Your business will need IT help at some point. You’ll likely find yourself researching different IT support companies to find the best provider to support your devices and network.

It’s overwhelming when you need to replace one of the computers in your business. With the average computer needing replaced every three to five years, you’re likely looking at different specs and maybe even a new operating system than the one you’re replacing. This can be confusing on your end, and frustrating for the employee who’s been using the same computer for years. In this article, we’ll walk through how to choose the best computer for your business. Since the choices in computer models are infinite, we’ll focus on the to most popular business computer brands on the market, Dell and HP.

Are you or your staff practicing social distancing and working remotely in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak? We're all doing as much as we can to stay safe, which has meant making some quick decisions and quickly transitioning employees to work-from-home arrangements. Microsoft Teams is an incredibly powerful tool to continue collaboration and virtual face-to-face communication while your team works from the safety of their homes. If you're already using Microsoft Office 365, you may already have access to Teams and are maybe already using some of the features. Here is a brief video tutorial of some of the features we've found most useful as we at Innovative practice as much social distancing as possible.

You've been managing IT functions in your business on your own, or with some limited help. You're starting to feel like a more cohesive approach to IT could benefit your business. Your current "just fix it when it's broken" method isn't working. Managed IT services let you sleep better, knowing that an experienced business technology team is managing your IT infrastructure and systems. Managed IT services is the administration and oversight of the technology functions and infrastructure within your business by an outsourced, third-party provider, usually called a managed services provider (MSP). The most common managed IT services include: Network monitoring and management. Help desk support. On-site IT service. Remote tech support. IT consulting. Disaster recovery Data backup. Anti-virus and threat detection. Cloud solutions.

You've just finished a long report in Word or a presentation that needs to be put together by tomorrow in PowerPoint, hit save, and… your computer freezes on you. Unsure as to why you restart your computer only to see nothing happen. No logon screen, no report, no presentation, nothing. Whether it be due to the operating system or faulty hardware, you're without a computer. What do you do?

“Why are you so expensive?” This is one of the most asked questions by our existing and prospective clients. So, someone must answer it. Lucky me. We will discuss the difference between tech support and managed IT services and the cost associated with each of them. Here at Innovative, we are a managed IT services provider, but understand that our services aren’t the best fit for every business. As such, we are going to provide you with an honest assessment of the cost of managed IT services and break/fix tech support. The goal of this article is to provide you with the information necessary to understand the cost of managed IT services and break/fix tech support. With this knowledge, you can make the right choice for you and your business.

You spend hundreds or thousands of dollars each year on anti-virus and threat prevention software for all the computers in your organization. As a result, you expect those devices are safe from viruses, ransomware, and other malware. But now you’re missing files, software programs are acting strange, or your entire system is frozen and you’ve received a ransom message. You’re frustrated, and maybe feel a little taken by your anti-virus vendor. Why have you been spending all this money on an anti-virus solution if you still have to deal with the ramifications of a virus or other malware?

Computers are the center of business and personal productivity in the 21st century. Users expect them to work as intended, on time, and without issue. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Viruses, or any type of malware (viruses are just one of several types of malware - more on that later), can at the least inconvenience users, and at worst cripple an entire business or organization. When trouble arises, average users may wonder if their computer is misbehaving. They might suspect malware has compromised their system, but don’t know how to confirm their suspicion.

75% of small and mid-sized businesses report using some type of outsourced IT partner, and 39% are working with a managed service provider (MSP). [Source] Why are so many businesses seeing the need to outsource their IT? Of the businesses choosing to invest in a partnership with an MSP, what benefits do they see?

You’ve been working with an IT support company, freelancer, or managed service provider for a while. You like them. They’re great people. Maybe you’ve known them for years and they’ve helped you out of more than one bind. But lately, you’ve been feeling that things could be better. Your IT systems should be more in sync with your business. Your employees shouldn’t be dealing with nagging, unresolved problems. And your own, fairly new computer has been getting more sluggish by the day. Even on a good day when everything is working fine, you have a nagging gut feeling that the IT in your business isn’t great. You don’t even want to think about what might happen on a bad day when your server crashes or you get hit with a ransomware attack.