Dataprise at 20: Looking Back, Looking Forward

In March of 1995, I embarked on a journey to create a new IT services company that would help businesses stay connected, work more efficiently and grow through the use of new technologies. At the time, Microsoft Windows 95 was set to hit the market and many of my friends and colleagues had the same question, "How can I leverage emerging technologies like the internet, email, document management and so much more to help my business grow?” The answer to me was simple: find the right technology professionals to partner with you to understand and leverage these technologies efficiently and affordably, and together, we would help businesses reach their potential to become unstoppable!

8 Reasons a Solid IT Department is Essential to Business Growth

When it comes to budgeting, IT is often seen as a necessary evil to many CFOs and COOs. However, by lacking a solid foundation in IT, business leaders are surrendering key competitive advantages and slowing the growth of their own companies. Understanding technology is a crucial factor in business performance - here are eight reasons for creating and maintaining a strong IT department:

6 Features That Make an MSP Change Worthwhile

For many small and mid-sized companies, a partnership with a managed service provider (MSP) can seem like a freight train: inevitable, too big to divert, and disastrous if it gets derailed. This "too big to budge" mindset forces many companies into maintaining vendor relationships that have either stopped being beneficial or were not that beneficial to begin with. Switching to a different MSP can seem like a massive proposition. However, these six features can help a company's IT infrastructure enough to offset any costs that come along with the switch.

Should Your Small Business Choose a Larger MSP?

Small businesses often feel that they need to look for vendors that are similar in size to them. When many small business owners go shopping for a managed service provider, they often write off large companies immediately. This usually comes with many justifications: "We can't afford them anyway", or "They won't care about a business as small as mine", or even "They don't understand the needs of a small business." While we can't speak about other fields, in the MSP arena nothing could be further from the truth.

There are many good reasons to go with a smaller provider for your managed service needs; however, most of them are just as true at large MSPs. In fact, there are a lot more advantages to going with a larger MSP than a smaller one. Not only will you get a much higher level of service with a larger MSP, you will also get more personal and individualized service.

5 Ways a vCIO Can Make Your Company More Efficient

The push to outsource IT infrastructure from companies has often been characterized in terms of technicians and engineers, workstations and servers. More recently, however, the push for a more efficient and proactive IT management paradigm has led many companies, especially small and mid-sized ones, to consider outsourcing their technology needs all the way up to the top. This has led to the creation of the vCIO, or virtual Chief Information Officer. This position helps companies that can't necessarily afford another full-time C-level executive be able to compete on an equal playing field with much larger organizations. Here are five benefits of hiring a vCIO for your business:

The Ins and Outs of Outsourcing

The last few decades have turned efficiency into the must-have virtue for growing companies. The quest to get more out of less has led many businesses to look at outsourcing tasks and departments that don't fit within their core functions. One area where outsourcing continues to make a huge difference is IT management. Growing businesses of all kinds have enough on their plates managing their revenue generating activities, so it makes sense to try to move as much of the non-revenue generating tasks away from in-house departments as possible.

5 Tips for Managing a Move to the Cloud

Day after day, more growing businesses are feeling comfortable moving all or part of their IT operations to the cloud. Advances in security, usability, and added features are driving a strong migration towards outsourced services. However, moving to the cloud isn’t an easy feat for an organization to pull off. Doing so requires a high degree of detail management, coordination, and planning, and can easily go wrong if that attention isn't given. Still, the advantages of relocating some of your functions to the cloud far outweigh the difficulty making it happen. In fact, with good planning and management, the transition can be entirely painless and seamless. To help your business get started, here are five tips for managing your company’s cloud-bound move.

1. Decide What Services You Want to Move to the Cloud

Not everything your organization does needs to be moved to the cloud, nor does everything need to be moved at the same time. The best place to begin a cloud migration is to identify a small group of services that make the most sense to migrate, and start there. Usually, the more invisible a service or function is, the easier the migration will be. Using that logic, it makes sense to get your feet wet with behind-the-scenes services that can be moved without causing major disruption, like data backups or hosting.

2014 Resolution: Keep Your Network Security Up-to-Date

2013 brought reports of several massive security breaches including the hacking of 40 million Target customer’s credit card accounts and 2 million hijacked passwords from Gmail, Facebook and Twitter.

The Clock is Ticking; Windows XP and Office 2003

There’s no time like the present to jump on the Windows 7 or 8 bandwagon, especially after Microsoft announced that they will be discontinuing their support services for Windows XP. This comes as no surprise, considering it’s been more than ten years since the operating system came out—which is an eon in the tech world. Technology is always changing, and now it’s time to get current. Let’s not forget about Windows’ inseparable bundle, Office. Whether you use Excel at home for your finances or Outlook at the office, for most of us Office is a key part of our lives. So what’s the big fear of upgrading to Windows 7/8,  Office 2013, or Office 365?

Why you Need a Service Desk & How it’s Different from a Help Desk

For many years, the help desk and the service desk had no significant differences. It wasn’t until Information Technology International Library (ITIL) released its 2007 edition that the distinct differences were made visible, defining a more holistic perspective on the full life-cycle of IT services, and where the service & help desk fits in.