with other web applications. That’s why there has been a speedy development of application programming interfaces (APIs). Your business will need integration services if you decide to shift some of your processes to the cloud or want to work with legacy systems. Therefore, focus on integration when developing new applications for your business. This way, the software can be incorporated with accessible systems through an API. Web services will help in improving the value of both old and new systems.

Though this is not an all-encompassing list, keeping these trends in mind will help you provide some direction to the IT companies in Tampa that you decide to work with. The bottom-line is to get user-friendly applications for your changing business needs. 

Why Baas Is A Great Option For Small Businesses In Tampa?

Data backup is an essential component in all organizations, especially in a fast-developing city such as Tampa. While big brands reap its maximum benefits, small businesses have constantly shied away from it, considering it is costly and cumbersome. Luckily for small businesses, Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) is now available as part of managed services in Tampa at highly affordable rates. This is the perfect time to ditch the internal backup system and opt for cloud-based backup solutions, while being safely monitored by managed service providers (MSPs).

Before you start looking for a Tampa-based MSP for your small business backup needs, it’s smart to understand the different BaaS models available in the market.

Distinct solutions for distinct needs

MSPs offer BaaS solutions based on the environment, management styles and service-level agreement (SLA) of small businesses. Let’s look at the three primary BaaS models:

Public cloud BaaS: This is the most cost-effective backup solution, where MSPs use third-party cloud platforms such as Microsoft and Google or use their own cloud platforms. They store and manage the required data on a multi-tenant cloud. Being public, there are a few security concerns, too.

Private cloud BaaS: This cloud solution is for customers who are extremely conscious about data safety. The single-tenant cloud provides optimum privacy and security. On the flipside, this solution can be quite hefty for small businesses with limited budget.

Hybrid cloud BaaS: As the name suggests, this cloud solution has the best features of both public and private cloud BaaS. While security is tighter than public cloud, it is more flexible and customizable in comparison to private solutions.

What do you gain?

BaaS is the best remedy to overcome downtime and disasters, as data is safely stored in the cloud and not in an internal system. Furthermore, providers of managed services in Tampa offer BaaS solutions to lower management complexity and make small businesses adjust to changes more swiftly. Therefore, this is the right time for you to hire a Tampa-based MSP and invest in BaaS solutions for greater agility.