IT Services and Support

Have You Outgrown Your MSP? 6 Questions To Ask

When your business evolves from a scrappy startup to a more mature organization, there’s a good chance that your managed service provider (MSP) won’t evolve with it. Solo IT consultants or AI-based MSPs may work well for fledgling businesses, but as a company grows, so does its IT needs…meaning its old MSP may no longer be the right fit. If…

What Is an MSP? 6 Ways to Think About Managed Service Providers

Years ago, when businesses needed tech support beyond what they could manage in-house, they often turned to IT consultants. But as the technology landscape grew more complex and security threats spiked, companies needed more than ad hoc consulting services — they sought to fully outsource their technology function. Enter managed service providers, or MSPs. What is an MSP? In basic…

How to Save on IT Support Services Without Sacrificing Security

Performance is top of mind for CFOs and COOs who are trying to do more with fewer resources. They are facing more pressure than ever to justify their spending and prove they’re providing value. Our goal is to help every department, not just IT, get what they want while still delivering results. The following are 9 ways we’ve found to get the best value from your IT investment.…

Drive More Sales and Gain Competitive Advantage with AI in Salesforce

By Chris Valiquet, Senior Salesforce Consultant, StarrData In a recent blog post, we explored how we plan to begin implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to enhance our business practices at Xantrion and why we feel it’s important for our clients to start thinking about how to leverage AI-based technologies. While many solution providers are beginning to tap into the possibilities of…

Reduce Costs and Beat the IT Security Labor Shortage

To keep your key systems functional, you need two centralized teams to oversee your entire network: a security operations center (SOC) and a network operations center (NOC). Your SOC monitors, responds to, and remediates security threats to protect applications and data against cyberattacks. Your NOC keeps an eye on network status, applies updates and patches, and provides tech support…

Seven Reasons to Outsource IT to a Managed Service Provider

Organizations are always looking for ways to effectively manage costs, improve productivity, and scale efficiently. One method proven to help achieve these goals is to outsource IT support to a managed service provider (MSP). Not only is outsourcing typically 30-40% cheaper than hiring in-house1, it can also help you close critical gaps in your IT and cybersecurity infrastructure. Below are…

How to Compete for Talent in the New Era of Remote Work

A USA Today article explains why our current staffing crunch may take years to abate. Between pandemic-related changes to the workplace and early retirements, organizations are in a fierce competition for employees, including roles like IT that are increasingly important for supporting the primary business or mission. Technology is playing a significant role in helping organizations meet the challenges…

Three of the Most Common Employee Offboarding Mistakes

By Derik Belair, President and CEO, Augmentt There’s a famous phrase you’ve probably heard before: to err is human. Those words sum up why your security posture needs to focus on human actions–or the absence of them. When seen from this lens, cybersecurity becomes about much more than cleaning up after mistakes. It’s about proactively putting into place measures to…

Top 10 Keyboard Shortcuts for Microsoft Business Apps

Microsoft apps such as Word, Outlook, Excel, Edge, and PowerPoint are commonly found in the workplace. To save time when using these business apps, employees can take advantage of keyboard shortcuts. However, a keyboard shortcut will only save them time if it automates an action they perform often. Plus, they need to remember what keys to press. Having the shortcuts…

The End is Near for These Productivity Apps

The end is near for a group of old but still commonly used business apps. On October 13, 2020, many Microsoft productivity apps will reach the end of their lifecycle, including: Access 2010 Excel 2010 Excel 2016 for Mac Excel Mobile 2010 Exchange Server 2010 (all editions) Office 2010 suites (all editions) Office 2016 for Mac suites (all editions) OneNote 2010…

Our Top PC Picks for Work From Home Needs

Whether you’re counting the days until you can return to the office or your hoping you can work from home forever, you’ve spent more than enough time working on your home computer by now to know whether it’s up to the task. If you’re starting to realize that it’s not, let us recommend some alternatives from Dell, HP and Lenovo…

What Headset Should I Use with My PC?

In the work-from-home era, a good headset can make all the difference between being able to focus on your work and, well, sharing distracting or embarrassing background noise with everyone on an important call. But what makes a good headset?

Does your Return-to-Work Strategy Work for Clients and Employees?

This past week, we turned our attention to refining our return-to-work strategy. In our opinion, our strategy not only needs to work for us as a business, it also needs to work for clients and employees. To make that happen, we reached out to both for input.

7 Best Practices for Supporting Employees During COVID-19

During the hardest times, this quote is especially true—people always remember how you make them feel. In 10 or even 30 years, people will remember the coronavirus pandemic and how their companies made them feel during this unprecedented time.

Make Virtual Meetings a Place Where You Shine

Although virtual meetings are the new norm, we’ve all attended ones that have gone awry. By taking them as seriously and thoughtfully as physical, in-person meetings, you can use them as a way to be known as someone who’s digitally-savvy and professional—qualities your clients and colleagues will value.

Microsoft Teams or Outlook?

Now that everyone is working from home, we can’t necessarily rely on communication methods we know and love. We need to branch out and start using new tools that can help us stay connected even though we are apart. One of those new tools is Microsoft Teams.

Handling Home Office Internet Issues

As we attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19 by working from home, it’s not surprising people are running into Internet issues. We are relying on and stressing our connectivity like never before. If the result of your issues are poor online meeting and video conferencing quality, the following are some recommendations to improve your situation.

An Employee’s Guide for Full Remote Working

While some of you are veteran remote workers, working from home, especially on a regular basis, might be new for others. The following are some best practices to help guide you through it.

Home Hardware Recommendations

We have home hardware recommendations in order to help you be comfortable and productive in your home office.

A Manager’s Guide for Full Remote Working

While you might have managed a couple of team members remotely to date, managing a fully remote team, while balancing the challenges of being remote yourself, might be a new experience for you. The following are some best practices to help guide you through it.

Mac Threats Are on the Rise

In the past, Mac devices have largely been out of cybercriminals’ crosshairs. While hackers occasionally launched malware attacks against Mac machines, they targeted Windows devices much more often. But this is no longer the case.

The iPhone 11 Is Here But Is It Worth the Upgrade?

Apple has rolled out the new iPhone 11, but many iPhone users are wondering whether its enhancements are worth the cost of an upgrade. Here is how the phone compares to its predecessor.

How to Manage Those Annoying Auto-Play Video Clips in Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge has several features to manage auto-play clips. For starters, Edge is designed to automatically silence these clips on background tabs — in other words, on web pages that are open but not currently being displayed. (Their tabs are greyed-out.) Edge also lets you mute auto-play clips on individual web pages as well as stop clips from running automatically…

15 Keyboard Shortcuts for Microsoft Excel and Word

Microsoft Word and Excel have been around for a long time, so they have many features, including more than 200 keyboard shortcuts. Using these shortcuts can save you time because you just need to press a combination of keys to perform an action. While trying to remember every single shortcut is impractical, it pays to learn the shortcuts for operations…

How to Choose Default Apps in Windows 10

It is common for people to have multiple apps that perform the same function on their Windows 10 computers. For instance, people might have several web browsers or email apps. Similarly, people often can open certain types of files with more than one program. For instance, they can open PDF files with a web browser such as Google Chrome or…

3 Ways Your iPhone Can Keep you Organized

If your iPhone is running iOS 11 or later, you can use it for more than just staying in touch with the office. Here are 3 features you can use to help your business trip go more smoothly: 1. Check a Flight’s Status If you are traveling by plane, you can use your iPhone to check your flight’s status before…

What you Need to Know About Google Tracking Your Location

Google is tracking the whereabouts of billions of its customers, even when they tell the tech giant not to. Here is what you need to know about this practice, including how to minimize the amount of data being stored about you. What the Commotion Is and Isn’t About When people use Google’s apps and services, the company collects data about…

Is the Desktop Computer Becoming Obsolete?

The fate of the desktop computer has been the topic of debate for several years. Knowing both sides of the argument can be beneficial when you need to purchase new computing devices for your business. Why Some People Believe the Desktop Computer’s Days Are Numbered Some people believe it is only a matter of time before desktop computers become obsolete,…

How to Stop Annoying Chrome Website Notifications

If you use the Internet regularly, you have probably encountered them — those pesky boxes that pop up when you visit a website for the first time and it wants to send you notifications. Fortunately, it is easy to stop these notifications from appearing if you use the Google Chrome web browser. Open your browser and follow these steps: Click…

10 Keyboard Shortcuts for Most Browsers

You can use many of the same keyboard shortcuts when working in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox web browsers. Here are 10 keyboard shortcuts that are handy as well as easy to remember: 1. F3 Pressing F3 in Chrome, Edge, and Firefox opens the search box so that you can search for text on a web page. Once…