Category Archives: blog

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a lot of businesses to rethink their spending strategies, and one side-effect from making cuts to your operational budget is having to deal with your vendor representatives more frequently. Today, we’ll talk about how a vendor management service can not only help you manage your supply chain, but also mitigate the headaches caused by aggressive vendor reps.  

Collaboration has always played a critical role in a business’ success, which is one of the biggest benefits that the cloud offers. Since cloud technology has suddenly become even more important for a business–especially in terms of business connectivity as more people are displaced from the office by the COVID-19 pandemic–we felt that it was an appropriate time to address just how many different kinds of communication tools are available through the cloud.

Most computer users have at least a passing familiarity with Portable Document Format files, better known as PDFs. As a tip, we’ll review how a PDF can be created, and even edited.

In normal circumstances, the virtual private network (VPN) is a great tool for people who work out of the office. With the COVID-19 outbreak pushing a lot of workers out of the office, the VPN has now become an essential part of a business’ day-to-day operations. Today, we’ll define the VPN and tell you why you’ll probably need a VPN designed for business use.

The COVID-19 outbreak has been a trying time for businesses and individuals, alike. Not much positive has come from it, as people, who typically band together in times of unease, are asked to stay away from each other. This has led to many people turning to their smartphones and Internet connections to communicate with the people they hold dear. With a national reliance on Internet connections there have been some new voices (and some familiar ones) advocating for the return of net neutrality. Today, we’ll remind you what net neutrality is and why this situation has people calling for a change. 

Most smartphone users like to get a new phone every year or two. This isn’t just because the hardware or software on newer devices are better, but because after two years, many people have dropped their devices a half dozen times and there are cracks and dings in the device. After two years most device’s batteries start to degrade. Some newer software isn’t compatible or won’t run on older devices. Whatever your reason is for getting a new smartphone, you should know that your old smartphone still has some value. For this week’s tip, we’ll outline some ways you can use your old mobile device:

There are many reasons that your team may want (or need) to work from home, and there are many reasons to allow them to do so. A 2019 survey by OwlLabs indicated that 71 percent of remote workers are happy with their job (as compared to 55 percent of on-site workers); remote workers responded that they are 13   percent more likely than onsite workers to stay in their current job for five more years than onsite workers will; and when respondents claimed to be working longer than 40 hours per week, onsite workers were doing so out of necessity, while remote workers did so out of desire and enjoyment.

It’s not uncommon where a situation arises and you will find yourself working from home. To make this work, it is important that you keep a few additional issues in mind so that you can make the most of it. We have put together a few simple best practices that you should keep in mind as you operate remotely.

In light of the coronavirus outbreak that swiftly swept across the globe, there have been efforts made by many telecommunications companies to make life easier for their customers. These customers are likely holed up at home, working remotely if possible. One way or another, they are going to want Internet access, and in a show of solidarity, numerous ISPs and cell carriers are delivering.

At this point, it’s hard to believe that anyone needs to be told that cybersecurity is important, but some organizations are still doing the bare minimum to protect their network and data. That can’t go on forever. Today, we thought we would discuss how to put together a cybersecurity policy that covers all the bases, and will give you the peace of mind that you are actively combating today’s most present threats to your network, infrastructure, and data. 

If you are a subscriber of this blog, you know that each week we create content that aims to educate people about the value of managed services and the growing importance of information technology. Today, we thought it would be useful to put together a glossary of some terms that we regularly use to ensure our readers understand what we are referencing. 

“Redundancy” isn’t typically viewed as a good thing, but when a disaster strikes, it can become a good thing very quickly to have a redundant copy of your data. March 31st is World Backup Day so let’s take a moment and examine why a certain amount of data redundancy is actually welcomed. 

Each day, the news surrounding the Coronavirus pandemic gets closer and closer to home, and with new restrictions being levied each day, businesses are some of the hardest hit organizations. Today, we will discuss how file sync and sharing platforms can help your business immensely as this situation plays out.

When it comes to protecting your business, cybersecurity is a huge consideration that must be kept in mind. However, it isn’t the only consideration. Some of the biggest threats to your business can actually come from your own team. Let’s go over the three kinds of insider threats that you need to be on your guard against, and how to avoid them.

Monitoring parts of your business is a good practice as it allows you to get out in front of any potential problem it may have. As IT is concerned, monitoring is a crucial part of ensuring that every part of your business’ computing infrastructure is working as intended. Today, we thought we’d discuss the tools used to monitor IT networks and infrastructure, and what effect that can have on your business.

The G Suite is clearly a project that Google is far from finished with, as they have consistently made improvements to the suite and its included software. Recently, a few were added that could very much benefit a business’ users. Let’s go over a selection of these updates, and the benefits you could see as a result.

There are a lot of security threats directed toward businesses today, with plenty of immoral opportunists seeking to profit at your expense. This makes it critical to secure your network and its data, which sounds like an expensive and time-consuming process. However, it doesn’t have to be, as we’ll show you by highlighting a few ways to protect your business and its assets.

Millions of people are still using the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system despite it being completely unsupported. When Microsoft pulled the plug on support for the OS in January, most industry professionals expected there to be some exploits found pretty rapidly. It turns out that the very first exploit was actually Microsoft’s fault, and that Windows 7 support had a little life in it after all. 

Not many people realize this, but the concept of video conferencing has been around for about as long as the telephone has been—shortly after he was awarded the patent for the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell was apparently working on a version that would also transmit pictures. Many years later, conferencing technology has finally reached the point where it is a very beneficial business tool. Let’s review a few of these benefits.

COVID-19, or coronavirus, has been a major global health concern over the past couple of months. At this point, it is clear that this disease could have serious impacts on the workplace. We wanted to provide a brief rundown of good workplace and network health practices, as well as a few pointers on how you can handle health-based employee absences.

It is an indisputable fact that the Google Play Store has a ridiculous number of applications for users to select from. It is also a fact that many of these applications should not be downloaded, and instead actively avoided. For this week’s tip, we’re giving a few examples of the kind of app you should steer clear of, and why.

Augmented reality (AR) has been talked about for what seems like ages. The technology, which overlays real time information over a displayed image, is seemingly advancing for retail use, but there have been several factors that have kept it from being as mainstream as it will be in the future. Let’s take a look at AR and how the efforts of some of the biggest tech companies in the world are aiming to push the technology to the limits. 

Over the past two decades, business technology was largely separated between information technology (IT)–that is, the business’ computers, networking equipment, and peripherals–and operational technology (OT): all other technology. As IT advanced, so has OT, which today presents many of the same risks that IT always has. Today, we will take a look at how to secure your business by focusing on where your IT meets your OT.

A slow network can be an infuriating problem under any circumstances, but in the business setting, not understanding its cause can potentially be devastating to operations. For this week’s tip, we’ll examine a few of the most common causes of this slowness, and some of the best ways to resolve the issue at hand.

The agility of a business to adjust to ebbs and flows in the market is extremely important. One way businesses are making this happen is by integrating their operational software with their management software. This tactic allows data to move faster, providing businesses with some very specific benefits. Let’s take a look at how integration works.