Why Businesses Need To Outsource Their IT Support

The small and medium businesses (SMB) are keen on finding IT solutions that are cost-effective and easy to use. With Tampa flourishing as the IT hub of Florida, SMBs are looking forward to reliable support services, including technical troubleshooting. There is little wonder that when it comes to IT support, Tampa is rising up to the challenge.

Small businesses are finding it extremely difficult and expensive to maintain their in-house IT needs and stay ahead of emerging technologies. Consequently, SMBs are realizing the need to contract out their IT support to cut back on infrastructure, training and costs. There are manifold benefits of IT support outsourcing. Here are 3 of them:

1. Make the Most Out of the In-house Staff

When you’re shifting the responsibility of managing your IT department to a third-party, your internal resources are freed to a considerable extent. Use them to realize your company’s goal and expand your business.

2. Reduced Cost of IT Staff

The average pay of an IT manager in Tampa is $108,152 per annum. Besides, there are other expenses such as related perks and benefits, cost of preliminary recruitment and training to make sure that your IT staff is skilled enough to work with the latest technologies. Lowering cost is the primary reason to switch to a third-party IT firm in Tampa.

3. Effective Data Management

Hiring a team of big data analysts to get actionable insights is a not a feasible option when you have budget constraints. Outsourcing the job gives you the same benefit, but at a much lower cost. You still have access to relevant resources and advanced technology to make the most out of your business data. This gives you a competitive advantage in the market.

When it comes to outsourcing IT support, Tampa provides loads of opportunities for SMBs to cut back costs, reduce risk and focus more on developing their businesses. Make the most of the situation and outsource your IT needs to the experts.

Protect Your Midsize Business with Powerful Network Monitoring Services

There is no denying the fact that it is the small and mid-sized businesses (SMB) that are spearheading the economy in the post-recession era. According to recent data released by the US government, over 60 percent of the private sector workforce in the country is currently employed by companies with fewer than 1,000 employees. In Tampa, too, the sector has experienced tremendous growth. However, that doesn’t make these companies hack-proof. Out of 783 data breaches in 2014 (Source: Identity Theft Resource Center), most were small to mid-sized organizations. These companies are a soft target not only by their competitors, but also by many of their own employees. Realizing that cyber risk is here to stay, many of these firms are turning to network security technologies. When it comes to investing in IT services, Tampa’s mid-sized firms are therefore selecting packages that include network monitoring services, among others. If you are concerned about the security of your midsized company, here are four specific benefits that you can expect from the network monitoring services:

Customization

Tampa-based IT firms are developing tailor-made network monitoring solutions for their clients. This helps meet and scale to the specific needs of growing organizations.

Hardware Installation

To facilitate effective monitoring, service providers install some specialized hardware that direct traffic to security applications for analysis.

Multi-Dimensional Defense Mechanism

They offer multi-dimensional defense mechanisms by integrating several technologies such as firewall, anti-malware solutions and more into a single application. This helps automate security monitoring, which in turn minimizes false-positive alerts. This improved visibility helps cut down malware remediation time.

Centralized Management

With the right network monitoring services in place, firms no longer have to use disparate systems to identify or nullify threats. The security of the entire organization can be managed from a centralized location, providing a unified view of risks and a better analysis of threat trends. This in turn will help prioritize remediation efforts, ultimately minimizing wastage of time.

With hacking and data breaches becoming increasingly sophisticated, investing in network monitoring has become imperative for all companies, including those in the small to mid-size category. If you are planning to invest in security-focused IT services, Tampa-based tech companies can help. Research the market and choose a trusted name in the industry. Mitigate risks to your valuable digital assets cost-effectively.

Three Benefits of Application Performance Monitoring

Tampa has emerged as a center for small and medium-scale business over the last few years. The IT firms in the city are making the most out of this situation. There may be numerous tools available to the IT companies in Tampa. Out of these, application performance monitoring (APM) has the maximum impact on a business. That’s because APM helps in identifying and addressing performance issues in an organization. Identifying issues and resolving them is important to prevent productivity problems, response time delays and customer dissatisfaction. APM also helps businesses to figure out the root cause of all performance issues. This is just one benefit to mention.

Here are three more benefits of APM for businesses.

1. Business Continuity

Downtime is something that most of the IT firms simply can’t afford. Interrupted business activities will lead to poor productivity, loss of revenue, harm to brand reputation, regulatory penalties and loss of consumer loyalty. Businesses investing in APM gain a competitive edge as a result of business continuity. This is achieved through timely troubleshooting, availability of core services, modification of application infrastructure and secures upgrades. APM and IT operation analytics offer useful information to help your IT department to foresee and avoid downtime. According to IT specialists, businesses investing in APM can cut back downtime by 70 percent.

2. No or Little Revenue Loss

We live in an on-demand economy. You can grow or lose your customer base with the click of a mouse. Let’s explain this point with an example. For instance, during the Christmas shopping season, a flawed component in your online store will lead to shopping cart abandonment and consequently loss of revenues. This is where the importance of an APM system comes into play. It will proactively recognize the problem to help your IT team prevent cart abandonments.

3. Increased Customer Satisfaction

The primary benefit of APM is that it ensures increased consumer (internal and external) satisfaction. When it comes to external customers, they will move to your competitor’s site if performance of one of the applications degrades. A slow internal application will lead to increased support calls and bad productivity. An effective APM solution prevents performance issues and improves customer satisfaction.

Businesses, especially the start-ups, strive hard to gain a competitive edge over others. These benefits will help IT companies in Tampa achieve their business goals. Be prepared and build a robust APM system in your organization.

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.