Work from anywhere in the county, and beyond

Why this matters in a commuter county

Census figures put the average commute for Cherokee County workers at a little over 31 minutes each way, longer than the Georgia average. Many staff live in one place, work in another and split their week between the office and home. Field crews, home health staff and sales people may barely visit the office at all. That only works if files, email and business applications are reachable securely from anywhere, without passwords taped to a monitor or a VPN that drops every afternoon.

Microsoft 365, set up properly

Microsoft 365 is more than email. With the right licenses and configuration, it can replace a file server, a phone system, a VPN and a pile of separate tools. The trouble is that a default setup leaves a lot open. We take care of:

• Email and calendars: Exchange Online with proper spam and phishing protection, shared mailboxes for front desk and billing, and domain records (SPF, DKIM and DMARC) that make it harder for criminals to spoof your address.
• Files: SharePoint and Teams organized by department or project, with permissions that match how you work, and OneDrive for personal files. No more one big shared drive that everyone can see.
• Security settings: MFA, conditional access rules that block risky sign-ins, and legacy sign-in methods turned off.
• Device management: laptops and phones enrolled in Intune, so new computers set themselves up, company data stays protected, and a lost device can be wiped.
• Licensing: the right plan for each person. Many businesses overpay for licenses they don't use, or underpay and miss the security features they need.
• Teams: chat, meetings and, if it fits, Teams Phone to replace an aging phone system.

Moving off the server in the closet

A lot of Cherokee County offices still run a server that was bought when the company was half its current size. It holds files, maybe an accounting database and user logins. It's out of warranty, it needs a battery backup to survive brief power blips, and if it fails the office stops. Moving those workloads to the cloud removes a single point of failure and makes the building less important to the work.

Not everything belongs in the cloud. Some line-of-business software, such as certain practice management, estimating or ERP systems, works best on a local server or a hosted one. We look at each application, talk to the vendor where needed and recommend what goes where. Then we plan the move in stages, usually over a weekend or after hours, with a tested rollback if anything misbehaves.

Internet is now critical

When your files and phones live in the cloud, the internet connection becomes the thing that has to work. Service options vary a lot across Cherokee County. Offices along the I-575 corridor in Woodstock and Canton often have a choice of wired providers, while some sites in the rural north and east of the county have fewer. We help you choose a primary connection and, where it's worth it, a second connection from a different provider or a cellular backup, so a cut line doesn't stop work.

Ongoing management

Microsoft changes features and settings constantly. We keep an eye on those changes, review security scores and sign-in alerts, handle new hires and departures and adjust licenses as your team grows. When you add someone, they get a laptop that is ready to use with the right access on day one.

Questions about microsoft 365 & cloud