Many small businesses start with an idea, a product or service, and a willing market. Many managed service providers have assembled their client list from friends, family, and business contacts allowing them to quickly build revenue flow with relatively little effort. But what happens when an MSP’s network of friends and associates dries up? Or they’re no longer able to build a new business based on referrals?

We’ve discussed this topic many times during our NinjaOne MSP Live Chats, and the fact is it’s an important question to consider regardless of your plans for exiting your business. Even if you’re not planning to sell your MSP, knowing the factors that play into your MSP’s valuation and understanding the metrics that owners and investors use to evaluate and optimize MSP businesses is key.

For MSP’s and IT pros, IT documentation is a priceless tool used to record, organize, and store the information they need to do their job efficiently. With IT documentation software, users can start to build a solid foundation of organizational knowledge that contains essential and accessible information for a modern, secure IT environment. Due to its versatility, IT managers are continually looking to use this software in their everyday work.

The onboarding experience sets the tone for your entire relationship with new clients. This is a critical juncture when you can make your clients feel like they made the right decision by hiring you -- or just as easily make them question their decision. Like most processes, onboarding should be planned beforehand to ensure it runs smoothly. A structured approach leading to seamless onboarding will set the right tone and help foster a long-lasting relationship while reducing client churn.

Looking to build your basic IT knowledge in 2022? In this post we'll cover some general network monitoring and network management best practices that MSPs and IT departments use to support their organizations. Any discussion about IT is eventually going to lead towards network monitoring and management. All told, one of the most well-understood roles of an IT department or IT provider is that of keeping a business’ essential systems up and running.

The cloud has become a core component of Information Technology because of its flexibility, affordability, and ease of use. Software is run via cloud subscription models, reducing time to market and simplifying distribution. Entire offices have moved into the cloud, allowing teams of all sizes to collaborate and communicate remotely. Beneath it all, files and data are stored and shared in the cloud where it’s readily accessible across devices.

The public sector hasn’t always had a reputation for digital agility and modern hardware, but that’s beginning to change thanks to COVID-19. Forced to operate from home, public sector employees are employing a mix of devices and cloud strategies to keep city services running. However, these very same advances could be fueling shadow IT within public sector organizations and leaving them vulnerable to data leakage, theft, or attack.

There are a variety of ways to add accessible data storage to a home or business network, but not all equipment is created equal. Determining the best solution is challenging, especially for small businesses or home users who don’t necessarily need the features and capacities that large organizations require. Among the most common solutions to choose from are cloud, in-house servers, and network-attached storage (NAS).

Companies typically seek to create centralized systems to manage IT assets, including not only hardware, software, networks, and infrastructure, but also important data. Complete control over such a complex environment is often difficult -- if not impossible -- to achieve, but proper asset management protocols can help organizations edge closer to that goal. Asset management makes it easier to manage budgets, utilize analytics, protect data, and optimize the IT environment.

In the digital age, organizations depend more on IT than ever before. The foundation of many IT functions -- including data storage, website hosting, emails, and software -- is server management. Without reliable, functioning servers, most IT functionality would collapse. Many businesses have migrated internal IT to cloud services using servers located in remote data centers, but a significant number still have in-house servers or use a hybrid environment of in-house and cloud services.

Feel like you're working through the same tickets and tasks over and over and over again? Breakout of your IT Groundhog Day time loop with the help of scripts and automation. Helpdesks and IT teams are inundated with repetitive, time-consuming, often low-value tasks that distract from larger strategic projects. With most IT leaders saying their staff is already stretched thin, this leaves little room for important projects that will lead to greater organizational productivity and efficiency.