It is hard to believe we are only 6 weeks away from Christmas. Here at ActiveCo we continue to enhance our internal efficiencies to provide proactive, predictable solutions to our valued customers.

As a continued effort to provide the utmost value to our clients, we have attended two major conferences in San Diego, CA and Orlando, FL over the past 3 months. These conferences have provided us with significant insight into technology trends that we can now pass on to our clients, as well as more great ideas as to how we can improve the services we offer!!

We also learned more about the risks associated with our reliance on technology. Read on to find out about the ways your business could be at risk in today's ever changing technology landscape.

Quote for the Month:

"The first step in the risk management process is to acknowledge the reality of risk. Denial is a common tactic that substitutes deliberate ignorance for thoughtful planning."
    -- Charles Tremper

Ultimately, risk must be associated to cost, and if the amount if risk is not quantified, the ultimate cost is just as difficult to determine.

Organizations today continue to rely on technology at unprecedented levels. This dependence ranges from general communication to sales, order entry, service, and inventory control and finance, just to name a few. At no other time in history have we depended on technology as much as we do today. Email has become mission critical to business to the point where major business transactions are now being negotiated and closed via email. Like the engine for a car, without email, business cannot operate effectively.

This dependence on technology also translates to risk, such as data loss, system recovery time, hardware failure, internet connectivity and internal and perimeter network security. Unfortunately, most organizations are not aware of these risks and have not taken the basic steps to mitigate their exposure, leaving themselves vulnerable to increased costs. Business continues to move at a very fast pace and it is critical to the success of any company that effective processes are in place to reduce dependence on technology.

When a business is able to acknowledge potential IT risk, this in turn represents an expense that could be potentially fatal. However, the cost to outsource your IT risk is dramatically less expensive than attempting to tackle this issue without a proper solution and strategy.

Is this occurring in your business?

• Your internal resources are non experts in the IT field;
• You have a fragmented system to resolve IT issues;
• IT issues take up too much time;
• You can't find the right IT person to hire;
• Your IT issues are too complex and you can no longer solve them;
• Your systems are unstable;
• You lack the infrastructure to grow but you need a higher level of technology for your business;
• Building your own IT department is too costly.

Outsourcing is a concept that many small and medium sized businesses are familiar with as they search for ways to reduce costs and/or to hire expertise they don't employ in their business. Benefits of IT outsourcing include:

• Gaining peace of mind knowing your network is stable and secure. Anticipating and resolving IT problems before they occur;
• Achieving a competitive advantage by using modern technology;
• Empowering your business with an IT strategy that combines knowledge in managed network services with the tools you need to guide your business towards success;
• Making efficient use of resources by letting experts take care of your IT needs;
• Saving money by hiring only the IT resources you need and avoid spiking IT costs with a fixed fee solution.

ActiveCo is a leading North American outsourced IT managed service provider (MSP) dedicated to helping small and medium sized businesses fulfill their technology needs while helping them reduce the high cost of supporting internal IT functions. We empower businesses with the same level of IT service and support that large enterprises enjoy, at a fraction of the cost.

As an MSP, ActiveCo will manage your IT services via the Internet, providing you with:

• A virtually unlimited knowledge base for all your IT challenges;
• Access to skilled and trained professionals;
• Insight into current technologies;
• Multi-level service ensuring no single point of failure;
• Timely response to critical system issues.

"When we decided to try ActiveCo's Managed Services we were concerned that as an educational institution we have very unique requirements, particularly with our classrooms for our students. The ActiveCo team found a solution that virtually eliminated all of our issues surrounding our classroom computers, which allows us to focus on our business. The way Activeco also manages our corporate environment with a high degree of professionalism, expertise and courtesy is much appreciated."

Ricardo Davidson
Career Advisor, Automotive Training Centre

Empower your business with an IT strategy from ActiveCo. Contact us today and let ActiveCo build your network so you can build your business.

ActiveCo Computer Solutions Inc. provides professionally managed network services to companies with computer networks. Combining high quality, time sensitive and reliable managed network services, ActiveCo gives your business confidence in technology supporting an increasingly complex business environment.

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