Let’s face it – printing can be very wasteful. Do you realize how much money you’re losing from paper and toner that's just getting thrown away? The trial and error of printing lends itself to this. I think we’re all tired of shredding documents because they didn’t print the way we wanted them to. The whole process is just a hassle. There’s a dropdown list of printer names that all look the same. Which printer is closest to you? Are the settings configured to what you need? It can all feel like a big guessing game.

It’s another week at Innovative, and I’m continuing to learn the ins and outs of a managed service provider. That feeling of being on a different planet is slowly starting to fade away. Am I an expert yet? Absolutely not. But hey, it’s progress. My most recent learning experience came in the form of a training session on cybersecurity packages. This stuff can be pretty daunting when you first dive into it. EDR, SOC/SIEM, MFA – what does any of this mean?

Exciting news! We’re expanding our service area to Washington D.C. and the surrounding metro area!

It has never been more critical to create a secure password. Cyber attackers are always looking to steal passwords so they can access our information and harm our business. According to the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, 81% of hacking-related breaches occur due to compromised passwords. Don’t become a statistic. It’s on us to make it difficult for them. A strong password is a simple yet essential way to protect your accounts and your business. You can take several steps to create the most secure password possible. It can be tricky dealing with character counts, punctuation and password length. The list of requirements seems to go on and on. Let’s walk through it and explain how you can protect yourself.

My first week at Innovative brought many challenges someone might usually deal with when starting a new job. There were lots of new names and faces to learn, as well as the ins and outs of an entire company. On top of all this, I joined a managed IT services company without any background in technology. Being in such a different environment, everything I encountered was a learning experience. With every meeting and demonstration, I was gaining new information. One of the demonstrations I had the chance to sit in on was for Avaya Cloud Office (ACO). ACO is a hosted phone system that provides communication services to businesses, including Innovative. This made it especially relevant to me because it's a service I'll use at work regularly. The demonstration was hosted by Innovative's CIO Tyler Snyder, who did a great job explaining how many features ACO offers and how these features can change the way an office uses its phones. In this blog, I'll go over some of those features that will be crucial to our clients, my colleagues and me.

When it comes to cybersecurity, it's easy to feel like solution vendors are constantly exploiting your worst fears to sell you the latest and greatest solution you need to keep your business safe.

We are thrilled to congratulate Calen Vesper on her recent promotion to Senior Accountant! 🎉 Calen joined the team as an administrative assistant back in 2016. And we quickly learned what a rockstar team member she is. While excelling in her administrative duties, Calen began taking on more bookkeeping and general accounting functions until she earned the role of staff accountant in 2019. Calen reports to Rose Fetters, Director of Finance, who is thrilled to have another Innovator who loves numbers and spreadsheets as much as she does! Rose has been constantly impressed with the way Calen rises to every challenge. Calen is responsible for Innovative's general ledger. She spends her days reviewing reconciliations, managing the close process, and analyzing financial statements. She also plays a key role in the overall budgeting and forecasting process while managing the general office administration. As if that wasn't enough to keep her busy, Calen is currently working on finishing her associate degree in accounting at Hagerstown Community College. "Innovative is committed to creating pathways for our team to grow along with the company. Calen's promotion is another example of how we're successfully building out our leadership team from within," Rose said. If you've been paying attention, you'll know this is one of many recent Innovative promotions as we've been actively growing our team, ramping up for future expansion. We created more than ten new positions and expanded our leadership team through internal promotions over the past year.

It's been an exciting few months for the Innovative team! We're thrilled to congratulate two of our earliest employees on their recent promotions to the highest ranks of Innovative's executive team.

Be prepared for some sticker shock the next time you go to replace hardware in your business. Computer component costs have gone up 20% to 40% since 2020. Business-grade PC prices have doubled since 2019, thanks to the perfect storm of inflation paired with increased demand and decreased supply.

Do you like surprises? The answer probably depends on the context. You welcome surprises like lottery winnings and visits from an old friend. But surprises like, “Hey, we need an extra $5,000 to finish this project that’s already started” are very unwelcome. That’s where a contingency comes in.