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The single biggest factor in determining whether or not your organization should implement a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy is cost. Will it save you money? Keeping that in mind, a thorough cost and benefit analysis should be executed before any decisions are made or any policies are permanently put in place. An IT consulting service can help you with these choices, bringing their experience and expertise to the table.  Here is a list of five things to consider before an effective Mobility and BYOD solutions policy to be made:

1. Security – Perhaps the biggest cost involved in BYOD is in the need for increased training and cross-training of your enterprise security and help desk staff. Many policies and procedures will need to be written just to accommodate the content they will require. Also, new user documentation will need to be written regarding the new security initiatives. Security is a major trouble spot for many companies. Do not overlook this factor. Take the time and effort to research this area completely so that you don’t sacrifice long-term safety for short-term reward by skipping this task.
2. Cost of Company Owned Devices – The area of cost that can really be trimmed is what your company will save by not having to issue a company-owned Blackberry, tablet, and laptop to every single employee with a user ID and password. A good start is to have your accounting staff and IT department work together on coming up with a total figure that includes extra items like service plans and accessories.
3. Employee Morale and Productivity – Nothing is worse for an employee than when they have a bright and shiny Macbook Air with all the bells and whistles on their desk at home and they’re given an outdated, bulky, and slow PC to hammer away on for work. Most companies see a serious increase in employee productivity when workers are allowed to use their own devices. There is also a familiarity factor involved here for most workers, meaning that employees already know everything about their own equipment, and can therefore do things much faster than if they had to get familiar with a whole new operating system first.
4. Better Customer Service – Granting corporate access to your employee’s devices usually has a trickle down effect of them embracing more accountability in regards to superior customer service. Workers tend to be more willing to respond quickly to customer requests at almost any given time when they can do so from their own device. Work/life balance tends to be more fully achieved by employees enjoying their work as part of their identity, rather than trying to balance the two separately.
5. Policy Development – A good way to minimize some of the risk involved with developing an effective BYOD policy can be by outsourcing the task. Rather than increasing the workload of a trusted project manager, who is probably already overworked, you may want to seek the services of a skilled and professional BYOD consultant to implement the best policy development for your organization.

“GeekTek IT Services Inc.,” is a leading small and mid-sized business IT consulting firm and managed IT service provider. Client satisfaction is something we take seriously. Please contact us today for more information about any of our IT services.

Where do information technology solutions and business objectives meet? Business takes advantage of IT solutions in the realm of IT consulting.  It is in the consultative services of IT professionals that business leaders find the answers to pressing business challenges and empower their organizations to greater success.

IT consulting firms have become more than the implementers of hardware and software.  This service requirement has now become fully integrated into the business process.  Because of the power of productivity that information technology can bring to an enterprise, many small and mid-sized businesses are finding the use of IT consultants makes perfect sense.

Consider the problems that many businesses may face.  There are servers that require proper configuration and maintenance, an infrastructure that may need refreshing, or compliance issues to be addressed.  If your company wants to keep its eyes on its own core competencies, you would do well to take advantage of the services an IT consultant can offer.

GeekTek IT Services, Inc. believes that one size does not fit all.  Smart, responsive, and imaginative, GeekTek IT service professionals would be happy to audit and review your current IT infrastructure and assess what could be done to align it more fully with your business plans and goals.  IT consulting that is adaptive and scalable will ensure that your business gets just the service it needs.

Experts in IT consulting can not only improve the effectiveness of your systems, but they can also play a role in cost reduction.  Managed IT services are able to reduce cost and risk for customers by consolidating server functions and migrating services to the cloud.  Clients have also found that the way GeekTek is able to migrate email and document management to Google Apps for Business has reduced software license costs and increased productivity.

These are just some of the ways that GeekTek is improving the effectiveness and profitability of their clients. Contact us today to find out how GeekTek can help you with your IT infrastructure through effective IT consulting.

Leveriging Los Angeles IT outsourcing services can be one of the easiest ways for any small or mid-sized business to save money. Your business relys on computers, servers and mobile devices, but having those devices serviced and repaired should not be a drain on the company’s budget.

Rather than spending needless overhead on hiring staff members to handle the occasional IT problem, it’s better for a business to invest in outsourced IT services. While the technicians are not always in the building, they are always available by phone, email and remote support. The affordability of the service along with quick turnaround times makes this choice simple for every business.

The IT issues that arise within the office can range from machines that do not switch on to corrupted servers to a mass of viruses and trojans on each computer, all the way up to cloud stratgies for your business. Rather than paying someone to wait around for a problem to occur, paying a company to come in and fix problems as they are occurring is a more cost-effective and simple method of keeping the office productive.

With outsourced IT services, some computers can be fixed remotely while others can be handled when a technician comes into the office. Using remote management and mantainence services, all servres and workstations are updated on a weekly or monthly basis. This helps to catch problems before they start.

For help with outsourced IT solutions, contact us and see how much money and time can be saved when the IT problems in the office are handled by a cost-effective and professional service.

“Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don’t think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other.” -Bill Gates

Information technology was once something only big businesses had to worry about, but the evolution of technology has made IT a major part of medium and small businesses as well. This technology brings tremendous advantages to those that manage it well but many small to medium sized businesses find themselves needing more expertise than what their regular employees offer. Budget constraints could mean the reduction of existing IT staff also leaving technical support to suffer.

If your business finds itself in this ‘on the fence’ position, consider hiring a Virtual CIO. A Virtual CIO (Chief Information Officer) is not a just a consultant, but can actually offer you more than what a single IT manager does in many cases. The Virtual CIO services from GeekTek can reduce your technology budget in two key ways: no new hires to your IT department, and streamlining services, therefore maximizing your efficiency while insuring that you only pay for what you need.

When you bring in GeekTek as your Virtual CIO, you are getting a team of IT professionals, each with different specialties and levels of experience. This team has the expertise and established methods for proactively managing your information technology systems while insuring that your office is always communicating with your employees and clients.

GeekTek’s Virtual CIO will also help you implement a disaster recovery policy that takes advantage of the cloud so that when the unthinkable happens your business will be online quickly. The Virtual CIO will also keep your data safe, protecting private financial data and intellectual property from the mounting threat of hackers, viruses, spyware, and even the disgruntled employee.

Is GeekTek’s Virtual CIO right for your business? Contact us today so our experienced IT experts can evaluate your existing IT and help you make an informed decision. To keep up with the latest in technology services around Los Angeles, follow @geektek, or to join in the conversation, find us on Facebook.

It happens to everyone eventually — you need a file to show a client or you need to work on a project, but it’s not on your laptop. Now you have to call back to the office and wait for an email or — worse — drive back to the office to get the file.

And now it’s not just laptops. A stunning array of high tech tools populate the modern workplace — smart phones, tablets, laptops and desktops. How can your staff access the data and documents they need in multiple locations and on multiple platforms? What about security? Maintaining secure servers at your location or at a data center is an option, but can be expensive, requiring special staff to manage servers, user accounts and security.

At Geektek we have found that for many Los Angeles business owners Dropbox for Business provides an excellent solution for this problem. Some features of Dropbox for Business are:

• Get up and running instantly. 
• Share documents securely.
• Restore deleted files.
• Powerful team and document management tools.
• Multiple platforms — Windows, Mac, tablet and phone.

Emailing files can cause problems — some large files might even be refused by email servers. With Dropbox you simply store those files in a folder that is automatically backed up to Dropbox and available on all your devices. No need to worry about FTP servers or clients. Dropbox provides a dead simple folder interface that all users will intuitively understand. Dropbox works the way your computer works.

Dropbox for Business allows you to administer user accounts from a simple web interface to add users and devices, monitor access and even set up two-step verification. 

Security is critical and Dropbox for Business gives you great security:

• Data is automatically replicated in multiple data centers.
• All data is transmitted and stored using the same encryption standards used by banks.
• Security testing and auditing by third party security specialists.

Dropbox for Business provides the features that Geektek recommends.

Would you like to know more about Dropbox for Business? Contact Geektek. We’d be happy to help! 

Communication is crucial to any worthwhile relationship, but it is of the utmost importance to your business. Thankfully, modern technology has provided us with multiple methods of communication, from email to voicemail. The only problem is: for a small business, the cost of phone systems and telephone bills can quickly add up. That is why GeekTek offers VOIP as a solution.

What is VOIP?

Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) is a service that allows you to make phone calls through the Internet rather than through a traditional telephone service provider. Using VOIP, your call is either sent over the Internet as a digital signal to another VOIP-capable device or is subsequently converted to a regular telephone signal that can be received by any phone. With GeekTek’s service, no special equipment or accessories are required—simply connect to our cloud and you are good to go.

With VOIP, the days of long-distance fees and expensive calling cards are over. Calls can be made and received from any place in which you have Internet access. VOIP calls will not interrupt any other computing processes, leaving you free to work while you talk.

How Can GeekTek Help?

By combining your phone and Internet service, GeekTek will help you streamline your business. GeekTek can help you tailor our VOIP service to your specific needs. We offer consultations and continued support, so you can rest assured that everything will continue to run smoothly and efficiently.