Hidden Risk in Outdated Technology

For most small to medium sized businesses their IT budget is tightly managed to maximize dollars. Even if those dollars are spent wisely, risks are always lurking in technology that can sabotage a budget. But In reality the greatest saboteur of funds is the use of outdated technology. Aging systems could cause a greater spend in IT, hamper productivity and frustrate customers. You could be jeopardizing thousands of dollars as your technology slows down, maintenance costs for aging hardware will increase and leave you vulnerable to downtime and risk.

Old technology can give the appearance that you aren’t willing to invest in your business and when you don’t innovate it can degrade your customer’s confidence in you. Your customers get frustrated and will take their business elsewhere if outdated technology hinders customer expectations. Are aging systems holding back your talented team? Today’s workforce is changing fast. More and more employees are working remotely. This new transition demands new tools. Up-to-date, secure technology will enable productivity and collaboration for your team, no matter where work takes them. This modern technology can make the difference in driving your company ahead.

New technology and services are more efficient, use less energy, keep your team productive and your budget on track! Start by consulting a skilled Managed Service provider, like Ancero. We can better align your IT needs with your business needs. Our valuable vendor partnerships create cost efficiencies when purchasing new hardware and technology assets along with providing expert guidance on the appropriate purchases of modern technology instead of the latest trends. The MSP uses its expertise and efficiencies to perform tasks faster and at a lower cost. By utilizing its own computing platform to perform a service, capital expenses are also reduced. And finally, managed services gives you a vital business advantage: the freedom to focus on running your business while we manage your network and technology requirements.

This IT management strategy aligns network and technology investments with business goals by defining service level objects, remediation and performance improvement advice, capacity and growth planning, and budgeting support. Business needs not just the right technology, but the expertise, support and guidance only their trusted IT vendor can provide.

“Ancero has always been there for us at our time of need. We have been able to call on them with short notice and they are always responsive to our issues. They understand we have a business to run and the lifeblood of that business is the technology they support. Ancero is by far in a class above most other vendors I work with supporting our infrastructure. They have created an environment geared not just towards customer service, but customer satisfaction.” – Leasing Company

Ancero to be Honored as Outstanding Small Business of the Year by the MIDJersey Chamber of Commerce

The MIDJersey Chamber of Commerce has selected Ancero as their Outstanding Small Business of the Year. The award winners were announced shortly before the Chamber’s Annual Holiday Luncheon on December 21. Ancero will receive the honor at the 2017 Annual Awards Gala to be held on April 6, 2017, along with other honorees ELEC, First Bank and Greg Blair.

“We are honored to receive the Outstanding Small Business of the Year award. Ancero’s purpose is to provide a comprehensive solution set ideal for the SMB to advance their technology and communications. This recognition reaffirms that our services truly ensure operational excellence for our customers while providing innovative ways to enhance the scope, capacity and value of their investments in technology. We are proud of the value and expertise we offer the MIDJersey member base because we all part of the community. We live together, work together, and when they grow and succeed, so do we,” says Paul Boyer, Managing Partner of Ancero.

“Ancero has been a steadfast supporter of our Chamber and more importantly of the MIDJersey community,” says Robert Prunetti, President & CEO of the MIDJersey Chamber. “They’ve grown significantly in the past few years and have shared that success with us in Chamber sponsored events and community service such as the Trenton Digital Initiative for economically disadvantaged young people. Ancero sets the example as ideal small business leaders taking stock in their community.”

This honor tops off a prosperous 2016 for Ancero who experienced their most successful and rapid revenue growth in the 18 year history of the company.

“Coming off of such strong growth in 2016, we have the great fortune to begin 2017 with exceptional momentum. Our prosperity stems from a clear focus on service delivery provided by a talented team that is committed to customer success. Our goals are set high for the New Year and we have some exciting new initiatives planned for the company”, explains Robert Hogg, Jr. Managing Partner of Ancero. This growth is due in part to Ancero’s recent acquisition of Ground Swell, an MSP located in Egg Harbor Township, NJ. The acquisition will be finalized on January 6th, 2017. Ground Swell’s customers and employees are now officially part of the Ancero brand.

Hand Over the Headache to Ancero Manged IT

Introducing our new video! Hand over the headache, Ancero Managed IT.

In your business… It’s your biggest nightmare. Irreplaceable data is lost, the network is down, your employees can’t do any work and you don’t know which vendor to call. How do you prevent downtime, secure data and streamline operations? By calling Ancero!

As your full-service Communications Solution Partner, Ancero makes it easy and cost-effective to keep your systems running smoothly. It’s not about band-aid solutions- it’s about a comprehensive and strategic IT plan that makes sense for your business, and your budget. With over 7000 devices under management, we know what it takes to keep your network secure and running smoothly.

Our complete Manged IT includes managed services, Backup and Recovery, security and the cloud.
The Ancero proactive approach to IT management enables our team of technical experts to spot potential network failures before they occur- saving you time, money and headaches. And you’ll benefit from enterprise-strength IT experts, at a fraction of the cost. So you can stop losing sleep. Because you have more important things to do than worry about IT.

What Ancero Solutions Mean for Your Business IT

“Ancero is a Communications Solution Provider offering small to medium-sized companies a wide range of integration, managed services, VoIP, cloud services and networking solutions.”

That introduction is typically followed by, “What is it that you really do?” Technology can be confusing and most businesses have a hard time aligning our services with their needs if they don’t understand what technologies we support.

So let’s boil it down to what ‘we really do’ and how you can benefit.
Professional Services – Designing, deploying & upgrading your IT infrastructure; the infrastructure is the foundation of your business information systems. If it’s built properly it will be flexible enough to support future technology upgrades and keep existing technology running smoothly. ProServ also provides a comprehensive security solution for email, mobility, connectivity and more to guard against today’s growing cyber threats and breaches.

Managed Services – Outsourced daily management of your computer network; to maximize the level of productivity across an organization a network must be engineered, managed and serviced by experts who can ensure that vital operations, such as line of business applications, will continue to run efficiently and effectively. A regularly maintained network means fewer failures, savings on support costs and reduced exposure to security risks.

Utility VoIP – Cloud based, voice over internet phone system with unified communication features; eliminates complex, expensive PBX hardware and software by hosting the PBX in the cloud. Uses cutting edge technology to ensure clear communications meeting quality of service standards. Flexible and scalable for businesses with one location, multiple locations or mobile workers all over the U.S. Easy to use online portal gives an administrator flexibility to make real time system or feature changes.

Cloud Services – Secure, private corporate cloud with a dedicated, hosted environment; by using cloud computing, applications and services are no longer confined to individual workstations. You’ll gain more flexible access to your applications, services and data. A private cloud ensures security, scalability and meets industry compliance standards. Our cloud based backup and data recovery solutions, protect and store your data from threats while ensuring that data can be recovered quickly and meets compliance standards.

All backed by our Ancero 24x7x365 Network Operations Center staffed with dedicated, skilled engineers, located within our office in Mount Laurel, NJ.

So there you have it; what we really do is make your IT work, so you can go to work and not have to worry about IT!  If you need a better backup solution, email security, cloud storage or looking to upgrade your phone system, give us a call and see how our solutions solve your business IT needs!

Lift the Burden of Daily Network Management

A computer network is the backbone of any modern business and the deliverer of vital services. One of the major challenges in maintaining a network is trying to predict what will fail and when. Without proper monitoring and maintenance, performance issues can hinder your employee’s productivity and negatively impact business.

Do these problems plague your business?

• Is your Network perceived as a “necessary evil”?
• Is the network simply maintained and not developed to improve business performance?
• Are IT outages distracting your staff from their core focus, or prohibiting them from working efficiently?
• Does your staff rely on other non-IT employees to deal with distracting IT problems?

To maximize the level of productivity across an organization a network must be engineered, managed and serviced by experts who can ensure that vital operations will continue to run efficiently and effectively. A regularly maintained network means fewer failures, yielding higher productivity and savings on support costs. At the same time, exposure to security risks is dramatically lessened, and frustration from unstable IT resources almost vanishes.

Why would you work with an MSP?
By using a managed service provider organizations can focus on their core business functions by taking the worry out of owning a computer network. A Managed Service Provider or MSP knows how critical business services are to your daily operations. An MSP has processes in place to get to know the wants and needs of your business, will apply industry expertise and solutions to align technology to support your business initiatives. A managed service solution delivered by an MSP can prevent many network failures from ever happening. By combining regular and comprehensive preventative maintenance and robust real-time monitoring of your critical network and desktop devices, they can ensure the reliability and stability of your IT assets.

Cost Savings – For most businesses, IT is the second largest budget item after employees. But managed service clients have proven reduced annual IT expenditures by 25% or more.

Support – 24×7 Advanced Performance Monitoring ensures all of the critical network devices that comprise your business network are healthy and functioning reliably and optimally. Dedicated, skilled engineers are available around the clock rather than relying on one person to solve the problems of an entire company.

Compatibility – An MSP works with an existing IT manager as a team, often times increasing productivity and performance. With the daily burden of network monitoring lifted, the IT manager has the freedom to be proactive, engaged and responsive to new technologies.

Scheduled Preventative Maintenance – Ensures that your servers, PCs and other vital network devices function optimally. This improves reliability and security.

Quarterly Network Health Review – An MSP dedicates time to review reports and issues that are important to the ongoing performance of your network. All reviews are translated from technology into business terms for a clear report on the health and stability of the network and devices.

Working with an MSP to alleviate the challenges of managing a computer network paves the way for a business to adopt an IT strategy that enables greater bandwidth, a stable network infrastructure and drive business growth. Ancero’s comprehensive managed service solutions are designed to include all the elements that are key to a successful managed IT plan.

Performance, Security & Beyond – Ensure a Future-Ready Infrastructure

Is your IT infrastructure future-ready? As new technologies continue to emerge, today’s network infrastructures are rapidly growing in size and complexity. Businesses can embrace a wide variety of innovative technologies such as cloud computing, big data, mobility and virtualization that empower companies to do business with greater speed and productivity. Yet most businesses are sinking the majority of their IT budgets into sustaining legacy infrastructures. This leaves only a small percentage for new technological investments. Critical business applications require greater processing power, memory, and storage. And managing different types of application workloads across an extended IT environment taxes business IT resources. This growing complexity means that to maintain and modernize a high performance network now requires specialized skill and expertise.

This requirement can be met by engaging a solution provider for their professional services. Professional services refers to skills performed by IT engineers that design, deploy and manage network infrastructures. To maximize productivity across an organization, a network must be monitored by these experts. This ensures that vital operations don’t experience downtime, legacy systems can be streamlined for better efficiency and exposure to security risks is lessened. Engineers must also expertly design and prepare a network to accept new technologies, as well as safeguard their successful installation. Professional services provide solutions that address mobility, availability, performance and security. Those are the four cornerstones of an efficient and resilient network that holds the key to aligning IT with business goals. Savvy CIOs, CFOs and IT managers looking to modernize, employ a solution provider for professional services to reduce costs associated with sustaining legacy systems and bolster their budget for new technology investments.

A well-managed IT infrastructure will assure a business can be agile, productive and easily scalable. A future-ready network infrastructure provides businesses with the systems they need for mission-critical applications, leading the way with innovations to carry them into the future. Having both is a strategic business asset providing significant advantages against competitors.

Ancero’s team of expert engineers can assess your business needs and create a turnkey solution that enables your business to run efficiently and cost effectively.  We bring together the right combination of people, process and technology to solve your most complex challenges.  From design to implementation, Ancero’s engineering team provides your company with dedicated experts who maintain industry recognized certifications, trained to build a network capable of handling all your computing needs.  And, because we work with the world’s leading technology vendors and partners, you gain best of breed solutions and services to help you meet your business goals.

Office 365 Lacks Backup and Recovery, So How Do You Protect Your Data?

Office 365 product offerings have become a common choice for organizational document sharing and email.  These products deliver a high level of availability, reliability and security but do not provide native backup and recovery options for organizations, regardless of the level of criticality of the information. What if someone accidentally deletes or overwrites a file? How do you make sure business-critical cloud information isn’t tied to the person who created it? When employees leave the company, can you prevent their files and information from leaving with them?

Administrators need to ensure that even in the most unanticipated situation, that their corporate information can be recovered and restored in a timeframe satisfactory to the business. How can we balance our business requirements, protect our user data, and move successfully into a cloud based strategy for corporate email data?

Ancero’s BDR solution now includes Datto Backupify for Office 365 that delivers simple, automated, and secure backup of your cloud data. With the Backupify for Office 365 solution, Customers will be able to protect their organization from data loss caused by user errors, meet legal and compliance needs, and manage the employee lifecycle effectively. Find, restore, and manage your Office 365 data with the Total Data Protection Platform.

Automatically back up data
Rest easy with Backupify’s automatic 3x/day backup for Office 365’s email and calendar apps. Admins can also initiate a backup at any time.

Securely manage data
Protect your data with powerful security controls, including compliance with SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, and Safe Harbor. Data is secured with 256-bit encryption and admins have access to enterprise-grade controls and monitoring.

Quickly search for backups
Zero in on users, items, and metadata to quickly find what you’re looking for from the dashboard

Easily restore and export backups
Restore individual files or groups of files back into a user’s account or download them directly to your machine.

Ensure your Office 365 data isn’t lost to end-user deletions, viruses, malicious activity or departing employees with Ancero BDR solutions.

Business IT Switches from Supportive to Proactive

Business IT is undergoing a transformation. Not only is technology evolving within business, technology is helping business itself evolve. This technological infiltration into every aspect of business has naturally created an evolution of the IT department. The traditional IT team can no longer remain an isolated entity that manages legacy systems. An evolved IT department grows closer to the business and truly supports it in their effort to become more agile and responsive, to differentiate their products and services, and to become easier to do business with. IT now contributes to the overall results of the company. There is a clear shift from IT playing a primarily supportive role to a more proactive style, delivering IT services in a more innovative, collaborative way.

But for many small to medium sized organizations staffing an entire IT department isn’t within the budget. It is most likely the case that an existing IT manager assumes responsibility for successfully pro-curing and integrating new technologies into an existing IT infrastructure. IT departments of all sizes are faced with heightened performance expectations along with shrinking budgets. The typical result is an impossible agenda of priorities to manage and the inability for IT to keep pace with technology change.  The continual demand for newer, modern technologies like VoIP, Unified Communications, Security and Cloud computing becomes daunting and time consuming for the lone IT manager. So how do they have time to both manage an existing infrastructure while developing strategy to implement newer technology?

To make that possible, organizations will need to outsource many of the day-to-day tasks that currently prevent IT managers from operating more strategically so they aren’t always getting lost in the tactical weeds. This is where Ancero expertise can help. We know how critical business services are to your daily operations. This is why we spend so much time aligning our technology to support your initiatives. The IT Manager must be sure their systems are reliable and flexible enough to handle increasing demand and technological advances. By using Ancero Managed Services we can prevent many network failures from ever happening. Combining regular and comprehensive preventative maintenance and robust real-time monitoring of your critical network and desktop devices, we ensure the reliability and stability of your IT assets. Building a program that relies on 24x7x365 network monitoring coupled with an aggressive preventative maintenance component ensures optimum uptime for your business. Ancero Managed Services offers different levels of service to deliver the support you need at the price you want.

Your Path to the Modern Business

Your path to the Modern Business with Office 365

For small and midsize businesses, technology can make the difference in driving your company ahead. Modernizing your IT can set you apart from your competitors, whatever size they may be. But how do you get there?

We can help. Ancero’s expertise and solutions from Microsoft provide something different—a unique approach for making the benefits of modern technology a reality for businesses.

Microsoft empowers small and midsize businesses by making technology a business advantage. With Microsoft, you can choose your own path to modern with solutions that address your business goals—whether growing sales, increasing efficiency, enabling a mobile workforce, or keeping data protected.

Only Microsoft offers a complete, flexible, and trusted platform that spans the entire IT ecosystem, from server to cloud, and desktop to mobile devices.

Make sure your technology works as hard as you do. Microsoft offers business solutions designed to address your business goals and challenges across four key areas:

• Grow efficiently – Use technology to reduce costs and be a real enabler of your business growth.
• Safeguard your business – Keep your data protected and be prepared for the unexpected, so you know your business never misses a beat.
• Do business anywhere – get the benefits of a productive mobile team that can work together, wherever they are.
• Connect with customers – Gain the competitive advantage of understanding your customers and making meaningful connections to build long-term relationships.

When it comes to technology investments, you need to make sure you are getting the most value out of the products and services you purchase, and that you are not buying more than you need. Ancero is a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider. Let us guide you down the path to modernizing your IT while reducing costs and maximizing your IT investments.

Ancero Case Study – Healthcare Treatment Centers

Ancero Multi-Solution Case Study for Healthcare Treatment Centers

Background
The customer referred to herein as ‘Healthcare Treatment  Centers’ provides comprehensive dialysis access maintenance, fistula maturation procedures, vessel mapping, complete catheter services and associated medical services. The company has experienced significant growth over recent years and now has offices in dozens of states.

As a medical organization, this customer requires proactive IT support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, depending upon when patients need care.  This customer is also subject to significant security and compliance standards due to HIPAA and PCI regulations for client health data and payment information. As the customer grew, it depended upon Ancero to integrate its IT infrastructure with both existing and newly acquired offices.  This included installing and managing its VoIP based business phone service, securing all of its data and implementing a disaster recovery plan.

Challenge

Healthcare Treatment Centers has several of its offices in New Jersey, dispersed throughout the state. The effects of Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey in 2012 were severe, with economic losses to businesses of up to $30 billion.  Many companies did not have disaster preparedness or disaster relief plans in place, which put their information and technology systems at high risk. It is imperative for businesses to have back-up plans with quick, real-time recovery.

Implementation 
Healthcare Treatment Centers utilizes Ancero’s Managed Services, Utility VoIP, Private Cloud and Professional services.  Ancero moved the organization to a co-location facility (TierPoint data center) with a full disaster recovery plan and a backup solution that provides quick, real-time recovery of data as needed, also referred to as Private Cloud services.  The backup plan included collating data at the TierPoint Data center, which proved to be an integral part of the organization’s survival during Hurricane Sandy.  HIPAA implementations include complex passwords for sign-on to the customer’s network, security codes on mobile devices and automatically timed logoffs from Citrix for any workstations left idle.

Ancero provided office infrastructure build out, Utility VoIP telecommunication systems and IT support for all new locations with 24/7/365 capability, all within a state-of-the-art facility using the organization’s own equipment. Ancero also implemented a data clearinghouse with a log of all data breaches or attempts.

Since implementing Ancero’s Utility VoIP hosted phone solution, Healthcare Treatment Centers has enjoyed growth — nearly doubling in size — and drastically reduced their downtime caused by outdated telecommunication technology.  There is accessibility to all office locations with internal four-digit dial, which has been associated with improved internal communication and productivity.  Data recovery and collation also were key components to surviving Hurricane Sandy.  Additionally, hardware costs dropped and there are fewer recurring expenses.  After being consolidated into Ancero Utility VoIP, savings are approximately 50 percent.

If your organization needs to utilize new technologies for increased productivity, meet compliancy standards, protect sensitive data and take advantage of real cost savings contact Ancero and our experienced team will be happy to meet with you to discuss your needs.

The Real Cost of Outdated Technology

For most small to medium sized businesses their IT budget is tightly managed to maximize dollars. Even if those dollars are spent wisely, risks are always lurking in technology that can sabotage a budget. But In reality the greatest saboteur of funds is the use of outdated technology. Aging systems could be causing a greater spend in IT than you realize. You could be jeopardizing thousands of dollars as your technology slows down, maintenance costs for aging hardware will increase and leave you vulnerable to downtime and risk. New technology and services are more efficient, use less energy, keep your team productive and your budget on track!  Consider outsourcing IT needs to a Managed Service Provider like Ancero.  The MSP use its expertise and efficiencies to perform tasks faster and at a lower cost. By utilizing its own computing platform to perform a service, capital expenses are also reduced and a skilled MSP better aligns your  IT needs with your business needs. This info graphic illustrates the importance of heading off an expensive IT disaster by modernizing your technology.

What is the most significant change in technology that is affecting your business?

Change it self! The fast growing complexity of technology is overwhelming businesses, making it hard for them to grasp what emerging technology they actually need to utilize. Understanding and managing complex technology starts to become a drag on revenue. The do-it-yourself model doesn’t work if you are spending more than 12 to 18 months rolling out a new application or functionality. Outsourcing to a Managed Service Provider or MSP, delivers solutions that closely align IT with your business goals. It alleviates responsibility and resources that could be spent in other areas. Free your team to build your business with innovation and collaboration, not IT management.

For SMBs that are cost conscious, using an MSP is a surprising way to save money. The skilled MSP can use its expertise and efficiencies to perform tasks faster and at a lower cost. By utilizing its own computing platform to perform a service, capital expenses are also reduced. In addition, when internal resources that used to manage IT are able to focus on other projects, productivity increases. Even when a business has a dedicated IT staff, outsourcing some IT projects, like deploying new storage, virtualizing or implementing a continuity solution relieves pressure, increases efficiency, and protects data.

A successful IT solution creates efficiency, improves communication and inspires collaboration. Behind the scenes it lowers costs, improves productivity, runs securely, ensures connectivity and provides peace of mind. Managed Service Providers become a trusted advisor, guiding technology decisions, managing infrastructure, solving network problems and assuring that your technology investment is working for you.

Ancero offers a wide range of integration, managed services, Utility VoIP, cloud services and networking solutions. Utilizing more than 20 years of industry experience, Ancero provides the expertise necessary to incorporate the capabilities of diverse and emerging technologies to deliver strategic solutions that ensure operational excellence. Don’t let the fast pace trends of emerging technologies hinder your business, let us guide you to the right solutions for your business needs.

Is it really 24x7x365?

Ancero offers clients technical support service but we are often asked, is it really 24x7x365?

The answer is – YES! Ancero has built a sophisticated, state of the art Network Operations Center right in South Jersey – not half a world away. Staffed with dedicated, trained engineering resources, it is true, live technical support at anytime. Our clients receive support nights, weekends, holidays, whenever their need arises we are there for them. It is a vital piece of IT services that few other companies can offer.

Revolutionary – We’ve been offering this level of support since 2004, making Ancero a true customer service innovator in IT industry. IT problems can be frustrating and costly. Our network monitoring tools enable our engineers to proactively detect and prevent issues before they impact our clients. And when network issues do arise, Ancero acts quickly with remote or onsite support thanks to our Mt. Laurel, NJ headquarters.

Peace of Mind – Having the 24x7x365 support of Ancero’s NOC as a local presence provides peace of mind for our clients. Our support is backed by industry leading response and resolution times. We offer hassle free, guaranteed service level agreements. And our team of engineers are highly trained and certified in a variety of technologies providing the skill to solve the most challenging IT issues.

“I want to thank you for the quick and effective resolution to the virus issue I experienced today. Thanks to your knowledge and responsiveness I back was up and running within the hour of placing the initial call to Ancero! This was a huge relief given the amount of work I needed to get through today. You hit a home run in my book. Thank you!”  – Healthcare Marketing Company and Ancero Client

If your business is on when others are off, 24x7x365 technical support is invaluable in maintaining the continuity of your business processes. Discover peace of mind with Ancero’s 24x7x365 Technical Support. Call and speak with us today 856.210.5800.