What is contingent employment?

Contingent employment means a worker’s position with a company is temporary. The individual is not an employee of the business, and therefore isn’t hired on a permanent basis. Typically, contingent workers are hired to complete a project.

Who are contingent workers? Independent contractors, on-call workers, freelancers, contract workers, and any other type of individual hired on a per-project basis are examples of contingent staffing.

In most cases, contingent workers have specialized skills, like an accountant or electrician. Unlike regular employees, a company doesn’t always need to tell a contingent worker how to complete a project. Instead, contingent workers use their judgment.

If your client wants to hire a contingent worker, they generally do not need to handle employment taxes. Contingent workers who are independent contractors are responsible for paying their own taxes because they are self employed. Contract workers are on the Employer of Record’s payroll, not your client’s. The Employer of Record might be you or another third party provider of contract staffing back-office services.

Contingent workers know they are not part of a company’s permanent staff. Sometimes, contingent work can turn into permanent employment, like if your client wants to hire a contract worker full time. This type of arrangement is known as a contract-to-hire agreement.

Advantages of a Contingent Workforce

For business owners, the advantages of a contingent workforce are mostly financial. They do not have to collect and pay taxes from the workers’ pay cheques. They don’t have to offer health benefits, provide paid sick days and vacation days or pay for overtime. This not only saves them significant money associated with recruiting and hiring permanent employees, but it also allows them to save on administrative costs associated with payroll and human resources, too.

Another added benefit of the contingent workforce is increased flexibility. When an influx of work arises or a sudden urgent project comes up, a contingent worker can be hired to perform the extra work. But once business slows down again, the business owner is not stuck paying a salary for a worker that isn’t vital to the organization, which is especially important in a fragile economy. There is no need to lay off workers when you have a contingent workforce.

Access to expertise is another advantage. Business owners can find the skills and experience they need for a specific project in a contingent worker that they cannot find internally. Businesses get to access a growing pool of highly qualified talent to ensure that work gets completed properly.

Disadvantages of a Contingent Workforce

Virtually every business decision will also have its disadvantages. For hiring a contingent workforce, one of these drawbacks is lack of control on the end of the business owners. They cannot rely on contingent workers to be available during specific hours to handle business needs and they cannot manage how the work is done.

Furthermore, using a contingent workforce brings on a whole slew of tax risks. If a business owner declares someone an independent worker when in fact he should be classified as an employee, the company can be hit with fines and penalties on top of having to pay the taxes owing for that employee.

Part of a Sound Growth Strategy

Companies are increasingly beginning to reap the rewards of a contingent workforce by embracing an ever-increasing number of non-permanent workers as part of their growth strategies. But with the advantages come the disadvantages, and these risks must be managed. A workforce management solution can help. 

How do you manage a contingent workforce?

Ever wondered why your organization is not getting a solid return on investment (ROI) from its contingent workforce? It’s probably because you are making some common mistakes when it comes to contingent workforce management. 

Before we get into exactly how you can improve those management efforts, let’s first take a quick look at what exactly the contingent workforce is and the benefits it can offer your organization.

So, what is the contingent workforce?

The contingent workforce, which is part of the wider gig economy, has exploded in recent years. It’s is now believed that these contractors, freelancers and non-permanent workers make up around 30 per cent of the entire US workforce.

These workers can offer your company a wide range of benefits, from hiring on a project-by-project basis, rapid scalability, access to the best talent in your industry, creating an agile workforce and much more.

However, the management of a successful contingent workforce is complex. This management is often split between departments as well as HR and procurement teams, creating fragmented processes, inconsistent hiring, wasted administration time and extra costs.

Since you are still reading this blog it’s probably correct to assume that you are looking for ways to improve the management of your contingent workforce. HCMWorks has listed four best practices here that will help.

1 - Get external support

Unless your company has experience and expertise in the process of managing and hiring contingent workers, there’s no better way to improve the management of your contingent workforce than outsourcing, or at least getting advice, from a specialist.

By outsourcing your contingent workforce management to a managed services provider (MSP), you will have access to experts who can evaluate, redesign and streamline your current management processes to get the most out of your investment into contingent workers.

A specialist MSP will give you the access to the expertise needed to ensure your organization is meeting the latest government regulations, finding the best talent within your sector, properly organizing your payment and compliance and providing a more enjoyable place to work for your non-permanent workers.

How do you manage a contingent workforce?

Ever wondered why your organization is not getting a solid return on investment (ROI) from its contingent workforce? It’s probably because you are making some common mistakes when it comes to contingent workforce management. 

Before we get into exactly how you can improve those management efforts, let’s first take a quick look at what exactly the contingent workforce is and the benefits it can offer your organization.

So, what is the contingent workforce?

The contingent workforce, which is part of the wider gig economy, has exploded in recent years. It’s is now believed that these contractors, freelancers and non-permanent workers make up around 30 per cent of the entire US workforce.

These workers can offer your company a wide range of benefits, from hiring on a project-by-project basis, rapid scalability, access to the best talent in your industry, creating an agile workforce and much more.

However, the management of a successful contingent workforce is complex. This management is often split between departments as well as HR and procurement teams, creating fragmented processes, inconsistent hiring, wasted administration time and extra costs.

Since you are still reading this blog it’s probably correct to assume that you are looking for ways to improve the management of your contingent workforce. HCMWorks has listed four best practices here that will help.

1 - Get external support

Unless your company has experience and expertise in the process of managing and hiring contingent workers, there’s no better way to improve the management of your contingent workforce than outsourcing, or at least getting advice, from a specialist.

By outsourcing your contingent workforce management to a managed services provider (MSP), you will have access to experts who can evaluate, redesign and streamline your current management processes to get the most out of your investment into contingent workers.

A specialist MSP will give you the access to the expertise needed to ensure your organization is meeting the latest government regulations, finding the best talent within your sector, properly organizing your payment and compliance and providing a more enjoyable place to work for your non-permanent workers.

2 - Make sure you are vendor neutral

If you decide to outsource your contingent workforce management to an external expert, make sure that they are a vendor-neutral company.

Traditional MSPs were also staffing providers, meaning it was difficult to keep tabs on whether they were actually putting the interest of your company first or they were simply favouring themselves or particular staffing firms over others.

This conflict of interest would leave companies missing out on top targets, and largely seeing no real benefit from their contingent workforce program.

However, some MSPs are now turning to the vendor-neutral model, in which they offer a neutral service when it comes to staffing companies. This model puts your business first and ensures that you are fulfilling staffing requirements with the best available talent at the most competitive prices.

How do you use contingent in a sentence?

How big is the “gig economy”? On Thursday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics gave the first official reading of how many Americans rely on temporary work, freelancing, and on-demand apps to make ends meet. And the answer is: a lot.

The report found that 16.5 million people are working in “contingent” or “alternative work arrangements”. Nearly 6 million people, 3.8% of workers, held contingent jobs in the US in May. Another 10.6 million were working as independent contractors, on-call workers, temporary help agency workers and for contract firms.

https://www.fieldengineer.com/blogs/what-is-contingent-employment

The numbers, which include jobs at gig economy leaders such as Uber, Lyft and Airbnb, dwarf other more high-profile industries. The coal industry, for example, employs about 80,000 Americans, and steel employs about 150,000. The figures give academics and activists their first real hard data as courts, workers and employees struggle with the consequences of a changing work environment.

To date, private estimates of the size of the gig economy have varied wildly, with economists calculating that non-traditional work arrangements account for anywhere between 0.1% of full-time employment and 34%.

Although the BLS study will become the base for much future research, the snapshot does not give a complete picture.

According to the BLS, the latest figures measure “independent contractors, on-call workers, temporary help agency workers, and workers provided by contract firms”. The questionnaire is self-reported and the categories do not have clear demarcations of where one role begins and the other ends.

In Manhattan on Wednesday, Adrian (who declined to provide his last name), a New York Uber driver, said he couldn’t figure out whether he was working under a “contingent or alternate arrangement”.

“I’m kinda like a small business owner, but Uber takes a 30% cut,” he said.

It is 13 years since the last report into this sector, and BLS economists said there were no plans for any follow-up release.

In 2015, economists Lawrence Katz and Alan Krueger estimated the size of the online platform and gig economy workforce to be less than half a percent of total US employment.

But as they pointed out, at the time Uber was doubling its US workforce every six months and the increase in gig economy jobs was likely to be substantial.

The BLS report does not delineate between online and offline intermediaries.

According to Katz and Krueger, there are “hundreds of thousands more workers, like many taxi drivers, Avon direct-sales workers and others who currently work with an offline intermediary. Adrian, the New York Uber driver, said: “I get paid cash for teaching guitar to kids.”

More detail is due in September when the BLS will report how many people are working for “electronically mediated” services.

The report does not quantify how many workers do gig work occasionally. JP Morgan estimates that “4% of the population has worked through an online platform at some point”.

The holes in the data are problematic at a time when so many gig workers are trapped in a regulatory and legal grey area. And under the current administration, this grey space has given way to diminished workers’ rights.

Under Barack Obama, the labor department’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) offered informal regulatory guidance on gig workers. And the WHD said it would pursue investigations into complaints about worker classification and subsequent pay disputes. But Donald Trump’s labor secretary, Alex Acosta, removed that guidance.

With the lack of clarity from government, the courts have been left to define and rule on the rights of gig workers.

In a northern California district court case where Lyft drivers successfully sued Lyft, Judge Vince Chhabria ruled that without a clear test for worker classification, questions will persist, such as: “Should Lyft drivers who work more than a certain number of hours be employees? And why does this matter?”

A McKinsey report found that independent contractors get paid 20-30% less than employees.

Internet Cable vs LAN Cable: What Are They?

The Internet is a worldwide collection of networks that connects millions of business, government agencies, educational institutions, and individuals. Internet services like file sharing, Internet access, and more are all delivered to end users via various types of mediums, which usually includes network switches, routers, fiber optic links, copper cabling technologies and so on. Therefore, Internet cables can be regarded as the physical cables used in the Internet. The most common types are fiber optic cables, coaxial cable, copper cable and so on. A fiber optic cable contains one or more optical fibers inside an insulated casing, and work to deliver signal via light. It’s designed for long distance, high-performance data networking and telecommunications since it provides higher bandwidth and can transmit data over long distances. Based on different connectors, fiber cables are divided into standard fiber patch cables with connectors like LC or SC, and MTP fiber cables. The common fiber cables are widely deployed for most 10G transmissions, and MTP cables are designed for 40/100G transmissions in data centers. Besides, fiber cables are also used in outdoors. These outdoor fiber cables like armored patch cables or military grade fiber cables can be used in harsh environment such as outdoor underground cabling. Coaxial cable is one type of electrical cable. It has a center conductor and an outer conductor with an insulating spacer between them. It’s primarily used in applications like telephone trunklines, high-speed computer data busses, carrying cable television signals and so on, since it can perform good at high frequencies and provide superior EMI control. Note that, copper cable is also called LAN cables, which is also a type of Internet cables. Its detailed information will be introduced as below.

LAN (Local Area Network) is a network that works over a small distance, typically within one building or campus. LAN can be small, linking as few as three computers, but also can connect hundreds of computers used by thousands of people. LAN cable refers to the cables for carrying data in computer networking. There are two main types of LAN cable. One is the standard straight through cable, usually known as Ethernet patch cable, which is used for connecting computers to routers or switches. Note that, common Ethernet cable comes in STP and UTP patch cable with a variety of grades as the following table shows. STP cable has an outside layer or “shield” of conductive material around the internal conductors, which is designed to reduce EMI effects. It’s widely used in environments where there is a high chance of electronic interference, like airports or factories. UTP cable doesn’t have shielding to reduce interference. It relies on the cancellation affect caused by the twisting of the wire pairs to handle EMI. It performs not as good as STP in EMI reducing. It’s often used for domestic and office Ethernet connections. The other type is a crossover cable, which is used for connecting two computers directly without routers, switches or hubs. As for straight through vs crossover cable, they use different wiring standards in the connectors of the two ends. The two connectors of straight through type use the same wiring standards, either T568A or T568B. While connectors of crossover adopt different standards, one connector uses T568A and the other one uses T568B.

What does a LAN port look like?

An Ethernet cable is a common type of network cable used with wired networks. Ethernet cables connect devices such as PCs, routers, and switches within a local area network. These physical cables are limited by length and durability. If a network cable is too long or of poor quality, it won't carry a good network signal. These limits are one reason there are different types of Ethernet cables that are optimized to perform certain tasks in specific situations.

What an Ethernet Cable Looks Like

An Ethernet cable resembles a phone cable, but is larger and has more wires. Both cables share a similar shape and plug, but an Ethernet cable has eight wires, while phone cables have four. Ethernet cable connectors are also larger. Ethernet cables come in different colors, but phone cables are usually grey.

Ethernet cables plug into Ethernet ports, which are larger than phone cable ports. An Ethernet port on a computer is accessible through the Ethernet card on the motherboard. This port is usually on the back of a desktop computer, or on the side of a laptop.

Types of Ethernet Cables

Ethernet cables support one or more industry standards including Category 5 and Category 6. Most technicians refer to these standards as CAT5 and CAT6, respectively. Because of this, many online stores that sell network cables use this abbreviated language as well.

Ethernet cables are manufactured in two basic forms:

• Solid Ethernet cables offer slightly better performance and improved protection against electrical interference. They're also commonly used on business networks, wiring inside office walls, or under lab floors to fixed locations.
• Stranded Ethernet cables are less prone to physical cracks and breaks, making them more suitable for travelers or in-home network setups.

What are the 5 network topologies?

Geometric representation of how the computers are connected to each other is known as topology. There are five types of topology – Mesh, Star, Bus, Ring and Hybrid.

Types of Topology

There are five types of topology in computer networks:

1. Mesh Topology
2. Star Topology
3. Bus Topology
4. Ring Topology
5. Hybrid Topology

Mesh Topology

In mesh topology each device is connected to every other device on the network through a dedicated point-to-point link. When we say dedicated it means that the link only carries data for the two connected devices only. Lets say we have n devices in the network then each device must be connected with (n-1) devices of the network. Number of links in a mesh topology of n devices would be n(n-1)/2.

Advantages of Mesh topology

1. No data traffic issues as there is a dedicated link between two devices which means the link is only available for those two devices.
2. Mesh topology is reliable and robust as failure of one link doesn’t affect other links and the communication between other devices on the network.
3. Mesh topology is secure because there is a point to point link thus unauthorized access is not possible.
4. Fault detection is easy.

Disadvantages of Mesh topology

1. Amount of wires required to connected each system is tedious and headache.
2. Since each device needs to be connected with other devices, number of I/O ports required must be huge.
3. Scalability issues because a device cannot be connected with large number of devices with a dedicated point to point link.

What is a router and a modem?

If you’ve been on the Internet for a while, you’ve no doubt heard the terms “modem” and “router” thrown around, but might not have taken the time to understand what they are. We’re here to help.

In short, your router creates a network between the computers in your home, while your modem connects that network—and thus the computers on it—to the internet. When you connect to Wi-Fi, you’re really connecting to your router, which forwards traffic between the internet and your computer. Many internet providers offer a combined modem/router unit that performs both these functions in one device.

So why bother to understand the difference? Because that understanding can lead to better decisions, like buying your own modem so you can stop paying $8-$15 a month to rent one from your ISP.

A router connects multiple networks and routes network traffic between them. It’s really that simple. In the case of your home network, your router has one connection to the Internet and one connection to your private local network. In addition, most routers also contain built-in switches that let you connect multiple wired devices. Many also contain wireless radios that let you connect Wi-Fi devices.

The simple way to think about routers—especially on your home network—is like this. The router sits in between your Internet connection and your local network. It lets you connect multiple devices to the Internet through one physical Internet connection and also lets those devices communicate with one another over the local network. In addition, the router offers some protection to your devices over being exposed directly to the Internet. To the Internet, all the traffic coming from your house looks like it’s coming from a single device. The router keeps track of what traffic goes to which actual device on your network.But you can’t connect directly to the Internet with just a router. Instead, your router must be plugged into a device that can transmit your digital traffic over whatever type of Internet connection you have. And that device is a modem.

What a Modem Does

Your modem serves as a bridge between your local network and the Internet. Historically, the term “modem” is shorthand for modulator-demodulator. Modems were used to modulate the signals on telephone lines so that digital information could be encoded and transmitted over them and then demodulated—and decoded—on the other end. Though more modern broadband connections—like cable and satellite—don’t really work the same way, we kept using the term “modem” because it’s a device people were already familiar with and associated with connecting to the Internet.

How a modem attaches to your network depends on the type of connection you have. The modem plugs into whatever type of infrastructure you have—cable, telephone, satellite, or fiber—and gives you a standard Ethernet cable output that you can plug into any router (or a single computer) and get an Internet connection.

What is better WiFi or Internet?

Wi-Fi and internet are two different things. Let me say it again: they are two different things.

For years now, the term Wi-Fi has often been synonymous with access to the internet. Most of us use "Wi-Fi" as a shortcut to mean our home broadband internet connection. And when you're traveling, free Wi-Fi is understood as free internet since that's the only reason you use Wi-Fi when out and about.

In this post, I'll clarify the difference between the two often-confused terms and provide answers to other connection-related questions. Among other things, knowing the difference between Wi-Fi and internet connections can help you troubleshoot problems at home, purchase the right equipment for your network, and most importantly, understand the risk of using a free Wi-Fi network.

Wi-Fi

As mentioned in the first part of this series, Wi-Fi is simply an alternative to network cables as a way to connect devices of a local area network (LAN). Prior to Wi-Fi the only way to connect devices together was to run physical network cables between them, which can be inconvenient. Wi-Fi allows devices to connect to one another the same way as when network cables are used, just without the actual cables. A Wi-Fi network is basically a wireless local network.

Internet

Generally known as the wide area network (WAN), the internet connects computers from around the world. In reality, the internet actually connects many local networks together, via a ton of routers. With the internet, your home local network is no longer secluded but becomes part of one giant worldwide network.

The internet connection is generally beyond the control of the users. Other than turning it on or off, the only other thing you can do is pay for the desired connection speed and hope you get what you pay for. Internet speed has progressively increased in the last decade. Ten years ago, a fast residential broadband connection generally capped somewhere between 1.5Mbps to 20Mbps; now it's between about 50Mbps to 150Mbps and even faster.

That said, most of the time, the speed of the internet is still slower than that of a wired local network, which is either 100Mbps or 1,000Mbps. For a Wi-Fi network, the speed of the local network depends on the standards used by the Wi-Fi router (or access point) and the connected clients, and can sometimes be slower than a fast broadband wired internet connection.

what is a wlan

A wireless LAN (WLAN) is a wireless computer network that links two or more devices using wireless communication to form a local area network (LAN) within a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, campus, or office building. This gives users the ability to move around within the area and remain connected to the network. Through a gateway, a WLAN can also provide a connection to the wider Internet.

Most modern WLANs are based on IEEE 802.11 standards and are marketed under the Wi-Fi brand name.

Wireless LANs have become popular for use in the home, due to their ease of installation and use. They are also popular in commercial properties that offer wireless access to their employees and customers.

Wireless LAN hardware initially cost so much that it was only used as an alternative to cabled LAN in places where cabling was difficult or impossible. Early development included industry-specific solutions and proprietary protocols, but at the end of the 1990s these were replaced by standards, primarily the various versions of IEEE 802.11 (in products using the Wi-Fi brand name). Beginning in 1991, a European alternative known as HiperLAN/1 was pursued by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) with a first version approved in 1996. This was followed by a HiperLAN/2 functional specification with ATM influences^{[citation needed]} accomplished February 2000. Neither European standard achieved the commercial success of 802.11, although much of the work on HiperLAN/2 has survived in the physical specification (PHY) for IEEE 802.11a, which is nearly identical to the PHY of HiperLAN/2.

In 2009 802.11n was added to 802.11. It operates in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands at a maximum data transfer rate of 600 Mbit/s. Most newer routers are able to utilise both wireless bands, known as dualband. This allows data communications to avoid the crowded 2.4 GHz band, which is also shared with Bluetooth devices and microwave ovens. The 5 GHz band is also wider than the 2.4 GHz band, with more channels, which permits a greater number of devices to share the space. Not all channels are available in all regions.

Challenges of managed service providers

Service-level agreements I managed service providers

An MSP often provides its service offering under a service-level agreement, a contractual arrangement between the MSP and its customer that spells out the performance and quality metrics that will govern the relationship.

An SLA may be linked to an MSP's pricing formula. For example, an MSP may offer a range of SLAs to customers, with the customer paying a higher fee for higher levels of service in a tiered pricing structure.

Challenges of managed service providers

Regardless of pricing model, a key challenge for MSP business management is to set pricing low enough to entice customers to buy their services but high enough to maintain an adequate profit margin.

In addition to pricing, MSPs pay close attention to operating costs and the cost of maintaining skilled employees. Labor is typically an MSP's greatest expense. To keep labor costs in check and improve efficiency, most MSPs employ remote monitoring and management (RMM) software to keep tabs on clients' IT functions. RMM software lets MSPs remotely troubleshoot and remediate issues with servers and endpoint devices. With RMM, MSPs can manage numerous customers' IT systems simultaneously. MSPs may also use automated scripts to handle routine systems administration functions, such as checking hard disks for errors, without human intervention.

Another challenge MSPs face is the mainstream adoption of cloud computing. As more of their customers' IT infrastructure components migrate to the cloud, MSPs have had to find ways to manage hybrid cloud environments. MSPs also seek to provide their own cloud computing services or resell other cloud providers' capabilities, with cloud-based backup and disaster recovery (DR) a common entry point.

In addition, just becoming an MSP can prove challenging. The prospect of MRR has attracted many traditional solutions provider companies, such as VARs, to the MSP business model. However, would-be MSPs have struggled to establish themselves in the market. The MSP line of business calls for companies to adopt different performance metrics, technology infrastructure components and sales compensation programs, to name a few challenges. As a result, many MSPs derive revenue from business lines other than managed services, such as IT project work, break/fix business and on-site support. Pure-play MSPs are relatively rare in the IT services industry.

What MSPs are used for

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are typical MSP customers. Many smaller companies have limited in-house IT capabilities, so they may view an MSP's service offering as a way to obtain IT expertise. Larger enterprises may also contract with MSPs, however. For example, government agencies, facing budget pressure and hiring limitations, may contract with an MSP to supplement in-house IT staff.

what does wlan stand for

Stands for "Wireless Local Area Network." A WLAN, or wireless LAN, is a network that allows devices to connect and communicate wirelessly. Unlike a traditional wired LAN, in which devices communicate over Ethernet cables, devices on a WLAN communicate via Wi-Fi.

While a WLAN may look different than a traditional LAN, it functions the same way. New devices are typically added and configured using DHCP. They can communicate with other devices on the network the same way they would on a wired network. The primary difference is how the data is transmitted. In a LAN, data is transmitted over physical cables in a series of Ethernet packets containing. In a WLAN, data is transmitted over the air using one of the IEEE 802.11 protocols.

As wireless devices have grown in popularity, so have WLANs. In fact, most routers sold are now wireless routers. A wireless router serves as a base station, providing wireless connections to any Wi-Fi-enabled devices within range of the router's wireless signal. This includes laptops, tablets, smartphones, and other wireless devices, such as smart appliances and smart home controllers. Wireless routers often connect to a cable modem or other Internet-connected device to provide Internet access to connected devices.

LANs and WLANs can be merged together using a bridge that connects the two networks. Many wireless routers also include Ethernet ports, providing connections for a limited number of wireless devices. In most cases, wireless routers act as a bridge, merging the Ethernet and Wi-Fi-connected devices into the same network. This allows wired and wireless devices to communicate with each other through a single router.

managed service provider

A managed service provider (MSP) is a company that remotely manages a customer's IT infrastructure and/or end-user systems, typically on a proactive basis and under a subscription model. Today, the terms "cloud service provider" and "managed service provider" are sometimes used as synonyms when the provider's service is supported by a service level agreement (SLA) and is delivered over the internet.

The evolution of MSPs began in the 1990s with the emergence of application service providers (ASPs), which offered remote application hosting services. ASPs helped pave the way for cloud computing and companies that would provide remote support for customers' IT infrastructure. MSPs, for the most part, initially focused on the remote management and monitoring (RMM) of servers and networks. Over time, MSPs have expanded the scope of their services in a bid to differentiate themselves from other providers.

While some MSPs may specialize in specific segments of information technology such as data storage, others may focus on specific vertical markets, such as legal, financial services, healthcare and manufacturing. Managed security services providers (MSSPs), for instance, offer specialized services such as remote firewall administration and other security-as-a-service offerings. Managed print services (MPS) providers, meanwhile, offload the task of maintaining printers and supplying consumables.

Pricing model for managed service providers

In per-device pricing, the MSP charges the customer a flat fee for each device under management. In per-user pricing, meanwhile, the MSP charges a flat fee for each user, accommodating users who use multiple devices. In all-inclusive pricing, also referred to as the all-you-can-eat model, the MSP charges a flat fee for all the IT infrastructure support and management services the MSP plans to offer.

In each of those pricing approaches, the customer pays the flat fee on a regularly scheduled basis, often monthly. Such pricing methods let MSPs sell services under a subscription model. This approach provides the MSP with a monthly recurring revenue (MRR) stream, in contrast to IT projects that tend to be one-time transactions.

MRR is one aspect of managed services work that differs from other business models in the IT solutions provider and channel partner space. Solutions providers pursuing the break/fix model, for example, usually price their services on a time and materials (T&M) basis, billing an hourly rate for repairing a customer's IT equipment and charging for parts or replacement gear.

Companies performing IT project work, such as computer systems installation a

What does hosting software mean?

Hosted software refers to software that is installed, hosted and accessed entirely from a remote server or location.

Hosted software is hosted and managed by the software manufacturer or a third-party vendor. Users can access it globally through the Internet.

Hosted software is also known as software as a service (SaaS), a cloud computing service model.

Hosted software differs from typical software in its installation and accessibility. Unlike most software, which is housed on the user's machine, hosted software-related data processing and computing is performed on the remote host server. End users can access this data through a compatible Web browser.

Generally, hosted software is provided as a service to end users, who are billed monthly on pay-per-use or per-license fee billing method. Because all programs are installed at a provider’s location, they are managed, upgraded and patched by the provider, ensuring that users always have access to updated, bug-free versions of the software they use.

For More :managed server

What are the server monitoring tools?

As production workloads move to the cloud, companies are grappling with covering increasingly complex data center components too numerous to be effectively managed with existing staff. IT departments are aggressively working to find more efficient processes to manage their server assets.

Tight budgets and distributed data centers increase the number of unmanaged and unmonitored assets within an organization. This can lead to performance issues, abandoned servers and heightened security risks. Managing these assets in-house is expensive; suffering a data breach on an unmanaged server can be catastrophic.

CompuCom’s Managed Server Services manages the ever-evolving components of your data center so that all of your assets are monitored and maintained, your environment stays healthy, and your users stay happy and productive.

How CompuCom Can Help You

By allowing CompuCom to monitor, manage and repair your servers, you can repurpose resources including your staff, time and money to more business aligned functions. With CompuCom, you get:

• Our highly trained and certified IT pros, who bring an impressive level of expertise to a company, enabling you to scale your resource coverage while containing costs.
• Managed services that provide efficiencies of scale for servers, from traditional infrastructure to virtual to cloud. This results in simplified visibility across server environments while reducing management and operational costs.
• Active server monitoring and management that allows you to reallocate staff and resources for more vital services directly related to business tasks.
• 24x7 monitoring that offers assurance to end users of increased system uptime, as any problems are discovered early and resolved more quickly.

What is server monitoring and management?

We’ll explain to you, What is Server Management? Like many other terms in the server management and managed services industry, server management is vaguely used and can mean different things when used by different server management service providers.

Some companies may offer a set of managed support services in their server management plan, but a different company may offer a completely different set of services. Although there are some guidelines and definitions that still hold true for any managed service provider.

This article will guide you through what server management is, who needs it and why you should use it. After our intro, you should have a solid understanding of the basics.

Broad definition of server management

Server management can be defined as the tasks and services that are done on a server in order to manage it. This usually entails:

• Monitoring of the server and apps running on the server. Checking their status, uptime, and monitoring for any new or recurring issues.
• Updating the server and software installed on the server. Although most server management companies offer this as part of their services, some still don’t. Nevertheless, it’s still considered as part of the ‘server management’ process.
• Setup and configuration. The actual server setup and configuration of software and services running on the server. Again, this may not be a part of the server management plan offered by some companies, but it most often is.
• Other. This is where the issue in defining what server management actually is arises. Every provider offers totally different services, although they are still considered as part of the server management process, they are not the same among several different providers and thus cannot be considered as the “default” definition of server management.

What is Server Management?

We’ll explain to you, What is Server Management? Like many other terms in the server management and managed services industry, server management is vaguely used and can mean different things when used by different server management service providers.

Some companies may offer a set of managed support services in their server management plan, but a different company may offer a completely different set of services. Although there are some guidelines and definitions that still hold true for any managed service provider.

This article will guide you through what server management is, who needs it and why you should use it. After our intro, you should have a solid understanding of the basics.

Broad definition of server management

Server management can be defined as the tasks and services that are done on a server in order to manage it. This usually entails:

• Monitoring of the server and apps running on the server. Checking their status, uptime, and monitoring for any new or recurring issues.
• Updating the server and software installed on the server. Although most server management companies offer this as part of their services, some still don’t. Nevertheless, it’s still considered as part of the ‘server management’ process.
• Setup and configuration. The actual server setup and configuration of software and services running on the server. Again, this may not be a part of the server management plan offered by some companies, but it most often is.
• Other. This is where the issue in defining what server management actually is arises. Every provider offers totally different services, although they are still considered as part of the server management process, they are not the same among several different providers and thus cannot be considered as the “default” definition of server management.