By Brittany Fugate, CEO at Cenetric
First things first: We just learned that Cenetric is a 2025 KC Chamber Top 10 Business! We are beyond excited, of course! As a homegrown Kansas City business, it’s always an honor to be recognized in our community.
That means we’re now in the running for the prestigious Mr. K Small Business of the Year Award. The winner will be announced at a chamber luncheon on June 17.
Showing off at the Candidates’ Showcase
Hundreds of Kansas City companies were nominated, and 73 applied for the award. Part of the selection process involved a fun evening mixing and mingling with other applicants at the Candidates’ Showcase event, which took place April 2 at Union Station.
Each candidate hosted a table for attendees (and secret judges!) to visit and get to know us. (We had a Brain Bar — more on that in a second.) Along the way, we saw so many cool booths, found some new friends and saw some long-time pals.
DMC HVAC and Plumbing had a cornhole game with a toilet as a target – now that drew some attention! We met Celeste Carson with Growing Good Consulting (a fantastic consultant for nonprofits) and Sherrie Ortiz from Just One Day Travel Tours, and we saw Dr. Susan Harrison and NvisionKC founder Grace Ahn.
Cenetric’s Brain Bar (and fundraiser)
At our table, we hosted an IT Q&A table we dubbed the Brain Bar, but we weren’t just there to dig into tech issues — we wanted to help area organizations too. Aside from hoping to impress those secret judges, we had two goals to accomplish at the event:
- Raise funds for a few of our favorite area nonprofit orgs
- Answer attendees’ most burning tech questions
We’re proud to say we achieved both — we raised nearly $1,000 combined for Purple Peace for Epilepsy, Pathway to Hope and Head for the Cure. Thanks to all who donated to these worthy causes!
Our team obviously loves digging into tech troubles, and the Brain Bar was no exception. Frequent questions included:
Is multifactor authentication (MFA) really all that important?
Short answer: YES. You need to protect your systems and devices by confirming your identity when you sign in. While receiving a code by text used to do the trick, many systems now require (and we strongly recommend) that you use an authenticator app for the highest levels of security.
What’s the deal with AI?
So many AI questions! It’s no wonder since it’s really becoming a daily part of our lives. For instance, Google searches frequently generate an AI answer summarizing the info on the web to save you some time. GPS and financial services use AI in ways you probably don’t even realize to help you do the tasks you need to do.
But what most people were really asking us about was generative AI like ChatGPT or CoPilot. How do you use it? Is it safe?
Our general advice is to get familiar with it — learn what it can do for you and what it can’t. Start small by asking for help with tasks like writing a welcome speech or getting ideas for a company party. Keep exploring and find out where it can cut down on manual tasks and give you more time in your business.
Use generative AI with caution, however. In general, don’t give it information you wouldn’t want posted on the internet — and absolutely do not give general use AI tools like ChatGPT access to the personal data of your customers or employees.
When does a company need an MSP?
There are lots of signs you need the help of a managed services provider like Cenetric:
- When a project is outside your team’s skill set
- When important tech tasks and deliverables are slipping through the cracks
- When you’re getting concerned about cybersecurity
- When you need a new tool or solution and aren’t sure how to select or implement it
Although some companies think they’re too small to need IT help, the expertise of an MSP is important for a team of even just five to 10 employees because the time savings far outweigh the monthly cost.
For 50 users and up, Cenetric can help either by taking the routine tasks off of current IT staff, allowing them to focus on big projects or by providing strategy and project development and management so they can handle the day-to-day stuff. It all depends on the skill set of your current IT team.
No matter which way you want to go, we can more than double the efficiency of your IT team for less than the cost of one full-time IT staff member. And you get a team of people with different strengths and skills to meet your IT needs.
How do you know if you need a MSP or an internal IT person?
As a company with fewer than 100 users, if you’re not sure if you should hire a dedicated IT team member or bring in outside help from an MSP, consider what your daily needs are. While some can benefit from having someone on site every day to perform tasks and attend to tech issues, most growing companies don’t need that.
If you want all of your IT tasks, strategy and budget handled for less than the cost of a full-time qualified IT person, an MSP is the way to go. And if you’re a larger organization, you can benefit from a hybrid approach as you grow past 100 users.
Get expert IT help from a KC-focused MSP
While we’ve got our fingers crossed to win the Mr. K award in June, what we care about most is focusing on our community and its IT needs.
Looking for IT support right here in Kansas City? Cenetric has the experience and availability you need to keep running smoothly 24/7. Tell us about your organization and we’ll be in touch to get started right away.