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Staying Agile in a Sea of Complexity

IT can be overwhelming. It’s not like riding a bike, which you only have to learn once. It’s more like learning to ride a bike and being great at it for a few years. Then the powers that be come up with some amazing new design and suddenly your bike has five different-sized wheels, no handlebars, and a toaster where the seat once was.

Technology doesn’t always change this rapidly or dramatically, but it can certainly feel like it. One day everyone’s saying you should have a server; the next, everything is moving to the cloud. Your internal IT team (if you have one) may not have the bandwidth to keep up with changing technologies, nor do they have the time to continually figure out how to make them work in your environment. Without an agile team that can keep up with these changes and pivot when necessary, you will always be playing catch-up. That’s not a fun place to be.

With Wooden Spoon, you don’t have to worry about any of that. We keep up with the changes in technology, do the research and development, and plan how to implement changes in ways that make sense for your business. We provide the overall design and maintenance of your network in order to provide a stable platform on which to run your key business applications. If you have an internal IT team, we’ll backstop them on tech support issues. And if you don’t have an internal IT team, we’ll help you determine the best option for daily tech support.

For over 20 years, we have specialized in IT outsourcing for firms that either have no IT department or who have desktop support technicians who need help with the more complex aspects of IT strategy, planning, security, and budgeting.

With the explosive growth of hybrid work environments and work from home policies that occurred following the spring of 2020, security has become even more complex. We can help your company operate securely no matter whether your staff are in the office, at home, on the road, or a combination of all three.

We provide our services on a fixed-fee basis based on the number and types of users in your company and the complexity of your IT needs.

If the services listed below match your IT needs, outsourcing to Wooden Spoon may be a great option for your company. We put our extensive technology management and infrastructure knowledge to work for you so that you can focus on what you do best: running your business.

Reaping the Benefits of Proactive Support

Planning and Strategy

Flying by the seat of your pants rarely works with technology. It’s critical to know what you have, why you have it, how to maintain it, when to replace it, and how much it all costs. We will work closely with you and your team to understand your current technology environment and how you use it. Once we evaluate your current setup, we can make informed recommendations about how and when to make it more reliable, easier to use, and more secure.

We use the following no-nonsense planning process:

Evaluate your current network, including your security posture and disaster resilience

Create a prioritized IT Roadmap and budget

Review the roadmap with your leadership team and align it with your business objectives and budget

Create a timeline for implementation of selected Roadmap items

Implement selected Roadmap items

Rinse and repeat

We will meet with you and your team on a scheduled basis to make sure we are focusing our efforts on the most important business drivers and keeping your company’s data safe at the same time. Your business will change over time, and we’ll adjust the Roadmap to account for any such changes.

Our business continuity strategies will help prepare you for just about any disaster you can imagine and even some you probably can’t. Whether you suffer a cyber attack or a natural disaster destroys your facilities, we’ll help you create a plan in advance that will help you get your business up and running as quickly as possible. Not only does this type of planning help minimize downtime, but it can also prevent damage to your reputation.

Our intent is to build and maintain your IT infrastructure in the most resilient and secure way possible. We also strive to build in flexibility so that upgrading or expanding in the future is as simple as possible and budget-friendly.

Learn More About IT Planning and Strategy

Preventative Maintenance

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Don’t react to problems—prevent them. Preventative maintenance is the cornerstone of our offering because it reduces downtime, saves you money, and gives you more control over your business. Instead of suffering through headaches caused by deferred maintenance or lack of process, we’ll create and implement system maintenance and hardware and software lifecycle plans that prevent common issues before they occur.

By following these plans, you’ll keep your hardware and software current and avoid preventable problems before they cost you precious time. Committing to preventative maintenance frequently boosts morale of the people who rely on your computer network, which includes your clients as well as your staff). Having stable, reliable, secure systems builds confidence in your business. Reduced downtime also equates to higher productivity and higher profits.

Preventative maintenance also addresses software vulnerabilities. By keeping software up-to-date and removing or replacing applications that are no longer supported, you’ll further reduce the possibility of time-consuming problems. Being ready to react to cyber attacks is essential because no plan can ever be 100% effective. By being proactive, you can cut off as many vulnerabilities as possible to greatly reduce your risks.

Learn More About Preventative Maintenance

IT Support

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Wooden Spoon’s support team will be there for you when you need us. Our team of trained technicians has provided assistance to businesses in and around Santa Rosa, California, for years, and we’re ready to do the same no matter where you’re located. With today’s focus on remote work, we have a wide range of tools at our disposal, and we’re well equipped to help clients anywhere in the world.

If you don’t have an internal support team, our tiered support teams can help with everything from the typical daily support needs like resetting passwords or initial troubleshooting to more advanced issues. Our internal team also supports the standardized set of tools we install to monitor, maintain, and protect your systems and network.

If you do have an internal support team, they can handle the typical daily support needs and we’ll provide support for the standardized tools as well as an escalation team that can assist when your internal team is stumped.

Products

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There are thousands of different pieces of hardware and software out there. If you don’t have an IT expert on staff, you may have no idea which of these products are the right match for your company’s needs. Wooden Spoon can help you standardize your company’s hardware and software platform. Standardization reduces costs and increases operational efficiencies. Standardized systems are easier to secure because it’s simpler to design processes that will work across the board rather than having many unique processes.

In addition to product selection, Wooden Spoon can help you procure products at favorable pricing. We have cultivated relationships with key vendors who have demonstrated their ability to deliver quality products for our clients. Volume purchasing allows us to provide you with competitive pricing while making sure you receive the correct products every time.

Project Specialists
Our experts can help you with a wide variety of different projects. Whether you need someone to assist you with moving to cloud-based services or want to shore up your cybersecurity, we have you covered.

One of the benefits of working with an MSP like Wooden Spoon is that we have many different experts on our staff.. We keep up with the latest news and developments. You have access to all of these experts as part of your contract with us.

We Put People First

People-First

While this may be counterintuitive, we are not a technology company that deals with people. We are a people company that deals with technology. Our technician screening process is designed specifically to find candidates who enjoy serving others and work well on a team. Once we invite them to join our team, we provide a full benefits package including medical and dental insurance, 401(k) plan, and paid time off. Why? Because we believe that if we treat our staff with dignity and empathy, they will treat our clients the same way.

While computers are great tools for your business, without your people, they’re useless. Our team puts the focus on you and your team. When technology problems happen (and they will), our first priority is to make sure we understand the problem and find a way to get your team working again. That could mean a workaround or temporary fix so you can be up and running quickly now, then we go to work on solving the problem with a more permanent solution.

The Wooden Spoon Process

What can you expect from Wooden Spoon? Here’s a look at our process.

  • 1

    Consultation and Evaluation

When you first reach out to Wooden Spoon, we’ll go through a consultation phase. We want to learn all about you and your business. After we have a good idea about your needs and wants, we’ll talk strategy. You need a good plan before you can do anything. We want to know where you’ve been and where you want to go. We’ll go over your current technology infrastructure carefully to get an idea of what’s working and what you may need to change.

  • 2

    Planning

From there, we can outline the technology you’ll need to support your business, both now and in the future. We’ll design a plan to ensure that you have the resources necessary to be successful. Our goal is to build a solid foundation you can expand upon when needed.

We’ll also build out a security plan. Cyberattacks happen. We’re now at the point where it’s almost a given that someone will try to hack your business at least once. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, how big you are, or how much money you handle—everyone is a target. We’ll put together a plan to protect your data that will cover everything from firewalls to properly configured hardware and updated software. We’ll also regularly re-evaluate this plan and your infrastructure for new vulnerabilities and make recommendations as needed.

Finally, you’ll want to look at continuity plans. These plans cover more than a downed server or loss of internet. You want to consider what you’ll do if data is stolen or if an employee misplaces a laptop full of sensitive information. You need to even look into what you would do if a fire took out your entire physical location or an earthquake destroyed the cloud servers that house your data. We’ll help you plan for just about everything from misplaced flash drives to the AI apocalypse (we plan on welcoming our new robot overlords with open arms!).

  • 3

    Implementation

After we’ve helped you draw up plans for your IT infrastructure, it’s time to implement that plan. This can include a number of different things, such as the following:

  • Optimize the performance of your computers and network
  • Optimize your cloud-based services
  • Enable your staff to securely work remotely
  • Provide additional support to your internal IT team
  • Train end-users to spot cyberattacks, scams, and phishing attempts
  • Address any staff complaints and IT issues
  • Implement support for employees, customers, and other users
  • Provide a ticketing system
  • Install system management tools
  • Manage hardware inventory
  • Document hardware lifecycle and implement a preventative maintenance schedule
  • Formulate necessary IT policies, including security policies

We will keep you up to date with progress every step of the way, and you and your internal IT team will be as involved as you want to be.

  • 4

    Maintenance and Support

Once your new IT infrastructure is in place, we move into support mode. We will put together a lifecycle management and preventative maintenance plan to ensure that your hardware and software are retired before it can start causing issues. We assist you with putting out any fires that crop up, plus we will regularly evaluate your plans and make any changes needed to keep them in line with your overall business strategy. If you have to pivot due to sudden changes in your industry or the economy, we will work with you to revamp your IT plan.

  • 5

    Budget

Many people make the mistake of assuming that outsourcing their IT is going to be more expensive than hiring their own team. It’s typically not. Hiring individuals carries with it a number of indirect costs in addition to paying their salaries. You have to cover insurance, taxes, and other costs, first of all. You also need to have a space for them to work and equipment for them to use. You may even have to deal with higher utility costs.

Wooden Spoon provides you with a set, regular IT cost. You’ll know exactly what you’re paying each month, and that cost will not change unless you need to change the services we’re handling for you.