CoreTech Blog

In recent years, several workplace trends have emerged that many employers find challenging. One such trend is "quiet quitting," where employees do only the bare minimum required to keep their jobs. A more recent trend is to "act your wage."

If you have recently started a partnership to Integrate Co-Managed IT services with your business, congratulations! This decision can significantly enhance your IT capabilities and security. In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, where cyber threats are ever-present, such as the recent Microsoft attack, having a robust IT strategy is more critical than ever. Many organizations find that their internal IT teams are often stretched to their limits. By integrating co-managed IT, your staff can get some well-deserved relief while your business thrives like never before.

With technology being such a massive part of business today, many organizations are looking to use it to their advantage. One aspect of the business that is increasingly significant is their ability to stand out amongst their competition. Let’s take a look at a few technologies that can improve your organizational marketing efforts.

A recent report from Check Point Research revealed a shocking statistic – the Microsoft-owned business platform LinkedIn is impersonated in nearly half of all phishing attacks globally.

One of the ways scammers leverage LinkedIn to deploy their phishing attack is when they zero in on anyone seeking a new job or career change. While e-mails like “You have 1 new invitation” or “Your profile has been viewed by 63 people” can be authentic, it’s critical to verify the e-mail address it’s sent from to ensure that it’s genuinely from LinkedIn. These impersonators will send e-mails that look identical to the real ones, with links to fake LinkedIn pages that will rip off your information as soon as you enter it.

Technology is an essential part of most business operations nowadays, regardless of the size of the business… and how that size may change over time. As such, it is essential that the infrastructure that supports this IT can adapt to these swells and declines.

Let’s discuss why it is so important that your IT infrastructure fits your business and a few best practices for tailoring it.

Businesses are constantly trying to find a way to best use their data. Whether it is creating a business intelligence strategy, integrating artificial intelligence, or for simple analytics, without having accurate, reliable data, the insights you derive can be misleading and end up costing you. That’s why it is important to know how to scrub or clean your data. Having access to clean data is essential for anyone involved in business intelligence or AI. Today, we will discuss the issue and give you a simple guide to help you get started.

IT is an integral part of any business today. It doesn’t matter if you are in an industry that seems to have nothing to do with IT, like retail, healthcare, or catering. In our technology-driven world, every business needs an efficient IT infrastructure to thrive with the help of co-managed IT. 

Perhaps you have an in-house IT team, but do they have all the skills necessary to ensure your network stays in top condition? Will they be able to guarantee your data’s security amidst the rampant online threats? Can they handle specialized technology requirements? Your staff might be good but it’s unlikely they are adept in every single area of IT. This is why co-managed IT is a highly recommended choice.

Benefits of Co-Managed IT for Your Business

The list of co-managed IT benefits is quite long. Just to give you an idea of what you are missing out on, here are some of the most noteworthy.

Wider Range of Expertise

Partnering with an MSP for your IT needs gives you access to all kinds of skills and resources. These skills are things that your in-house staff might not have. When you switch to co-managed IT, you are not giving up your in-house team at all. You are simply getting external support to fill in the gaps and ensure that all technology issues are immediately fixed.

Reduced Expenses with Co-Managed IT

Adding co-managed IT services will cost your business extra. However, it won’t nearly be as much as that of fully managed services, and the payback is very much worth it. They can provide a range of cost-saving IT solutions, allowing you to allocate a bigger budget to other areas of your business.

Access to 24/7 Support

In-house staff normally work regular office hours. When something happens to your network or you need any kind of support outside these hours, you probably won’t even know until it’s too late. On the other hand, co-managed IT can include round-the-clock monitoring and support. With co-managed IT you and your staff can enjoy weekends and holidays without worrying about business matters. 

Enhanced Network Security 

The more layers of security your network has, the better protected it will be against cyber criminals. Your in-house team can provide the first line of defense against hackers. An MSP can take charge of deeper and more sophisticated security measures, which are sure to adhere to industry standards.

Final Thoughts on Co-Managed IT

With the right co-managed IT services provider, your IT team will have a skilled and reliable partner in managing your organization’s technology needs. Problems get resolved faster, security will be at its peak, and your business will be updated on IT advancements.

These are just a handful of the benefits that you can enjoy. Discover the many other ways that co-managed IT can help your business by checking out our Essential Guide to Co-Managed IT. We can hook you up with a co-managed IT partner that’s perfect for your needs. 

Productivity is extremely important for your business' ability to generate revenue and maintain consistent performance. Interestingly, many businesses face similar productivity challenges over time. What can small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) do to improve productivity when it starts to decline? Let's take a look at some strategies to keep productivity high. 

Summer is a popular time for business owners and employees to step out of the office and take a well-deserved vacation. Even if their “out of office” e-mail responder is active, many people will periodically check in on work at least once while traveling. Unfortunately, studies show that working outside of the office – whether it’s a few simple check-ins on vacation, connecting to the Internet at a local coffee shop or even business travelers out on work trips – can lead to major cybersecurity issues. If you or your employees will be answering urgent e-mails from the airport or accessing network documents in the hotel lobby, it’s essential to maintain strong cybersecurity best practices to avoid exposing the company’s network to hackers preying nearby.

You can do everything in your power to secure your social media accounts and lock down your privacy settings. Still, at the end of the day, social media users expose themselves to a torrent of information and content every time they log on. As a civilization, we’ve never really had something like this before. These platforms curate content that the user wants to see to keep the user coming back and staying longer. It’s inherently designed to be enticing and addicting, which is dangerous for certain individuals.

Then, there are scams and an endless stream of grifts that pose a wide range of additional problems for users.

Let’s talk about ways you and those you care about can be safer on social media.

It’s no secret that things are more expensive nowadays, making it important that businesses have access to the technology needed to generate revenue. Without this access, a business suffers downtime and all the challenges it brings… not something you want to do.

Let’s consider why downtime happens, the scale of its costs, and what can be done to avoid it.

We all want our businesses to succeed… that’s generally the point of running one. However, this will require you to set the right goals and do so correctly.

Let’s walk through the process you should follow to accomplish this.

Are you overwhelmed by IT issues that take time away from your core business? Do you worry about the efficiency of your internal IT team? If you answered yes to either of these questions, then maybe it’s time you considered co-managed IT solutions. Hundreds of businesses around the world have already made the shift, and many of them are now thriving because of it. But what are co-managed IT solutions anyway, and why does everybody seem to be getting in on it?

The massive wave of layoffs in 2024 brings a cybersecurity threat that most business owners aren’t focusing on – offboarding employees. Even big-time brands that you would expect to have top-of-the-line cybersecurity systems, processes and procedures in place fail to adequately protect themselves from insider threats. This August marks a year since two disgruntled Tesla employees went rogue after being let go and exposed the personal information – including names, addresses, phone numbers and even the Social Security numbers – of over 75,000 people, including employees.

Social media is constantly evolving, and if the big social networks had it their way, it would be the only place people go when they log onto the Internet. Whether you have strong feelings for or against social media, or perhaps you are indifferent, it’s important to understand how to protect yourself when using social media.

Have you ever seen the file types that look like normal folders, but they have a zipper on the icon? These are ZIP files, and they are helpful for a variety of reasons. We’re sure you have encountered zipped files throughout your time using technology, and today, we want to demystify them a little bit and show you how to use them effectively.

A recent stream of Reddit comments emerged detailing a series of poor customer service experiences with tech support. While I typically try to stay clear of Reddit and its gang of chronic whiny-pants commenters, I scrolled through a few, you know, for research purposes since I’m in the industry. A few of the complaints sounded so outlandish – like the lady who claimed the technician took a bathroom break in her attic – that it almost seemed impossible they could be true. However, other more common issues on the thread I’ve experienced myself, and to be candid with you, they sucked!

While AI is far from perfect, I always love discovering ways that it can help do something mundane and speed up a workflow here or there. I’m no expert in Photoshop either, so if I need to edit something, I usually depend on someone with a little more experience, but this was a really neat trick I was able to do in just a few minutes!

Passwords have long been one of the central pillars of account security on the Internet. Combined with a username, they make up the foundation of most login systems. Because of this, they are a hot commodity for hackers who want to steal credentials and infiltrate accounts or networks. In recent years, however, other security measures have exposed the weakness of poor passwords for security, leading to the adoption of other measures.

Note taking apps are really useful and Microsoft OneNote is one of the most available and feature rich apps on the market for this use. You are probably familiar with the sticky note. They are notes that give a solid visual representation of items that workers need to be cognizant of for all types of processes. In today’s blog, we will go through the process of creating “sticky notes” in OneNote.