There have been many years of discussion regarding the virtues of IT managed services. However in recent years there has been a surge in demand. But this growth has attracted a proliferation of suppliers of mixed abilities and resources. Less and less SMEs seem to be following the conventional wisdom that if IT is in-house that it is more manageable, focused, cost efficient and reliable. MSPs clearly need to deliver reliable, consistent services that build a long term, trusting, added value relationship with clients. This Better Business Guide discusses:

• Why the demand for MSP is increasing.
• Why organisations should consider managed services.
• What organisations need to look for in a MSP.

Find out more today by downloading and reading our free Guide, The emergence of next generation IT MSPs. Here

Move to the cloud? If you’re like most small and medium size businesses, then the chances are you’ve struggled with this issue—and with good reason.

After all, you’ve got a lot to think about. What is the cloud really going to cost you? Will it enable your people to work how and where they want to, while keeping you in control? How do you know your data is secure? Don’t worry. At Avagio we understand, and we are here to help. There are many cloud solutions out there now and some are quickly gaining ground with SMEs. Office 365 from Microsoft is one of them. This guide describes its key features.

Find out more today by downloading and reading our free Guide, Microsoft Office 365 is popular with many SMEs – but is it the right solution for your business? Here

Many small and medium size businesses believe they can navigate the complex IT environments that many of them have, or need. Unfortunately, many think they can manage IT on their own, or by simply relying upon a one-man operation to keep up with basic maintenance. They tend to follow the conventional wisdom that if IT is in-house that it is more manageable, focused, cost efficient and reliable. This presumption shows how managed service providers, like Avagio, often need to educate potential customers and deliver reliable, consistent services that build a long term, trusting, added value relationship with clients. This Avagio Better Business Guide discusses:

• The hidden costs of IT support in-house
• Why organisations should consider managed services
• What organisations need to look for in a MSP

Find out more today by downloading and reading our free Guide, How to choose the right IT managed service provider for your small or medium size business. Here

Many new businesses turn to a sole trader, a self-employed ‘one-man-band’ to service their IT requirements. And in the early days this arrangement can benefit both parties. But it’s our view that as a business, and its IT demands, begin to grow – or market conditions begin to tighten requiring management focus and IT innovation – the weaknesses in the ‘one-man-model’ can begin to show. It’s worth regularly asking these questions – where is your business now? Do you still use the ‘one-man model’? Should you be acting to ensure that your IT contributes more to your business, your people and your customers?

Find out more today by downloading and reading our free Guide, Has the ‘one-man-model’ for your IT support already began to quietly fail your business? Here

We all know the efficiencies that can flow from having a robust and relevant IT network, together with PCs, other devices and software that create user satisfaction by providing the tools they need, when they need them.

But the other side of the coin is when the system design, set up or maintenance is poor. It’s then that IT can turn dangerous causing user frustration, decreasing productivity and costing businesses huge, but often hidden sums, in lost business and inefficiency.

So what are the signs of dangerous IT? Over the past 6 years we’ve learnt to recognise them and by sharing them with you we hope you will too and can then act before they begin to affect your business performance:

Find out more today by downloading and reading our free Guide, IT can be dangerous… here are the 9 signs you need to watch for. Here.

Probably much more than it currently does… As a small or medium size business, you need to identify every advantage you can get to compete against larger companies, who often have more resources. But did you know that you can improve your staff productivity, customer service and competitive advantage through hosted telephony?

And now you can read about the top business benefits of hosted telephony, the things you must know when contracting, and how to avoid the key pitfalls when adopting hosted telephony. Simply download our Better Business Guides 11, 12 and 13, here.

You can also take advantage of our free no-obligation telephony audit… we will review your current telephony system, line capabilities, listen to your telephony frustrations and aims and provide a proposal. Book yours here.

*You will need to be within an hour of our offices to qualify

Avagio’s latest cloud computing guide considers the reasons why small and medium size businesses need to consider adopting the cloud.

It covers topics such as system security, IT storage, staff productivity and flexibility, overhead cost reduction and cash flow management, business continuity, accommodating peaks in demand, speed of deployment, managed updates and standard versions, delivering new applications without raising your budget and becoming more environmentally friendly. And the technical options. You can download and read it today here

Avagio research indicates that there is plenty of poor IT service out there, right now. Insufficient skills, slow response, rudeness, guesswork – all dressed up as genuine service.

If there’s one thing we are good at it’s setting high IT service standards and delivering them consistently. Exceeding customer expectations, and making a real difference to the performance of their people, and businesses. Years of experience has taught us what genuine service is. It’s why we’ve never lost a client due to poor service.

And we’ve put the key questions in this essential free guide. Together with examples of the genuine service that we do more than just claim to deliver… Not false claims.
You can download and read it today here

Avagio CRM award winning software has been designed specifically for small and medium size businesses looking for a CRM and emailing tool that is BIG on features – but small on price. Complimenting or replacing your current CRM, emailing system Avagio CRM can manage your business and social contacts and convert more leads into sales, easily send attractive emails to your contacts and social networks, manage workflow with a shared calendar, assign tasks and more!

Standard features include Social CRM, Email, File storage, Calendar, Taskpad, Mailmerge and a Knowledgebase, while depending on the package you select it can also provide autoresponders, webforms, sms marketing, online surveys and more.

You are less than a minute away from a free and secure 30 day trial here, it’s easy. No credit card, No commitment. Nothing to install. No restrictions: you can try out all the features. And you can cancel anytime, in the trial period, at no cost. How could you use it?

Take the trial today and see how much value Avagio CRM can add to your business, here

Have you ever sent an email and then immediately regretted sending it? If you are using Gmail as your mail client, you can do just that with an interesting but buried option in Gmail settings.

To enable this feature, go to Mail Settings in Gmail (upper right corner, under the gear icon). Navigate to the "Labs" tab. In the labs search box, look for "Undo Send" and choose Enable, then save. Now in Mail Settings you will see an option to "Undo Send: Send cancellation period: __ seconds." Enter the number of seconds that Gmail will allow you to change your mind in the future (try 10 seconds).

With this enabled, the next time you send an email, you’ll be able to “Cancel” it from being sent out, as long as it is within the time frame you specified.