JANUARY 2012 EDITION

Making an Impact on Local Businesses!

We would like to welcome our friends at Indiana Furniture Showcase into our family and look forward to a long and lasting relationship for years to come!

Indiana Furniture Showcase
"Our mission is to invite every community member, customer, and associate into our family through a mutually rewarding experience. We are dedicated to exceeding expectations by providing a genuine value, high quality furnishings, and unmatched customer service through commitment, integrity, and trust.

At Indiana Furniture Showcase, located at 1807 E. Lincolnway, Valparaiso, IN, customer satisfaction is our number one priority. We are currently servicing the Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana areas so feel free to stop by our store when you are in the neighborhood! Our website is designed to ensure your shopping experience is easy and pleasurable while you shop for all your furniture and mattress needs. At Indiana Furniture Showcase , you will find many products in the categories of Accents, Accents, Area Rugs, Bathroom, Bedroom, Candles, Crafts, Dining, Fireplaces, Games Room, Gifts, Hardware, Lighting, Living Room, Mattresses, Media Room, Miscellaneous, Miscellaneous, Office, Outdoor Furniture, Personal Care, Rattan, Special Holidays, Top of Bed, Wall Hanging, Wall Hangings and Wicker.

What is Managed Services?

By Jeremy Carnahan | January 21, 2012

You may not know it yet, but IT Consulting, you know "the computer guy", has been headed in a different direction. For years, the industry has profited from the pain and suffering of a loyal client base.

The scenario goes like this...
Client has a problem, calls up the "computer guy", and he schedules a time to go onsite to resolve the issue. The aftermath would ensue when the bill arrived...Maybe the problem was difficult to resolve, or the technician took more time than was necessary. Perhaps the problem was fixed with a work around, or "band aid", rather than thought through and resolve properly. Worse yet, you get the bill and nothing was done at all!

Whatever the case, the billable hour method does not work in favor of the customer, but instead creates a binding point for both customer and vendor. So why not align the goals of the provider/client relationship so that they can work hand in hand?

Enter "Managed Services"!
Not a new idea by any means, rather a spin on something that has been around for decades. Cable television providers are an excellent example of a Managed Service where they include the box with their service for a monthly fee and if there is an outage or problem with the service they fix it. The key is that their goals are aligned with that of their customers in that they want to proactively maintain a quality service to avoid the high costs of the break/fix model.

The same goes for technology-based Managed Service Providers (MSP), in that we have a clear-cut goal and that is to do everything in our power to ensure that our customers technology is always running at peak performance. MSP's intend to take technology headaches out of the hands of their customers by becoming their IT department, from CTO to help desk technician.

What can be covered in a managed service agreement?
Anything and everything that is based on technology, of course! The following is a brief list of services that can be included in a managed service agreement.

Help Desk and Trouble Ticketing including Unlimited Remote Support
Backup and Disaster Recovery including Disaster Recovery Planning
Proactive Maintenance, Remote Desktop Management and Patch Management
Inventory Management, Computer Audit and Discovery
Network and Windows Monitoring
Complete Network Security, Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware Detection
Software Deployment, File and Data Storage
Quarterly Business Reviews
Onsite Support
Rental Equipment
Training
...and more depending on your needs!

The monthly fee may depend on what level of service is desired, how many users and what equipment is to be covered. There may be a "setup fee" in addition to the monthly payment. Adding users or devices may incur an additional charge. In most cases, the total cost is less than hiring and managing an internal IT department.

The technology available today allows us to ensure a user-friendly environment with a high quality customer service experience. The end user experience is what it is all about. In the end, the customer must be able to focus on their business rather than fumbling with reactively "maintained" technology.

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JANUARY 2012 EDITION

Making an Impact on Local Businesses!

What is Managed Services?