June 2020 - FIT Solutions

Measuring KPIs: Do Your Actions Align With Your Vision?

Posted on June 25, 2020September 7, 2021 by CT Team

From the FIT Leadership Team

We always strive to be fair, both to our clients and to our employees, and to create the best environment in which to work. We also strongly believe in bringing what makes this team wonderful to more businesses without compromising on quality. To accomplish that, we need to grow—both in quantity and quality.

As some of our most senior employees will tell you, FIT Solutions has always been on a growth trajectory. From our ‘garage-operation’ days until now, we’ve consistently looked for ways to grow and improve. There is no point where you have nothing left to learn or improve, so as the leadership team, we try to set an example of taking in knowledge, seeking out counsel and coaching, and holding ourselves to a higher standard every day.

As part of that constant refinement process, over the last year we’ve put increased focus on strengthening the foundation of our organization: our vision, our mission, and our core values. These make us who we are as a company, shape our team, and define more clearly our passion for solving business problems for our clients. Having the entire team on the same page when it comes to where we’re headed and how we plan to get there has been of immeasurable value.

With growth, though, often comes growing pains. We do our best to take these as the positive indicators they are of movement in the right direction. One of our core values is to stay humble and adaptable. The humility is essential to recognize where we have room for improvement, and the adaptability is vital to survive and thrive in an ever-evolving technological landscape. Those qualities are what move us to seek out opportunities to better ourselves as leaders, as partners, and as problem-solvers.

Over the past few months, we’ve been examining how we track and achieve goals within our organization. Exercising that core value of humility helped us to identify the need for an adjustment.

As humans, what we believe in and what we care about don’t always align with our behavior. For example, we may be interested in being healthy, and we may believe strongly that being fit or exercising regularly is important for good health—but are we acting in harmony with that belief? Do we take regular, methodical action to improve our diet or exercise routine? This is not always the case.

Similarly, the things we believe in at FIT—growth, adapting, creating the best environment—are not always evidenced by our actions. To be clear, we’re not talking about our team! We love our people and are very proud of everything they do. Rather, what we’re discussing here is a commitment by us, as the leadership team, to align our actions more closely with our vision.

Successful sports teams are often spoke of as being “tight”: operating like clockwork, moving efficiently and effectively, not wasting time or energy on actions that don’t align with the ultimate goal of winning. A team gets “tight” when its coach sets clear expectations and motivates his players to meet and exceed these goals. Why are the best athletes drawn to such a coach? Because through that guidance, players are able to achieve far more than they thought possible. A great coach helps athletes refine their skills and makes a workable environment for improvement and success.

Setting clear expectations and goals for our team members dignifies each individual and allows for constructive conversation. We encourage each employee to make a habit of regularly writing down their goals—personal, professional, and financial—and discussing these with their team lead in 1×1 meetings to see how FIT can help them reach those goals.

In line with this, we are introducing new KPIs, or key performance indicators, for each department and team. We already have some KPIs in place, but they are not always closely aligned with our vision and with the specific goals of each department. Returning to our sports example, the entire team may follow a common workout regimen. But if the quarterback’s goal is to get more touchdowns, and we know that running sprints gives him an edge on the field, then having him run sprints is in harmony with that goal. At first it may feel uncomfortable or difficult, but with practice, it becomes habit, improving his on-field performance.

At the end of the day, our ultimate goal is to do right by the people that depend on us—our clients and partners, our employees and their families, and our clients’ employees and families. In everything we do, we keep in mind the responsibility that we have towards this multitude of people.

If you are looking for an elite IT partner that is committed to catapulting your business to success, give us a call today at 888-339-5694.

“I’ve Got an IT Team; Why Do I Need a Managed Service Provider?”

Posted on June 17, 2020September 7, 2021 by CT Team

We hear this from organizations pretty often; they have an internal IT resource, so they find it hard to justify partnering with a managed service provider, or MSP. Often, this is because people think that an MSP is designed to replace their IT department. However, an MSP can also be used as an extension of your internal team to support their work.

Why Does Your IT Team Need Support?

In short, it’s often impossible for small IT teams to have every specialization required by today’s ever-evolving technological landscape. Even the best engineers can’t be experts in everything; there’s just too much information out there.

This means that new projects and initiatives often require extensive research, trial and training before they can be completed. But your team’s day-to-day is already filled with end-user requests, operational maintenance, outage resolution and everything else they do to keep your business running smoothly. Keeping up with your business’ immediate needs is a full-time job, which forces your internal IT team to be primarily reactive, rather than proactive.

How an MSP Can Help

A managed service provider becomes an extension of your existing team, supporting them in these critical areas:

Filling knowledge gaps: We have 25 engineers, supporting a user base of about 7,500 across different industries and verticals. With this exposure, we’ve gained expertise on about a hundred IT enterprise toolsets and processes, making us a valuable and extensive knowledge base for your team.
Automating operational tasks: Automation of tools and processes covers a wide range of business operations, from managing desktops and alerts to installing upgrades and applying patches.
Increasing efficiency: By automating, documenting and streamlining your environment, we help IT departments increase their efficiency by 40%.
Access to enterprise-level toolsets: Enterprise-level toolsets for documentation, network monitoring, ticketing, and patching are usually prohibitively expensive for a small-to-medium-sized business. As an MSP, we’re able to leverage economies of scale to help businesses not just afford these toolsets, but also get the most out of them.
Project Support: Since your IT team is busy with the day-to-day tasks, there is little time to research and accomplish different projects for your organization. By automating tasks and providing expert support, we make everything else easier so your team can focus on those projects.
Proactive Technology Business Planning: We look for ways to apply technology to improve your operations, reduce costs, and boost efficiency. Every quarter, we put together a customized Technology Business Plan, which looks at your current environment and where improvements can be made while keeping within your budget. In fact, many of the recommendations don’t cost anything.

If you’re ready to take your department to the next level by partnering with a managed service provider, call FIT Solutions today at 888-339-5694 or email us here.

5 Reasons to Reexamine Your Connectivity Plan

Posted on June 11, 2020September 7, 2021 by CT Team

When someone begins an IT services contract with us, our first step is to gather information about their current business and IT environment. Often, this discovery phase uncovers a disconnect in their communications situation. Here are five common pain points we see:

Pain Points

Network Performance: The efficiency of your organization depends to a large extent on the efficiency of its network and applications. If your applications are running slowly or freezing up, this can irritate and slow down your workforce.
Scaled Growth: Whether it’s meeting the user maximum on a VoIP plan, needing more physical phonelines for your in-office staff, or creating dedicated lines for clients, are you struggling to make your connectivity plan work for the current reality of your organization? The plan that worked for you when the contract was signed three years ago may not support the bandwidth needs of the user base you have now.
Overpaying: We often find that better plans have become available but the provider is not notifying the client, so you’re paying more than necessary for their services. On top of that, when your contract with a provider expires, most of the time they jack up your rate to motivate you to sign another deal.
Downtime: What does one hour of downtime cost your business? If you have a team of 20, and we figure your average hourly cost for this team is $1,000, one hour of downtime is roughly ten times more expensive than paying for a redundant cable connection. A company may be struggling with frequent downtime without understanding that it’s directly tied to an outdated or insufficient connectivity solution. At healthcare facilities, for example, admissions, medication orders, medical records, guest Wi-Fi—all of it depends on your Internet and phone lines. If they go down, this can directly affect your revenue and your compliance status.
Mobility: Do you have a mobile workforce and find your communication solutions lacking in field applications or support? Especially in the wake of the pandemic, many organizations are moving to a work-from-home arrangement, and are scrambling to keep their team communicating, both internally and with customers.

How We Can Help

If your organization is struggling in one of these areas, we have a five-step process to help.

Discovery: We start by collecting information. What is and is not working well? What system(s) are you currently using? Why are you looking for a change?
Research: This is a big part of the value of our partnership. We navigate the telecom landscape for you, conducting extensive research on what options or alternate providers are available in your area. Who provides physical service to your building? What plan sizes are offered? We compile all of this into a spreadsheet to help you compare your options.
Review: We go over the pros and cons of each option, set up webinars or demos with providers, request a proposal from chosen providers, and review those with you as well. We then negotiate with the provider to make sure we have the best promotions and are getting you the best services at the best possible price.
Implementation: We will manage the implementation process all the way to the final sign-off. From billing to design to installation to training your team on the new system, we are your partner and advocate in dealing with the provider.
Post-sale support: We don’t stop once you’re up and running; if you have any technical support needs, we work with the provider on your behalf and hold them accountable for a timely fix.

With an optimized connectivity solution, you’ll see these benefits:

Better application performance: Increased bandwidth can eliminate packet loss, latency & jitter.
Minimized downtime: Building true redundancy into the network by setting up primary & secondary connections cuts down on costs and compliance issues.
Expense management: By negotiating a better rate or finding a better plan for you, we help you redirect your budget dollars toward other organizational goals.
Expert assistance: We know the industry and the system; put our expertise to work for you to get you the best bang for your buck.

FIT Solutions and our partners work to provide elite IT services to organizations. Give us a call today at 888-339-5694 or contact us here to see how we can improve your business environment.

Why Firewall and Antivirus Aren’t Enough to Secure Your Business

Posted on June 2, 2020September 7, 2021 by CT Team

“I have a firewall and antivirus, so I’m secure, right?” We hear this question from companies all the time. The answer is, that’s a great start, but you’re not quite done. Why not? To find out, let’s take a closer look at these two security measures.

What Does a Firewall Do?

A firewall is a program on your network that acts as gatekeeper, monitoring the inbound and outbound traffic. If you think of your business like a bank, the firewall would be like the security guard stationed at the entrance that prevents unwanted intruders from entering. That sounds like a pretty good system, until you consider a few drawbacks of firewalls.

Firewalls operate based on predetermined rules. If someone figures out what those rules are, it’s not that hard to outsmart the firewall. In our bank example, your security guard may be instructed to turn away anyone in a red hat. Knowing this, the intruder wears a blue hat instead and is allowed to enter.
A firewall is a reactive, problem-by-problem solution. It reacts to the immediate threat; it doesn’t look ahead to see the next approaching threat. The effectiveness of your firewall depends on those preset rules to block attacks, so if you’re not proactively watching the latest cyberthreats (and installing regular updates), it can’t fully do its job. This can leave you vulnerable to viruses or other cyberthreats.
Your firewall protects your office network. If your employees access work emails or files from their personal devices, they can take that data outside of your company network. This has become a bigger threat with the recent pandemic-driven increases in work-from-home arrangements. Pandemic aside, though, if your employees conduct work outside of the office, perhaps using hotel Wi-Fi on a business trip, your company data could now be exposed on an unsecured network—where your firewall can’t protect it.
Firewalls can’t stop user error. Criminals have a whole gamut of tricks for penetrating your system. Social engineering and phishing attacks in particular can completely sidestep your external defenses by targeting internal users. If one of your users unknowingly clicks a malicious link, your entire network could be shut down.

Does this mean you shouldn’t use a firewall? Absolutely you should; having a security guard with limited power is better than having none at all. We just want to make it clear why businesses shouldn’t entrust the safety of their data solely to their firewall.

What About Antivirus?

Antivirus is software that can prevent, detect, and remove malware. In our banking example, this would be like another security guard that makes regular rounds inside the bank, looking for suspicious activity. There are different kinds of antivirus software:

Malware signature antivirus: This type scans for the digital fingerprint of a malicious program, known as a signature. The antivirus software comes preloaded with thousands of signatures, allowing the software to quickly identify and dispose of a threat that matches one from its database.
System monitoring antivirus: This software identifies malware by looking for suspicious or unusual behavior—for example, if a user tries to access an unfamiliar website, or starts using significantly more data than usual.
Machine-learning antivirus: Machine-learning pools data from multiple antivirus programs to recognize threats that it hasn’t seen before—an advantage over signature-based antivirus.

Given these abilities, why does antivirus not cover all the bases?

Signature-based antivirus can only protect you against the threats that were programmed into it. It has no defenses against new threats or zero-day exploits.
There are plenty of free antivirus software programs out there, and, while better than nothing, their database of malware signatures to check against is usually quite small. This drastically reduces the amount of threats it can protect you against.
Antivirus doesn’t protect users against phishing attacks. A 2020 report by Check Point Research found that 65% of US organizations suffered a successful phishing attack in 2019—that’s two out of every three businesses!
Most users don’t have antivirus on their phones or tablets, potentially leaving their device—and your network—vulnerable to attack.
Cybercriminals represent the dark side of human ingenuity. They’re creative, constantly looking for new ways to get around your antivirus and firewall defenses. Even machine-learning antivirus software relies on combinations of data points. If an attacker figures out what combination will alert your antivirus to his presence, all he has to do is change one data point to trick it into marking him as legitimate traffic.

What You Can Do

Update your firewall and antivirus regularly. Software patches and updates serve to reduce your system’s vulnerability and increase your software’s ability to identify and repel attacks.
Develop a multi-layer security program. To return to the bank illustration, which bank would you trust with your money? A bank with one aged security guard? Or one with a whole patrol of security guards, cameras, alarm systems, biometric locks, and a dedicated monitoring team? Every security measure you add—SIEM, traffic analyzer, log management, SOC services, etc.—makes your organization that much stronger and more secure.
Provide regular awareness training for your employees. Modern phishing and social engineering attacks are very sophisticated, and can be hard to identify. Just like your firewall and antivirus need to be updated frequently to stay effective, so does your team. A structured training program, either monthly or quarterly, can help your team recognize and repel attacks on your network.
Don’t ‘set it and forget it’. Overconfidence or the feeling that you’ve already taken steps to defend your network can lull you into a false sense of security. Criminals are constantly testing new attacks, which calls for constant vigilance on our part to keep our defenses up to date. A third-party firm can conduct a social engineering campaign or penetration test for your organization to identify areas for improvement in your network or team.

FIT Solutions provides IT services, including cybersecurity packages. If you need an IT environment that scales with you, give us a call today at 888-339-5694 or contact us here.

Month: June 2020