Annual MSP 501 Identifies Best-in-Class Global MSP Businesses & Leading Trends in Managed Services JULY 28, 2020: RCS Professional Services has been named as one of the world’s premier managed service providers and one of the top MSPs in New York on the prestigious 2020 annual Channel Futures MSP 501 rankings. For the 13th year, MSPs from around the globe completed an exhaustive survey and application this spring to self-report product offerings, annual total and recurring revenues, profits, revenue mix, growth opportunities and company and customer demographic information. Applicants are ranked on a unique methodology that weights revenue figures according to long-term health and viability; commitment to recurring revenue; and operational efficiency. Channel Futures is pleased to name RCS Professional Services to the 2020 MSP 501. "It is an honor to be recognized as one of the leading MSPs,” said Jeffrey Tebele CEO, RCS Professional Services. "A big thank you to our dedicated team and of course, all of our partners without whom this achievement would not have been possible.”

Your time is valuable, and of all the things you are wasting your time doing, signing documents is one of them. If this was a one-time process, it may not be very overwhelming. However, when formatting, printing, signing, and scanning your documents is an everyday occurrence, multiple times a day, you can’t afford to let signing documents suck up so much of your time. Not to mention the environmental destruction of wasted paper.

There is so much buzz around digital transformation but what does that really mean? Digital Transformation is the new, fast, and frequently changing digital technology that companies use to solve business problems. It is about transforming manual processes into automated workflows. Unfortunately, just picking the latest and greatest technology to implement is not that simple and will not solve your problem on its own. Here are 5 things you should know before you spend all of that money:

There is a general understanding among business owners on how to keep their businesses protected. We all know the standard operating procedures around cybersecurity such as password protection, firewall implementation, and backing up company data. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) take this a step further by also training your employees on best practices and constantly monitoring your networks. These methods alone, however, are no longer enough to keep you safe, especially during this pandemic. Remote work and relaxed summertime work habits often creates sloppy security precautions as your employees are using their home devices and unsecured networks are more prevalent --- a breeding ground for a cyber attack. We have seen countless reports of security breaches since the beginning of COVID-19, many of which could have been prevented with proactive and preventative cybersecurity standards. What can you and your IT support do to make sure you’re not attacked? Understand your Risk In the past, Cyber risk analysis was difficult for companies with so many seemingly endless ways that they could be targeted. Luckily, today there are frameworks in place to protect your company by developing plans to inspect your current policies and see where the weak links lie. From this, you can work with your MSP to create a plan that fits both your timeline and budget. We recommend using the NIST Cybersecurity Framework - which is a globally-recognized cybersecurity risk assessment standard for small-businesses to measure your current operations and develop your plan of action. RCS can help you do this. Here’s how: · We interview you with questions about your current policies and procedures · We aggregate the findings into an easy-to-understand report showing your top security risks and the impacts they have on your business · We discuss the top risks and which ones are most important to you · We develop a plan of action that fits your timeline and budget The entire process only takes a relatively short time to complete and is very affordable. We also invite you to join our cyber-security awareness training on August 5th to get a more detailed look at creating a risk framework for your company. You can register for this here: https://lnkd.in/dgT5wRc Implement Mobile Device Management An analysis done by Webroot reported that 62% of the endpoints they had reporting a malware infection on their device were from a home device, the other 38% were from business machines. As a business, you need to understand the risk your security faces when you allow users to connect to company networks from their personal devices. Mobile device management (MDM) implements the security of a business setting on all devices where work is performed on a company network --- end users laptops, smartphones, etc. --- to prevent cyberattacks from targeting unsecured devices. Your IT support should be proactively working with you to ensure all user devices are being monitored on a device management platform. These platforms automatically detect devices in the network and send them settings for immediate and continued usability. By doing this, your support is able to control and protect the data and configuration settings of all mobile devices in a network. In turn, MDM can reduce support costs and business risks. Most small and medium sized businesses fold within six months of an attack because they can’t afford to bounce back, but you don’t have to be one of them.

Microsoft has announced a bunch of new features coming to its Teams platform before the new year, some of which are right on par with its competition, and some of which are new and different --- and we’re excited! The new features, which Microsoft disclosed via a blog post on July 8, are supposed to make chats, meetings, and other collaborations less tiring and more productive. These new releases; such as the much-anticipated ability to see 49 people on screen at once, will be reaching end-users as soon as the new few days.

Choosing between the two front -running video conferencing software, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, will probably come down to the use of the platform in your business along with cost. What you should be prioritizing is the security of each.

The decision to return to the office after working from home is a difficult one, for the safety of yourself, your employees, and your clients. Whether this be a choice you are making now, or, in the foreseeable future, you need to be prepared for it. COVID-19 is still among us, and planning for re-opening may seem stressful, but you can use the following steps to ensure that your office is clean, safe, and organized as you plan for re-opening: