10/02/2020
By: Jeremy Harris, IT Mindshare CEO
What’s the deal with all of these IT software packages now? Literally every IT/MSP company has some sort of pre-packaged software that they sell and put on an endpoint for clients. It makes perfect sense in theory, the IT company can generate a little residual revenue and keep some of the basic stuff humming along so that down time is mitigated and support is a little more efficient. Does the actual software itself suck? Nope – it’s usually pretty good. The comparison between Norton Antivirus or McAfee Antivirus is going to show that they are basically the same. Does the idea of having a monthly service suck? Nope – it’s a good idea as well. A business needs to have basic monitoring and security services to keep the bad nerds at bay as well.
So why do these packages suck? Well, the answer is in the last sentence above. A business needs to have basic monitoring. Monitoring. The reason these packages suck is because they aren’t being installed with an actual strategic plan in mind and they aren’t being monitored. The whole concept is to be able to login to a dashboard and see all of the workstations’ status. If the company that sold the magic software package isn’t actually monitoring their product, then it is basically useless. We’ve seen it all too often where a company is monitoring for cyber attacks and dark web identity breaches and it turns out, the company has already been compromised and were never notified. Why? Because the software is great – but the “package” includes someone actually making sure that you are being taken care of and notifying you of important details.
How to tell the difference? You have to go with a reputable company that specializes in what they are selling not just an “extra service” because it’s a buzz word in the industry (like cybersecurity seems to be currently). Ask them this question “Why are these specific features in your package?” The answer should have something to do with a risk mitigation approach that very specifically addresses real-world concerns and it should benefit you as the company. You can follow up from there with questions about the implementation and the real-world advantages. For example, “Well, unpatched hardware and software are one of the largest leading factors to a cybersecurity event so we feel it is very important to mitigate that risk and we do so by……”. That would be a great answer. Then, hold their feet to the fire and please, don’t sign a contract on these services. These software services can easily be run month-to-month so don’t get bogged down in some nonsense long term contract.
Stay safe out there!