Can IT Infrastructure Aids E-Commerce Business?

To whatever region you belong to, the current online retail market is continually surprising being steered by a swift increase in the aggregate number of online purchasers and the online expenses of the individual purchaser. The retailers that are only interacted via the online channel usually govern the markets. Since the conventional retailers have taken into account the e-commerce element, the increased number of active retailers are switching to e-commerce that involves both the multinational and local companies. To support the businesses in a much better way, the e-commerce businesses adopt the technology while the infrastructure and operations experts confront the following challenges:

• Data sharing, server efficacy and storage capacity sometimes become unable to continue with the business growth
• Clients getting a poor experience due to an increase in the overall online traffic which is overloading the infrastructure
• Conventional analytics being overloaded by social media information

Below, we will discuss some tips on how to optimise IT infrastructure for e-commerce. Most businesses do great in online market while the report has been analysed that indicate the key practices adopted by the companies so to implement that could aid in supporting the corporations:

Image Credit - NorthStar Technology Group

Linking Business Goals by Making a Predictive IT Model Based on Data Analysis

Predictive Models are essential tools that are used by the infrastructure and operations professionals to recognise the current state of their IT infrastructure that could enable them to plan appropriately for the coming year. Such teams need to involve business leaders to ascertain their needs, examine IT resource data that is taken from the third parties and business leaders while 20% of the IT infrastructure is assigned as a substitute resource so it can help in business growth.

Implementing the Combined Infrastructure for Online Trading and Enlisted User Data

Combined or converged infrastructure helps a great deal in improving the capability to transform, extract and load the data numerous times. IT traffic volumes and business decisions can be forecasted or made by extracting the values from the data. Combined infrastructure can serve as a primary part of the big data platform.

Implanting a Programmed Price Intelligence Solution to Develop Competitive Advantage

The programmed price intelligence solution can encapsulate, store and analyse price info from different e-commerce websites in real-time. To regulate the price of the products, this price intelligence solution helps a great deal as it enables to stay competitive while improving the overall gross margin in a strong competitive e-commerce market.

How to Retain Best Employees

Whether they are IT recruitment agencies or any other firm, retention of employees always leads to a business success. As per the new survey, more than five percent of the people from the last year are planning to change their jobs in the year 2016. This increase is much more between the age of approximately 18 and 34 years, and it has been observed that this figure is increasing on a yearly basis.

For some people, that might not be a big deal but in actual, the loss that the companies face in the shape of employee turnover costs as much as 30 to 50 percent of the staff members' yearly salary. People do not analyse that the frequent resignations of the staff members lower the morale and productivity of the others. Moreover, it sometimes happens that the employees who are satisfied with their job also look for the new work and designations. To retain the employees, it is crucial for the companies to hold on with the staffs' needs and challenge them with the tasks assigned to them so that it can be proved meaningful to them. In order to retain the best employees, here we are giving some suggestions. For instance,

Understand What Matters for the Employees To whatever industry does your business belong to, every employee needs affordable benefits, a great boss, stability in the job with a good working environment and culture. For them, all these factors hold great importance compared to the salary. When it comes to employers, they can conduct confidential surveys so to know about each employee's job satisfaction criterion. Likewise, the company can discuss with the top talent to know about the concerns of the employees. This may help their team to function appropriately and be the happier one.

Give Priority to Internal Hiring The recent surveys conducted in 2016 have discovered that internal hiring can play an important role in the retention of employees. But unfortunately, this has always been put on the lower side of the priority scale. Very few companies accept this fact that internal hiring is vital in making the strategies and retains the employees if prioritised in an appropriate way. IT recruitment specialists well understand that maintaining and strengthening relationships with the employees after recruiting through the internal hiring can help in keeping the staff members in the pipeline for a longer term.

Consider the Perks That Could Relieve Them No doubt that the companies cannot offer all the perks to the employees but some of the common perks may be granted to let the employees feel relaxed and working with a complete peace of mind. Subject to the nature of your business, if the employees are allowed to wear jeans and are offered half days on Fridays, these small benefits can really value them and bring fruitful results.

Have Believe on Your Staff Members For any employee, that job matters the most where it can grow and learn. There is no doubt that sometimes it means taking a big risk and coming out of your comfort zone. By giving your employee(s) a genuine and extended assignment, it means that you are trusting and motivating them and enabling them to grow over here, ensuring them that they will be rewarded immediately.

Develop Healthy Relationship with Employees Whether it's a top level employee or a junior staff member, the employers need to show that they truly care their employees and want to aid them in developing their professions. This helps employees and their families to go a long way with the companies. One of the best ways is to sit with the workers and discuss the future goals and objectives of the company. This may help the enterprise to keep the best talent.

Hire Smart Rather Than Hard People At some stage, companies have to hire new talent/staff member. When making a decision, make sure that the candidate you are going to hire is the best one, like-minded and matches well with the company culture. It will only be a one-time effort to look for the appropriate person for the specific designation. The right candidate usually prefers to remain in the job. Remember that if the employees feel secure, and they know that they can contribute at a higher level, they stay much longer and work more effectively. For this, you need to select the candidates that are compatible with the organisation's culture. Generally, such employees go a long way with the companies.

4 Things to Consider When Searching for the Recruitment Software

Your company is going to make recruitment for certain designations, and you need a recruitment software for this purpose. But the question is where you should take a start. There is no doubt that the market for recruitment software is overly crowded so it’s quite difficult to navigate or you may find it challenging to know what your company is actually looking for.

Before starting your search and planning for software, it is essential that you must take complete details from the IT recruitment agency. This is so because your team will manage the recruitment activities so you must ensure that it works for everyone meeting the overall business’s requirements.

A lot of struggle is being made by the businesses to find the ideal recruitment software. Below, we have listed four things that you should consider prior to starting a search:

Conduct a Meeting for Requirements

It is the primary step that you need to consider before starting a search. Have a detailed discussion with your team to know what biggest challenges you can face in recruitment. Lack of conversation on such a topic can slow the recruiting process. Once generating a list of the challenges that may be encountered in recruitment and any other feature(s) that may help in this respect, keep all points in mind during the search. You can change the track if you find the software working in an awesome manner.

Explore the Marketplace

To whatever you want to buy, do a thorough research of what is currently available in the market. Make appropriate documentation of the information that you will get from the vendors. With the research, you will be able to get the idea about pricing and what is your actual budget. This will aid you in deciding for your presentations and considering the expectations as what you can get with your money.

Reserve the Demo

If you really want to know how the software works, you should have a look at the different websites and brochures. Before finalising the software, reserve as much demos as possible so you can have an idea as to how each software functions. The inclusion of team members is necessary as these are the ones that will use the software on a frequent basis.

Disclose Your Info to Prospective Vendors

Share relevant information with your potential vendor regarding the kind of software and features you want in it within your specific budget. This will help the supplier to show you the appropriate options that match with your price range.

Getting a software from the vendor means that you are entering into a partnership, hence, be open and honest with your supplier so you can get the best software that you are searching for. 

What to Hire, Smarter or Harder People? [4 Tips]

Many of us would have experienced some success in life which they can associate it with their hard work. In the case of IT recruitment companies, they know the reality that besides hard work, it’s the personal connections that get you ahead of the competition. But in actual, when you are carrying out a campaign for recruiting the staff, you should not depend heavily on the connections to find the talent or categorise them on the basis of merely a CV or an interview. There are many other things that should also be focused if you truly want to hire smarter people rather than the harder ones. For instance,

Take Opinion from as many different People as you can

During the hiring process, the managers have to rely solely on the emotional feelings or personal preferences. Such happenings usually occur in the case of connection that the managers have with the applicant. It is appropriate to take opinion from different relevant people in an IT recruitment agency. This can help in limiting the risk of hiring the inappropriate candidate and come up with the reliable list of applicants.

Image Credit - Recruitment Agencies Melbourne

Take Sufficient Time to Make a Decision

Emotional feelings are unreliable particularly in the case of hiring the new candidate. How to make a right selection of the candidate is that schedule a second interview if essential so to know more about the candidate. This would help you in finalising your decision.

Never Overstate the Power of CV

No doubt that CVs are a great way of filtering the right candidates, yet they are not an alternative of face to face communication. CV only enables the manager to know the basic qualification while interaction makes a difference in the sense that it helps in knowing the person, and whether it is the suitable candidate for the available position or not.

Emphasise on Listening and Making Judgements

You can make discussions on the social media in an interview to know what ideas does the interviewee actually holds. Being a manager, you should keep yourself open minded while listening to the candidate and judging them as individuals.

By concentrating on the above common points during the hiring process, you can maximise the chances of hiring the smarter people rather than just recruiting the harder person(s).

How IT Support Services Ease Your Life [4 Methods]

In 2016 and the coming years, the companies will be focusing more on IT support as per the survey that was conducted in December last year. The businesses have now realised the importance of money and the ways it can be saved by upgrading the quality of the IT support in terms of resolving the issues and enhancing the response time. Below, we will discuss the attributes of IT support services and how it helps in making the life easier:

Improves Employee Productivity: To increase the productivity of the employees, you need to promote the IT support team. This usually brings faster response time, an improved infrastructure, experienced specialists and the techniques to handle the tickets. In other words, the employees can quickly come back to work since the network, and other IT related issues will be managed by the services provider.

Image Credit - B2C

Enhanced Client Experience: For any company, positive client experience matters the most. Every business invests a hefty amount so it can improve the customer experience rather than lose them. Enhanced IT support is the best way of improving the experience from the initial level. Remember that whenever issues are resolved in a faster way, it always indicates that the employees can deliver better services and response to the customers that reduces the hold time and increases the happy customers that will stick around for years. Old customers always worth more than the new ones because the new customers cost more while it’s easier to retain the existing ones.

Developed Company Culture: Hiring new people frequently seems costly to the companies while their turnover appears to be more expensive. The cost of continuous turnover of the employees is far more than improving and managing the IT support. Keep in mind that your company culture must be developed. Culture is not only limited to the office environment but the technology that is being provided to the employees at the work place.

Pre-Defined Metrics and Intelligence Related Issues: You must have pre-defined systems and standards in your company. Being a business owner, you need to understand how rapidly the staff’s request is being resolved, which technology is slowing down the employee’s productivity and what improvements can be made in the technology to lessen or eradicate the tickets of the help desk.

Appropriate IT support can help a great deal in running the organisational processes effectively. It’s quite obvious that if your employee will operate at 50% capacity, they will be unable to provide the services properly which in turn lose your clientele. Instead of losing customers, you can adopt a proactive approach to attain a better managed IT support in order to enhance the response and resolution time.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/tech-gadgets/4-ways-quality-support-makes-life-easier-01505583#RxEyyTJeisZGLLjX.97

How to Enhance Recruitment Process [6 Ways]

To whatever business you own, the appropriate recruitment process is required by every organisation so to get the ideal candidate(s) for the company. Even if it is the IT recruitment agency, it took years to get the expertise in the relevant field. Selection of the right candidate can bring numerous benefits to the company in the long run. Whether you are the hiring company or the recruiting manager, there are various ways to which we can enhance the recruitment process. Such improvement will aid in getting the desired applicant when you will place the offer of employment before them. Here, we will discuss the ways with which you can improve the recruiting process.

Customise Offer as per Applicant’s Criteria

Try to identify the job acceptance criteria of the applicant and then customise offers and processes that suit to both the parties.

Highlight Key Benefits of Job

There is a need to provide appropriate training to the hiring managers and recruiters so they can underline the key benefits to the applicants in the case of joining the company over their competitor.

Show Remarkable Company Impression

The first impression always counts whether it is the company or a candidate. The company needs to impress the candidate just like it is essential for the applicant to inspire the company.

Demand the Feedback

Feedback greatly aids in improving the business processes. Ask the applicant for the feedback. This will assist you in dealing with the problems at the earliest stage.

Deliver Important Company Info

When it comes to career, these choices are usually made individually. Disseminate essential company information by sending them the brochures or flyers that can high spot the advantages if the candidate works for your business.

Joining Call from Higher Management

Being a human, we all want to be respected and desired by others. Whether it’s the managing director or any person from the higher management, give a call to the candidate you have selected to show that you consider him/her as part of the team.

By following the above methods, you will get an opportunity to increase the chances of improving the recruitment process and acquiring a successful hiring.

Tips IT Recruitment Company Can Create New Customers [5 Tips]

In today’s time when the price of each and every commodity is touching the heights, nobody can survive without getting a sufficient livelihood. In such a case, people usually look for the IT recruitment companies that could provide them highly paid jobs. Likewise, such companies, even though are high performing recruiters, yet they frequently need tools that could help them in improving their business and profits that possibly can meet their expectations. As soon as the organisation stops producing more clientele, the business fails to achieve success. Below, we will discuss some tips that would enable the IT recruitment business to produce more clients.

Location: The primary step that you must take is to locate yourself as the IT recruitment specialist in the major search engines and all the possible print and social media. This is so because, in this way, your customers will be able to trust you and identify you as the known firm.

Advertise your Brand: Never forget to create an appealing logo for the business. This is what makes the branding easier in a segment where very few have the know-how about your products and services. If possible, hire a graphic designer as these are the experts and make logo designs with professionalism. It will not cost you much and give a good identity to your business.

Focus on Social Media: To whatever social media you are using whether related to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other platform, the primary purpose is to get connected with the new potential customers. Usually, the bigger companies create their profiles on social media to get interacted with the clients by means of groups. Social media helps in enhancing the means of communication among the people located in different regions and countries, thus bringing better future to the business.

Presentations and Trade Fairs: While focusing on networking, presentations and trade fairs are the points where hundreds to thousands of companies pay for demonstrating their products and services. What you need to do is spend quality time over there and search for the opportunities where you can throw and collect the business cards. This will bring fruitful results in the future.

Consider Email Marketing: If you truly want to reach the maximum targeted audience, you’ll need to consider the email marketing. Before delivering any email, make sure that it is effective in reading, or else, it may give a wrong company image to the people.

How to Resolve Major Windows 10 Issues

There is no doubt that the operating system of the Microsoft has gained true and much applause in the shape of Windows 10 because it has taken some big forward steps from Windows 7 to fix the wrong move of Windows 8. Though Windows 10 also have some imperfections, and we have to live with them for a few months, yet here, we will discuss those frustrations that are usually faced in upgrading the Windows, log in at extra screen and many more and how to fix them:

Problem in Upgrading from Windows 7 or Windows 8

Most of us would have observed the problems in upgrading to Windows 10 on perfectly compatible computers. Either the app doesn’t appear in the first place, delayed for any reason or failed to download. If Windows 7 or Windows 8 is already on your computer, you can try these fewer steps:

• Keep the PC up to date. Open the Control Panel and run Windows Update. If updates don’t work, run the Windows Update Troubleshooter.
• You can also use the Media Creation Tool. There is no need just to rely on the GWX. You can visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10, then click Download Tool, save the tool where you want and run it on your PC to upgrade. If still, it doesn’t work, try it again because the tool will have been enhanced at that time.
• Ensure that hardware Disable Execution Prevention (DEP) must be switched on in the BIOS that refers to the motherboard manual for assistance if you require it. If still, the issue prevails, you can use the Start Menu in order to search for the performance, run Adjust for appearance and performance of the Windows, click the Data Execution tab to On for all the programmes and services, reboot and then try again. 

Image Credit - IT Pro

Windows Update Is Not Working

While updating, many people have reported the problems in Windows 10. It is necessary to upgrade to Windows 10 Fall Update (that we have discussed above, number 2). If the problem prevails, you can download and run the Windows Update Troubleshooter. System Restore should be configured, and you need to create a restore point. After this, reboot the system and try to update it again.

Deactivate the Forced Updates

It might happen that for the previous Windows releases, you would have opt that it won’t install the updates automatically. Microsoft Windows 10 can efficiently manage the post-update reboots, yet we will still be in its control from the onset.

From the Start Menu, you need to look for the “gpedit” and run the Group Policy Editor. From the left-hand pane, you can expand the Computer Configuration and then navigate to Administrative Templates\ Windows Components\Windows Update. Now, you need to double click the Configure Automatic Updates in the list to choose the Enabled radio button and in the left-hand box, choose 2. Then select Notify for download and notify for install. Whenever there are updates, you will be notified.

You can take assistance from any IT services provider as to how to resolve various issues of the Microsoft Windows 10.

Source: http://www.itpro.co.uk/operating-systems/25802/ten-windows-10-problems-and-how-to-fix-them

Managed Services Will Be Transformed Via Machine Learning!

IT managed service providers are paying close attention to the big data analytics since it can encapsulate the huge amount of machine data that can diagnose various problems before their occurrence.

There is no doubt that in today’s time, the companies are having a wealth of IT innovations. Specifically, the two innovations have greatly captured the imagination of the managed service providers since they are looking for ways to initiate the higher levels of automation into the operations. Firstly, the increasing need for the big data analytics services can capture huge amounts of machine data which can be used to identify the possible problems before their occurrence. Secondly, due to technical advancement, the machine learning algorithms can assure to mechanise the IT operations at exceptional scale levels.

With the advancement in technologies, the top IT service providers in the UK are engaging themselves in a way that the services will be delivered round fixing the pricing models. This will allow the support providers to mechanise more and more processes so to retain profitability, as described by the senior vice president and head of the cloud infrastructure for Infosys, Samson David. Since today, the biggest problem of most MSPs is the financial resources and the cost of IT labour that they have to borne, the above advancements can assist in decreasing the number of IT professionals.

Infosys is making huge efforts to invest heavily in software so it can mechanise as many processes as possible in order to take thousands of professionals out of the process as stated by David.

The IT support services provider offering the amenities like cyber security are required to be pushed into the cloud. In the cloud, it will be easier for them to apply the big data analytics services in order to enhance the data-intensive processes, for instance, the security, as narrated by the President of Redhawk Network Security, an MSP based in Bend, Ore, Matthew Tirman. He told that the clients want to decrease the stress level and overhead of IT security for which they would have to find ways to be more cost effective.

Originally Posted by Michael Vizard

Source: http://www.channelinsider.com/managed-services/machine-learning-to-reshape-managed-services.html

Outside the Usual Disbelieves – Seaward IT Services

There is no doubt that people always look for the companies from where they can get the best IT services. This is the reason why the UK like previously, is again one of the best places for providing seaward IT and BPO services.

Offshoring IT support services is a common practice nowadays. Most organisations select various criteria to choose a specific destination that extends beyond the cost. While some companies prefer to get the advantages from numerous locations for distinct services in order to enhance the benefits of outsourcing.

It might happen that the UK based company have call centre services that they are providing from the UK due to the lower costs while the digital software development is being taken on from the Ukraine, application development and provision of services from any Middle East country to enhance the corporate responsibility.

Soviet Inheritance in Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the region that is putting up a fight besides many other countries like Poland, Romania, Ukraine and Moldova. The result of this fight has impacted most companies, for instance, the IT services firm T-Systems’s which was the UK based company, its former head Sam Kingston is now the COO of the Ukraine based Ciklum.

What Ciklum is aimed at is to assist the companies in finding and recruiting the IT staff in the Ukraine that has a huge software engineering skills set and offers office space to the clients in the operations at Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Spain and Belarus.

As per the statement of Kingston, the biggest market of Ciklum is the Denmark, US and Germany while its business in improving in the UK. According to him, the former Soviet Union used Ukraine to do a space research that benefited the IT industry. Several computer scientists and mathematicians have been reproduced, and now most of the Ukrainians are computer literate. Such an investment in people is enabling to deliver the potentials to meet the clients’ needs.

Source: http://www.computerweekly.com/news/4500271215/Offshoring-IT-services-Beyond-the-usual-suspects

Steel Orca Managed Services Provider Busted

Steel Orca Inc. is a Pennsylvania based managed services provider is planning to file for the bankruptcy since they have failed to transmute the defunct steel mill on the state border with the New Jersey into a new data centre as per the reports.

Steel Orca, which is providing a facility in the Princeton, New Jersey has willingly filed for the Chapter 7 bankruptcy at the start of the December. This information has been given as per the documents observed by the Data Centre Knowledge. Filing for the Chapter 7 bankruptcy means that the complete company’s assets will be transferred to a trustee before distributing them among the creditors.

In the Steel Orca’s case, New Jersey-based Atkinson & DeBartolo firm’s Bankruptcy Attorney Bunce Atkinson has been appointed as the trustee even though the officials had refused to talk about this.

Image Credit - Silicon Angle

In spite of the fact that the company was making several interesting moves in the last year, still the Steel Orca’s bankruptcy has been faced. Strategic partnership with Avaya Inc. has been proclaimed by the Steel Orca because they aimed to create the next generation software using the fabric based SDN architectures as defined by the data centre.

The company was also facing a high demand for the Linux and Oracle as a service solutions as explained by the Steel Orca’s CTO Larry Hess during the IBM Edge 2015.

Steel Orca had many big plans for its intended facility in the Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The old steel mill involved around 300, 000 square feet where the facility would have to be fueled by numerous local, renewable energy sources through which water from the Delaware River had been reserved for use in the cooling system.

Initially, the project was delayed prior to being cancelled completely for unexplained reasons. Keystone NAP LLC, another company, where Data Centre Knowledge has claimed that it had links with the Steel Orca’s President John Parker is currently creating its own data centre at the steel mill site.

Source: http://siliconangle.com/blog/2015/12/29/managed-services-provider-steel-orca-goes-bust/

Cloud Adopted by the Natural Resources Wales for IT Self-Service & Infrastructure Support

The consultant of Welsh Government’s environment is going to transfer the disaster recovery, application, and infrastructure support to the cloud in a bid so to strengthen the distinct systems individually.

As per the report, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is aiming to shift to a complete cloud based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system from Trustmarque, building on work in order to merge autonomous systems into a sole IT estate.

For this purpose, the Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has chosen Trustmarque through G-Cloud to execute Unit4 as its latest ERP platform while focusing on the combining of the ERP systems as it was working for the HR and finance on a particular platform. This was embarked on as part of the two-year contract extension with the company so to offer the full applications, disaster recovery, and infrastructure support.

Image Credit - Public Technology

It was further stated that while shifting of the ERP to the cloud was mainly emphasised; this step will also assist in creating a new self-service portal named “MyNRW” for the companies that have 2000 employees so they can easily continue their tasks like updating the personal information or accessing the pay slips digitally.

The NRW’s head of business support services, Paul Subacchi informed that the fabrication of NRW has developed into a complex and different IT estate while in the last two years, Trustmarque has greatly assisted in streamlining it. He further stated that their ERP system is extremely important for the company as it enables them to become well-organised while delivering greater functionality for self-service to the employees. He told that cloud is an essential part of the IT strategy, and the organisation requires a platform that is flexible, available, strong and safe so it can provide the ERP system.

In a statement, Trustmarque told that the level of security was vital to NRW because its ERP hold a significant amount of sensitive and complex data that mainly includes the supplier, employee and partner info.

Source: https://www.publictechnology.net/articles/news/natural-resources-wales-embraces-cloud-infrastructure-support-and-it-self-service

Two-Thirds of UK Firms Have Planned to Move Entire IT Infrastructure to the Cloud!

Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) has given a new report according to which almost two-thirds (63%) of the companies in the UK are devising strategies to shift their entire IT infrastructure to the Cloud.

It is a fact that the espousal rate of the Cloud amongst the UK businesses has remained unchanged from the preceding year. The research began in 2011, and the report reveals that the rate is still at 78% which is considerably higher than when the research was initiated. The report has disclosed that in the next two years, this adoption rate will increase to 85%.

The Cloud is used for minimum two services by more than 77% of the companies and used for five or more by one in eight (12%). The report revealed that the applications which are hosted in the Cloud are the web hosting (57%), e-commerce (53%), email (56%) and collaboration service (52%).

Since the Cloud offers flexibility so this is the primary reason why more than 77% of the companies decide to go for the Cloud. This has been revealed from the businesses after interrogation which they have quoted as their motivation to adopt the Cloud. 24/7 services dependence and scalability were scheduled as the other reasons, with 74% and 76% respectively.

As per the research, it has been found out that the cloud aids in achieving the business goals of innovation (45%), enhances client service (31%) and improves business continuity (37%). Alex Hilton, CEO of CIF stated that digital transformation has improved the businesses' agendas which are helping them to stay at the top of the competition.

Source: http://www.misco.co.uk/blog/news/03719/moving-entire-it-infrastructure-to-the-cloud-is-planned-by-two-thirds-of-uk-firms

How to Overwhelm the Top Security Apps with Managed Services

In what way does the organisation lower the security risks related to applications while still prioritising the productivity and the ways to manage the costs?

There are some applications that can easily access the most sensitive data and information while some have the ability to support the tactical business processes. Compared to network security, it has been observed that application security is receiving the less budget. This has made business leaders and security experts realised why hackers are attacking the applications. To reduce the risk of cyber attack that becomes successful in most of the cases, the majority of the security leaders are believing that the application security programmes should be enhanced.

According to the survey of 2014 by CompTIA, it has been analysed that the security problems are being mostly resolved with the help of managed services and around 47% of the companies are using them to report their cyber security needs. Here we will discuss the application security challenges that an organisation may face and how the managed services can overcome these risks:

Recruiting and Retaining the Security Experts is Challenging and Costly

As per the Cisco’s 2014 Annual Security Report, the internal security experts are searching for the new roles and are few in number while around 1 million IT security jobs are vacant all across the world. In the case if anybody is able to satisfy its role, the area of expertise that an employee may need can cover numerous domains as security software programmes develop, for instance, data protection, authentication, testing, encryption, bugs, design flaws, client side applications and many more. The companies are required to make investments in these domains in order to ensure that the new experts are up to date and performing to their full potential.

Image Credit - Infosecurity

Quick Responses to Change is a Necessity

Whether it’s a technology or business, everything needs development. In the case of technology, it is necessary for the business to analyse whether the security team is able to respond the new threats immediately that have been inspected and addressed. It is essential that the security groups can quickly respond to changes.

Only Tools Are Not Sufficient to Save You

For the applications that handle the crucial business functions or can access the sensitive data, operating a standard set of automated scans is not enough to guard these applications. Performing a manual testing and interpreting the results is also required.

There is a continuous change in the application security. The testing and prevention strategies should be kept up to date because new threats and attacks may arise at any time.

Why Managed Services?

In the case, if you are striving to overwhelm the obstacles that arise due to the limited skills and fixed capacity, you may find your team overburdened and reactive to the newest crisis. This is the time when you can make onward plans, complete other projects and invest in new skills. With the assistance of managed services, the provider can manage the application security testing while you will be able to emphasise on the other business key areas.

Sourced from Jim Ivers, Chief Marketing Officer, Cigital

Source: http://www.information-age.com/technology/security/123461048/how-use-managed-services-overcome-top-6-app-security-hurdles

Can Mid-Market Businesses be benefitted from Bimodal IT Success via Managed Services?

IT experts are bustling about understanding the newly invented term by Gartner “bimodal IT”. It is a technique of delivering services in a way that allow the IT teams to rip their emphasis into two distinct, clear and logical models that are stability and agility. The second one involves day to day IT operations that are vital and meant for the security and reliability for an IT environment related to an organisation. The previous one is focused on innovation to let the IT teams to research and identify the new techniques of utilising the technology in order to meet the rapid changing demands of the business.

As per the information provided by the Gartner, around 45 percent of the CIOs use bimodal IT service management strategies and this percentage can increase to 75 percent by 2017 where the companies will execute the bimodal IT strategies.

Bimodal IT and Managed Services

It has been observed that some companies prefer to outsource essential IT functions like helpdesk so to let the IT group to play an all-inclusive role in the business. There is no doubt that the nature of IT sourcing has changed. Gartner is of the view that smaller IT suppliers will be capable enough to respond to the demands quickly and providing faster solutions by using the cloud capabilities.

Image Credit - IT-Regie

Outsourcing the IT functions to managed services provider enable the internal staff to invest time in IT innovation so to assist the business in remaining active and responsive in the competitive marketplace. In order to have a successful relationship with the IT managed service provider so that the business’s future progress does not detract, the companies should ask the following questions from the managed services provider:

Do MSPs Can Assist in Current and Future IT Needs?

Managed service providers must have experience of providing assistance in the particular functions that are going to be outsourced. For instance, if the services are being offered in the helpdesk, then IT support services provider should have engineers that are capable enough to repair equipment including new technologies.

To What Extent, the Support Can Be Offered?

We know that IT issues can disrupt the IT teams from new projects, so the companies should contract with the MSPs as to how much they will promise to resolve the IT issues. Usually, MSPs provide varying degrees of assistance, like 24/7, remote or on-site support. In the case, if a package in terms of budget and support coverage do not meet the needs of an organisation, the companies can ask for the customised solutions.

Source: http://www.itproportal.com/2016/02/02/can-managed-services-be-the-key-to-bimodal-it-success-for-mid-market-businesses/

Alstom Will Be Provided Developed IT Infrastructure from HCL!

On Monday, January 25, 2016, a new IT infrastructure deal has been signed between the HCL technologies and the French multinational firm Alstom. Throughout the France and Benelux, the engagement of the Alstom would be the HCL’s largest infrastructure services engagement as narrated by the Corporate Vice President of the HCL Technologies Ashish Gupta. According to this agreement, the HCL Technologies will influence and control its IT infrastructure support services capabilities in order to deliver the workplace engineering services, roll out PC as a Service (PCaaS) to 30, 000 clients across the world and allow the local client support services all over 360 locations in 62 countries.

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Furthermore, multilingual global service desk offers will be given to the Alstom in 11 languages that will be established by the HCL in which more than 50 percent of the French-speaking users will be involved. HCL has three global delivery centres that are situated in the Brazil, India and Poland while the services will be offered by controlling these centres. Being a part of the partnership, HCL will also establish the Services Integration and Management (SIAM) as an organisational function with a concept that will allow the Alstom to accomplish the multi-sourcing service integration.

As per the statement of the Alstom CIO, Christine Heckmann, they wanted continuous and smooth IT operations and it was their priority. Alstom needed an IT Partner that could easily define, develop and implement the roadmap involving the IT transformation for the following five years and HCL has been proved a right partner for them.

Source: http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/hcl-to-develop-it-infrastructure-for-alstom_5153901.html

Managed Service Providers – Getting a Boost from Security Products!

A continuing overall growth has been observed in the managed service companies particularly the ones that are providing the security services, as revealed by the IT management specialist Kaseya according to the new survey.

The data has been gathered from the Kaseya’s Global Pricing survey in which 400 managed service providers across 30 countries were scrutinised that offer the exceptional visibility in IT services to the customers. The result which has been concluded is that most of the MSPs have gone through more than 20 percent growth over the last three years.

As per the results, the high growth managed service solution providers offer more evolving services than the ones that are facing the lower growth counter parts. This may involve hosting services and cloud monitoring for the clients owning the equipment. One of the most important thing that has been observed is that the high growth MSPs offer an effective portfolio of services such as the desktop and server management, cloud, backup and recovery services.

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Increased security risks will be the top demand of the customers in the year 2016. Security is always considered as the high rated services that usually gets the competitive advantage in all age times.

Kaseya’s SVP and GM of MSPs, Miguel Lopez narrated that Kaseya is in the privileged position because it is the vendor that delivers IT security, management and automation technology to MSPs and this is what separates it from the crowd of managed services provider. For every successful MSP, clients’ concern is their top priority, so they design bolder strategies for this purpose. Their client success model is based on the year over year growth instead of the business’s sales, and this is what successful MSPs always do for their clients.

Besides this, around 85 percent of the high growth MSPs deliver hosting services to the clients owning the equipment while around three quarters of the high growth MSPs deliver desktop security services.

Source: http://www.itproportal.com/2016/01/21/security-products-give-managed-service-providers-boost/

How to Know Your Business Is Not Cut Out For IT Managed Services

When we talk about companies, we should never forget that there are different flavours and kinds of businesses, for instance, there are entrepreneurial businesses, startups, small or medium sized and lifestyle businesses. Each business has different goals that are targeted to be achieved, so the business owners set distinct priorities depending upon the financial plans and the growth rate. Some companies have high technology involvement so they prioritise their routine operations according to the internet. If an internet connection, email server or phone line is down, their business has to face a shrieking pause. Specifically, when it comes to technological businesses, they require an IT managed services provider that could assist them in maintaining the security, designing and managing the strategies along with providing assistance to the employees. Still there are some small and medium-sized companies that need to focus on the devising of the strategies that involve an adoption of the managed services. A concise self-analysis can help you to understand which businesses are not cut out from the managed IT services.

Technology is Not Used to Enhance Client Experience: You need to analyse what kind of services you are delivering to the clients. You need to consider whether technology is involved in it? Whether some software interface, app or web portal is included in accessing the client records or booking their appointments? Are the client services delivered via the email or a phone? If the above elements do not have any involvement, then probably, there is no need to get the managed service solutions to get the client service experience.

Replacing of an Equipment is Waited Till the Last Possible Second: We should always remember that the workstations must be in warranty and at least, they should enable the companies in supporting the operating systems and the software updates that appear. Workstations always represent the employees’ efficiency and productivity. So it is necessary to refresh, repair or replace the equipment immediately in order to boost the staff members’ efficiency so it can match with the IT services.

You are Not Considering Technology as a Means to Appeal Customers: Efficient and talented employees always require technology that can be operated at a high speed. Slow connections, sluggish networks and obsolete technology usually frustrates the employees. Expert professionals always need technology that could help them in boosting their efficiency.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/tech-gadgets/5-signs-business-not-cut-managed-services-01430729#UpFwi8rvIzdrLSD6.97

Three Fantastic Predictions for 2016 Related to Managed Services

As we are in the start of the New Year, it’s the time when the companies are either waiting or focusing on the trends that have been emerging, the new and innovative technologies that are arriving on the scene and the business models that have been evolving from a considerable time. In this season, there are three areas that are showing a continuous positive impact on the IT channel that are as follows:

Sanguinity Enclosing the Future of the Managed Services and the IT Channel Will Remain High

According to the survey held in October 2015, it was found out that around 66 percent of the people were optimistic about the future of the IT channel. Strong demand of the clients regarding managed services, a strong and continuous desire for the IT channel, new opportunities in the cloud computing and wider use of the IT by all kinds of the customers have been observed.

In this year, it is believed that the IT channel will prolong or maintain it’s continuous increase regarding relevancy for the IT companies of all sizes. It is being expected that the IT service providers will improve their abilities so to help the companies in increasing their revenues. It will also help the organisations in maintaining their business by focusing on the technologies like computer security, cloud computing, and financial services to healthcare, public and private sectors.

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Sellers Alliance will continue

To gain a competitive edge in this highly crowded market place, vendors usually prefer to amalgamate with the companies and drive the activities all through the technology industry. Service providers always tend to evaluate the portfolio of the vendors so they can decide whether to enhance the vendors’ association or not. This assists in solving both the client’s organisational challenges and offering them the opportunities to influence the synergies involving the seller partners to expand their businesses.

Applications, Infrastructure and Data Protection, will be Given Much Emphasis Irrespective of the Location

Incalculable divisions of the high profile data are kept secure both for the clients and businesses alike. Since more and more companies are relying on the cloud to aid the routine business operations, strong emphasis is given on securing the critical data, infrastructure and the applications, irrespective of whether they are on the premise or the cloud.

Source: http://mspmentor.net/blog/trends-managed-services-three-predictions-2016

Opera Application Support Services – IGMAS Extended Hospitality IT Services for Its Inclusion

A proclamation for the inclusion of Opera PMS Application Support has been made by the IGMAS Technologies to their current collection of Hospitality focused Service and Support Services. Hotel Systems Solutions’s (HSS) founders, Scott McGraw and Erik Strom will grow the team of IGMAS. Both the founders have brought decades of experience of the Micros Systems to the new-fangled Application Support Services division. Complete and customised application solutions along with the training and support will be particularly provided for the Opera Property Management System (PMS), PMS Interfaces and a diverse range of Oracle’s other Hospitality products. The HSS’s Micros-trained hospitality will have experienced professionals that would be dedicated with the additional hospitality support resources so they can provide on time training, configuration, assistance and troubleshooting to hotels and resorts that either use or intend to use the Opera. IGMAS support team, when joined with the other forces, will let the HSS grow continually their national and international growth efforts in the field of Application Support and Services.

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Michael Breindel, President of IGMAS Technologies, stated that IGMAS has created a group and providing industry-changing application services for more than a year. With HSS that have 20 years of hospitality and Micros experience, they can now deliver an international single source solution that would be completely independent and exceptional in the hospitality industry.

According to the Scott Mc Graw, the HSS founder, IGMAS Technologies holds proficient, innovative and technology experts that have the capability to deliver the hospitality community, the assimilated solutions and assistance so that the industry can grow and improve its market size that it serves.

IGMAS provides entirely different customer support services in a timely manner while inexpensive software solutions are delivered to the clients that lead to valuable property savings, enhanced financial controls, improved productivity of the staff and perfect guest experiences to the clients.

Reference: http://www.pressreleaserocket.net/igmas-expands-hospitality-it-services-to-include-opera-application-support-services/391533/