June 16th is Father’s Day, a great reason to spend a little quality time with the family doing a few of Dad’s favorite things.
Whatever your plans are, take some time this Sunday to let Dad know how much you appreciate everything he’s done for you over the years, and how glad you are to have him in your life.
And if this is your day? The {company} team hopes that it’s a great one!
If you’re a small business owner, you have plenty of things to worry about. IT shouldn’t be one of them. We think it makes complete sense for most small businesses to outsource their IT needs to a managed service provider (MSP). Here are 7 reasons.
1. Focus on What Makes You Unique
This first reason is a big one. Small businesses have limits on how many people they can hire. If you try to keep all your IT in house, you’ll devote a decent number of your hires to IT once you reach a certain size.
Here’s the problem: your business isn’t IT. (If it is, you probably don’t need this guide!) Outsourcing your IT frees up capital and office space that you can instead devote to your core business. Outsource your IT so you can better focus your staff on whatever it is that makes you unique.
2. Access More Skill
With an in-house IT team, you’re limited to whatever number of specialties you can afford to hire. Your IT team will work hard, and its members will stretch their skills and find a way to accomplish things outside their skill set. Their work won’t always be done in the best way, though. By outsourcing your IT, you gain access to a broader range of skills and certifications. You can rest easy knowing that it was done right from the get-go.
3. Do More, Faster
Related to the previous point, your IT needs will be met faster by a dedicated team of experts than by a small but well-intentioned in-house team. All that time the in-house team spends poking around looking for answers to problems that lie outside their specialties is the time you’re paying for. With an MSP you’ll usually get the right answer, right away.
4. Reduce Personnel Costs
When you hire in-house IT staff, you’re on the hook for all the associated personnel costs, like insurance, FICA, and so forth. These costs are often hidden and can be burdensome for small businesses. With an MSP, you pay a fixed monthly rate, and you don’t have to worry about administrative personnel costs. The MSP takes care of those for its employees.
5. Reduce Infrastructure Costs
Outsourcing IT to an MSP isn’t solely about reducing IT headcount and the costs associated with personnel. You can also save IT infrastructure costs by using an MSP. Service agreements vary, but some will include some or all hardware in the monthly fee. You can avoid large spikes in expenses for new equipment by choosing this kind of service agreement.
Your MSP can also move much of your IT infrastructure to the cloud, eliminating the need to house costly servers at your business. The less IT infrastructure you have on site, the less you pay to power and maintain that equipment.
6. Free Your Existing IT Team to Focus
For larger small businesses, outsourcing IT usually isn’t done with the intent of drastically reducing or eliminating IT headcount. It’s more about allowing your existing IT team to focus in and specialize.
If your IT staff has grown beyond just one or two generalists, you likely have some highly capable, highly qualified individuals on your team. Here’s a scary proposition: go ask those people how many hours a week are eaten up doing low-level IT errands like helping John in Accounting with basic computer questions or reminding Sarah from Accounts not to reply-all to emails?
Outsourcing your basic IT functions to an MSP allows your existing IT team to focus on their areas of specialization. You’re also free to assign in-house assets to IT functions that are core to your business or are proprietary.
7. Gain After Hours Support (Without Paying Overtime)
Outsourcing your IT needs to an MSP with a 24/7 service agreement means instant access to support anytime. With an in-house IT staff, you’ll end up paying overtime if a system goes down after hours. You may also have to wait for that IT staffer to physically arrive to fix the problem.
When you outsource, you get near immediate remote support, without the overtime. This is a great benefit to small businesses of all varieties and sizes. You’ll benefit even more from after-hours service if you have virtual team members or even satellite offices in far-flung time zones.
Conclusion
We’ve covered just 7 of the many reasons that outsourcing IT to a managed service provider is the right choice for small businesses. Do you have questions about specific aspects of working with an MSP? Let’s chat. We’re ready to answer.
For small businesses, information technology spending is always a balancing act. On the one hand, you need to keep to your budget to maintain financial stability and weather the unexpected. On the other hand, you are well aware of the constant tech advances happening all around you and the last thing you want is to be left behind by the competition. So, how do you determine your IT spending? The answer is, “It depends.”
Spending on IT technology needs to be based on your unique business needs. While it can be helpful to know what the average spending is for businesses, particularly businesses similar to yours in your industry, duplicating what another company does will not necessarily yield optimal results. You have a limited budget. You need to make it count. Doing so requires carefully examining your business, your options, and most importantly, your company objectives. Only when you know where you are and where you want to go can you determine exactly what you need to spend on IT.
What is Everyone Else Spending on IT?
Just because you need to define your own path does not mean you should ignore what everyone else is doing. It can be a helpful starting point to examine how much other small businesses are spending on technology. According to one study, the average spending on IT across all industries was 3.28 percent. The average came from considering a wide range of industries, with the lowest spender being construction at less than 2 percent and the biggest spender being banking and securities at 7 percent.
A study focusing on industry alone does not give a clear idea of what small businesses are spending, though. Other studies that looked at the size of the business found that small and mid-sized businesses actually spent more on IT as a percentage of their revenue than large businesses. Small businesses spend around 6.9% of their revenue on information technology, while midsized businesses spend around 4.1% of their revenue on IT. For large companies, the percentage drops to 3.2%. The smaller percentage spent by larger companies is often the result of scale—they put so much money into IT that they get better rates, perform the work in-house, etc.
How to Decide What You Should Spend on IT
The best way to choose how much to spend on IT is to ask targeted questions designed to paint a clearer picture of what your IT needs actually are. These questions should include:
What are you spending on IT right now?
Every business needs an IT budget, regardless of size. If you don’t have an IT budget, now is the time to make one. To see how much you have been spending on IT, add up your expenditures on information technology over the past year.
What are your business goals?
With so many options available, it is normal to feel a little overwhelmed when you consider information technology. Clarifying your business goals gives you perspective on your IT needs. Your IT expenditures should help you achieve specific business objectives. If the money you are spending on IT is not helping you achieve those objectives in a measurable way, it can likely be better spent elsewhere—either on different IT tools or on other areas of your business.
How is your current IT spending related to your business goals?
Each IT area that you invest money in, can and should be connected to your business objectives. Go through all of your information technology spending and verify that it is doing something for your business. If it is not working for you it is time to make some changes.
What specific IT spending can improve your ability to achieve your objectives?
There are specific areas in IT that offer leverage for your industry. You will need to identify what these are and determine how they fit into your overall strategy. Collaboration, security, data collection, marketing—what tech are you fairly certain will make a substantial impact if you add it to your business?
In what ways can you delegate or outsource the IT budgeting process?
If you are like most owners or managers, you have limited bandwidth that is already mostly consumed by running your business. Assessing your IT needs and embarking on a path to meet those needs will take time, energy and expertise. Consider who you can get to help with this process, whether internally or externally.
Are you interested in learning more about your IT options? If so, please contact our managed IT services team. We can help you clarify your IT needs.
If you haven’t looked lately at what Microsoft’s mobile offerings, it’s time to look again. Microsoft’s first forays into the iOS and Android mobile spaces (circa 2010) were underwhelming to say the least, but in recent years the company has turned things around in an impressive fashion. One of these recent developments, Microsoft Launcher, is an immensely powerful tool and an Android exclusive. We’ll review what Microsoft Launcher is and then walk you through the installation and setup process on your Android device.
What Is Microsoft Launcher?
Microsoft Launcher is an app available on the Google Play store, but it doesn’t operate in the way most apps do. In the Android ecosystem, launchers are essentially replacement interfaces for your home screen. When you select a launcher besides the default one that comes with your phone, you gain access to whatever functionality is built into that launcher.
I’m an iPhone User and I’m Confused
It’s OK; we understand. There’s not really any parallel to this on iOS. Android phones offer far more customization on the home screen than iPhones do. It’s a difference in philosophy: Android users who customize effectively benefit from a polished, streamlined home screen. Those who don’t end up with a mess. Apple prevents both extremes by providing their own polished home screen and limiting what users can modify.
What Microsoft Launcher Can Do
Microsoft Launcher gives you system-level integration with your Microsoft accounts. This is powerful stuff if your business is using Microsoft 365. Integrate your contacts, calendar, documents, and more at the system level. Once installed, swipe right for deep Microsoft interactions, or swipe two fingers down to access Launcher settings.
How to Install Microsoft Launcher
To install and configure Microsoft Launcher, first download the app from the Google Play store. Next, choose Microsoft Launcher as your new home screen. In most versions of Android you’ll tap the square soft key from the home screen to bring up a “select launcher” pane. If that doesn’t work, try opening the app from your “all apps” menu.
When you choose Microsoft Launcher as your new launcher, you’ll get a system warning about setting the app as default. Click OK.
What Just Happened?
When you clicked OK, your home screen changed, perhaps drastically. Congratulations, you’re now running Microsoft Launcher! Customize your home screen with your favorite apps (Microsoft apps encouraged, of course), and be sure to sign in to your Microsoft account in settings.
Swipe Right
When running Microsoft Launcher as your home screen, you can swipe right for all sorts of Microsoft interactions. See your calendar, task list, and recent OneDrive documents. You can interact with these here, and changes will update across all your devices. You can even send a photo directly to your PC, similar to Apple’s Airdrop feature.
Conclusion
Microsoft Launcher is a powerful tool for Android users who use Microsoft 365 at work. We recommend downloading right away!
Nearly every site or service we use online requires a username and password. Remembering hundreds of unique passwords is just about impossible, and reusing passwords across multiple sites can be dangerous. If one account is compromised in a data breach (and this is likely: check out IdentityForce’s list of all the breaches so far this year), any other account using that same password is now at risk.
Today’s username and password convention is a difficult system to manage well, but it remains important to create strong, unique passwords for your various accounts. We’re here to help today by sharing a few ways to create unique passwords that are strong and memorable.
Base Your Password on a Familiar Phrase
One way to make a password easier to remember is to base it on a phrase or term that’s familiar to you. Notice we didn’t say to use a term that’s familiar to you: “ilovesarah”, “sparky”, and “gocowboys” are all terrible passwords because they’re easy to guess. Anyone who knows that your wife’s name is Sarah, that your dog’s name is Sparky, or that you love the Cowboys might guess these easily.
Instead, come up with something creative, but that still has a connection to something you won’t forget. Something like “R3dsk1nsRool!” would be hard to guess since it runs counter to your actual interests, and it would be hard to crack due to the character variations. You’ll have an easier time remembering it, though, since it connects to one of your true passions.
Another variation on this theme is to take a poem or song lyric that’s meaningful to you and turn it into an acronym. “Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream” could turn into “RrrybGdtS”, for example. Easy to remember; hard to guess.
Use Long Passwords
Long passwords are hard to guess, but they’re even harder to crack using hacker tools. Use a memorable phrase in its entirety, or choose a series of seemingly unrelated words that mean something to you. You’ll create a password that’s easier to remember than the previous method and that’s even harder for a computer to crack. Check out this Xkcd comic, which illustrates this principle with an added dose of humor.
Use Two-Factor Authentication Wherever Possible
You should enable two-factor authentication (2FA) on any site that offers it. 2FA adds a second method of authenticating that you’re who you say you are. Most 2FA methods involve sending a numeric or alphanumeric code to the account owner (that’s you). This code can be sent via email, text message, or even be displayed on a physical key fob. The code is only good for a short window (usually 1, 2, or 5 minutes). After supplying your username and password, you’ll be asked for this code.
Most consumer applications of 2FA involve sending the code via text message. Unless a hacker has stolen or cloned your phone, he or she won’t be able to view this code and thus won’t be able to log in to your accounts—even with your username and password.
Change Your Password Frequently
Changing your password frequently is another way to stay ahead of information thieves. A stolen password is only useful until you change that password to something else. It’s good practice to change your passwords frequently, such as every 3 to 6 months. We realize that can be a lot of work. Changing only your most sensitive passwords (financial, social, and email) is better than changing none.
Use a Password Manager
All this sounds like a lot of work, and it is. Thankfully, there’s a better way. Using a password manager, you can create long, unique, complex passwords for each account — but you don’t have to worry about remembering them! All your passwords are stored in the password manager. All you need to remember is the strong master password you create for this utility.
It is questionable whether there is any industry today that has not been forced to adopt new technology to remain competitive. But for small law firms, the need to utilize technology appropriately is necessary for more than just competitiveness—it is actually being increasingly pushed by jurisdiction. In just the past few years, the ABA Model Rule 1.1 went through revisions so that the rule now states that attorneys need to maintain a certain level of competence with technology, and 36 states have adopted the revised comment to Rule 1.1.
With technology competency becoming a standard for practicing attorneys, it is clear that every law firm needs to do what it can to incorporate technology into their practice. What this adoption will mean may vary somewhat from firm to firm, but the general push should be to meet the standards of the industry in all possible areas. For many firms, that will mean making some changes.
Technology for Small Law Firms—What You Need to Know
Where you and your firm sit on the technology spectrum may be far different from another attorney or another firm. You may have already taken significant steps to incorporate technology tools into your operation. You may have been doing things the same way for decades and only be interested in making the minimal changes to comply with changing professional expectations. Or, you may be somewhere in the middle. The following tips are meant to serve as a starting point on how to identify where changes need to be made and to make those changes as efficiently as possible.
Set aside time for research and the adoption of new technology.
For most lawyers, time is at a premium. Between courting new clients, keeping up with legal changes, researching cases, preparing and filing documents, traveling and doing all the other things required for you to run your firm, you are probably quite pressed for free time. However, you are also adept at measuring the workload of new projects and making time for those projects—which means you have the ability and aptitude to make technical changes to your firm. You just need to remain aware of what you are getting into and set a pace that fits with your circumstances.
If you do not want to do all of the work yourself, you can also delegate or outsource it. Whether you assign duties to employees, hire an IT services company familiar known for servicing law firms, or both, you can accomplish a lot when you share the workload.
Learn what it means to be technically proficient as a law firm.
You may already have clear ideas about the changes you need to make. But if you aren’t, consider doing some research on legal tech today. There are books available that discuss legal tech for small firms and there are plenty of websites that do the same. Educate yourself on what a technologically savvy firm looks like today so you can see where your firm is lacking and where you should aim to be moving forward.
Areas to research include:
Document management
Time and billing software
Legal practice management software
Collaboration tools
Security technology
Mobile technology
Potential technology certifications available
Conduct an assessment of the technology your firm uses.
Once you have an idea of what the expectations for legal technology use are in today’s environment, you can conduct an assessment of your firm to see where you are and what changes you need to make. Identify what technology you currently use for various tasks, determine what changes need to be made, if any, and then make a plan to facilitate those changes.
Prioritize technology adoption.
Ideally, you could make all the changes you need to make simultaneously. But if you do not have the time, resources, or assistance to make all those changes possible right now, you will need to prioritize which are most important. Your priorities will be based on the specific goals of your firm. For example, e-filing is becoming an industry standard for law firms. If you are still using mostly paper, moving into an e-filing system will probably be a big priority. That may mean purchasing a scanner to digitize your existing documents, as well as implementing an e-filing system for your firm to use moving forward.
Consider Partnering With A Managed IT Services Company.
Most small firms do not have the resources to employ a dedicated IT department. Managed IT services offer a way to take advantage of technical proficiency and skill sets as you need them—like when you need to do a technology overhaul on your firm. You can get the assistance you need from professionals so you can focus on running your firm.
If you would like more information about managed IT services for your solo practice or small law firm, please contact us.