Corporate Technologies and Network Center are two managed service providers in Fargo, North Dakota. If you’re a small business in the area and need IT support, you’ve probably done some research on both corporations. This guide does a comparison of both MSPs and provides you with the information you need to make a decision. Comparison Table for Provider Plans and Services The table below lists all the major concerns for most small businesses when they seek out IT help. The biggest takeaway from the comparison chart is that Corporate Technologies has a wider range of supported cities and includes unlimited support in their Total Advantage plan. Network Center also has a plan for small businesses named FlexCare, but it’s separated further into two pricing plans. Small businesses can stick to the budgeted pricing, but it means any additional services would be billed as an extra expense. This can balloon pricing should you need any extensive work during unplanned business growth or a cybersecurity incident. Feature Corporate Technologies (CT) Network Center Support Availability 24/7 support. After-hours, weekends, emergency support across North Dakota 24/7 support with an online portal On-Site Support Included in Total Advantage® (unlimited) On-site available with FlexCare plan ND Locations Multiple North Dakota locations Three offices in Fargo and surrounding cities Pricing Model Transparent per-user; no overage fees in higher tiers Two pricing plans: Budgeted and Unlimited Cybersecurity Stack Secure Advantage™—advanced multi-layer security Remote and physical security SLA Transparency SLA by package (response times, escalation) Not listed on site Money-Back Guarantee 60-day money-back guarantee None publicly listed, but promotes no long-term contracts For each of the line items in the comparison table, we detail them in the sections below. Breakdown of Corporate Technologies and Network Center Services by Business Size For local small businesses, a small local MSP might seem sufficient. Should your business expand into surrounding areas, you could lose standard support, especially onsite support. Network Center focuses on extremely small businesses with a local Fargo presence. Corporate Technologies has Fargo IT support that spans the major Fargo area and several surrounding cities. Should your business expand to other locations or states, Corporate Technologies has IT support across the US and a wider range of local cities. Comparison of Support and Service Models Both MSPs have their own pricing plan with Corporate Technologies being much more transparent. With Corporate Technologies, you get unlimited support (including onsite support) with their Total Advantage plan. The pricing plan has a set per-user cost paid monthly. With Corporate Technologies, you have no hidden costs that could surprise you when you need more service. Check out the Corporate Technologies IT cost estimate calculator to get a better idea of the budget requirements for your small business. Network Center also has a pricing plan called FlexCare. FlexCare is further broken down into Unlimited and Budgeted. According to the Network Center list of services under FlexCare, small businesses have some limitations on what services they get without any additional costs. The Budgeted plan has further limitations. Although Budgeted offers lower costs to the small business, you will need to add to your service if your business expands or you need additional IT support that isn’t covered by your current plan. Both service providers offer 24/7 IT support. It’s unclear if Network Center has 24/7 onsite availability, but Corporate Technologies offers unlimited availability for small businesses under its Total Advantage plan. This type of support is critical if you have an IT issue in the middle of the night or have off-hours remote workers. Total Advantage ensures that your staff always have support even when no one is in the office. Pricing Comparison Between Corporate Technologies and Network Center Corporate Technologies has a transparent per-user pricing plan, and businesses pay monthly. Because it’s per-user, your costs are set until your business grows. Network Center takes a different approach to the way it bills customers. Businesses pay for services when they have the Budgeted pricing plan. Paying for only the services that you currently need could be an advantage, but most small businesses are unaware of what they need for IT support. As an example, you might think that you don’t need cloud support currently, but you might decide later that you want cloud-based backups for disaster recovery. This additional service would add to the cost of your IT support in the next months. Cybersecurity Services Comparison in Fargo Whether you have one user or hundreds of users, your small business is a target for cyber-criminals. Like standard IT support, most small businesses don’t know what they need to protect their data. Corporate Technologies Secure Advantage plan gives you everything necessary to protect from threats. Here are a few services you get: Network Center also offers cybersecurity services. One aspect of their services is their physical security. Here are a few publicly listed services from Network Center: Local Onsite IT Support in Fargo Corporate Technologies and Network Center offer onsite support. It’s unclear if Network Center offers unlimited onsite support with its FlexCare pricing plan. Corporate Technologies offers unlimited support with its Total Advantage solution, so your small business always has 24/7 help desk support and technicians available locally should you need it. Network Center has an online portal where you can create tickets and potentially talk to a person, but some small businesses might prefer the availability by phone that Corporate Technologies offers. A help desk is where service begins, and a technician can be sent should you need physical hardware support. Corporate Technologies also offers proactive support, so you don’t need to suffer through downtime to get service for a specific incident. For example, security updates to firmware proactively stop known threats. Corporate Technologies 60-Day Money-Back Guarantee Only Corporate Technologies has a 60-day money-back guarantee. Network Center talks about low-risk monthly contracts with no long-term commitments, but it still adds risks to your IT budget. Many small businesses are unsure if they can properly use a managed service provider, so Corporate Technologies offers a risk-free
Your IT infrastructure never sleeps, so it can fail in the middle of the night. You need a remote-ready IT environment to allow for quick support. Whether you have remote staff that need access to your applications while they are on the road or need to set up an environment where IT can support your infrastructure, you need the right technology plan. The Essential Pillars of a Remote-Ready IT Environment Today’s secure IT environment requires infrastructure that you likely don’t have already if you need to set up remote access. This means that you’ll need new equipment before your network is remote-ready. Each item in this list can be deployed by you or a managed service provider (MSP). When you look into MSPs, here is a list of items they will recommend: VPN, Zero-Trust, and Multifactor Authentication (MFA): A virtual private network (VPN) will secure data traveling over the internet, so your data is safe even if an employee works from a vulnerable location like public Wi-Fi. The Zero-Trust aspect of VPN is a methodology used to authenticate and verify users as they continue to request data from your internal servers. Finally, MFA reduces the chance of a data breach should an employee fall for phishing or social engineering where their network credentials could be disclosed. Managed endpoints: Every mobile device, laptop, and remote desktop is an endpoint. Endpoints must be secured and managed by IT staff. Your security policy details what users must have on their devices to connect remotely, but antimalware and remote data wiping are two must-haves. Antimalware applications stop attackers, and remote data wiping removes sensitive data should a user lose their device. Email security: Every organization is a target for cyber-criminals. Today’s largest data breaches start with a phishing email. Email security filters out suspicious links, spoofed email addresses, and messages with malicious attachments. Cloud application protection: Your cloud vendor has tools to protect data at the vendor’s location. Ensure that these applications are enabled to stop attackers from breaching cloud infrastructure. Backup and disaster recovery: Whether you keep backups on-premises or in the cloud, you need them in case of a disaster. For example, if ransomware affects your environment, the quickest way to avoid damage is to restore data from a backup. Backups are also useful for natural disasters like floods or fires. Business-grade Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi can be set up around the office to offer remote access for staff if they don’t have a desktop. You need a setup that offers speed for enterprise applications and security to protect from outsiders. What Breaks First When SMBs Go Remote Even with the best and finest hardware, things break. It could be from a misconfiguration or a bug in the hardware. In rare cases, hardware fails from a faulty component. Whatever the reason, you need to be prepared. Here are a few common failures: All of the above issues can be proactively addressed with the right IT controls and deployment. After some time, your VPN might need upgrades as your business grows and adds more users. Your MSP can monitor the VPN for any speed issues and handle upgrades before they impact productivity. Patch management handles any issues with security upgrades in your environment. Shadow IT is also a security concern. Your MSP should monitor the environment for any devices that aren’t authorized, and they can handle patch management to ensure that your infrastructure is up to date. Compliance controls necessary for your environment depend on your industry. A good MSP will help guide you on the right controls. For example, if you must be HIPAA compliant, then you need the right monitoring and audit controls. MSPs install these tools to ensure that you aren’t vulnerable to compliance violations. Step-by-Step Setup Checklist for Business Owners Before you engage an MSP, you might want to go over your current infrastructure to determine what you need. An MSP can help determine the right hardware and software for your business, but it doesn’t hurt to take a look at what you have and make a checklist of your own. With this checklist, you can then engage with an MSP that can deploy and configure each item. How Corporate Technologies Builds a Remote-Ready Workplace As a small business owner, you might be overwhelmed with all of the requirements for remote access to your environment. You can choose from several MSPs, but we offer local onsite IT help that competitors can’t offer. We have a remote help center, but our professionals are local to our clients as well. Cybersecurity is a primary concern. Once you open your environment to remote users, the network becomes a target for remote threats. Corporate Technologies deployed email filtering, a security operations center (SOC) that monitors the environment, endpoint protection, and backup procedures to keep your data safe from attackers and permanent damage. After we deploy your remote-ready workplace, we then offer continued protection and monitoring with: Why SMBs Need Local IT Support for Remote Work For many SMBs, technology concerns grow beyond what a local person can do, especially if they aren’t trained in IT. Corporate Technologies caters to small businesses with offices across the US. You need this support for full coverage of your environment. For example, if you suffer from a network outage or ISP interruption, a remote MSP can’t help. Corporate Technologies can remediate these types of issues with local technicians near you. A few other ways local IT support can help you: If your business is ready to take the next step towards remote access, see what Corporate Technologies can do for you. Contact us today. FAQs