It Coach For Business Leaders With Aaron Swann

In this episode, Aaron and Josh discuss how to choose a computer. Choosing a new computer for your specific needs is never an easy task. Not to mention, it's time consuming. Much like buying a car, you have an abundance of styles, sizes, and speeds available at your fingertips - but choose too quickly and you'll miss important info like safety and model ratings.

In this episode, Aaron and Josh discuss a question from a listener - "When I try to go to websites, I sometimes get error messages. What are they trying to tell me?" Error messages look like this, "This site is not secure," "Certificate can't be trusted," or "Your connection is not secure," and are all too common. They pop up for numerous reasons and are famously difficult to troubleshoot for everyday website browsers. Difficult terminology following the error messages creates confusion and leads to hastily made decisions to bypass and continue on.

In this episode, Aaron and Josh discuss the "De Facto IT Person." AKA the office manager or employee who has proved capable to fix small technical issues, so is given all IT duties. You may not realize how common this scenario is within companies of all sizes.

In this episode, Aaron and Josh discuss how a Virtual CIO (vCIO) can benefit businesses that don't have C-level or senior IT leadership. A CIO (Chief Information Officer) is responsible for all of the internal technology that runs a business. The most important role a CIO plays in an organization is to take the vision, goals, and strategies established by the executive team and build out the technology systems that need to be in place to support them.

In this episode, Aaron and Josh continue the series on Managed Services. Today's discussion covers a number of Software Services (antivirus, spam filtering, email, security training, etc.) that can be monitored and maintained by an IT company as part of a managed services agreement.

You've probably heard IT people talk about end-points and have no idea what they're talking about. An end-point is each individual device connected to your company's network that employees are using. Laptops, PCs, cell phones, and tablets are all end-points. In this episode, Aaron and Josh discuss important steps every business leader should take to ensure employees are working on devices that are approved, maintained, and updated as necessary. When employees use devices daily that are outdated or not properly maintained, it can quickly kill morale. This doesn't only impact employees though. It can cost your company unnecessary time and money when acting reactively rather than proactively. Thankfully, there are many basic programs and platforms that can help you do this.

In this episode, Aaron and Josh discuss how to determine what type of IT services provider you may need, how to choose the right type of provider, and the questions you should ask before hiring them. There are many options available to help you solve IT issues that arise. Finding the right provider is a must. As your company grows and changes are made, you will need an IT company to help you through those changes and to get your issues resolved quickly.

On this episode of “IT Coach for Small Business Leaders”, Virtual CIO, Aaron Swann, discusses firewalls and how a managed service provider can help manage your firewall. When it comes to firewalls, there is much to take into account. From policies to content filtering to life cycles. It can get overwhelming. If you want to make sense of it all, this episode is perfect for you. Aaron and Josh discuss the little things, then offer an easy solution for those times you need to reach out for the big things.

On this episode of “IT Coach for Small Business Leaders,” Virtual CIO, Aaron Swann, discusses managed backups and how to determine your business' backup needs.   Early-stage businesses that don't have the cash to spend on professional help may be able to implement "DIY" backups. But as your business grows you will need professional help - a managed backup service. A professional-grade backup service provider will help steer businesses through the entire decision making process to get the right managed backup service for your business.

We're excited to launch season 2 of IT Coach for Small Business Leaders and hope you enjoy all of the topics we plan to cover in 2020. In this episode we dive deeper into the topic of "Managed IT Services." With so many IT service providers offering "managed services," it's important for business leaders to understand exactly what this term means. The truth is, it can mean very different things depending on which IT company you are dealing with. We break down Managed IT Services into plain English and relate it to common concepts such as "consumer-grade" vs. "professional-grade," and "do-it-yourself (DIY)," "done-with-me," and "done-for-me." Listen to the full episode to hear Aaron Swann's advice on how to determine what level of Managed IT Services is the best fit for your company.In this episode, InfoSystems vCIO, Aaron Swann, and VP of Marketing, Josh Davis, discuss managed backups for your data and how a managed services provider can help take the burden off your team to make sure you have a solid backup

In this episode, InfoSystems vCIO, Aaron Swann, and Marketing Director, Josh Davis, discuss how a "Managed Services" agreement may mean you are unknowingly outsourcing your IT systems management to another country. We compare the way InfoSystems delivers locally managed IT services, to other models that include reselling software and outsourcing IT support to overseas call centers. The information technology industry has seen a major shift in the way IT companies deliver services to their customers over the last 5-10 years. 10 years ago, you would have never heard an IT company referred to as a "managed services provider." Today, that is the most common way IT companies describe their services. So that leads us to the question - "what has changed?" For the next few episodes, Aaron Swann will share information about how managed services are delivered for the various individual components of your overall IT system and how you can make sure you are making sound decisions on what to outsource.

We're beginning our podcast episodes for 2019 on the topic of Cyber Security. It has become more and more urgent for organizations to make sure that all employees receive adequate training on how to recognize cyber attacks and other security threats. It's also crucial for companies to draft and adopt security policies and to assess whether or not they are meeting compliance requirements that may be in place for their type of business. In this episode, InfoSystems vCIO, Aaron Swann, and Marketing Director, Josh Davis, discuss the KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training program. Aaron discusses his experience rolling out this training program for several InfoSystems customers. He gives a great overview of how a company can deploy simulated attacks and other security vulnerabilities with KnowBe4 to train employees by letting them see and experience them firsthand and receive feedback and training tailored to how they responded. If your company does not have an active training program in place for end user cyber secu

We're beginning our podcast episodes for 2019 on the topic of Cyber Security. It has become more and more urgent for organizations to make sure that all employees receive adequate training on how to recognize cyber attacks and other security threats. It's also crucial for companies to draft and adopt security policies and to assess whether or not they are meeting compliance requirements that may be in place for their type of business. In this episode, InfoSystems vCIO, Aaron Swann, and Marketing Director, Josh Davis, discuss how cyber attacks are becoming more sophisticated and much more difficult to recognize. We also discuss many different types of attacks such as phishing emails, spear phishing attacks, and voicemail and phone scams. If your company does not have an active training program in place for end user cyber security awareness, this is a great intro to hear why your employees are your biggest risk. 15 minute listen.

Technology has become so important to business operations that most companies can't run if their IT systems are down. Despite that fact, when it comes to construction, renovation, and general environmental decisions at a place of business, technology is typically an afterthought. In this episode of IT Coach for Business Leaders, Aaron Swann and Josh Davis discuss the environmental factors that are important to ensuring that your technology runs optimally.

One of the most common pieces of customer feedback we hear from InfoSystems customers is how much they value the time they spend with our vCIO, Aaron Swann (a major reason we love having him on our podcasts). In this episode of IT Coach for Business Leaders, we talk through a very common scenario that often causes very major issues - the impact of IT infrastructure on software implementation and upgrade projects. Let's be honest - software sellers are hyper-focused on the software deal and usually treat the infrastructure requirements as an afterthought. Don't make that mistake. Listen to the full episode to hear specifics on how to avoid issues with your new software implementation.

One of the most common pieces of customer feedback we hear from InfoSystems customers is how much they value the time they spend with our vCIO, Aaron Swann (a major reason we love having him on our podcasts). In this episode of IT Coach for Business Leaders, we discuss some of the specific ways in which our vCIOs engage with our customers, and how the vCIO relationship can alleviate many IT-related human resources issues. Aaron shares a story of how a customer was negatively impacted by employee turnover in their IT Director role, which led to a change in the way they worked with InfoSystems by utilizing our vCIO services. We also talk about the potential negative impact of IT employee turnover and how a company can successfully manage the transition when turnover does happen.

InfoSystems recently completed a survey in which 55 companies in the state of Tennessee answered 13 questions related to their business, their IT department, and their perspective on technology. Episode 11 of the podcast "IT Coach for Business Leaders" features a discussion around some of the survey results that show that companies in Tennessee typically lag behind other regions in business technology.

InfoSystems recently completed a survey in which 55 companies in the state of Tennessee answered 13 questions related to their business, their IT department, and their perspective on technology. Episode 10 of the podcast "IT Coach for Business Leaders" features a discussion around some of the survey results that seem to all point to the gap that exists between executive leadership and IT. Aaron adds some great perspective on how companies can take tangible steps to bring business management and IT together.

In this episode, we discuss one of the aspects of a business IT strategy that is often inadequately executed - Backups. This discussion spans three episodes. In the third part, we discuss Aaron's commonly recommended "one-size-fits-most" approach to provide the greatest backup protection at a value. We also discuss instances where a more robust backup solution is needed and what it looks like. Listen in to learn about how small and mid-sized businesses can establish a highly effective backup plan.

In this episode, we discuss one of the aspects of a business IT strategy that is often inadequately executed - Backups. This discussion spans three episodes. In the second part, we discuss several of the most common actual backup scenarios Aaron has seen over the last 24 years working with InfoSystems customers. Listen in to learn about how small and mid-sized businesses can establish a highly effective backup plan.