Secure & Thrive: New England IT Services and Computer Support

In the heart of New England, businesses are thriving.

From Boston's bustling tech scene to the diverse industries across Massachusetts, there's a common thread. That thread is the reliance on technology to drive growth and innovation.

But with this reliance comes challenges. Cybersecurity threats, data privacy concerns, and the need for constant tech support are just a few.

That's where managed IT services come in, and when New England businesses need an IT provider they can trust, they call Datalyst.

Managed IT Services for New England Small Business

Managed IT services are a game-changer for businesses. They offer a way to outsource IT operations, freeing up time and resources. Several years ago, there were essentially just two options for the growing business:

1. Pay a computer technician who would (hopefully) become intimate with the inner workings of the business and could handle support when it was needed.
2. Hire and form an in-house IT department.

Most businesses tend to outgrow the first option, or at the very least, get frustrated when their on-call tech isn’t available or just can’t put in the time that the business requires. Even worse, most of the time the initial implementation and design of the network isn’t done by someone who understands business networks. There’s a huge difference between a home network and a professional business network, and not properly setting up the foundation of your IT infrastructure will really bottleneck things later on.

Today, those two options still exist, but not all businesses can afford hiring a dedicated in-house IT department, and most businesses start to see the shortcomings from an hourly computer technician pretty quickly.

That’s where managed IT services come into play. While we’ve seen a lot of local companies use the term “managed IT,” they don’t all use the same definition. Sometimes it’s more-or-less just a contract to lock you into a relationship, other times it’s just a block of hours spread over an extended period of time, but for us, it's about truly integrating our expertise with your business.

What Makes Datalyst Stand Out

When we started our business in 2010, we decided that we weren’t going to be like a lot of those other guys out there. We had already seen that IT services were essentially looked at as a necessary evil. It’s like insurance. You need insurance, and when you get to reap the benefits of insurance, everything is good! But nobody ever wakes up in the morning, looks in the mirror, and says “Gosh, I really can’t wait to choose an insurance plan today!”

While we think IT is extremely interesting and exciting, we get that most business owners don’t really look at it that way. You need your technology to run and you need it to help your business be efficient. What’s exciting for you is when the numbers at the end of the quarter look good, or your team was able to finish a project ahead of schedule, or you were able to take 10 years of historic data and turn it into a whole lot of revenue thanks to modern software. 

That’s what drives us, too. We’re not in the business of fixing computers or selling network switches or installing antivirus. Sure, that comes with the territory, but our true focus is helping businesses and business owners use technology to grow and expand. Do more, get more done, become more efficient!

Why Boston Businesses Need Managed IT Services

Boston is a bustling hub of innovation and business. To stay competitive, companies need to harness the power of technology. That's where we come in.

First and foremost, we help businesses like yours get the basic technology stuff out of the way:

• Ongoing security updates and patches.
• Antivirus and antimalware, firewalls, and all the other endpoint security stuff.
• Access control management, ensuring that your staff has access to what they need, but are restricted from the stuff they don’t need to get into.
• Software deployment and management, warranties, licenses, and upgrades.
• Infrastructure planning, hardware purchasing, and cycling out old stuff when it becomes outdated.
• Regular backup testing.
• Day-to-day tech support for users in the form of an IT help desk.

This is what you would expect from a full-time in-house IT employee.

There is a lot of value there, especially when you take into consideration the cost of payroll, bonuses, raises, and everything else that goes into the cost of a full-time employee.

We didn’t want to stop there. That’s just the basics for us.

All This Technology is Only Truly Useful When Implemented Correctly

When you get right down to it, you have computers because they are more efficient and effective than typewriters, which are more effective than pen and paper. Obviously this is a wildly simplified comparison, but you get the idea. 

Technology doesn’t bring inherent value to an organization unless it’s aligned with the goals of that organization. If a law office wants to put every document at their lawyers’ fingertips no matter where in the world they are, then there’s a solution for that. But that solution might not work for an engineer who needs to present a mockup or render of a proposed project. One system needs to prioritize organizing and indexing information, the other needs to prioritize sharing large, complex files. It’s apples and oranges.

That’s where we really stand out. Our in-house experts have worked with businesses of all shapes and sizes, and understand the nuances of various types of technologies and how they fit (or don’t fit) the needs of certain types of organizations. We can help implement and properly configure IT solutions that meet your goals.

In a world where technology is increasingly convoluted and overly complex, this is a huge game changer. We help businesses navigate this all the time, and help make sure they can actually feel the impact their technology has on their business after it is deployed.

A perfect example? Nobody implemented online conferencing or “Zoom Room” capabilities to their conference room with the intention to overcomplicate every single meeting.

During the pandemic, a lot of businesses adopted remote and hybrid practices, and that often meant converting the traditional conference room into something that’s a lot more connected. Smart displays, cameras, multi-directional microphones, controls for managing presentations, etc.

When these technologies were implemented poorly, it only made meetings more complex. When it takes 10 minutes to fish around just to launch a meeting, it’s more than a little frustrating. It’s downright disrespectful and wastes everyone’s time.

When a conference room was implemented properly, and everyone who had to use it had some training, documentation, and simplified process to do what needed to be done, it made meetings effective and impressive. 

Equip Your Business with an IT Consultant that Works Towards Your Goals

Choosing a local managed IT provider can make a huge difference for New England businesses. For almost 15 years, organizations of all shapes and sizes have depended on Datalyst for their technology needs. We’re not here to sell you hardware or lock you into a service agreement, but to actually help you see the value that modern technology can bring to your company.

Give us a call at (774) 213-9701 to get started.