The telephone cemented itself as a valuable tool of business long ago, but the ways that businesses use these devices have changed over the years. Thanks to advancements in technology, telephones can still be used by businesses even today, albeit with some modern adjustments to stay competitive and useful. One of these telephony solutions is Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP for short.
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Artificial intelligence and machine learning are entering the mainstream technology discourse, and with software developing the ability to learn from datasets, many businesses are using this technology to automate their processes to cut down on costs and better use their current resources. There is a lot of good that comes from this, but only when you look past these benefits can you start to see the drawbacks, including an important one called “data poisoning.”
Despite not wanting to think about cybersecurity incidents derailing your operations, it’s important nevertheless to consider them before it’s too late to do anything about them. These days, businesses need to invest considerable capital into protections, including a cyber insurance policy to cover all of their bases.
Let’s discuss some of your options for cybersecurity insurance and what you’ll need to know to make the most informed decisions possible.
Social media can be difficult to navigate due to how overstimulating it can be. Sometimes it is beneficial to unfollow people or pages that are either no longer relevant to you or are not doing anything for your mental health. To help you detox your social media feed a little bit, let’s discuss how you can unfollow someone on Facebook.
The cloud has been a good resource for business for quite a while. Just how good? Currently, nine-out-of-ten businesses operate with some type of cloud-hosted solution. In fact, by the figures, we’re definitely looking at a cloud-hosted future. We thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the cloud computing stats and trends to paint a picture of just how the cloud has grown up.
Most people look at only the first page of Google when they are trying to find results; anything seen past the first page is looked at as inferior, inaccurate, or possibly even dangerous. However, Google’s new plans for the search engine will put an end to this bias through the use of a continuous scroll feature.
For quite a while it took an actual disaster to encourage business leaders to allocate any time and money to put towards cybersecurity. Many businesses still don’t, in fact. Those that have, while absolutely prudent in their use of resources to help ward off security problems, may forget that there are still things that need to be done aside from employee training to keep their security up. Let’s go through a few things that every organization should be doing to maintain the security of their information systems.
Cybersecurity is one part of your business’ computing that you must prioritize, as the fallout of a data breach could, in many cases, be enough to shutter your business for good. You want to be seen as a company that takes data security seriously, and to this end, you have likely implemented countless security features and measures to protect your organization’s resources and data. However, this all comes at a cost, and it’s not the one you might expect: your employees.
Everyone’s job has some degree of minutiae involved. Not everything can be exciting: I mean even a stuntman sits around for most of the day before his or her death-defying scene happens. This week, we thought we’d go through the importance of these seemingly rote tasks and how instituting technology that allows you to automate more of them can actually help a business accomplish a lot.
Autocorrect is one of those things that you either love or hate, depending on how many times it has saved you from embarrassment or been a source of embarrassment. Without appropriate context, it can sometimes struggle to offer you appropriate suggestions. Thankfully, you can make autocorrect work a bit better for you, and if you are just sick of it altogether, you can disable it.
The idea of hot desking, or foregoing the traditional assigned workstation office organization method, is increasing in popularity, and for good reason. There might be several pros and cons to it, but people are generally finding that the benefits outweigh the costs. Let’s go over how you can implement hot desking to save money and improve operations.
How organized are your contacts stored in your Android smartphone? Chances are that, as a business professional, you might have several duplicate contacts in your phone, some from just asking for peoples’ contact information, some imported from your email application, and others from who knows where. Let’s discuss how you can merge duplicate contacts into one entry in your contact application, making for a much more organized list.
Identity can be a complex thing to discuss, but in terms of security, it’s fairly straightforward. You either are who you say you are, or you’re not. With the metaverse taking off, individuals will need to be careful about how they are authenticating their accounts and identities, but what does this mean for businesses?
Google is a tool that everyone uses to varying degrees, but the reality is that Google is but one search engine. There are others out there, and while they perform similar functions, there is a reason why Google is synonymous with web browsing. Let’s take a look at why Google is so popular, as well as how it works to give you the best search results.
Passwords used to be the law of the land, but in a world where passwords are more at risk of threats than ever before, people have turned to passwordless solutions. In fact, one of the biggest tech companies out there—Google—recently took steps toward passwordless authentication which we think is pretty darn important.
Collaboration is a key component of a successful business model, and with so many cloud solutions offering the ability to collaborate in real-time, it’s easy to forget about the old tried-and-true desktop solutions as productivity platforms. Sure, you can see changes in real-time in the cloud-based version of Excel, but did you know that you can also see changes made in a spreadsheet over a period of time in the app itself?
Depending on your business’ level of use for Google Apps, you may or may not have them set up to allow for integration with various other types of services. If you do, however, grant other programs permission to access and use your Google Drive, you should know how to manage these permissions. That’s what this blog is all about today.
Business can get stressful. Not only for the people tasked with managing an organization, but for the workforce as a whole. Fortunately, businesses are identifying that technology can go a long way toward making all this work less stressful. Let’s go through some of the innovative technology that is being used to keep employees engaged.
Have you ever received an email notification that someone has checked out your LinkedIn profile? While you might be flattered in the moment, you might then suddenly notice that LinkedIn is doing the same thing to you, telling others when you have looked at their profile. While this isn’t always a bad thing, and can even be good for networking, you might want to adjust this setting so that your privacy can be maintained a bit better.
Apple has long been a key part of the technology industry, producing quality hardware year after year. Although Apple tends to produce sleek and high-end hardware running its proprietary operating systems, these devices are far from perfect and were especially controversial at certain points in the past.
With the COVID pandemic still affecting businesses all over the world, many are still considering remote and hybrid work operations. In fact, there are many employees who have yet to step back into the workplace in any capacity, meaning that workspaces previously well-populated are being underutilized.
There are times when you might receive an email written in another language. Even if it’s unlikely, it helps to be able to translate a message for the rare time when you might receive one, particularly if your organization occasionally conducts business beyond your country’s borders. Let’s go over how you can use Gmail’s built-in translation functionality.
Nowadays, there seems to be risks at every turn that can negatively impact your business. Obviously, some are more concerning than others, but ultimately you need to find solutions to every problem you have to ensure that it can run routinely, let alone efficiently. Let’s take a look at some of the risks the average small business faces and what technology can do to help you circumvent these particular issues.
Sometimes you just want to look at your phone without squinting at the screen to read small text. In cases like this, you can change the display size of your Android’s screen. To get started, simply follow the directions in this blog article. Before you know it, you’ll be browsing your phone without having to strain your eyes.
While you’re using your device, it will store data in a temporary location called the cache. In order for your device to operate as well as it can, you might find yourself in need of a good ol’ cache-clearing. You can do this on the device level and on the application level. Let’s take a look at how you can do this for your Android device.
For the most part, Microsoft takes security as seriously as it should, issuing updates and patches to maintain your Windows and Server operating systems. While you can count on receiving these updates for your supported operating systems, what you might not have known is that Microsoft accidentally overlooked a flaw in its own defenses.
When it comes to your network and its security, you cannot give all of your users access to all of your assets. It’s just not a good practice, and doing so can potentially put your resources at risk. Let’s discuss how network segmentation can make a world of difference for the integrity of your network and the data found on it.
If Edgar Allan Poe worked in an office, here’s what one of his works would sound like:
True!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I have been and am, but why will you say that I am mad? The office had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them. Above all was my sense of hearing. I heard all things in heaven and on earth and many things in…the other place. So, how then am I mad, especially when I can so healthily and calmly tell you this story?
IT consulting is one of the most valuable skills you can bring into the fold for your business. Yet, many business owners are not privy to the details of how it works and why. Simply the act of talking to a professional about something can save you countless headaches along the way. Let’s discuss some of the ways your business benefits from a consultant.
In the technology news sector, you’ve probably noticed a trend where Patch Tuesday makes headlines at least once a month. This is generally the day when Microsoft issues patches and security updates for its many different technologies, and it’s important for your IT department to know when Patch Tuesday falls each month.
There is an inherent value associated with outsourcing the management of your technology to a managed service provider, or MSP. With your team taking a more hands-off approach to technology, they can instead focus on being more productive. If you’re still on the fence about this approach to technology and business, then we have some questions you should consider asking if you are thinking about learning more about MSPs and what they do.
For Microsoft Outlook users, you’ll notice that there is a feature called Focused Inbox which groups together all of the important messages you receive while placing all of the less important ones in the Other inbox. If you don’t like this feature and want to change it, we have just the tip for you.
It can be too easy to think about hackers and cybercriminals in an almost abstract way, diminishing them to little more than a faceless entity at a keyboard. Naturally, this is far from the truth. Let’s examine the reality of the cybercrime industry, which actually does as much harm to the perpetrators as it does to the people they scam...if not more.
Let me ask you a question: if you had a toilet that needed repairing, would you rather trust a plumber with a few decades of experience or a toddler that had just (mostly) learned how to use the toilet?
That’s what we thought… but when it comes to your business’ technology, finding someone with experience can be a bit more challenging. Let’s discuss the way that the right IT management produces improved business outcomes.
The next time you’re near a desktop, take a peek at the back where the motherboard’s various ports offer the opportunity to connect to different cable types. Many of these cables have overlapping functions—like the capabilities of USB and HDMI. Having said that, however, one of these cables will probably outlast its contemporary.
When it comes to procuring new technology solutions for your business, what is your preferred method of doing so? If you haven’t thought about it, perhaps you should start. Gartner predicts a major decrease in PC shipments for the remainder of 2022. This has significant implications for any technology user, but this is especially true for business owners who might need to consider hardware refreshes in the near future.
Business owners often get unsolicited emails from individuals who want to sell them goods, services, or products. Depending on the message, they might even come across as a bit suspicious, prompting you to question the authenticity of the email. If you’re not careful, you might accidentally expose your organization by clicking on the wrong link in the wrong email, thus falling victim to the oldest trick in the book: the phishing attack.
Normally when you download a file from the Internet, it can be found in the Downloads folder. There are ways you can adjust this setting, though. You might not mind them going to Downloads for a short while, but there are other locations you might consider sending your files, like where they might actually belong. You can change the default location of your downloaded files to take one small step out of the process. We’ll show you how to do it with your Google Chrome web browser.
Would you describe your business as “productive?” Without setting a specific standard for productivity, you can’t answer this question. A basic way to measure productivity for your business is how effectively your employees use the tools at their disposal in conjunction with each individual’s capacity to get work done. Let’s take a look at some technology built specifically for your employees to be more productive throughout the workday.
With plenty of benefits to be had from both in-house and remote operations, many companies have been working to take advantage of a hybrid approach to business. While this approach has proven greatly beneficial to businesses in assorted ways, there are a few drawbacks that need to be addressed. One major one: a lack of inclusivity.
There are struggles that the workplace inherently presents to most people (whether that workplace is in the traditional office space or in the home) that can lead to the too-familiar-to-some feelings of burnout. As these struggles aren’t likely going to go away at any point (never mind anytime soon), it is important that you have strategies to help minimize their impacts.
Businesses have a lot of troubles to manage, one of which is their technology breaking down and interrupting their operations. You have options to ensure these circumstances do not influence your operations to the degree they once may have. Let’s discuss some of the ways you can address malfunctioning IT before it impacts your productivity.
Just under its surface, Microsoft Excel offers a massive variety of functions and features…far more than we could ever realistically cover in this blog. However, there are a few that stand out as relatively essential, particularly to businesses. Let’s go through these functions, starting with how to use them.
Smartphones have managed to hold out against ransomware a bit longer than other hardware and operating systems, but those days are coming to an end. It’s important to remember that the average smartphone is not protected with antivirus software and thus remains threatened by your standard ransomware attacks. It is absolutely critical that your business doubles down on its protection against ransomware, especially in the mobile market.
The hard drive is an essential component of every computer. When you start looking at new computers you may notice that there are two different types of hard drives available. There are the HDD (hard disk drive) or the SSD (solid state drive). Today, we’ll go through what the difference is and what benefits you may get from outfitting your hardware with solid state drives.
While we strongly recommend that you put the security safeguard known as multi-factor authentication in place wherever it is available, it is important that we acknowledge that cybercriminals are frustratingly inventive. So much so, in fact, that a new form of attack has been developed to take advantage of MFA, referred to as MFA fatigue.
Nowadays, file sharing is so ubiquitous that most people in the office likely take it for granted. However, this is not a luxury that you have, as you need to ensure the file sharing that takes part is sufficiently secure—otherwise, you could find yourself in a tight spot. That’s why we want to devote this week’s tip to a few practical steps to making sure your files get where they’re going safely.
When it comes to storing your business’ documents, you have a couple of options available to you. Some professionals enjoy the chaos of having documents strewn about their office, while others prefer the organization that a system of filing cabinets can bring with it. However, both of these options pale in comparison to the document management system, a technological innovation that could allow your organization to go paperless and improve efficiency in ways you might not have guessed.
It’s not always easy to build a network that is both robust and secure, but this doesn’t make it any less necessary, not with so many of your critical business functions relying on connectivity. With so many devices accessing your network at any given time, you need to have a concrete understanding of how to keep your network secure while still keeping your network running efficiently.
Managing business technology is a challenge that many small businesses have difficulty overcoming, and this is largely in part due to the fact that managing technology is not the focus of these small businesses. The inability to overcome IT challenges can hold businesses back that otherwise would flourish. Let’s discuss some of the biggest issues that companies have for IT and how they could potentially be addressed.
After this prolonged pandemic, remote work has established itself as a key component of many organizations’ operational policies and infrastructures. However, it has added new levels of complexity that make managing a workforce more important than ever. Let’s discuss some ways management can improve the work experience for remote employees.
Most things in your office depend on technology in some way. That’s just the simple fact of life these days. Let’s examine just how much of your business depends on the technology that powers it and how companies increasingly depend on IT to manage the countless devices that have permeated the office environment.
By now you’ve probably heard the term Internet of Things (IoT). You may not completely understand what it is, but you know it has something to do with all those “smart” devices that you see popping up everywhere. Today, we’d thought we’d get into what types of things are on the IoT and how they can have an impact on your business.
Social engineering is a dangerous threat that could derail even the most prepared business. Even if you implement the best security solutions on the market, they mean nothing if a cybercriminal tricks you into acting impulsively. Let’s go over specific methods of social engineering that hackers might use to trick you.
Looking back at the past few years, it’s little wonder that many people have become more concerned about their health—particularly when it comes to the workplace and spending extended amounts of time in the vicinity of other people. This makes it important that you do everything you can to make your workplace a healthier and safer-feeling place to work… but how?
With so many workers constantly connected to screens and other technology, it is a good idea to disconnect every so often by taking a vacation somewhere. However, it’s not always this easy, especially for a business owner who is still minimally connected to the office even while technically on vacation. We’ve got a couple of tips for how you can make the most of your technology while on your vacation without putting your company at risk in the process.
Many businesses make their profits from selling products, goods, or services to their consumer base, requiring that they have a way to process these transactions in place. The point of sale system is a business’ preferred method of handling these transactions, especially in retail. How can you know which features you might need for a point of sale system?
In the post Prime Day space, you might realize that you have purchased quite a few consumer electronics from the web retailer, and if you did, we hope you found some great deals that you can write home about. But before you throw out your old devices in favor of the new, we urge you to think about the approach you are going to take, as improper recycling and disposal of devices could have negative effects on both the environment and your personal data.
Sometimes it can be easy to take cybersecurity for granted, especially when you consider that built-in security features are more powerful than they have ever been. Unfortunately, if you think that cybersecurity is something that ends with the built-in security of your desktops and laptops, then you’re in for a rude awakening.
Whether you are in the office or working remotely, there are many distractions that can derail your productivity. To set yourself up for success, we recommend that you follow the tips outlined in this blog. You might be surprised by how just a few simple adjustments can make a world of difference for your productivity.
When it comes to business technology, there are sure to be a lot of electrical plugs, so you’ll naturally want plenty of outlets to plug them into. A power trip likely won’t cut it, though. For your needs, you’ll want to invest in a surge protector. Why is the surge protector so much better, you ask? Well, let’s explore this question.
Hacking attacks can be stressful to manage, but when you add in that they can strike when you least expect them to, it gets a lot worse. You’ll never know how you respond to such an event unless you simulate it and replicate it somehow. This is what the penetration test is used for; it provides your business with a way to prepare for cyberattacks.
The difference between productivity and innovation is not always clear-cut, but the biggest one is that higher productivity naturally creates innovation… assuming it is supported by the right tools and mindset. How can technology help your business be more creative and innovative in the way it goes about its day-to-day operations?
There were a few years there about a decade ago when everyone had to have the latest tablet and tech experts were predicting that most of the world’s productivity would be done using touchscreen devices. On one hand, they weren’t that far off. On the other hand, tablet sales fell off about as rapidly as they had spiked, leaving some question over the future of the form factor. Of course, tablets settled in as great personal computers, but their use in business has seemingly plateaued. Let’s take a look at how businesses use tablets and answer if they are right for your business.
If you work with technology, then you are likely to have a good idea of what innovation is and isn’t. Innovation is born from creativity, and while it’s not often associated with business IT, there is something to be said for how technology professionals solve problems in a creative fashion, solving problems with solutions available either in-house or on the market. Today, we are focusing on how this creativity can be an asset and how you can foster creative thought in your office.
Despite their best efforts, cybersecurity can be a major cause for concern for all kinds of businesses and organizations. Even with a full team of cybersecurity professionals, data breaches can occur, and many of the worst data breaches of 2022 have been quite devastating. Let’s take a look at some of the worst ones so far.
Botnets are nefarious entities consisting of countless connected devices, all of which have been infected by hackers to perform malicious deeds. One such botnet, a Russian botnet consisting of millions of infected Internet of Things devices, has been dismantled and taken down by the United States Department of Justice and various law enforcement agencies throughout Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.
The modern cyberthreat landscape is nothing to be trifled with, so it makes sense that as threats grow more powerful, so too do the solutions used to address them. Nowadays, there is a practice that is designed to address just how serious the threat of cybersecurity is: zero-trust IT. Let’s discuss these policies and how you might put them in place.
It’s fair to say that, across the board, times have been particularly tough as of late for businesses. On top of businesses having to fight through the socioeconomic crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the supply chain issues, they also have to juggle more data than ever.
In short, businesses need reliable and cost-effective ways to manage their critical technologies.
How much do you know about Microsoft Excel? There are loads of features that most users aren’t aware of, one of which is the ability to remove duplicate values in columns. Let’s walk you through this process so you can more easily compare data sets between two or more columns within your spreadsheets.
Innovation is a driving force behind business, and it has been for essentially the entirety of human existence. The pandemic has brought about an era where businesses are producing solutions that have many new features, but these features don’t necessarily enhance or add anything to the customer experience. Let’s examine how this desire to stay profitable flies in the face of true innovation and doesn’t provide useful or practical products to consumers.
How seriously does your business take data backup and disaster recovery? You might not be able to predict the future or what might occur, but you can at least prepare for it to mitigate the damage it could potentially bring about. Today, we want to share some of the best practices you can implement to combat even the worst disaster scenarios your organization might encounter.
Businesses are rarely successful without the ones steering the ship having the ability to make great decisions. Whether it’s managing your workforce, supporting your customers, or procuring the right equipment to best facilitate productivity, good decision making will be at the heart of any organization’s success. Let’s examine how you can make better decisions as they pertain to your technology solutions.
Businesses must often store documents for the purposes of compliance, but anyone who has managed a document storage system that uses physical documents, like filing cabinets or otherwise, knows that it can get a little complicated and messy. Technology offers better alternatives that make things easier, efficient, and most important of all, more secure.
Productivity is at the heart of running a successful business, but it’s not always apparent to employees how their effort translates into value for the company. Is there a way to use technology to help fuel productivity and ensure employees understand the value that their productivity provides to your organization? The right tools can eliminate barriers to productivity and allow your employees to reach their full potential.
Businesses that utilize technology often try to make it last as long as possible to avoid the costs of overhauling their entire infrastructure. This can cause a lot of damage in the long term, though, especially if this practice leads to keeping technology longer than necessary. Let’s examine some of the variables that go into technology refreshes and how you can know when it’s time to do so.
Cyberattacks have caused many millions of dollars worth of damage to businesses over the past several years, so it makes sense that your business should invest in its cybersecurity to mitigate these damages. That said, there is only so much you can invest into your cybersecurity budget, as you have to factor in other parts of your business, too. Today, we want to share with you three ways you can invest in cybersecurity initiatives that won’t completely break your bank.
How many devices or points of access do you have for your business’ data infrastructure? Chances are it’s more than you think, at least at first glance. If you count up all the mobile devices, server units, workstations, laptops, and so on that have access to your network, you might suddenly realize how important it is to secure all of these endpoints, as any unsecured device could be a path forward for hackers.
Cybersecurity is something that must be reinforced both in the office and out of the office for your remote employees, and it’s unfortunately quite difficult to maintain. Let’s take a look at the unique circumstances surrounding the remote worker and how you should reinforce security best practices for them, even if they are not physically present in the workplace.
If your business is trying to limit costs, then printing should be one of the first things you look at. Paper documents have historically been important for businesses, but they take up a ton of space in the office and are incredibly difficult to regulate effectively. Let’s go over how you can decrease the resources you spend on printing and maximize efficiency elsewhere in your paper practices.