When employees have a sluggish computer, an unruly printer, or an iffy Internet connection, productivity slows down. If in-staff IT personnel are needed to address such common day-to-day problems, a great deal of time is wasted. Small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) rarely have an IT staff that’s large enough to constantly put out fires plus focus on ever-important cybersecurity. Managed service providers (MSPs) offer the perfect solution for boosting productivity by providing 24/7 help desk services.

How does a 24/7 Help Desk Service Work?

Most people have taken advantage of a help desk for things such as cable company problems or difficulty with an online order. A 24/7 help desk service from an MSP is similar except that it provides immediate assistance for a range of IT problems. The main purpose of a 24/7 help desk is to provide support for incidents that have occurred and find ways to prevent major issues that had been looming. Employees are helped quickly because knowledgeable experts at a remote location are available to respond to the call. 

MSPs use software that tracks issues, assigns prioritization to requests, and either provides a quick solution or establishes a precise path to get there.

A Few Help Desk Benefits

• Identifies and then resolves the root causes of incidents that recur frequently.
• Reduces downtime.
• Rather than getting a recorded message, employees get an immediate live response from someone who can help or at least provide answers.
• A range of simple and complex IT issues are resolved.
• The availability of a 24/7 help desk is round-the-clock, as implied.

Contact Aperio IT to learn more about 24/7 IT Help Desk for your business.

It is vital that health care providers and professionals in healthcare IT understand HIPAA compliance, which ensures the security and privacy of protected health information (PHI). Other industries may also need to be HIPAA compliant, according to the judgment of Retail Insights, LLC. Actionable consumer insights are available through Retail Insights, which extracts a massive amount of data analytics from Point of Sale (POS) machines used by the company’s subscribers.

What Does HIPAA Compliance Involve?

HIPAA compliance is a defined set of industry standards that must be implemented by health care professionals and their vendors. For example, the two most critical of the HIPAA Rules are the HIPAA Security Rule and the HIPAA Privacy Rule. An effective compliance program must be established according to precise guidelines involving steps to create, deploy, and test HIPAA compliance.

Three components that healthcare providers and their vendors are required to address are administrative, technical, and physical, as follows:

• Administrative safeguards are related to creating and maintaining policies, documentation, procedures, and training of the staff. 
• Technical safeguards lay out the procedure for implementing the infrastructure of the network. This involves data encryption, data back-up, firewalls, and protection against malware.
• Physical safeguards include alarm systems and locks as well as access involving card-keys or, for larger companies, role-based access.

Compliance and Security are Required

HIPAA compliance means the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of a patient’s PHI are protected by following mandated guidelines for security. HIPAA compliance and security are inextricably linked.

Contact Aperio IT to learn more about HIPAA compliance for your business.

Why does the help desk vs. service desk debate keep resurfacing?

Before we jump right to the differences between the two, let us understand the argument about the help desk vs. service desk. One primary reason is the diverse nature of organizations. The processes and terminology ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) have been widely used and adopted by many since it has been around for a while. Back to the present, end-users’ expectations are continually changing and higher today which was witnessed, especially since the rise of mobile devices and social webs. The distinction between help desk and service desk today is interchangeable. Often, based on how organizations interpret these terms. There are no specific rules, only what works best for the organization. So, it is all about the size and level of IT complexity. The bottom line is it’s meeting the customer and business needs that matters.

Help Desk Vs. Service Desk

The IT Help Desk is more tactical with the aim to resolve IT users’ technical issues and incidents. The IT Help Desk can function as separate or part of a more extensive Service Desk operation to increase the overall organization’s Customer Services. The primary goal of the Help Desk is to resolve IT user issues as efficiently and quickly as possible.

Benefits of Help Desk are:

• Functions as a single point of contact for IT Support
• Tracks records of all incoming incidents
• Automates routing of email notifications and tracking tickets
• Performs Incident Management and Problem Management
• Supports limited integrations with other IT Service Management Processes
• Specialty groups may back a few areas of applications outside of the help desk
• Provides level one and two support
• Offers incident ownership if escalation is needed
• Follows a problem resolution and escalation procedures to support the smooth process
• Adheres to Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

Service Desk

The IT Service Desk is a broader term which is more strategic and cross-organizational. The approach is to fulfill the business needs rather than focusing on resolving the in-house needs. According to ITIL, the Service Desk is the single point of contact between the service provider and the users.

A Service Desk is aimed at managing incidents and service requests and handles communication with the users. The Service Desk packs the help desk component and always strives to improve IT and business processes across the company.

Benefits of Service Desk are:

• Complete integration with other IT Service Management processes
• SPOC – Single Point of Contact for all IT areas/applications/business processes
• Adheres to Service Level Management agreements
• Self-Service/Service Catalog
• Easy to integrate with Asset Discovery, Asset Management, and CMDB

If you are planning to outsource your IT Help Desk, visit our official page to know more about the services we offer and how we can help you take your IT Help Desk to the next level.

Today, MSPs lack the focus to market their business creatively. Having said that, the aim is to motivate the ones who need inspiration to rise despite the struggle. With marketing constantly evolving fast, sticking to old-school marketing styles will leave your business behind.

Individuals and entrepreneurs want to outsource to the right MSP with adequate knowledge. They want a third-party vendor to monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot their IT systems. On the other hand, with all the integrations, analytic insights, and B2B data sources at fingertips, it allows busy MSPs to work smarter, but not harder.

Therefore, creating basic automation workflows integrated with the tools that MSPs already use is a great idea to accomplish growth without consuming valuable resources.

Automating Referrals

Many MSPs earn new clients through referrals. Even though the cost per customer acquisition is excellent and the sales process runs smoothly, still persistence seems to be a significant issue. It is not a good idea to depend on referrals in building a business because they are inconsistent and unreliable.

The best approach to accomplish this goal is through marketing automation. Managed Service Providers need to design campaigns requesting customers for referrals. They can offer incentives for every successful referral. Send out emails regularly without looking desperate. Waiting for customers to refer clients voluntarily is like waiting for an apple to land in the basket. Marketing automation is better.

Make use of a CRM to track the deals; it provides insights as to which customers are most likely to refer the service. It’ll also help you create a target list of new customers in the industry.

Data-driven lead generation

By making use of highly targeted B2B data, deploying cross-platform ads and sponsored posts, MSPs can expect excellent results at a low cost. Building “matched audiences” with data and showing these ads on various networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google can reach the required number of brand awareness as this sets the best platform for promoting your brand.

With your ads reaching the right audiences, they would be more familiar with your company, products, and services you offer. Usually, the effectiveness of your strategy is measured by the number of customer engagements, which should match the ad expense.

Streamlining sales processes

Here are some of the other benefits of adopting the marketing automation strategy. Through an automated appointment setting campaign integrated with your CRM and PSA, the organization can integrate its sales and service departments, eventually reducing miscommunication and scheduling issues.

In order to grow your IT services business through integration and analytics, visit our official page to get in touch with us!

IT security is getting more advanced to counter cyber threats, but many online companies are still struggling to keep themselves safe from threats. IT security is a mere set of cybersecurity plans to avoid unauthorized access to company assets. By applying it, organizations maintain the confidentiality of sensitive information from high-profile hackers.

In the ever-evolving cyberworld, 100% protection from threats is not guaranteed. However, new strategies that outsmart existing cyber threat defense have been introduced as advanced and comprehensive protection against new-age threats is what truly matters.

Having said that, it is vital to design and implement a proper security process. Focusing on is the risk factors must be prioritized in order to learn what are the things at risk, how much risk the company is faced with, and how to mitigate the risk.

Finally, the discussion will come down to gaining insights about how much the company is willing to risk and to spend on IT security. It may vary depending on the company’s needs.

Expecting the Tolerable IT Security Risk

The discussion with the IT staff should commence on the risk factors to help uncover how much risk is acceptable to the organization, allowing them to develop an IT security plan based on their environment.

By identifying the programs that reduce risks, the management can allot a budget on them for quick implementation. This marks the beginning of enhanced cybersecurity towards the end goal.

This approach wouldn’t benefit MSPs because they are helping their customers achieve their business goals. On the other hand, they also manage the risk by providing IT services to ensure that the systems and networks are running efficiently. Therefore, there is a reliable backup and disaster recovery plan in place and technology barriers in maintaining a smooth business flow are eliminated.

Managed Service Providers should gather enough knowledge about the business environment their customers operate because the risk analysis will depend on the line of business.

Risk analysis starts with high-profile things

While running such analysis, MSPs must begin by looking at the high-profile stuff. For example, ransomware and more. The questions that need to be asked involve why, what, how, and what if. Inquiring about different types of disaster scenarios provides an important reference point.

Wrap Up

By choosing a proactive security solution, training employees, and taking advantage of the latest authentication measures, IT security can help prevent, detect, and strengthen the company’s defense against threats. However, it is essential to remember that securing your network is not one-time but an ongoing process. It must be constantly assessed and updated. For more details visit the official page!