Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Meet Our Team: Liz Shenk

Get to know our team a little better!
Meet Liz Shenk, Marketing Manager here at STEADfast.

Liz Shenk is the Marketing Coordinator at STEADfast IT. Liz holds a Bachelor’s in Communication from Goshen College and a certificate in Marketing Strategy with eCornell, Cornell University’s online learning platform. In addition, she has 7 years of experience working in marketing, public relations, journalism, and communication. Prior to joining us at STEADfast, Liz was the Marketing Director at Center for Healing & Hope, a non-profit medical clinic located in northern Indiana.

Liz is also a certified yoga instructor who loves experimenting in the kitchen, writing and illustrating children’s books, trail running, and listening to history podcasts. 


STEADfast IT is the highest rated Managed Services Provider in the Northeast

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Thursday, November 5, 2020

Meet Our Team: Scott Mosebach

Get to know our team a little better!
Meet Scott Mosebach, Controller here at STEADfast.

Scott Mosebach is the Controller here at STEADfast IT, bringing over 10 years of experience in finance in a variety of different functions in corporate finance, private equity, and start-ups. Scott is a graduate of Siena College in Albany, NY. 

“The best part of working at STEADfast, in addition to the great people, is that we are entrepreneurial and growth-oriented,” said Scott.

In addition to his financial savvy, Scott is also a skilled outdoorsman and spends his free time hiking, mountain biking, and boating. He has hiked most of the Rocky Mountain fourteeners and most of the 46 Adirondack high Peaks!


STEADfast IT is the highest rated Managed Services Provider in the Northeast

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Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Current Thinking: Adapting to a Remote Workforce

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To better serve our clients, we think it is critical to stay on top of the issues affecting their operations, their businesses, and their customers. So, we actively look for and consume the best, current thinking available to inform our recommendations and the action plans we implement for them.

We recently hosted a webinar for our clients and regional SMBs to help them become, and stay, fundamentally more resilient in the face of the current pandemic and resulting health care mandates.

Specifically, we identified 5 distinct levels, or stages, organizations must address in order to become location agnostic – so that where your employees are located doesn’t hurt your ability to conduct operations, improve efficiencies, and create value for your customers.

As a service to attendees, at the end of the presentation we included a slide with links to some of the analysts, resources, and articles we referenced when developing solution sets for our own clients. A number of other people expressed interest in them, so we are also presenting them here.

Please Note: We have no affiliation, commercial or otherwise, with any of the content providers below, and we derive no benefit from these links or from your traffic to their sites. All the links point to content that was developed by, and is fully owned by, its respective authors, publishers, and copyright holders.

We hope this partial list of resources gives you a sense of the breadth and depth of timely coverage and critical thinking available about these and other subjects and provides a jumping off point for your own research.

A Sampling of Current Thinking

Source:  Gartner
Title:       With coronavirus in mind, is your organization ready for remote work?

Source:  Deloitte
Title:       Why organizations are moving to the cloud.

Source:  Forbes
Title:       The future of work is distributed. Here’s how your company can strategize.

Source:  Accenture
Title:       Productivity in uncertain times through elastic digital workplace.

Source:  Toptal
Title:       How to lead remote product teams.

Source:  Ready.gov
Title:       Business Continuity Plan

Please let us know if you find these articles helpful and what subjects you are most interested in learning about.  We would be happy to focus on areas that are important to your organization.

__

STEADfast IT has years of experience working with multi-location businesses and organizations that rely on a distributed workforce – ensuring their remote employees are productive, secure, and engaged.

If you have any questions about what you have read here, or if you would like to discuss options and solutions for your own organization, we would like to hear from you.


The right technologies can give your team the flexibility, resiliency, and speed they need to grow your business – no matter where they are located. 

STEADfast IT can provide the tech assurance your business needs to thrive. 

Call us today 518-581-7200 to learn more about our Managed IT Solutions.

STEADfast IT is the highest rated Managed Services Provider in the Northeast

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from STEADfastIT IT MSP https://managedserviceprovider.com/current-thinking-adapting-to-a-remote-workforce/

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Tuesday, April 14, 2020

By the Numbers: Cyber Security and the New Normal

Depending on your industry and occupation, the ability and opportunity to work remotely may have been growing steadily, for years.  But, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations of every size and stripe are rushing to figure out how to equip and manage a partially or entirely remote workforce for the first time. 

While priority one is to ensure their employees can work-from-home as safely and securely, many don’t fully understand the risks, or have the tools, processes, and policies in place to manage it all.

Changing environment means new cyber security risks, and since most breaches can be traced to human error, the biggest areas of new vulnerability will stem from employees new to working remotely.

There are three primary types of data and other confidential information you need to protect:

  1. Personal Information: i.e. Social security numbers, passport, banking and financial accounts and balances, biometric and medical records
  2. Proprietary Business Information: i.e. Financial records, trade secrets, patents, contracts, sales and customer/client information, human resources records
  3. Classified Government Information: i.e. Defense, military and security data, international and foreign service information, and other formally protected documents

What cybersecurity risks are remote employees especially vulnerable to?

  1. Malware (including ransomware, spyware, etc.): Malware is an overarching term used to describe all types of malicious software designed to corrupt computer systems, including viruses, ransomware, file infectors, and so on. Malware is often distributed through attachments or links to compromised websites. 
  2. Phishing: This type of attack usually consist of hackers using specifically targeted email messages to trick people into giving up confidential information, like account numbers or passwords.
  3. Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) Attacks:  Generally, when an attacker inserts themselves between a trusted client and a server.  Types include session hijacking, IP address spoofing, and reply (where an attacker intercepts and saves old messages, using them to impersonate a trusted participant.) 
  4. Eavesdropping: This type of attack occurs by intercepting network traffic and ‘listening’ for confidential information, like password and account numbers. In many cases, hackers are looking to eavesdrop on individual conversations in digital channels, including email, social media, and VoIP calls.

How do you reduce the risks to your organization?

In a recent blog*, the SANS Institute for Security Awareness identifies 3 key employee behaviors that organizations should focus on to significantly reduce the risks inherent in working remotely.

  1. Awareness of Social Engineering Attacks:  The key to successfully combating social engineering attacks is training and awareness.  Teach employees what social engineering attacks are, what to look for, and what to do when they see it.  There are scores of resources available through SANS, KnowB4, and other organizations dedicated to eliminating threats from cybersecurity attacks.
  2. The Use of Strong Passwords:  Weak passwords continue to be one of the primary reasons behind security breaches.  Conversely, a strong password protocol is one of the most effective defenses.  Establish policies requiring the use of strong passwords and passphrases and mandating they be changed frequently.   Consider implementing two-factor or multifactor authorization for access to especially sensitive applications or data.
  3. Ensuring Systems and Applications are Up to Date: Finally, one of the best habits your employees can get into is ensuring the operating systems and apps they use on their own devices to work remotely must be kept up to date.  As a start, encourage them to enable automatic updates for both their devices and their software. Of course, ongoing updates and maintenance of corporate-owned laptops, smartphones, and applications should be standard procedure.

Managing your organization’s risk from cyber attacks in a non-stop mission, but there are resources, expertise, and solutions to help you at every step.

We have deep expertise working with organizations that rely on a remote workforce, and handle highly sensitive medical and financial data. If you have questions about improving your own cyber security and options for reducing risks from remote employees, please feel free to contact us.

* SANS.org, Security Awareness Blog; “Top Three Behaviors for Creating a Cybersecure Remote Workforce”; by Lance Spitzner, Director, SANS Security Awareness; March 11, 2020


When it comes to running and growing your business, managed IT support is likely not the first thing on your mind. Similar to insurance, you don’t need it all the time, but when you do, you’re extremely glad you have it.

STEADfast IT can provide that tech ASSURANCE your growing business needs to thrive. 

Call us today 518-581-7200 to learn more about our Managed IT Solutions.

STEADfast IT is the highest rated Managed Services Provider in the Northeast

The post By the Numbers: Cyber Security and the New Normal appeared first on STEADfastIT IT MSP.

from STEADfastIT IT MSP https://managedserviceprovider.com/by-the-numbers-cyber-security-and-the-new-normal/

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Collaborating Together, Remotely

Working remotely isn’t new.  In many occupations it’s quite common.  What is new is having so many employees forced to work from home so quickly, and from every part of the organization.

It’s taken a tremendous effort for most organizations to get this many employees up and running, but as of this writing, they are figuring out the basics.  The challenge is, the basics may help you get by, but it’s not enough to ensure your company can thrive.

In a recent poll, conducted by Gartner, a majority of HR leaders indicated that the biggest barriers to productivity for remote employees are poor technology and infrastructure. To highlight the point, the same article* goes on to encourage organizations to communicate best practices in the use of core technologies used to communicate with each and with clients, including email, social media platforms, and instant messaging apps.

By implication then, most organizations still have work to do before they’re on solid ground.  But once you have your team(s) functioning, you need to start rebuilding – or redesigning – the connections, workflows, and efficiencies that gave you your edge when people and processes were co-located. 

Think Beyond the Basics

One of the things that will come out of our collective adaptation to this pandemic, is a fundamental change in how we think about and leverage a distributed or remote workforce.

For forward-looking organizations, this forced evolution will almost certainly create opportunities for building real and sustainable advantages and new benefits for customers and stakeholders alike.

In part, this new operational reality requires leaders to shift focus from managing activities to managing outcomes and results.  To succeed at speed and at scale, management should focus on;

  • Defining and communicating SMART goals and measurable outcomes,
  • Empowering employees, partners, and vendors to adapt processes to achieve those results, and,
  • Implementing the right set of technologies to help them succeed

Make Visibility a Priority

When employees are physically separated and working remotely the first casualties are the water-cooler, hallway, and breaktime conversations.  These ad-hoc, spontaneous connections are very often work-related, and can generate real value and efficiencies for your organization.  Wherever possible you need to create proxies for those types of open, unscripted interactions.

While there is no real substitute for in-person conversations, encourage your team to use video conferencing whenever possible, and especially in brainstorming and creative meetings. 

For internal, text-based communication, even though it may seem counterintuitive, it can be a good idea to allow or encourage employees to use emojis and other signals to enhance the content of emails and instant messaging apps.  In the absence of visual, non-verbal cues, the goal is to enhance and add nuance and color to conversations that used to happen face-to-face. 

It is also a good idea to encourage video huddles and other micro-meetings, between peers and working teams.  But, as with all meetings, be aware of how often you are requiring employees to interrupt normal work in order to participate.  Avoid the temptation to use meetings to monitor employee performance.  Instead, use them to overcome challenges, take advantage of opportunities, or create value for stakeholders and customers.

To be successful, trust is key.  In both directions.  Leaders should normalize and communicate expectations, empower their teams, and put the infrastructure in place to support their success.  Employees should be open to leveraging new tools and processes to make their own jobs easier and to create value for their teams and organization.

Finding the Right Mix

Where the rubber meets the road, improving collaboration and increasing productivity of remote employees requires identifying and implementing the right mix of enabling technologies.  The good news is there are scores of software solutions and mobile apps to accommodate a variety of specific needs and work styles. 

Start by understanding the core value of different workplace solutions. Some are great at facilitating real-time communication, some are better at tracking progress on projects, some at automating workflows and handoffs.  Others, like Microsoft® SharePoint, Google Drive™, and Confluence® provide a central, shared repository for information, documents and process control, etc.

Frequently used collaboration platforms include SLACK®, Trello®, Zoom®/Zoom Rooms, Google Groups™, Hangouts™, Microsoft Teams®, and others.  Some platforms, like VirBELA™, let you create and navigate virtual officescapes using personalized avatars.  Depending on their primary role, teams may prefer one solution over another because they are designed specifically for the way they are used to working. 

Developers, for example, may prefer a platform like SLACK, or JIRA.  Marketers may prefer tools like Wrike® or CoSchedule®.  Where possible and within budgetary limits, give your teams a voice in selecting the best solutions for accomplishing their goals, but, to avoid silos, require that those platforms support API connections with your core business applications.

Where to Start?

Take it one team at a time.  Some departments and roles lend themselves more naturally to working remotely and digitally.  Knowledge workers (i.e. engineers, lawyers, accountants, programmers, creatives) are well used to working digitally and have very likely identified the tools and platforms that work best for their role(s).

Others, like manufacturing operations, logistics, security, and health care delivery require on-site presence by definition.   

Of the teams that can operate remotely more easily, which will be a challenge from a support perspective?  Which might require greater management oversight or upskilling before they can be effective? 

Typically, IT, programming, and engineering teams will be used to the tools and operating model, and are location agnostic; they can work from anywhere.

Marketing, sales, customer success, and similar CX or teams working on the edge of your business will be the next easiest to optimize.  Use the experience you gain from them to apply to the remaining functional areas.

In all cases, success relies on ensuring connectivity within and between teams, and the ability to securely collaborate and maintain social channels is critical.

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STEADfast IT has years of experience working with multi-location businesses and organizations that rely on a distributed workforce – ensuring their remote employees are productive, secure, and engaged.

If you have any questions about what you have read here, or if you would like to discuss options and solutions for your own organization, we would like to hear from you.

* Gartner, Inc.; Smarter With Gartner; “With Coronavirus in Mind, Is Your Organization Ready for Remote Work?”, by Jackie Wiles, Contributor; March 3, 2020


When it comes to running and growing your business, managed IT support is likely not the first thing on your mind. Similar to insurance, you don’t need it all the time, but when you do, you’re extremely glad you have it.

STEADfast IT can provide that tech ASSURANCE your growing business needs to thrive. 

Call us today 518-581-7200 to learn more about our Managed IT Solutions.

STEADfast IT is the highest rated Managed Services Provider in the Northeast

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By the 5’s – Mobile Device Management (MDM) for Remote Employees

In the last few weeks, most organizations have struggled to ensure their employees could work from home – most of them without having a set of remote-work policies in place.   As a result, leaders have focused on putting communication basics in place; network access through VPN or other connections, and some video proxy for in-person meetings (i.e. Skype, Zoom, Facetime, etc.).

Organizations with more robust IT teams in place, or businesses whose focus is on delivering IT will go far beyond those basics, but most SMBs don’t have that luxury and could use a road map.

One of the first places to start is Mobile Device Management or MDM.  As the name implies, MDM refers to control and protocols for devices, applications, and other software that increases the security and functionality of smartphones, tablets, and laptops, while giving employees the flexibility of using their own devices.

Why is MDM important?  First and foremost; cyber security for your business, your employees, and your customers.  Every person and every device accessing your corporate network, email servers, CRM, financial, and other applications, is another potential crack in your enterprise’ security. MDM gives you the tools, processes, protocols, and reporting to help you address all of these concerns, at scale.

Here is a summary of things to consider to help you get started.

5 Benefits of Implementing an MDM Program

  1. Reduce Business Risk. MDM helps reduce risk from cybersecurity threats by extending the same level of protection you use inside your enterprise to devices outside of your network boundary.
  2. Ensure Employee Productivity. An effective MDM program gives employees seamless access to the tools and data they rely on inside your offices and enables their productivity wherever they are. 
  3. Simplify IT Management.  A single, robust, MDM solution lets you deploy, administer, and manage remote employees’ devices in one place, at scale, using a consistent set of protocols and control.
  4. Reduce Business Expense.  Because MDM addresses critical risk and security issues, employees are free to use their personal devices, reducing the expenses for equipment required to work remotely.
  5. Improve Business Resiliency.  – It may not feel like it right now, but a solid MDM program improves organizational flexibility and enhances your ability to adapt to new challenges and opportunities as they present themselves.

5 MDM Goodness Principles

  1. Don’t try to do everything at once.  The important thing is to get started. Don’t wait until all the pieces are in place.  Identify the basics and get them implemented, then move on. (See below)
  2. Focus on Data Security. If your organization handles financial or medical information, this is already job one, but all businesses should focus on ensuring the security of proprietary and customer data.
  3. Address Specific Pain Points. Survey your remote team to identify unnecessary friction affecting performance. Often, problems stem from replicating analog processes, digitally, at a distance. 
  4. Make it Easy for Employees. Your MDM program needs to be scalable and consistent, but your results will be better if you find ways to engage and empower your employees in the process.
  5. Read and React to the Reports.  Putting MDM in place isn’t enough. Your data and reputation are at stake. Trust but verify. Run the reports, audit your performance, and adapt your program as needed.

5 Pieces to Put in Place, Now.

  1. Antivirus / Anti-Malware. The first step in to require installation of antivirus/anti-malware software on any device that will be connecting to your network and ensure that is it routinely updated.
  2. Password Protocols. Require strong passwords for applications accessing proprietary data and force time-outs when not in use.  Enforce rules requiring that passwords be changed frequently.
  3. Communication & Data Encryption. Remote employees share business information in a variety of ways. To protect your data, deny access from devices and channels that don’t enable encryption.
  4. Remote Device Controls. When critical corporate data is accessible through 3rd party laptops and smartphones, you will want the ability to locate, lock, and wipe mobile devices remotely, as needed.
  5. Employee Education. Human error is unavoidable, so be sure everyone understands your policies and educate them about the risks from sources like phishing, public Wi-Fi, and unauthorized apps.

STEADfast IT has years of experience working with multi-location businesses and organizations that rely on a distributed workforce, ensuring their remote employees are productive, secure, and engaged. If you have any questions about what you have read here, or if you would like to discuss options and solutions for your own organization, we would like to hear from you.


When it comes to running and growing your business, managed IT support is likely not the first thing on your mind. Similar to insurance, you don’t need it all the time, but when you do, you’re extremely glad you have it.

STEADfast IT can provide that tech ASSURANCE your growing business needs to thrive. 

Call us today 518-581-7200 to learn more about our Managed IT Solutions.

STEADfast IT is the highest rated Managed Services Provider in the Northeast

The post By the 5’s – Mobile Device Management (MDM) for Remote Employees appeared first on STEADfastIT IT MSP.

from STEADfastIT IT MSP https://managedserviceprovider.com/mobile-device-management-for-remote-employees/

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Thursday, March 26, 2020

Enabling Remote Employees To Work Productively, Safely, and Collaboratively

Given the current environment and public health concerns, it’s likely you are hurriedly implementing plans to enable your employees to work remotely, raising real questions about how to ensure productivity while minimizing risks to your network and data.

If you would like to understand and evaluate your options, or simply get a second opinion on your current plans, please feel free to contact us.

Over the years, we’ve developed a distinct expertise managing technologies for organizations with multiple locations and numerous remote employees.  In fact, we operate our own business, every day,  as if we were all remote.  This helps maximize our flexibility and resiliency because where we are located has no effect on the way we work.

Organizations with multiple locations or remote employees face unique challenges:

  • Network and data security are hard enough when everyone is inside the controlled office environment. What do I put in place to maintain security when employees are connecting remotely on unknown networks and devices?
  • What devices, connectivity and tools are needed for employees to be truly productive?
  • How do I maintain the informal employee interactions and collaboration that my business depends on to operate?

  • How will I know if my business is functioning properly before any potential financial impact?

The good news is, you can securely integrate and optimize your devices, infrastructure and telephony for remote operations. In addition, there are many technologies that can be effectively used to foster employee interaction, effectiveness, and productivity.

Here is a look at how we address some of these issues with our own clients:

Vendor Management

Cyber Security Protection

Hardware Management

Software Management

Employee On & Off Boarding

Extended Support Hours

To discuss your organization’s unique needs and evaluate options for enabling and supporting your remote employees, please feel free to contact us.

STEADfast IT is the highest rated Managed Services Provider in the Northeast

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