Atera for IT departments: what do you need to know?

We recently split our IT product into two distinct offerings, an awesome set of tools and processes that are perfect for Managed Service Providers, and an all-in-one IT solution that checks all the boxes for IT departments. If you’re in that latter category, you might be wondering – what’s Atera got for me? Let’s break it down!

Ticketing

As your company scales, it can be harder than ever to keep track of incoming requests and issues. If you’re a one man band, juggling becomes part of the day job, and if you’re growing your team – communication and collaboration is an essential part of the work you do. A ticketing system is a must-have technology that adds order and visibility to your to-do list.

Many people think of ticketing systems as just being part of an MSP software, but they can add so much value to IT departments. Instead of dealing with employee issues through emails, a ticketing system gives a single centralized place where all technicians can see all open tickets, as well as historical issues, too. If for example a PC has been flagged three times this quarter for running slowly, it might be time to do more than just defrag or free up memory, and think about replacing the machine altogether.

At Atera, tickets can be generated in six ways, including via email or chat, so that IT managers can easily organize their workload, delegate the right tasks to the right people, and never miss a single request. Don’t forget to try the Load Analysis report, which can give you an eye in the sky to the number of tickets open and resolved.

Security

For businesses of all shapes and sizes, cybersecurity is an essential conversation to be having. New regulations and laws like the Strengthening Cybersecurity Act of 2022 prove that it is everyone’s responsibility to be shoring up their defenses, especially in today’s interconnected world. If you’re responsible for IT in your business, then newsflash: you’re responsible for cybersecurity, too.

Luckily, Atera has your back! We are continually looking for new security partners who can cover every area of cyber preparedness to support our customers in protecting their environments, devices, users and assets.

Here are just a few of our vetted and approved partners, and what they are best known for:

Malwarebytes: Protect your business against a wide array of online threats, from spyware and keylogging, to ransomware that could steal and encrypt essential data.

Bitdefender: Advanced threat hunting, with a virtual machine farm that tests and executes thousands of malware samples each day.

Ironscales: Email security with a zero trust mindset. Always assume the phish is the motto of this partner, helping to keep employees safe from making dangerous mistakes.

Remote monitoring and maintenance

Our RMM is the cornerstone of our software solution, and includes a wide range of tools and technology built for the IT department to save time and effort.

When set up smartly, you’ll get alerts when thresholds drop below or above a certain pre-set policy, so that you can act ahead of time and keep business continuity strong.

You can use automated patch management to make Patch Tuesdays the easiest day of your week, setting up everything to run according to your business context, either on schedule, or at the click of a button. This approach not only streamlines the patching process but also integrates seamlessly with RMM tools. By combining patch management with RMM, you enhance security and organization, avoiding the pitfalls of ad-hoc patching and ensuring that no updates are missed, even if end-users neglect their notifications. This comprehensive strategy provides a more secure and efficient way to manage software and hardware updates, keeping your systems protected and well-maintained without the hassle.

A lot of your manual work can also be automated, tasks such as rebooting machines, setting system restore points, deleting temp files, checking for updates, and more. You can also automate Network Discovery scans to run in the background, so you’re never blind to shadow IT, unknown machines, or unusual activity.

In short, you’re freeing yourself up to be more strategic, researching new products and productivity hacks, speaking to employees, troubleshooting more niche challenges, or creating shiny PowerPoint presentations about why IT deserves more budget.

Remote access and support

Remote access software is just as critical whether you’re working in a single office space, or whether you have multiple sites around the globe. Today’s remote working reality means that work from home has become business as usual, after all! At Atera, we recognize how important it is to be able to perform remote actions, and as well as our integrations with AnyDesk and SplashTop (check out Work From Home that allows employees to quickly and securely remote into their office computers from anywhere in the world), we also offer a lot of awesome remote functionality from within Atera.

One example is the ability to install software bundles when you onboard new employees or machines. There is always going to be a list of essential software products that you want employees to have, whether that’s security tools, or productivity and collaboration tools. By using software bundles, you can make sure that the new hire is ready to hit the ground running, and doesn’t fill any gaps with pesky shadow IT. You can create templates for software bundles, for example for different departments or seniority levels, and you can rely on Chocolatey for Windows and HomeBrew for Mac devices to ensure that everything runs clean as a whistle.

Psst: if you need to remove applications, there are a ton of ways to do this from Atera, including directly from devices, using a PowerShell or Command Prompt, through reports, or via a script.

New features for IT departments

Let’s not forget that we’re always updating and improving our offering for each of our audiences. Interested in what’s shiny and new? Let’s take a quick dive into the summer’s hottest releases for our IT department professionals.

New on the platform for IT departments is the ability to use custom statuses in your support tickets, so you can accurately describe the mode of operation to your colleagues and end users. You can also dive into some additional device data, including battery life, the Bitlocker key, and the BIOS version. Quick message to remote working Gary that he needs to charge his laptop? Why not!

Other upgrades this season include upgraded Network Discovery scans to discover open ports and scan agentless networks, and the ability to mass deploy add-ons to end user devices.

We’re champions of the IT department, in more ways than one!

At Atera, we recognize how hard our IT professionals are working, and we know that the IT department are the heroes of their businesses, keeping everything running performantly behind the scenes, watching over security and availability, and quick to the rescue when something goes wrong. That’s why we can talk all day about why the IT department is such an essential and strategic function of the business!

We’re so impressed by the work you do, that we’ve made it our mission to make your lives as easy as possible, using automation, AI, and best-in-class processes and frameworks to improve your everyday work and supercharge your productivity.