The Delaware Center for Justice hosted a Giving Week and successfully raised $6,885 towards funding second chances for all Delawareans in the justice system. TechSolutions was quick to donate to the cause because we believe it is important to contribute towards community groups such as DCJ to empower those groups to do more good.

The Delaware Center for Justice aims to listen, amplify, and act to seek justice for all Delawareans through advocacy and services. They provide state-of-the-art, evidence-based programming to their clients, seeking justice for each individual as they seek justice for all. You can read more about DCJ and their mission on their website.

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TechSolutions is proud to be a recipient of the 2024 MSP501 award. This award honors the 500 top MSPs globally for their commitment to excellence within the MSP field and is a technology industry benchmark, ranking companies based on their growth, profitability, and innovation.

For the past 17 years, managed service providers around the globe have submitted applications for inclusion on this prestigious and definitive listing. It is a milestone achievement for any managed services organization to be included on the list. The Channel Futures MSP 501 survey uses a quantitative methodology to rank companies based on their annual revenue, profitability measured by EBITDA, and recurring revenue. The methodology has been developed by a Who’s-Who in the managed services industry.

MSPs that qualify for the list must also pass a rigorous review conducted by the Channel Futures research team and editors. Channel Futures ranks applicants using a unique methodology that weighs financial performance according to long-term health and viability, commitment to recurring revenue and operational efficiency.

Channel Futures is pleased to name TechSolutions, Inc. to the 2024 MSP 501.

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Introducing another one of our new help desk technicians, Jon! Jon has been with TSI since May 6th. In his role as a help desk tech, he works to assist clients with issues as they are reported to us, and he handles many of the server preventative maintenance checklists. He hopes to continue to learn more about IT and cybersecurity as he settles into his role, and he is excited to take on more involved tasks in the company to expand his skill set.

Before TSI, Jon completed his undergrad and master’s in criminal justice at Westchester University. He then worked as a private investigator in the field of workers compensation fraud until the pandemic hit and jobs moved to be more remote, making it harder for him to complete his line of work. Jon then began working through CompTIA certifications and looking into IT and cybersecurity. “I had always enjoyed the tech field,” he says, “I often had tech issues at my last job, and started to learn about the IT world so I could help solve them when they occurred.”

What Jon loves most about working at TSI is the company culture. He loves the fact that everyone is friendly and welcoming, and how encouraging our management team is in investing in employee training and learning so everyone can be at their best. Outside of work, Jon is outdoorsy and loves scuba diving, sports, and rowing, a hobby he and his wife picked up during the pandemic. We are so happy to have him on our team!

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Before TSI, Joey worked in the logistics field for freight shipping helping to coordinate transportation of goods for 5-6 large clients. His company worked with products over a specific weight, meaning many of these shipments were large and the process of shipping them from point A to point B could be extremely complex. Joey has been interested in the IT and technology space since he was young. He has always been an avid gamer, and he has learned how to code and complete ethical hacking exercises. He also helped fix and repair PCs in his community using self-taught skills during high school.

When asked what he enjoys about TSI, Joey stated, “You can tell they care about you. They trust you as an employee.  People stay for the camaraderie and atmosphere in addition to liking and enjoying the work they do.”

In his free time, Joey is working on building his own arcade setup for video games in his basement using custom scripting interfaces.  His projects encompass more than 5,000 titles from Atari to current releases. He also used to be involved in training for and helping others train for Spartan runs before becoming a dad.  He says that he loves the community and the commitment to invest in the races. Welcome to the team, Joey!

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Artificial intelligence is everywhere and has seen a large rise in use with everyday users through chat bots such as ChatGPT. Large companies like Microsoft, Google, and others are aiming to launch their own AI powered chatbots in addition to implementing AI technologies for increased productivity internally.

Here at TSI we also like to experiment with the powers of AI tech. That’s why we had ChatGPT guest write our monthly article on the topic of emerging cybersecurity trends and their interaction with AI. Check out what it has to say:

Dear TechSolutions Newsletter Readers,

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been one of the hottest topics in the technology industry for many years, and it continues to evolve at a rapid pace. AI has the potential to revolutionize the way we work, live and communicate, and it’s already impacting industries such as healthcare, finance, transportation, and entertainment. In this article, we will discuss the latest AI trends and how they are transforming the technology industry.

AI and Edge Computing

Edge computing is a method of processing data closer to the source of its origin, rather than in a centralized location. The combination of AI and edge computing can provide many benefits, such as faster processing times, reduced latency, and lower bandwidth usage. This trend is expected to continue in the coming years, as more organizations adopt edge computing and AI to improve their operations.

AI and the Internet of Things (IoT)

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of devices that are connected to the internet and can communicate with each other. AI can be used to analyze the vast amounts of data generated by IoT devices and make real-time decisions based on that data. For example, AI can be used to detect anomalies in data streams and trigger actions, such as shutting down a machine if it exceeds its operating parameters. The integration of AI and IoT will continue to grow as more devices become connected to the internet.

AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a subfield of AI that deals with how computers can understand and analyze human language. NLP is used in applications such as chatbots, voice assistants, and language translation tools. As the demand for these applications continues to grow, the use of NLP is becoming more widespread. NLP is also being used in industries such as healthcare, where it can be used to analyze medical records and help doctors make better decisions.

AI and Autonomous Systems

Autonomous systems are machines that can operate without human intervention. Examples include self-driving cars, drones, and robots. AI is a critical component in making these systems work, as they rely on algorithms to make real-time decisions based on sensor data. The use of autonomous systems is expected to grow in the coming years, as they can help improve safety, efficiency, and productivity.

AI and Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is a growing concern for organizations, as cyberattacks become more sophisticated and frequent. AI can be used to detect and respond to cyber threats, as it can quickly analyze vast amounts of data and identify patterns that indicate an attack. AI can also be used to automate routine security tasks, such as scanning for vulnerabilities and patching systems. The use of AI in cybersecurity is expected to grow as organizations look for more effective ways to protect their data.

In conclusion, AI is a rapidly evolving field with numerous applications that are transforming industries around the world. The trends discussed in this article are just a few examples of how AI is changing the way we live and work. As the technology continues to improve and become more accessible, we can expect to see even more innovative applications of AI in the future.

Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more exciting updates from TechSolutions.

Sincerely,

ChatGPT

TSI will keep our eyes peeled for emerging AI trends, and any AI tech we deem capable of further protecting both ourselves and our clients from potential threats. In the meantime, ChatGPT is a fun and easy way to see how powerful AI is as a tool for the workplace and beyond.

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Jamie is a South Jersey native but lived in Charlotte, NC for most of her adult life. While writing for the Charlotte Observer, she had the opportunity to interview a number of musicians (Art Garfunkel, Tori Amos, “Weird Al” Yankovic and John Mayer to name a few). She has also worked in finance and human resources, and later, among other tasks, worked as a GIS technician for two telco engineering firms before returning to Salem County, NJ in 2015 to be closer to family. Prior to joining TechSolutions, she worked as a benefits consultant for a company in Mt. Laurel, NJ. In her spare time, Jamie writes poetry and also enjoys acrylic pour painting, a fluid art technique that has recently been popularized on YouTube. She gifts her art to friends and family while honing her craft (and making a mess of the kitchen floor).

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Besides feeling good, adding another plaque to the wall, and eating another steak dinner, what does winning another award really mean?

Since 1743, the University of Delaware has established a proud tradition of leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship. The Blue Hen 17 & 43 Awards build on this tradition through the annual recognition of 17 of the most promising new businesses and 43 of the fastest-growing companies founded or led by UD students and alumni.

TechSolutions is proud to be one of the 43 winners for the second year in a row. The networking, the food, and the drinks were grand; the speeches were motivating; and the opportunity to visit with our peers was nice too. Yet, that is not the real point.

When business owners win awards it means something special. For most of us, it means that our ideas are working. But it also provides a chance to acknowledge the people who believed in those ideas and came to work every day. Success would not have happened without the staff performing their job duties … even on weekends and late at night when it mattered. Thank you to our fantastic staff!

Holding the award also makes me think of our clients. They trusted and believed in us when we were just getting started, and they stayed with us during growing periods like the last two years. Doctors, lawyers, office managers, and small business owners all believed in the promise that we could do a better job than anyone else could. We love our long-time clients, and we are also very appreciative for the newest ones. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

And finally, winning an award like this helps to acquire the perspective that drives us to help others. Sure, the hardware gets placed on the trophy table … but winning it is a constant reminder to always try to help others grow their businesses. For us, that may mean saying yes to a prospect who is starting a new business that shows promise for growth but does not currently have the characteristics we look for in a potential new client. Winning should remind us to give back and pay it forward.

17 promising businesses and 43 of the faster-growing companies left the October 10 awards ceremony with a new trophy. Hopefully they also thanked their staff, respected their clients a little more, and reaffirmed that they will continue paying it forward. Because of those extras, another evening away from my family and another steak dinner turned out to be something special.

Thank you to the University of Delaware for contributing to our community in more ways than you can ever imagine.

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This is the future if you listen to the folks at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. There are lots of weird and crazy gadgets at this show every year, but as business professionals, we watch what is happening at CES for two important reasons. First, what happens in the home can eventually drift into the office as soon as it becomes practical and accepted. Second, all these advances in technology will eventually turn into implementation and security challenges for IT departments to face.

The Consumer Electronics Show featured three important ideas this year that will eventually impact the way we do business: integration of artificial intelligence with voice controlled devices, new uses of sensors that will make ordinary devices smarter, and special function robots that will make life easier.

First, the biggest news from the show was the integration of Amazon/Google digital assistants into everyday items such as glasses, cars, TVs, wrist watches, and, of course, toilets. Artificial intelligence was also added to various home appliances like coffee makers, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, and ovens to allow them to begin anticipating common requests. The devices this year were more focused, easier to manage, and more helpful to the consumer than in past years. Coffee makers learn when you expect to make a cup of coffee, and thermostats can tell when you are home. As consumers become more and more comfortable with voice commands the trends will make their way into the office.

The second continuing trend includes integration of sensors into everyday objects. To make life even easier, product development teams are putting sensors into products for seniors, new moms, and even pets. Everyday life will be easier with wearable airbags for people prone to falling, smart breast pumps, and doors that automatically open for pets. Cars will soon be able to detect an infant left in a hot car. Also big on the list was Digital Therapeutics – where sensors and AI can help you sleep, control stress, and concentrate more effectively.

Robots have been a part of CES for years. However, this year’s third major idea revealed at the show is slightly different. In addition to the silly robot toys for your cat to play with, robots are developing into specialized service providers. Robots that help around the house by interacting with your appliances, serving drinks, hauling groceries, etc. The most compelling immediate use is that hotels and airports will begin deploying them soon to help improve customer service. Imagine a robot on each hotel floor to quickly perform tasks such as room service delivery, tray pickup, and forgotten toothbrush delivery.

Additional notable advancements include:

• What will your conference room begin to look like next? TV’s keep getting bigger … Samsung introduced a micro OLED display that is 146” or about the size of a wall.
• Phillips introduced a TV that rolls up (really it rolls down). The 65” monitor can neatly roll down for travelling or to hide from view when guests are present.
• Wireless Charging is the concept of over-the-air charging of a device without the need for a plug or a mat. One company even introduced wireless charging for vehicles during this year’s show.
• A smart toilet that accepts voice activated commands and includes AI to keep itself clean and fresh.

Your IT team should understand how innovation works and help you get ready. Some of these concepts will begin to appear in the office environment sooner or later. Business IT departments must prepare for a changing world. It will be their role to worry about data security, device reliability and technical support for these new gadgets as they enter the work place. But for now, it’s just fun to think about the future.

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1. Data Security is Promoted to the C-Suite: This year, office managers and IT Directors must answer to the Owner and the Executive Committee as data security becomes a business sustainability issue for leaders in every type of business. This means better metrics, elevated organizational response to threats, more employee involvement and increased investment. The flip side of office managers not seeking help is loss of jobs for upper management – just look at Equifax CEO Richard Smith for proof.

2. Growth of the IT Budget: With topline sales growth anticipated for 2018, most experts project that companies will invest more in innovation and technology. IT budgets will increase this year at more than 57% of small and mid-sized businesses. Mid-size and small firms will mostly invest in hardware and managed IT services while holding the line on software. From a hardware perspective, this business grouping will invest in more powerful workstations, mobile devices and multiple monitors while investment in network devices and servers will decline.

3. Cloud Computing Impacts Small Business … Finally: 2018 might be the year we remember we stopped talking about the cloud as a trend and it just became part of our lives. This year might be a turning point year. Small businesses will move back-up services and line-of-business applications almost exclusively to the cloud. Mid-size businesses will collaborate better with each other using cloud apps for communication and enterprise resource planning.

4. Subscription Economy is Now Very, Very Real: Your razor blades and your business software will have something in common soon … a monthly bill. The per-user subscription model will become more and more common for hardware, software, services, and even consumer products. Even though the trend is unavoidable, the advantage for small business is that it’s scalable. Costs are predictable, linear, and per employee. You can now add or subtract one person from your business payroll immediately knowing the financial impact of your decision due to the all-in costs being managed in real-time.

5. Access to Your Data Everywhere on Anything: Workers expect to be able to work in coffee shops, home offices, and airplanes … and today, and they almost already can. They expect to use mobile phones, iPads, tablets, and home/office computers. Any device, anywhere is the expectation. But it still needs to be secure!!! IT departments will make tough choices in 2018 to deliver this expectation. Bring-your-own-device to work will be trendy this year. Most in charge of IT will struggle with this trend … new services, products, and software will be required to maintain the proper level of security and access.

6. Innovation in the “Rearview Mirror”: All cars have the same message on the passenger side mirror – “Objects are closer than they appear”. Augmented Reality, Conversational Platforms and the Internet of Things have been tech trends for years and larger organizations have been considering their impact on customers, employees, and productivity. The time it takes for small businesses to begin to leverage such technology, once limited to larger corporations, is shortening. You can begin to look for augmented reality, voice commanded computers and smart devices to contribute in the small business sector. This year, watch for Artificial Intelligence to make its way into the smaller sector for customer-facing applications and routine tasks.

7. Automation of Everything Begins: Productivity will be important next year as business demand grows and owners seek to increase production. While the cautious owner grows the workforce slowly, innovative leaders will turn to robots, artificial intelligence, smart processes, and sensors to automate everything at a faster pace. Millennials will accelerate this process as they seek to avoid human interaction where possible. State-of-the-art tools, subscription or cloud-hosted software, and managed services will make it possible for small businesses to take advantage of this very real and upcoming technological trend.

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Ghosts and goblins at your doorstep on Halloween can be scary, but nobody at TechSolutions knows “scared, panicked and terrified” like Jenn Slovak, the TechSolutions team member responsible for dispatching service requests to our technicians. Jenn answers the phone when our clients call. She is the first person that our clients speak with when they absolutely have a problem on their computer.

Now most of the time, the calls come from calm and patient customers who have routine problems that are handled with no excitement at all. However, in the spirit of the Halloween season, we thought we’d share the experiences of some of the scariest and most terrified callers whose problems were resolved with the help our technicians.

Here are just a few of those terrified and spooky customer service requests that we received this season:

1. The Terrified Sales Director and the Lost Presentation:
A sales director had been up all night preparing for a presentation. Just one hour before delivering the presentation, the keyboard froze. The presentation was locked inside the computer… and the client was on the way to the office. Yikes! The tired and panicked sales director called TechSolutions. Our technicians discovered that a licensing issue on an unknown piece of software and expired and caused the computer to lock up. The technicians resolved the problem in 5 minutes, recovered the file, and the sales director was able to make his presentation.

2. The Lawyer and a Spooky Security Update:
Over a weekend, an attorney was working at home and watching a college football game. With his attention on the game, the lawyer clicks on a fraudulent link for a computer security update and gets confused by the message displayed on his computer. He calls the telephone number shown on the message and shares information with the scammers thinking it was an official update. When he realizes his mistake, he calls TechSolutions in a panic. Our on-call technician leaps into action. He updates the security settings, removes the virus and fraudulent application that was installed, and assures the user that the problem is resolved for now.

3. The Global Traveler’s Locked Out Nightmare:
The whole office is still working on final touches to the presentation as the owner of the firm boards a plane to visit the new client in in Europe. When the owner lands in Geneva, the updated file not present on his laptop. The owner could not access the home office to get the latest material for the presentation that was to be made in just three hours…. The office manager still here in Delaware calls TechSolutions. With remote access to the laptop in Europe, the TechSolutions team identifies the cloud setting that needed to be adjusted to resolve the synchronization issue displayed on the laptop. All was well in Europe.

4. The Frightened Administrator’s Dark Morning:
A School Administrator arrives at her school on an important day. The Department of Education inspectors and licensing team was going to be there to perform the annual review. Upon arrival that morning, the internet connection for the school was nonfunctional. A terrible thunderstorm had wreaked havoc in the community, and the school was left without internet service. The administrator realizes that class schedules, attendance data, and all the records needed to pass the inspection were not accessible. She calls TechSolutions. In this case, the technicians at TechSolutions had already been aware of the issue and had already been working with the Internet provider to fix it. Within an hour, our technicians were able to work with the provider to resolve the issue and the school passed the inspection.

5. The New Office Manager Meets the Phantom Data Thief:
A new office manager from an insurance agency comes into the office on a normal Thursday morning only to find that the network data had mysteriously disappeared overnight. The accounting files, the contracts, and the planning documents were all gone. The office manager began to panic. She was too new to make this kind of mistake. The new computer was a little confusing, but she had no idea what she could have done to wipeout all the data on the fifth day on the job. She called TechSolutions. The technicians worked with her for 15 minutes before assuring her that all the data was safely backed up and able to be restored. Within the hour, all the data was returned to the server and the problem was resolved. As it turns out, the data disappeared due to a mistake made by another agency employee, but for the new office manager, that was a scary moment that she never wants to experience ever again.

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