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Getting The Most Out Of Microsoft Licensing

For small and midsized business, the Microsoft 365 productivity suite is a staple in the software cupboard. How would you feel about spending a fraction of the cost of other licensed software, but still get some of the most revolutionary collaboration tools available? With Microsoft 365 you can do just that! It’s a suite of applications that help you stay connected and get things done; providing you with powerful tools that help you work, learn, organize, connect, and create. Info Advantage would like to share insights into the different ways you can buy Microsoft Licensing: OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) ? This option is a box product, downloadable retail copy, preinstalled on a device with a 1 time user license. Advisor ? This option is applied to M365 and O365 and the customer pays Microsoft directly. CSP/NCE (Cloud Services/New Commerce Experience) ? This option is procured through a reseller and applies to M365, O365, Windows Server, Windows CALs, SQL Server, SQL CALs. Open Business ? This option includes all Microsoft Products Perpetual, or Perpetual with Software Assurance (2-year upfront payment). Discontinued as of 12/31/2021.  Open Value Annuity ? Annual or Full Pay options (3-year upfront) ? VLSC Distribution of Licenses. On top of all that, Microsoft has recently announced changes to their Microsoft Customer Experience Platform. These changes allow you to unlock the value of your customer data to create personalized experiences, delivering more relevant customer engagements and building deeper connections. Best of all, Info Advantage is here to make sure that you have the guidance you need to set it up and manage it properly. Do you want to find out where you currently stand in your licensing based on all the changes in 2022? Claim a Free Microsoft Licensing Summary Report by emailing CChan@info-adv.com. This report takes 72 hours to generate, but ultimately will provide your business with all documentation of licensing purchased with Microsoft. After which, we can talk about next steps for your business and how to best leverage your licensing! It?s our goal to provide enterprise-level IT practices and solutions to your business and our experiences have allowed us to build and develop the infrastructure needed to keep our clients up and running. You can listen to our recent webinar on “Microsoft Program Changes 2022” for even more details. 

Partner Highlight: Sophos

IT is expensive, it’s time consuming, and it can be downright frustrating. You pay your employees to work, but if their workstations aren’t working or the server is unreachable, they can’t do their jobs.These are just a few reasons why it?s important to work with a good MSP, and even more importantly, one that?s well connected. Info Advantage strives to help businesses utilize technology to improve their operational efficiency, increase productivity, and strengthen network security! A process that?s made easier when you have partnerships with industry leaders across the technology landscape! Today, we want to introduce you to our friends at Sophos! A worldwide leader in next-generation cybersecurity, Sophos protects organizations and consumers from today?s most advanced cyberthreats. Sophos delivers a broad portfolio of advanced products and services to secure users, networks and endpoints against ransomware, malware, exploits, phishing, and a wide range of other cyberattacks. Sophos began producing antivirus and encryption products over 30 years ago. Today, their products help secure the networks used by millions of users in 150 countries and over 500,000 businesses! Their products allow you to secure every endpoint of your network, from laptops to virtual desktops and servers, to web and email traffic and mobile devices. What?s more, Sophos ensures your network?s security by providing the one thing no one else can: Simplicity. One of our favorite Sophos products is their Managed Threat Response (MTR) solution! Offering 24/7 threat hunting, detection, and response delivered by an expert team as a fully managed service, Sophos MTR takes targeted actions on your behalf to neutralize the most sophisticated attacks. Some key benefits of Sophos MTR are: High-Fidelity Detection: Spot suspicious behaviors and the tactics, techniques, and procedures used by the most advanced adversaries. Proactive Defense: Discover indicators of compromise identified through threat hunts, proactively protecting your environment. Elite Expertise: 24/7 investigation of anomalous behavior and actionable defense against threats. Outcome-Focused Security: Decision-driving data that enhances configurations and automated detection capabilities. Working with companies like Sophos allows us to provide you, our clients, with the best technology solutions from industry leaders. At Info Advantage, we know that, with the help of these partnerships, we?re able to translate your operational needs to technology initiatives, navigate manufacturers and different technologies, and align the best solutions to solve your business needs! Contact us today to learn more about our partners, our solutions, and what Info Advantage can do for your business!

Upcoming Lunch N’ Learn: Protect Your Assets With Modern Data Management (HPE)

  We know how important your data is to your organization. When your computer crashes and data is lost, it feels like your entire world has crashed with it. Don?t be defeated by data loss! Data Services in today?s business environment should be driven by modern technology solutions. Info Advantage partners with leaders such as HPE to make sure you?re protecting your assets in all the right ways. Our next event on March 30th will be a Lunch N? Learn with HPE at The Del Monte Lodge! As a technology consulting company, Info Advantage helps businesses improve operational efficiency, increase productivity, and strengthen network security using technology. While we design, procure, install, and support technologies that connect businesses to their customers, we also rely on our partnerships to go above and beyond in the services that we provide our clients! That?s where our friends at Hewlett Packard Enterprise come in! A global edge-to-cloud company built to transform your business by helping you connect, protect, analyze, and act on all your data and applications wherever they live, we?re excited to have them joining this month?s event. HPE can help you harness the right experience, expertise, and economics to solve your most pressing IT challenges and figure out what?s next for your evolving business. To thrive in the connected, data-driven world, you need a partner with the experience and expertise to help you realize the value of data, everywhere. That?s Hewlett Packard Enterprise and their leading storage solutions. We partner with many types of businesses in the area and strive to eliminate IT issues before they cause expensive downtime, so you can continue to drive your business forward. We stand by our belief that your success is our success. Learn how to Protect Your Assets With Modern Data Management, enjoy a brief presentation on leading IT solutions, as well as food and great networking!

Upcoming Webinar: Cyber Insurance Part 2!

  As an individual, you probably have health insurance or homeowner insurance, car insurance, maybe life insurance; but what types of insurance does your business have? Better yet, do you know what types of insurance your business should have? One thing we want to make you aware of is the importance of Cyber Insurance. In fact, we think it?s such an important topic that we?ve made it the focus of this month webinar! That?s right, along with our friends at Cyberstone and techrug, we?re excited to bring you a webinar that explains why Cyber Insurance is a must have for any type of organization! The webinar will include a panel discussion with industry experts that will share expected changes, predictions for common risk events and attack vectors, and how you can act now with the right technology strategy to mitigate your risk. Cyberstone is a cybersecurity professional services company that helps managed service providers (MSPs) and value-added resellers (VARs) build effective cybersecurity programs for their customers. Their comprehensive suite of security and compliance services helps your customers combat hackers, reduce overall risk, and meet regulatory compliance demands. Cyberstone provides Risk Assessment, Vulnerability Assessment, Penetration Testing, Cybersecurity Maturity & Compliance Assessments, Information Security Policy Development, and Incident Response Planning services! techrug understands the unique risks your IT business is exposed to every day and has created a complete, customized insurance solution to better protect your company. They work with you to identify, strengthen, and manage your security exposures. techrug provides continuing education to understand, identify, and address risks, risk management resources that include informational webinars, checklist downloads, and access to useful industry news, and a team of live insurance experts available to answer all your data security, data privacy, and cyber liability exposures questions. At Info Advantage, we partner with many types of businesses and strive to eliminate IT issues before they cause expensive downtime. Your success is our success, and as you grow, we grow! The webinar, Cyber Insurance: Why & How To Act Now, will take place on Thursday, March 10th beginning at 11:00 AM. Not only will the webinar feature valuable industry knowledge on the importance of Cyber Insurance, but everyone who attends will receive a free Ransomware Assessment! Click here to review all of the event information and to register for the Cyber Insurance webinar! You can also learn more about the event and register on LinkedIn. We?re in this business to help other small businesses grow and move forward; it?s as simple as that. Contact us with any questions regarding this event, other events, or any of Info Advantage?s IT solutions!