Beyond IT: The Holistic Approach to Complete Business Planning

As you’re exploring vendor partnerships for next year and beyond, are you considering technology consulting firms? In taking a holistic approach to complete business planning, technology is a critical aspect of your company’s future. That’s why we provide vCIO services at Affinity Technology Partners as part of our outsourced IT offerings.

What is a vCIO?

Exactly what is a vCIO? vCIO is an abbreviation for virtual chief information officer. Instead of having a full-time chief information officer on your payroll, a vCIO can step in as a third party and provide the same services and expertise on an as-needed basis. Your vCIO is responsible for strategic IT guidance and oversight, determining the technology best suited to fit your company’s unique needs. They’ll come up with long-term, high-level IT goals for your business and ensure they’re implemented properly.

At the same time, a vCIO will oversee your entire IT infrastructure. This can range from leading the integration of new technologies to managing your IT budget and helping your company uphold strong cybersecurity standards. When it comes to business planning, your vCIO ensures that your chosen technology is strategic, cost-effective, and compliant for your company to thrive in today’s digital world.

How Our vCIO Services Make a Difference

At Affinity, we understand the challenge of navigating technology’s rapid changes and making them work for your business. With that said, our vCIO services utilize a comprehensive approach to IT strategy and leadership to keep your company one step ahead, including:

Long-Term Budget Forecasting

As your vCIO services partner, we intentionally take time to assess your current technology. We evaluate your current IT infrastructure, considering the age of your equipment and software to determine what you can keep as-is and what needs to adapt. During this process, we ask questions like how many workstations need to be replaced? or is your firewall up for renewal?, uncovering the important (and sometimes overlooked) details to provide a comprehensive analysis.

From there, we consider your current budget against our IT infrastructure assessment to provide robust budget forecasting. Moving forward, you have a complete three-year picture of your IT budget requirements based on your current technology and its lifespan. This long-term budget forecast really separates Affinity from other vCIO services.

New Technology Integration

Considering your budget, our goal is to reduce your overall spend. To accomplish this, we provide recommendations on new technology integrations for your business. Using our seasoned industry experience and expertise, we can help you find IT innovations that generate the same or even better results as your existing technology while cutting costs. We also intentionally look for problems in your company that the latest software can resolve, leading to more efficient operations as a result.

IT Compliance Management

As a business owner, sometimes the last thing you want to put your energy towards is compliance. Yet it’s a necessary component of your business’s ability to operate, especially if you’re in a highly regulated industry. As an add-on to our vCIO services, we can handle all of the behind-the-scenes administrative work required for your business’s IT to maintain compliance. Whether it’s conducting regularly scheduled audits of your technology or implementing necessary updates, you can rest easy (and devote your valuable time elsewhere) knowing your IT compliance requirements are met.

Exploring Technology Consulting Firms? Affinity Can Help

In creating a complete business plan, it’s vital to make sure your company’s IT gets the attention it deserves. This is where partnering with the right technology consulting firms can really help you maximize IT to your long-term advantage. To learn more about Affinity’s vCIO services, contact our team today.

Celebrating Houston Douglas - serving Affinity clients and our Country

Houston Douglas began his career with Affinity Technology Partners as an intern.  He was finishing his degree at Nashville State Community College, and he needed some real-world IT experience.  He was willing to do anything that the team needed, and he absorbed the team’s technical knowledge like a sponge.  When Covid 19 kept most of the world at home, Houston was willing to work in the office, available to receive package deliveries and for doing hands-on work.

Throughout his years at Affinity, Houston has also pursued his career with the Tennessee Army National Guard, attending trainings for a month or even two months at a time and progressing up the ranks in his leadership – both at Affinity and the National Guard.  It is hard when Houston takes a leave of absence for training, but he always makes a plan to cover for his work while he is gone.  And when he comes back, Affinity receives the benefit of the character building and leadership that Houston has pursued.

Even with extended leaves of absences, Houston worked his way through and up the ranks of Affinity, learning from each department and leaving it better than he found it – from field services, delivering workstations to clients, to Professional Services Team Lead, implementing world-class technology solutions.  Throughout all of these positions, Houston has endeared himself to Affinity clients, and he is often requested as a favorite. 

Earlier this fall, the team celebrated Houston as he left for a one-year deployment with the Army National Guard.  As we celebrated, it was incredible to hear from the team about how he has impacted their work at Affinity, and we read heartfelt messages that clients had written to him.  He has definitely made a mark on our team and on the many Nashville-area organizations that Affinity supports.  We are so proud of him and thankful for his service, but it’s bittersweet, and we miss him already! 

Please join the Affinity team in thanking Houston, and all of our armed services, for their selfless work on behalf of the freedom that we are so blessed to have in America.    

Conditional Access: Fighting the Greatest Cyber Threat Today

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) has been the security standard within the IT industry for some time now. Whether you attended cyber training or a panel discussion in recent years, you were probably advised by security professionals to use MFA for both your business and personal accounts, including social media and email.

Fast forward to today, and it’s clear that businesses like yours need secure authentication now more than ever to stay protected from cyberattacks. In fact, every week our Affinity Technology Partners team hears about hackers targeting another major company, sometimes even healthcare stalwarts here in Nashville. Our clients have taken notice, too, which has helped us spread the word that MFA can make a difference in protecting typical data access and other business processes like accounts payable and accounts receivable.

Yet MFA alone isn’t enough to stay secure nowadays. Your business needs more modern authentication protections to fend off increasingly sophisticated hackers (more on that later).

Using Multi-Factor Authentication is Still Good Advice…Mostly

In today’s environment, multi-factor authentication continues to provide a significant upgrade to your cybersecurity. Simply put, MFA adds an extra layer of protection by requiring users to provide additional verification credentials to access an account—beyond the traditional username and password. It’s easy to implement and cost-effective, as many systems offer MFA at no extra cost; all you need to do is turn it on.

However, as hackers have become more advanced, multi-factor authentication is no longer bulletproof. Social engineering tactics in MFA’s early years have shifted into hacking techniques that trick the MFA process. SIM-swaps allow hackers to transfer your phone number to their own phones, while number-port attacks enable hackers to capture your phone number by transferring it to a new carrier tied to their devices. In either case, with possession of your phone number, a hacker can intercept any MFA codes sent via text message. And once they have these, they have free rein on your accounts. That’s why IT professionals now recommend using an app for MFA instead of a phone number.

A Modern MFA Security Challenge: Token Hijacking

As hackers have adapted their tactics to the world of MFA, a new, modern attack vector has arrived on the scene. It’s called token hijacking, and it’s one of the scariest hacking techniques of the past 25 years. Token hijacking actually bypasses MFA altogether. Using phishing to get you onto a compromised website, a hacker then captures your own session token, which normally allows access to your systems after multi-factor authentication. In the wrong hands, this token enables the hacker to act as you and gain total control of your account without you ever knowing it. The scariest part? Token hijacking is so advanced that it circumvents all controls, including MFA.

According to email security vendor Proofpoint, they encounter about 1 million token hijacking threats per month (yes, you read that right!). Even with its increasing prevalence however, token hijacking is still not getting the attention it deserves. Yet it’s a topic of daily discussion here at Affinity.

How Affinity is Enhancing Security with Conditional Access

With the growing threat of token hijacking, the last thing we’re doing at Affinity is sitting idly by. Instead, we’ve been intentional in adapting our client’s IT security to fight against this new attack vector, moving to a modern, zero-trust authentication mechanism called Conditional Access. Behind the scenes, this required clients using Microsoft 365 for their back office to switch from the default Classic Authentication mode to Conditional Access. Because of the urgency of this switch, our entire team prioritized a client-wide upgrade to Conditional Access through a communication blitz, bringing our clients into alignment with our current best practices in a single day.

Conditional Access provides greater cybersecurity protection because it uses a different kind of IF-THEN scenario to permit access, called a Zero-Trust Engine. Instead of the traditional username, password, and MFA code, we put policies in place to help this engine determine if access should be granted. The engine then applies those policies against signals like user or group membership, IP location, device, or even a risk calculation algorithm to decide if a user should be authenticated. Hence, Conditional Access—and the future of authentication.

Fight Against Cyberattacks with Affinity Technology Partners

If you want your business to stay one step ahead of today’s cyber threats, we can help at Affinity Technology Partners. Request a consultation today to learn more about our outsourced IT services.

Improve Business Security with Password Management

These days, we have passwords for just about everything, from pizza ordering apps and music streaming platforms to online bank accounts, medical records, and more. With so many, it’s hard to keep track of them all, let alone maintain secure password practices. 

Consequently, it’s all too easy (and common) for people to start using the same or similar passwords over and over again—even your employees. However, once one password gets hacked, it doesn’t take much for cybercriminals to figure out additional passwords, leading to major company security breaches. But having a password manager in place can resolve these issues and actually improve your security in the process.

Modern Password Management for Businesses

In seeking better password management for businesses like yours, the first step is to start using a company-wide password manager for all your employees’ various accounts. A password manager is an IT tool that self-generates strong, safe passwords across all accounts that are unique and difficult to hack.

Instead of coming up with individual passwords for every software application, your employees simply need to remember one password to access their password manager. Once logged in, the password manager auto-fills the correct password on the account they’re accessing. There’s no need to keep track of multiple passwords ever again. In other words, a password manager both enhances security and promotes convenience at the same time.

Key Password Manager Benefits to Prioritize

At Affinity Technology Partners, we encourage all our clients to invest in a password manager for their company’s security. But as you explore your options, there are a few specific password manager benefits we recommend you prioritize before making your choice. 

For starters, it’s not good practice for individual employees to sign up for their own password manager and use it for their work accounts. This opens up unwanted security and access issues. The right password manager tool will feature robust, comprehensive administrative controls that can actually prevent your employees from going rogue with their own personal password managers.

In these situations, an IT professional can set up your chosen password manager for the entire company, distribute it to each employee, and give you as the owner (or your designated management team) proper access. After all, administrative access is critical for unlocking employee password manager accounts as needed (and would be extremely difficult to do if an employee has their own individual password manager platform).

Of all the password manager benefits to consider, we also actually support password manager platforms that allow your employees to use the tool for their personal accounts at home. Good password managers that provide this benefit will have a separate password vault that prevents company access. This allows your employees to continue using the password manager for their personal accounts at home once they leave the company—as long as they start paying for the tool themselves.

Secure Password Practices: A Few Dos and Don'ts

As you’re implementing modern password management for businesses in your organization, you’ll want to establish some secure password practices in the rollout process. We suggest you advocate against your employees saving their company passwords on their personal accounts and web browsers, even those at home.

Take Google Chrome, for example. If you save your passwords on Chrome, they’ll be associated with your Gmail account. And if your Gmail account gets hacked, cybercriminals can obtain the company passwords saved in Chrome as well. And then you have a bigger problem on your hands.

To combat this, we recommend you work with IT professionals to remove your web browser’s capabilities to save passwords, and then distribute your chosen password manager platform as the better alternative.

Secure password practices also will block the ability of former employees to continue using their passwords to access your software and corporate accounts after they’ve left the organization. By working with IT professionals like us, you can ensure your company data is properly managed and former employee access is prevented.

The Best Password Management for Businesses with Affinity

To maintain secure password practices today, you need to prioritize modern password management company-wide. By partnering with outsourced IT professionals like Affinity Technology Partners, you can implement the best security measures—including the right password manager for your needs. To learn how Affinity can help improve your company’s cybersecurity, contact our team today.

The Multi-Factor Authentication Dilemma: Security vs. User Convenience

Have you noticed that logging into your online accounts nowadays can sometimes require an additional step beyond just typing in your password? Perhaps you have to confirm your identity on your phone or type in an extra code sent to your email. For some, this extra layer of security—called multi-factor authentication—may feel like an added inconvenience to your already busy day.

Sure, it can be easy to make a back in my day statement about the simpler password protections of yesteryear. Or maybe the thought of a few extra seconds required to log in has kept you from implementing a multi-factor authentication policy in your business. Balancing security and user convenience can certainly be a dilemma when establishing your IT protocols. But we believe that multi-factor authentication is a necessary step to secure your business from cybercriminals today.

What is Multi-Factor Authentication?

Multi-factor authentication (MFA), also known as two-factor authentication or two-step verification, utilizes a second authenticator beyond a password to verify your identity when logging into your online accounts. This extra step in the login process typically involves a PIN sent to your email, phone, or other device. Once you receive it, you’re required to enter the PIN on the login screen before gaining access.

Two-factor authentication provides enhanced security by combining your login password with an identifier associated with you specifically, whether it’s something you have elsewhere (like your email or phone) or even a part of you (such as your thumbprint, voice, or retina). Think of MFA as a simple double check that ensures it’s actually you accessing your account—and not a cybercriminal who knows your password.

Why Multi-Factor Authentication is a Must-Have

At Affinity Technology Partners, we encourage all our clients to utilize multi-factor authentication in their businesses. We also understand that MFA can be a minor inconvenience at times for your employees (IT experts are people too, you know!). In spite of this, we still believe it’s an absolute must-have in the world we all live in.

Unfortunately, some companies still don’t prioritize a multi-factor authentication policy for their IT security and have to deal with the consequences afterwards. Just recently, a local business without MFA experienced a rude awakening when a hacker broke into their system and sent several “company emails” to employees asking them to send money to a new bank account. Talk about a major headache. And that’s just one story. We see this kind of thing fairly often, sadly.

To obtain cyber insurance, multi-factor authentication is also a baseline requirement (as well as a modern data management plan). If you don’t have MFA, then you simply can’t get this vital insurance. And that leaves your company unprotected from liabilities associated with cyberattacks and data breaches. The bottom line is your company becomes extremely vulnerable in today’s business environment if you don’t have multi-factor authentication in place.

Cell Phones and Two-Factor Authentication

As two-factor authentication becomes more commonplace, employees’ personal cell phones can get more involved in the login process. As a result, our clients sometimes come to us with security concerns about using personal devices. Is it OK for MFA?

Since an employee’s personal cell phone is used simply as a key to unlock their account, there’s no reason to worry that important information will get stolen. A cell phone won’t open any doors for proprietary company data to go where it shouldn’t, and it certainly doesn’t compromise the privacy of your employees, either. The connection between cell phones and two-factor authentication is likely here to stay—so don't be afraid to utilize it in your MFA login process.

Solve the Multi-Factor Authentication Dilemma with Affinity

While multi-factor authentication may feel like a dilemma for your company, it doesn’t have to be with Affinity Technology Partners. We can help you implement the right MFA that balances security and user convenience while protecting you from multi-factor authentication fatigue attacks and other advanced cybercriminal tactics. To secure your business for the modern world, contact our team today to learn more about our outsourced IT solutions.

All IT Computer Support Jokes Aside, Does Restarting Your Computer Actually Work?

“Have you tried restarting your computer?”

You’ve heard it asked before, probably from a coworker or IT professional. It’s even become a running joke these days around most offices. And as an IT support and maintenance services company, we’re very familiar with it, too (both the question AND the jokes). Here are even a few internet memes that we couldn’t resist sharing:

Though we’re not approaching the situation the same way Roy does in The IT Crowd, our team often asks our clients this question when they call us. Why? Restarting your computer (especially when done routinely) can actually resolve and prevent a number of performance issues, such as:

• Slow processing times

• Frozen screens

• Lagging internet

• Software updates

• Driver and hardware errors

• Underperforming applications

Do-It-Yourself IT Hardware Support: Why Restarting Your Computer is So Effective

Have you ever felt refreshed and ready to take on your day after getting a good night’s sleep? Restarting your computer functions in the same way, allowing it to reset from scratch. Here’s why restarting your computer is so often a good first step you can take before contacting your IT support team:

1.   Improves Processing Speed

Over time open programs on your computer can begin to take up too much random access memory (RAM) while they run in the background. This bogs down your computer, causing web pages to load unusually slowly.

However, rebooting your computer flushes out unimportant RAM and stops these unnecessary background programs. As a result, your computer’s processor is freed up to complete the tasks you want, running faster and more efficiently in the process.

2.   Stops Memory Leaks

Sometimes a computer program won’t close correctly, causing it to continue using up memory behind the scenes. This “memory leak” slows your computer down substantially. But with a reboot, your computer automatically resets all programs, putting an end to your memory leaks.

3.   Fixes Spotty Internet Connections

When you have a spotty internet connection, restarting your computer will restart your internet and fix your connectivity issues (even with Bluetooth devices). If this doesn’t improve your internet connection initially, you may want to reboot your internet router as a next step to resolve the problem. 

4.   Addresses Unwanted Bugs and Glitches

Computer bugs and glitches can inevitably happen, especially when your computer hasn’t been rebooted for an extended period of time. If you are experiencing slow-running programs or system freeze-ups, restarting your computer allows your systems’ processors to recharge, which ultimately corrects any bugs or glitches.

The Bottom Line? Restarting Saves Time!

When you’re dealing with connectivity issues and minor everyday errors, restarting your computer is often the quickest solution. It’s usually one of the first questions we ask as it can keep you from spending excess work time with IT support and maintenance services. Most IT computer support professionals even recommend you restart your computer at least once a week to prevent minor issues and keep your systems running efficiently.

Contact Affinity for More IT Support and Maintenance Services

If you’re still having issues even after rebooting your computer, be sure to contact our support team at Affinity Technology Partners. And the next time you’re faced with an unexpected IT problem, just remember: have you tried restarting your computer? Because it so often actually works, this time-saving first step is no joke.

Affinity Technology Partners Named to the Tech Industry’s Most Prestigious List of Managed Service Providers Worldwide

Affinity Technology Partners has been named as one of the world’s top-performing managed service providers in the prestigious 2024 Channel Futures MSP 501 rankings. The Channel Futures MSP 501 list, a technology industry benchmark, ranks companies based on their growth, profitability and innovation. This year’s list is one of the most competitive in the survey’s history.

“The 2024 Channel Futures MSP 501 winners survived a challenging market and emerged as the highest performing and most innovative IT providers in the industry today,” said Dave Raffo, MSP editor and MSP 501 project manager. “The most impressive thing about the MSP 501 winners is they deliver for their customers every day. These are the most innovative, driven, and successful MSPs in a fiercely competitive industry.”

“For a managed service provider to attain a spot on the Channel Futures MSP 501 everything must be operating at peak performance. This list represents the most productive, profitable, fastest-growing, organizations in the technology industry focused on driving their customers to new heights.” said Bob DeMarzo, VP Content, Informa Channels.

“These are the best of the best in the managed services industry. The MSP 501 companies are the most sought after by peers who want to understand today’s best practices and by technology suppliers who want to partner with these organizations,” DeMarzo stated. “At their core, these are vendor and platform neutral partners focused on doing what is right for their customers.”

This year, the MSP 501 generated aggregate revenue of nearly $25 billion with average growth or recurring revenue of 19%. Many of their services and technology offerings focus on customer needs in the areas of AI, cloud, security, collaboration, networking, help desk and remote monitoring and management, and are responsible for keeping their global customers safe, connected and efficient.

The Channel Futures media organization, owned and operated by Informa, is the only channel-centric events, media and research company that can provide such insight into the managed services market.

The data collected by the annual MSP 501 helps every company on the list and every provider with a managed services practice, benchmark their performance and uncover new ways to grow.

Background 

The 2024 MSP 501 list is based on confidential data collected and analyzed by the Channel Futures research and editorial teams. Data was collected online from February to May, 2024. The MSP 501 list recognizes top managed service providers based on metrics including recurring revenue, profit margin and other factors.

About Affinity Technology Partners

Affinity Technology Partners has been a trusted managed IT service partner to small and mid-sized businesses in the Nashville, TN area since 2002. With the growing risk of cyber-attacks, cloud-based computing, remote work, and constantly changing technology, Affinity provides clients with proactive service including network management, systems administration, cyber security, proactive maintenance, end-user support, and CIO-level strategy. Headquartered in Brentwood, TN, Affinity’s clients include healthcare, legal, financial services, professional services, manufacturing, construction, and non-profit corporations. Learn more at www.affinitytechpartners.com. 

About Channel Futures

Channel Futures is a media and events destination for the information technology and communications industry. We provide information, perspective, and connection for the entire channel ecosystem, including solution providers (SPs), managed service providers (MSPs), managed security service providers (MSSPs), cloud service providers (CSPs), value-added resellers (VARs) and distributors, technology solutions brokerages, subagent and agents, as well as leading technology vendor partners and communication providers.

Channel Futures is where the world meets the channel; we are leading Channel Partners forward. Our properties include awards programs such as the Channel Futures MSP 501, a list of the most influential and fastest-growing providers of managed services in the technology industry; Channel Partners events, which delivers unparalleled in-person events including Channel Partners Conference & Expo and MSP Summit. More information is available at channelfutures.com.

Channel Futures is part of Informa Tech, a leading provider of market insight and market access to the global business technology community. Through in-depth expertise and an engaged audience community, Informa Tech helps business professionals make better technology decisions and marketers reach the most powerful tech buyers and influencers in the world. Across its portfolio of over 100+ trusted brands, Informa Tech has over 1000 industry experts, including over 400 research analysts and consultants in global research group Omdia, and a monthly audience reach of over 125 million. Informa Tech is a division of FTSE 100 company Informa plc.

ATP Sponsors cityCURRENT Lunch & Learn at Siloam Health

Affinity Technology Partners was honored to sponsor a cityCURRENT nonprofit Lunch & Learn at Siloam Health!

Miranda Arstikaitis, Director of Development, shared inspiring stories about how Siloam Health has impacted 6,500 uninsured and underserved patients over the past year. Patients at Siloam Health come from 80 different countries and speak 50 different languages, showcasing the incredible diversity and reach of their services.

After the insightful presentation, we had the opportunity to tour the care clinic and witness firsthand the amazing work being done.

Thank you, Siloam Health, for all you do in our community! 

Affinity Technology Partners Welcomes Jim Bashour as vCIO

Brentwood, TN – Jim Bashour has joined Affinity Technology Partners as vCIO, announced Betsy Wright, Partner and Vice President of Business Development of the managed IT firm.

“Jim has a proven track record in driving successful business outcomes through data-driven insights and strategic analysis,” said Wright. “His experience building internal teams and communicating with clients are a natural fit for Affinity and our clients will benefit from his expansive experience.”

Bashour was previously IT Director at Naxos Music Group, where he was responsible for all IT functions in the United States, data warehouse systems, digital music distribution, hiring, mentoring, budgeting, spending, and leading IT staff and contractors. He spent 9 years as Global IT Director of Quarto Publishing.

Bashour holds an Associate of Applied Arts, Commercial Photography, and Digital Media from the Colorado Institute of Art. He has advanced professional training in application development, computer science, project management, and more.

Originally from Wapakoneta, Ohio, Bashour is a resident of Franklin, Tennessee, where he is an active member of St. Phillip Catholic Church. He and his wife own a small food business, Mama’s Earth, and spend their Saturdays at Richland Park Farmers Market.

About Affinity Technology Partners

Affinity Technology Partners has been a trusted managed IT service partner to small and mid-sized businesses in the Nashville, TN area since 2002. With the growing risk of cyber-attacks, cloud-based computing, remote work, and constantly changing technology, Affinity provides clients with proactive service including network management, systems administration, cyber security, proactive maintenance, end-user support, and CIO-level strategy. Headquartered in Brentwood, TN, Affinity’s clients include healthcare, legal, financial services, professional services, manufacturing, construction, and non-profit corporations. Learn more at www.affinitytechpartners.com. 

Affinity Technology Partners Welcomes Amy Askey to Project Team

Brentwood, TN – Amy Askey has joined Affinity Technology Partners as a valued project team member, announced Betsy Wright, Partner and Vice President of Business Development for the managed IT firm.

“We are pleased to welcome Amy to the team,” said Wright. “I have known Amy for years through Women in Technology TN, and I have always had a lot of respect for her professionalism.  I’m thrilled that we got her on the Affinity team, strengthening the depth of our project delivery and adding more value to our clients.”

Askey is a project coordinator managing project workflows. She was previously a project coordinator with ImageQuest. She is a graduate of Murray State and holds an M.A. from Vanderbilt. Askey is a member of Women in Technology of Tennessee and is a Greater Nashville Technology Council ELITE alumna.

Originally from Owensboro, Kentucky, she lives in the Donelson area. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, gardening, cooking, and spending time with friends and family.

About Affinity Technology Partners

Affinity Technology Partners has been a trusted managed IT service partner to small and mid-sized businesses in the Nashville, TN area since 2002. With the growing risk of cyber-attacks, cloud-based computing, remote work, and constantly changing technology, Affinity provides clients with proactive service including network management, systems administration, cyber security, proactive maintenance, end-user support, and CIO-level strategy. Headquartered in Brentwood, TN, Affinity’s clients include healthcare, legal, financial services, professional services, manufacturing, construction, and non-profit corporations. Learn more at www.affinitytechpartners.com.