What are Managed Services?
Managed Services are a collection of IT services designed to avoid and mitigate the business impacts that arise from IT failure to an acceptable level for the customer. Managed Services are often designed to cover the customer's IT needs by providing full network coverage from their outsourced provider for a budgetable and predictable monthly fee. Imagine, a partnership that finally eliminates the surprises in IT costs.

Why do I need IT for my business?
The purpose of IT is to automate or enable business processes that will enable an organization to do something that otherwise couldn’t be done, or alternately would cost exponentially more to accomplish. Ultimately, it’s about creating productivity and business value – and the function of the IT organization (internal or external) with respect to that value is to ensure that existing systems continue to appropriately support and enable the business processes, and to recommend and deliver new solutions that will help the business drive more productivity and business value in new ways.

What are some benefits of outsourcing my IT?
Outsourcing your IT is a great way to promote growth in your company by offloading the tasks that are currently handled in-house by your “IT Savvy” employees and allow them to return their focus to the job they were originally hired for. Perhaps you or your boss have noticed this person spending too much of their productive time dealing with end-user issues or simply patching a complex IT issue creating today’s “workaround”, which turns into next month’s protocol, and next year’s crisis. Solution Builders handles the issues affecting your business in an efficient manner to eliminate your downtime and increase your employee productivity.

Another important aspect of outsourcing is the delivery of new IT services. It is often misunderstood in many industries that outsourced IT is simply a function of keeping your computers up and running. However, the true outsourcing relationship between you and your IT provider should evolve into a true strategic partnership, allowing them the ability to effectively recommend and deliver solutions to your company as you continue to grow the business.

Are there cost savings to outsourcing our IT?
Oftentimes, small companies with one or two internal IT staff find themselves paying for the expertise of two FTEs when they are only in need of 1 FTE, and to complicate your business needs even further, you find down the road that the FTE’s expertise does not cover the complete assortment of your IT components. Solution Builders outsourced IT packages are designed to cover your business needs so you are able to budget your IT spending on the work that needs to get done to support your business.

What is the average life expectancy of a workstation, laptop and server?
This is one of the most asked questions we receive and the equation is quite simple; your company should plan on using a workstation or laptop anywhere from 3-5 years. At this point the hardware might begin to encounter some hardware flaws that are more costly to individually replace versus buying a completely new unit. However, most frequently, the applications you run your business on will evolve to a level where they need more RAM, faster processors or more capacity to store and run the critical data from.

Servers are very similar in their lifecycles, however, one of the benefits of working with a competent solution provider like Solution Builders, is we have the staff that can reallocate your existing server to function as another part of your network. As your company grows, so will the needs for new IT solutions.

What exactly is Spyware?
Spyware is a type of software which makes its way onto your computer through a legitimate means by disguising itself as something useful, such as a search toolbar, weather program, or a fun new screensaver. However, it often has a hidden agenda: displaying pop-up ads, collecting data about your searches online, and other annoying and unsafe activities.

Spyware can be tricky to remove, but Solution Builders can help. Remember, the best defense against spyware is having smart browsing habits and being informed about what you download and install on your PC.

Thinking about Vista?
Windows Vista is Microsoft’s latest offering in its line of desktop operating systems, and heavy advertising and incentives towards vendors hope to have it replace Windows XP as the platform on which your business software runs.

Vista looks nice, runs well on modern systems, and offers some very nice security and administration features that XP does not. So why aren’t businesses jumping on it? Unfortunately, Vista is more resource-intensive than Windows XP and is not compatible with many older computers and peripherals, such as printers or scanners.If your business has its eye on some of the great features that Vista has to offer, Solution Builders suggests checking with the vendors of your computers, printers, and software applications to make sure they are all certified to work with Windows Vista.

Also, if you’re in the market for new computers, keep in mind that many manufacturers no longer preinstall Windows XP on their new PCs and laptops. However, you can usually obtain for a set of downgrade discs – these are a set of CDs that will allow you to install Windows XP on your new Vista PC or laptop at no extra cost. Even if you aren’t sure if you’ll need them, Solution Builders recommends asking your computer manufacturer for a set just in case.

What are the differences in Microsoft Office Licenses?
Microsoft Office 2007, the latest version of the industry-standard business productivity suite, comes in several different flavors. You may wish to know the differences between them to help decide which one is best for your business.

• Office 2007 Standard is the basic Office suite and contains the four cornerstone applications:
  • Word for document creation and editing,
  • PowerPoint for presentations,
  • Excel for spreadsheets, and
  • Outlook for email, contacts, and calendaring.
• Office 2007 Small Business contains all of the above and adds:
  • Accounting Express, an accounting application for small businesses, and
  • Publisher, a tool used to create newsletters, brochures, flyers, and marketing publications.
• Office 2007 Professional takes it one step further with:
  • Access, a powerful database tool used for tracking, reporting, and sharing information.

Cost savings can be realized by only purchasing the version of Office that contains the applications you need, but did you know that you can actually save money by ordering Office with your new computer as well? Microsoft Office OEM licensing is a special program that allows Office to be obtained at a lower cost by ordering it preinstalled on new computers. Ask us about it with your next PC order—you’ll save hundreds!