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Here’s why your business needs CRM

No business ever gets very far without a steady stream of customers. They are your primary source of revenue, so taking care of your relationships with them must be your highest priority. To effectively foster customer relationships, your business should leverage customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

Imagine buying a product, and it breaks the first time you use it. You contact customer support and describe the issue, only to be told to wait for another representative to call you back. You wait for hours, and still nobody calls. After sending an email to customer support, you finally get a call from a customer service representative, but it’s from someone unfamiliar with your problem. You awkwardly explain your problem for the third or fourth time, during which you wonder if the value of your time has exceeded the value of the broken item.

We’ve all been there before, but this scenario can be avoided by having an effective CRM system. Here’s what you need to know about CRM systems and how they can mitigate frustration among customers and keep them delighted.

What is a CRM system?

CRM is a system that allows businesses to manage, record, and evaluate their customer interactions to provide better services and boost sales. You can use CRM to store customers’ contact details, accounts, leads, and sales opportunities all in one place.

What are the features of a CRM system?

  • Data management – When customer data is recorded, the CRM system centralizes the data into one file called a master file. Everyone within the company then has access to this data source, preventing confusion from inaccurate or duplicate data.
  • Collaboration – Nowadays, clients demand quick and efficient customer service, so all involved departments must work together to quickly resolve client concerns. CRM systems enable collaboration by facilitating the sharing of customer information among departments. This way, everyone is on the same page about clients’ circumstances and requirements.
  • Customer segmentation – A CRM system arranges your customers into groups based on criteria such as age, gender, location, and even their likes and dislikes. This allows you to target marketing messages to your customers more accurately, potentially increasing engagement and conversion.
  • Task tracking – CRM systems have task tracking features that help your employees stay on top of important tasks, such as contacting customers via email or phone and following up on leads. CRM systems also send reminders to employees about their assigned tasks so that nothing falls through the cracks.
  • In-depth reporting – CRM systems provide a thorough analysis of your customer base. CRM reports give details including an overview of product sales numbers, marketing strategy performance, most successful products or services to date, and even a prediction of whether your sales target will be met at the end of the month.

If you’re looking to improve customer service and increase sales conversion using a CRM system, contact us today!

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

Your business’s cybersecurity needs an MSP

With the prevalence of cyberattacks on companies of all sizes these days, businesses cannot afford to relegate cybersecurity to the bottom of their budget priorities. When it comes to cybersecurity, even small businesses should partner with a managed IT services provider (MSP). Here’s why it’s crucial to partner with an MSP that can implement robust cybersecurity solutions for your business.

The numbers

According to the Ponemon Institute’s 2019 State of Cybersecurity in Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (SMBs) survey, cyberattacks have increased dramatically. Here in the United States, 76% of companies were attacked in 2019, a significant leap from 55% in 2016. Sixty-nine percent of US businesses reported data breaches in 2019, up from 50% in 2016.

The financial consequences have also increased considerably. The average cost spent by companies because of damage to or theft of IT assets and infrastructure increased from $1.03 million in 2017 to $1.2 million in 2019. Costs due to disruption to normal operations increased from an average of $1.21 million in 2017 to an average of $1.9 million in 2019.

The attacks

Globally, the most common forms of attack on SMBs are those that rely on deception: phishing (57%), stolen or compromised devices (33%), and credential theft (30%). Worse, cybercriminals are targeting SMBs more, with reported attacks having increased from 60% in 2017 to 69% in 2019.

Why managed services?

Partnering with MSPs is the most effective way to prevent attacks and protect your business from malicious threats. MSPs offer a full range of proactive IT support that focuses on advanced security, such as around-the-clock monitoring, data encryption and backup, real-time threat prevention and elimination, network and firewall protection, security awareness training, and more.

And because managed services are designed to identify and fix weak spots in your IT infrastructure, you’ll optimize the digital backbone of your business processes. You’ll have faster network performance, a solid business continuity and disaster recovery strategy, and minimal downtime. One of the best things about managed services is that you get a dedicated team of IT professionals ready to assist you for any technology problems you may encounter. This is much more effective and budget-friendly than having in-house personnel handling all your IT issues.

Being proactive when it comes to cybersecurity is the only way to protect what you’ve worked hard to build. If you’d like to know more about how managed services can benefit your business, just give us a call — we’re sure to help.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

Are you sufficiently cooling your servers?

Today, many businesses rely on servers for their day-to-day operations. If your servers are hosted locally, you should be aware that proper temperature control plays a vital role in keeping them running smoothly. Knowing how to properly cool your servers can help minimize the risk of crashes, which can cause downtime.

How does temperature affect servers?

High server temperatures can cause it to crash, resulting in costly data loss and service interruptions. If a server’s temperature rises above 70 degrees Fahrenheit, the server’s reliability decreases. In fact, an increase of 15 degrees leads to a 50-percent decrease in server reliability. When servers reach these temperatures, they will start to perform poorly, and computers connected to the server will start to struggle as well. Keeping your servers cool is vital to maintain optimal performance and longevity.

Effective methods to keep servers cool

    1. Use low-heat lighting

Incandescent lights produce too much heat that can raise the temperature of your server room. Go for low-heat options such as LED arrays and fluorescent tubes. Not only do they produce less heat, but they also provide better illumination compared to incandescent bulbs.

    1. Ensure your server room is well ventilated

Server rooms are usually small and contain other hardware aside from servers. Without proper air circulation, all that hardware can raise the temperature of the room and your servers. Make sure the server room you choose has good air circulation. If you have no choice but to place your server in a small room, install a ventilation system that will let hot air escape from the room.

    1. Use cooling fans

Cooling fans work well with a ventilation system to move hot air away from your servers. They are also a more affordable option to air conditioners. Placing a small and powerful fan next to your server’s heat vent will keep it from overheating.

    1. Air conditioning system

Installing an air conditioner in your server room is probably the best way to keep servers cool. Make sure that the air conditioner you choose is perfect for your server room. If you have a big server room, a small air conditioner won’t do much to cool it. Also, don’t be tempted to use residential air conditioners, as they are not designed to run 24/7/365. Go for industrial air conditioners instead. They can be a bit costly and require semi-annual maintenance checks, but industrial air conditioners will ensure your servers are constantly operating in cool temperatures.

Servers work best when kept at a cool temperature constantly. While manufacturers continue to build more resilient servers, proper care and maintenance still play a vital role in ensuring high operating quality and longevity. If you need more information about server management or have any other questions about your server setup, contact us today.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

Staying competitive using VoIP phone systems

VoIP is no longer the mysterious phone tech it was 20 years ago, and yet many businesses still fail to realize its full potential. This in part due to a lack of understanding of what internet phones can do. Read on to learn more about the benefits of VoIP.

Different phone systems

Phones have come a long way from analog landlines. Nowadays, many digital phone systems don’t even have conventional telephony hardware anymore. Modern businesses need a phone system that can service all of their needs, and in most cases, VoIP phones are the answer.

VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is a system of hardware and software that uses the cloud instead of analog circuits to transmit data. VoIP does more than just transmit audio — it can also send a variety of data (videos, documents, etc.) and perform other tasks as well.

A VoIP system’s hardware (phone units, cables, CPUs, etc.) and software (one or more applications that run the system) can be either on-premises or hosted.

On-premises – The hardware and software are physically located within the premises of the company.
Hosted – Some of the hardware, like phone units and other equipment, can be found within the premises. But most, if not all, of the software is hosted online. Service providers look after hosted systems for their clients.

Life cycles: On-premises vs. hosted

The useful life of hardware remains the same whether it’s on-premises or hosted. Hardware is affected by the wear and tear of daily use. Barring any accidents or physical damage, VoIP hardware should last as long as analog handsets, usually several years.

Software, on the other hand, needs constant updating. It’s faster and cheaper to update software that’s hosted in the cloud versus one that’s on-premises. The differences in longevity between the two should be negligible; both can last upwards of 10 years, depending on your IT support.

Future-friendly technology

Cloud technology has fundamentally changed the way IT solutions are produced. In the past, hardware and software were built to last. Today, they’re built to adapt and change. The effect of this shift on telecommunications technology is dramatic.

Most hardware components are very similar, with replacements and upgrades coming every 5–8 years on average. So even new ones aren’t necessarily cutting-edge, and yet they tend to be costly. Cloud software, on the other hand, is faster, more powerful, and costs less to upgrade. Critical updates can be released almost constantly, with complete overhauls taking no longer than 2–3 years.

As your business grows, your phone system should be able to adapt to rapid growth, the need for more speed, and integration with the other systems in your business, like email or management software.

Be a step ahead

Your business cannot afford dropped or missed calls. Imagine what one day of phone downtime would do to your company. The time to replace your phone system is not after it fails. The best time is before that, when you can plan and budget properly.

Nowadays, it’s not longevity that’s important; it’s staying ahead of the curve. Call our experts today so you can always be a step ahead.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

What’s new in the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center

The shift to remote work has not been easy, especially for IT administrators. After all, they’re in charge of supervising and securing workflows, devices, and software to ensure optimal user experience and to keep cyberthreats at bay. They are also expected to deploy IT solutions that are within budget so that costs don’t run amuck. Succinctly, they are the backbone of remote working. To help IT administrators do their jobs better and more efficiently, Microsoft has added the following features to its Apps admin center.

Intelligent insights

Intelligent insights include features like Apps Inventory, Add-In Inventory, and Security Currency that allow IT administrators to find and mitigate any issues immediately. With these tools, administrators can gain an in-depth understanding of the organization’s Microsoft 365 environment and be privy to information such as:

  • What devices are running Office apps and which versions they’re running;
  • What Office add-ins are installed or running; and
  • Which servicing channel each device belongs to.

Knowing all this information can help administrators identify and manage unsupported Office versions and add-ins to ensure security and compliance. Data is also easily exportable for reports or audits.

Servicing automation with controls

This feature streamlines and automates Microsoft 365 Apps servicing to eliminate manual deployment and accelerate the rollout of updates and security patches, thus saving effort, time, and costs. With this new feature, admins only need to apply a specific servicing profile to a set of devices to automatically deliver monthly updates for users or groups.

What’s more, IT admins are now able to view, pause, and resume updates on a per-device basis. If a user experiences issues during rollout, for instance, administrators can pause that user’s update and restore their software to a previous version while they troubleshoot.

Admins can also specify exclusion date periods, or when Office apps updates should not run, such as during holidays or company meetings. They can schedule this to happen only once or on a recurring basis, depending on their organization’s schedule. And for compliance purposes, admins can schedule updates to happen at a certain date and time, or they can let users install Office app updates at their most convenient time.

Microsoft 365 Apps health

With Microsoft 365 Apps health, IT admins can see how well Microsoft 365 apps are running during and in between deployments. It also calculates an organization’s overall app health based on three criteria: app reliability, app performance, and supported versions. On top of these, Microsoft 365 Apps health gives pertinent information such as Office app session crash rates and who reported such crashes. This allows admins to quickly identify issues and take actions to increase app performance and reliability.

With these new features, administrators can better manage Microsoft 365 apps, and users can count on better experiences and fewer downtimes. If you want to learn more about how technology can increase your business’s operational efficiency, don’t hesitate to call us. Our IT experts are always ready to help.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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