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IT SERVICES AND SUPPORT

Reduce Costs and Beat the IT Security Labor Shortage

To keep your 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…

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

A recent 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…

Nine 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). We’ve outlined nine key reasons businesses are outsourcing IT support to managed service providers. 1. Cost reduction due to economies of scale in design and operation  Problems can be solved once and solutions are shared across a larger scope. The…
IT support bay area

8 Ways to Save on IT Support Services Without Sacrificing Security

Looking for ways to save money on IT support services for your business without sacrificing productivity or functionality? Here are 8 proven ways to help:  1.  Standardize your systems Every piece of software and hardware you add to your computer network will have its own issues, both in terms of its own operation and in terms of interoperability with other systems. Say…

Strategic, Reliable, and Secure. Learn more about our services.

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…

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. 

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.

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…

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IT PLAN AND BUDGET

Reduce Costs and Beat the IT Security Labor Shortage

To keep your 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…

Keep current. Subscribe to our newsletter.

Subscribe Now

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

A recent 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…

Nine 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). We’ve outlined nine key reasons businesses are outsourcing IT support to managed service providers. 1. Cost reduction due to economies of scale in design and operation  Problems can be solved once and solutions are shared across a larger scope. The…
IT support bay area

8 Ways to Save on IT Support Services Without Sacrificing Security

Looking for ways to save money on IT support services for your business without sacrificing productivity or functionality? Here are 8 proven ways to help:  1.  Standardize your systems Every piece of software and hardware you add to your computer network will have its own issues, both in terms of its own operation and in terms of interoperability with other systems. Say…

Strategic, Reliable, and Secure. Learn more about our services.

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…

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. 

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.

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…

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