Michael Johnson

Will Your Business Be Taking Advantage of Section 179?

In late 2015, Congress passed and signed the PATH Act (Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act), which had the added benefit of increasing the Section 179 deduction cap to $500,000. This is great news for businesses, as Section 179 allows you to write off the full cost of technology purchases made during 2016.

Section 179

Section 179 covers a surprisingly long list of qualifying items, including both new and used hardware, off-the-shelf software, office furniture and equipment, and business vehicles. Even items like personal computers can be included under the “partial business use” category, with some stipulations attached. And as this deduction is only available to businesses whose total technology purchases for the year are less than $2 million, Section 179 is geared perfectly towards small and mid-sized businesses.

There is one small catch; the December 31st, 2016 deadline. Any business looking to take advantage of Section 179 is working with an increasingly tiny window. Only items purchased, shipped, and installed at your physical location by midnight on December 31st are eligible for this deduction. This means that not only do you have to place orders and have invoices prepared for your records, but the items in question need to be in use at your office.

If you’ve been considering upgrading your workstation computers, or treating your staff to some comfy new office chairs, now is the time. Emphasis on now.

But don’t let the time constrains push you into making hasty choices. Reach out to your IT provider to discuss your options. They can make recommendations that will fit your needs, and help make sure that your purchases will qualify for Section 179. In addition to offering you guidance and advice, they can coordinate with your staff to get your new hardware, software, or equipment up and running before the deadline passes.

You can find more details on Section 179 at the official website. And while your IT provider can help you with this process and offer valuable input, it’s always a good idea to speak with your CPA or tax attorney before making any final decisions. Especially when making big purchases.

Want to learn more about the ways you can make Section 179 work for your business? Contact us at [email protected] or (402) 895--5777. We’re the trusted IT experts for businesses in Omaha.

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Will Your Business Continuity Plan Come Through if Disaster Strikes?

Whatever industry your enterprise is part of, having a viable business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) plan in place is paramount to doing business in this day and age. Disasters can befall any business entity at any time, and often cause significant loss of some kind – either financial or through data loss or both. If you don’t have a solid disaster recovery and continuity plan in place, tested, and ready to go, you could be opening your business venture up to great liability.

Hurricane Matthew

Nearly any amount of downtime will cost you as an SMB, especially if you do a standard amount of sales and account closures on any given day. And obviously, the bigger the organization, the more financial loss you’ll suffer when disaster strikes you without having a business continuity plan locked-in. These generally come in the form of:

Natural disasters like fires or floods
Power outages
Cyber breach or attack
Technological failure

How do I get a good business continuity plan in place?

Finding an IT company in your vicinity that’s qualified to provide a business continuity strategy via the latest data backup and recovery technology is the first step. Working with them to design and implement a long-range DR/BC strategy that fits your business operations is next. Monitoring and periodic testing of such a plan follows, with necessary upgrades sometimes made to bolster such a strategy where vulnerabilities may appear.

If you are an executive not normally accustomed to dealing with IT planning, then you will likely leave it to a CIO, CISO, or other representative who can handle IT services contracting for you. But, as the company owner, it will greatly behoove you to invest some valuable time in meeting with an IT support team who will act as your vCIO (Virtual Chief Information Officer). This will help fine-tune the planning, design, and implementation of a long-term business continuity plan.

Case in Point: When Disaster Strikes

Disaster threat Hurricane Matthew pounded the US East coast this past weekend, which will likely leave many businesses on the southeast coast with significant data losses – not to mention the physical equipment and hardware losses. Those ready for such a catastrophe with business continuity and disaster recovery assurance in place will fare much better, and will at least be able to continue running their operations, especially with virtual work environments, cloud services, etc., as opposed to those who’ve opted to go without.

Statistics on Disaster, Backup, and Recovery Readiness

It’s a fact that 53% of organizations can only tolerate less than an hour of downtime before they experience significant loss of revenue or other impactful business loss.

According to a Symantec State of the Data Center Report, “Security, backup and recovery, and continuous data protection (CDP) are the most important initiatives, ahead of virtualization.” 79% said data backup and recovery was “somewhat or absolutely important,” while 76% rated continuous data protection as a top initiative.

A Business Continuity and Trends Survey by Continuity Central Archive found that 32.8% of respondents anticipate “large changes” in the way their organizations manage business continuity, while 14.7 % expected no changes to their BC plan.

A disaster recovery survey done by IDC says that 53% of survey respondents reported that they were purchasing data backup tools for software or services to protect data stored on desktops.

Loss Control Consulting firm Chubb has this to say on the subject: “Consider these odds: one out of two businesses never returns to the marketplace following a major disaster. Of those that do, half go bankrupt within three years. The ones that survive plan their response to a disaster before it strikes.”

Need a Business Continuity Plan?

If you need a winning business continuity plan in place, InfiNet Solutions is a proven leader in providing IT consulting and services in Omaha. Contact one of our expert IT staff at (402) 895--5777 or send us an email at [email protected] today, and we can help you with all of your business continuity and disaster recovery needs.

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Network Support Engineer

InfiNet Solutions is comprised of a dynamic group of professionals dedicated to bringing Fortune 500 I.T. solutions to small and mid-sized businesses in Omaha. We understand the distinctive needs of this niche market and has based our business model around providing them with a superior quality IT solution that has been previously out of reach due to cost and personnel factors – a solution that is extremely versatile, scalable to company size, and can be customized to virtually any business sector.

For this position, we are looking for key candidates who possess a strong service/support orientation. The Network Support Engineer will be responsible for maintaining the design and integrity of customer’s internal infrastructures. This relates to all technology, to include: workstations, servers, printers, networks, and vendor specific hardware and software.

POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES:

65% – IT Support (Client Resolution)

Responsible for providing IT support relating to technical issues involving Microsoft’s core business applications, as well as environments built on Citrix, Microsoft and Apple
Accountable for delivering support services for Microsoft technologies: Windows Server, Exchange, SQL, SharePoint, etc.
Troubleshoot and resolve general PC issues that clients may have
Work collaboratively with peers in order to help solve clients issues in a timely manner
Liable to ensure that once a ticket has been assigned to you – you must complete the ticket according to SLA standards
Perform technical services and support at the network level: WAN and LAN connectivity, routers, firewalls, and security
Ability to work collaboratively with your team in order to effectively diagnose and repair PC matters
Implement and perform disaster recovery operations
Ensure that service issues that cannot be completed within agreed service are being escalated to a greater level

20% – Customer Communication

Responsible for answering all incoming client calls of non-ticketed problems
Communicate with clients to keep them informed of incident progress, notifying them of impending changes or agreed outages
Improve the overall customer experience for our clients

15% – Monitoring Ticket Boards/Documentation

Responsible for viewing and assigning tickets to the appropriate board
Enter all work as service tickets into ConnectWise
Responsible for ticket documentation to include both system reviews and recommendations
Maintain logs related to network functions as well as maintenance and repair records
Document internal processes and procedures related to duties and responsibilities

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each of the requirements listed below:

Professional IT Certifications, such as: Microsoft MCP, MCSA, or MCSE, Citrix CCEA or CCIA, Cisco CCNA, or VMware VCP
Interpersonal skills: such as telephony skills, communication skills, active listening and customer-care
Diagnosis skills of technical issues
Technical awareness: ability to match resources to technical issues appropriately
Service awareness of all organization’s key IT services for which support is being provided
Understanding of support tools, techniques, and how technology is used to provide IT services
Typing skills to ensure quick and accurate entry of service request details
Self-motivated with the ability to work in a fast moving environment

Join our team today. Click here to apply online.

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On Site Technical Support Technician

The On Site Technical Support Technician is responsible for all onsite service and support needs for our customers. This relates to all technology, to include: workstations, servers, printers, networks, and vendor specific hardware and software. This person takes ownership of the client’s technical environment. From a 10,000 foot view and is responsible to:

Maintain client satisfaction with their environment
Ensure that their technology is functioning properly
Coordinate with BTA to implement business goals

POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES:

65% – IT Support (Client Resolution)

Responsible for providing IT support relating to maintenance of the clients physical network through: Verification and currency of Centralized Services functionality (Backups/ AV/Malware/Patching).
Develop and deploy onsite proactive services that will reduce the need for reactive support.
Acting as onsite technical support for user issues including allocating and maintaining loaner equipment.
Performing regular onsite, staging and repair services.
Taking accountability for any deficiency by following the ticket through to completion, either through your own work or following up on the work of one of your peers.
Work collaboratively with peers in order to help solve clients issues in a timely manner

20% – Customer Communication

Acting as the primary contact for issues that need to be escalated to support centre
Ensure all issues are followed up on
Improve the overall customer experience for our clients
Measure and gauge client satisfaction.

15% – Complete Ticket Notes/Documentation of Policies and Procedures

Responsible for documentation to include both system reviews and recommendations
Document internal processes and procedures related to duties and responsibilities

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each of the requirements listed below:

Professional IT Certifications, such as: Microsoft MCP, MCSA, or MCSE, Citrix CCEA or CCIA, Astaro appliances CSSA, Cisco CCNA, or VMware VCP
Interpersonal skills: such as telephony skills, communication skills, active listening and customer-care
Diagnosis skills of technical issues
Technical awareness: ability to match resources to technical issues appropriately
Service awareness of all organization’s key IT services for which support is being provided
Understanding of support tools, techniques, and how technology is used to provide IT services
Typing skills to ensure quick and accurate entry of service request details
Self-motivated with the ability to work in a fast moving environment

Join our team today.

On Site Technical Support Technician Read More »