Why Every Vancouver Plumbing & Electrical Contractor Needs Managed IT

Okay, picture this.

It's 7:15am on a Monday in Vancouver, WA. A plumbing company has three crews heading to job sites, but nobody can access the schedule. The office computer won't start, customer information is unavailable, and invoices from Friday haven't been sent. Every hour the system stays down means lost revenue, frustrated customers, and technicians waiting instead of working. Yikes!

That's exactly why managed IT services for plumbing and electrical contractors have become less of a luxury and more of a business necessity.

Technology Keeps the Work Moving

Most contractors rely on technology more than they realize. Estimates, invoices, scheduling, customer communication, QuickBooks, Microsoft 365, and cloud-based field service software all have to work together.

When one piece fails, the entire day can fall apart.

For plumbing and electrical contractors serving Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR, reliable IT isn't about having the newest or even the best computers. It's about keeping your crews productive and your office operating without interruption.

Four Ways Managed IT Makes a Difference

1. Prevent Problems Before They Become Emergencies. Waiting until something breaks is expensive. Regular monitoring, software updates, and maintenance catch many issues before they create downtime.

2. Protect Customer and Business Data. Contractors store customer addresses, payment information, contracts, and employee records. Cybercriminals know that smaller businesses often have fewer defenses. Good cybersecurity helps protect your reputation as much as your data.

3. Support Your Team Wherever They Work. Your office staff may be in Vancouver while technicians are spread across Clark County or Portland. Managed IT helps everyone securely access the files and applications they need whether they're in the office or on a job site.

4. Plan for Growth. As your business adds employees, vehicles, or another office, your technology should grow with you. Having a long-term IT plan prevents expensive surprises later.

The Business Benefits

Reliable technology means fewer interruptions, happier customers, and motivated employees who spend more time serving clients instead of troubleshooting computers.

It also creates predictable IT costs, faster response when problems occur, and confidence that someone is watching over your systems even when you're focused on running your business.

Remember that plumbing company from the beginning? After moving to managed IT, their crews started every morning with working schedules, secure cloud access, and confidence that if something went wrong, help was only a phone call away. Instead of worrying about computers, they focused on serving customers. That’s a big part of what we do around here.

Let's Keep Your Business Running

If you're a plumbing or electrical contractor in Vancouver, WA or the Portland metro area, you don't need an oversized IT department. You just need dependable tech that works every day.

Whether you need managed IT, cybersecurity, Microsoft 365 support, cloud services, or help planning your technology, the team at Mickler & Associates, Inc. is here to help. We'd be happy to talk through your business, answer your questions, and build an IT solution that fits the way you work. You can even ask for a free security assessment.

Got questions? I’ve got answers.

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Working from Home? You Need a Computer Consultant.

In the age of COVID, everyone is making changes, particularly as it relates to the nature of work.

If you’re a knowledge worker operating out of your home office, you’re using computer and networking equipment that you’ve never had to really rely upon. Your home PC, your home router, your home wifi - these were devices of convenience.

Today, though, you’re relying on your network and computer equipment is a matter of making an income, running your business, and servicing your customers. In the past, a bit of jitter in watching Netflix wasn’t a big deal, but if you can’t complete a clean teleconference, you might not land that agreement. You need the same security, performance, and reliability out of your home network as your office network, and you need somebody to help you get there.

A computer consultant can help you with these problems. They’ve got real-world industry training and discipline that we can bring to the equipment found in your home office. The same practices and techniques that keep your office network safe can be applied to your home. It’s about enterprise computing at home office scale.

• Computer analysis and endpoint monitoring

• Antivirus, malware, and intrusion detection

• Router inspection and firmware upgrades

• Security analysis and application of best-practices to keep you safe

• Disaster recovery and data backups

• Work telephones and conferencing

• Remote support and troubleshooting

Including all of this, a computer consultant can just give you good, practical advice. Things you should know about and be aware of.

If you believe that the COVID experience isn’t going to end any time soon, and that work-life balance is inexorably going to change one way or another, then establishing a good relationship with a local technical professional is your hedge against data loss, down-time, or critical failure. Get to know someone who works when you work, and can get you out of a tight spot when you really need them.

Just give us a call. And we don’t charge anyone to get to know how we can help them, so it’s not going to cost you anything to just open up a conversation.

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Remote Workers are Significantly Vulnerable to Hacking

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced millions to work from home.

In the tech industry, we call home computers and home networks unmanaged endpoints - unmanaged because we don’t control those devices and we have no idea how they’re configured.

There’s a whole bunch of risk that comes with unmanaged endpoints:

1. The operating system of home computers are often neglected. They could be lesser versions of Microsoft Windows or MacOS and haven’t received critical updates or patches.

2. The software or settings that we introduce into corporate environments to safeguard our computers aren’t implemented with unmanaged endpoints.

3. Disaster recovery options on unmanaged endpoints is challenging because data may be stored on the local hard drive of these machines. There may not be any data backups.

4. Privacy and confidentiality of corporate data may also be at risk because, again, such data is stored on an unmanaged hard drive. Who knows if the local admin password on the PC is set to a reasonable level as to disallow root-level access.

5. The use case of home machines are very different from business machines. There’s likely to be more risky behaviors (browsing, downloading, installing by end users) associated with these endpoints taken on by teenagers and children.

6. The networking equipment - like the home router and wifi access point - likely hasn’t been patched, updated, or even its root password rotated from its default setting.

And all of this spells big trouble for the small business.

The challenge is to transform these unmanaged assets into managed ones, and, to inspect the networking environment for potential risks and, well, you know … do something about it!

We help small business use technology better. That includes three critical solutions to help protect small business while distance-working.

1. Ongoing Endpoint Monitoring and Protection.

2. Online Backups.

3. Remote Support.

Our Endpoint Monitoring and Protection software reports vulnerabilities back to us so we can take corrective action. It turns an unmanaged endpoint into a managed one. It helps identify areas where the operating system may be vulnerable, or, when somebody installs a risky program. It also includes an antivirus, anti-malware, safe browsing, and intrusion protection system that counters typical threats to a user’s machine.

Our Online Backup solution is all about recovering the company’s data in addition to the user’s data while they’re using their own PC for company business. In the event of failure or if their machine is hit by a ransomware, we can recover the user’s data to a restored machine.

Our Remote Support is part of what we offer. It’s a human eye to look at the user’s network and can make recommendations to improve their security posture. We can red-flag issues that are unmitigated risks so that they can be dealt with; otherwise, we can help safeguard the remote employee with a few simple changes. And of course, if the user gets in a jam with their tech, we’re there to help so they can get back to work.

In all, our approach is to mitigate risk to the small business and to the employee by taking preventative measures. Instead of just reacting to failure - hoping that everything is okay with an unmanaged asset - we help our clients move beyond hope. We help small businesses have confidence in their ability to function and serve their customers.

That’s how we add value.

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