Your business runs on its data, and without an infrastructure to support your operations, your productivity will be dead in the water. Most businesses choose to host their data on servers, and if you know anything about these complex pieces of machinery, you know that managing and maintaining them can be an involved process. Let’s go over some best practices to ensure you manage your server infrastructure appropriately.
Managers and employees might work for the same company, but the reality is that their responsibilities and experiences are two very different things. When you promote someone new to management, or if you join their ranks for yourself, you’ll have to keep certain practices in mind. Let’s go over some of these practices and how IT can ease some of the burden.
When a workforce can sustain high levels of productivity, the business they work for tends to grow fairly rapidly. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of reasons why your staff's productivity wanes; and, yes, some of them are your fault. One element that you may not have put too much stock into is the fact that people tend to be more productive when they are comfortable.
With so many employees working outside the confines of the office environment, communication solutions are more important now than they have ever been. While you might be used to your traditional telephone infrastructure, we’re sorry to say that it’s simply not going to cut it any longer. We recommend you make the shift to VoIP, or Voice over IP, as soon as possible.
Global supply chain shortages have been affecting businesses of all types for the better part of two years. For businesses that deal in computing, this problem has seen a jump in the price of some computer components, an inability to get some, and overall an interruption in their ability to supply the insatiable demand for technology. Today, we’d thought we’d take a look at some of the variables that have led us to the situation we now face.
When budgeting capital for your company’s technology, it isn’t always simple to know how much to allocate. In fact, a lot of times it can be a convoluted and troublesome experience. Our consultants spend quite a bit of time and effort working out workable budgets for our clients and today, we thought we would talk about how we come about our figures to comprehensively support a business’ technology.
There is a lot to say about having the right IT, but at some point, you have to ask if you are receiving diminishing returns on your investments. Implementing too much technology can be a very real problem, especially in terms of the software you choose to implement. Let’s take a look at some of the warning signs and see what you can do about them.
Employees come and go in the business world, so you should be prepared to handle this turnover when it happens. If your company does not have an adequate response to employee turnover, you could potentially put your business at risk. Here are three ways that you can make sure former employees cause you the least amount of worry, especially in regards to staffing and cybersecurity.
Modern businesses need to take advantage of every opportunity they can get in today’s crowded marketplace, almost regardless of the industry they work in. One great way to gain an advantage is to put technology in place that can significantly enhance how your business works, inside and out.
The pandemic placed a heavy emphasis on the capabilities for organizations to shift to remote operations, and if you were one of the many companies to seek additional equipment and hardware to make this happen, you might have noticed a lack of product out there. The global chip shortage has made it difficult for companies to procure new equipment, but there is another darker side to this story, particularly in regards to issues in the supply chain.
Technology supply chains have been world-renowned for being some of the most dynamic and strongest for over a decade. Currently, companies are having problems procuring computers and networking equipment because of a global shortage of computer chips. Let’s take a look at the issue in today’s blog.
When the pandemic hit early in 2020, many business owners didn’t understand the situation they were about to face. Many businesses didn’t have the technology in place to support remote work, and the ones that did likely had employees that weren’t prepared for the responsibilities that come with working from home. Now, as millions of people are getting vaccinated and governments are slowly lifting restrictions, the question becomes: What now?
Revenue generation is the name of the game for every business and sometimes technology is looked on as more of a hindrance to profitability than a tool to cultivate it. To turn this notion around, a business needs to make strategic investments that will return some type of benefit, whether that be the availability of alternate revenue streams, a boost in productivity, improved collaboration, and more. Today, let’s take a look at some ways that businesses can invest in their IT and improve their profitability as a result.
We’re right in the middle of tax season and accountants are having to manage potential attacks on their data. Since people depend on your organization to keep their most sensitive information secure, having an effective strategy to protect that information is extremely important. As an IT service provider, we have solutions to help accountants handle this issue. Let’s take a look.
There is no denying that, as far as Christmas days go, 2020’s is much different than most of us are used to. Instead of visiting with family and friends, most of us are remaining at home and awaiting the normalcy that a vaccine to COVID-19 will bring. With that normalcy, we also anticipate a return to something like typical business operations.
2020 is finally coming to a close. It has been an extraordinarily long year for most small businesses. Even if yours hasn’t seen a lot of the financial problems that thousands of businesses are seeing, you've definitely had to make some major adjustments that often come with additional cost. Through it all, one part of your business has been a rock, your people.
COVID-19 is still a factor that businesses need to consider, especially in terms of their continued operations. With major adjustments required to stay open, many small and medium-sized businesses will need to accept the situation their business is in and implement changes. Fortunately, research that Salesforce summarized in their fourth Small & Medium Business Trends Report suggests that this is happening.
As so many businesses have had to close their doors recently, remote work has become a very popular option. Unfortunately, this sudden shift has not been without negative side-effects. One such byproduct of this shift has been a serious overworking problem. This is a big problem, and one that you need to address if it has presented itself in your operations.
A great many businesses nowadays have discovered the benefits of using the solutions available through improvements to the technology that has been around for decades - just not in its current form. One prime example is the use of Voice over Internet Protocol to fulfill a business’ telephony needs. By its nature, VoIP offers a variety of useful features - which we’ll review in part here.
2020 is just a week old, and as a technology company, we are proud to promote the use of technology. To celebrate 2020, we thought it would be interesting to take a look at just how far technology has come in the past 50 years.
You always read about the multitude of ways you can improve your business, but next to zero of them talk about what amounts to the elephant in the room: your staff. The workforce is a massive expense for most businesses; and, if it isn’t, it’s likely because you do a lot of things yourself. So, knowing that it becomes important to understand the financials around the people you have working for you. Basically, each worker has a number, and if you are getting that number out of their efforts, interfering with their work dynamic (to try to get more out of them) may actually have the opposite effect.
Businesses rely on a lot of different software solutions to complete their processes. Many are based on a given business’ industry, but there are a few types that every business should involve in their operations. Let’s review what they are, and how they can be beneficial to you.
Let’s run through a quick scenario: your company’s computing infrastructure is infected with ransomware. Fortunately, you have an offsite backup, so you are able to restore your systems without too much trouble, other than the time you’ve lost. As you investigate the root cause, you discover that one of your employees allowed the ransomware in by falling for a phishing email. So, do you fire them?
Productivity is something that either happens or it doesn’t, but it’s important to keep in mind that nobody can work at optimal efficiency at all times. This doesn’t mean you can’t leverage some best practices to make better use of your time, though. Today we’ll examine three general ways to improve your productivity, including examples of how to make them happen.
Have you ever heard of the term “bias?” It has a negative connotation to it, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. A bias can predispose you to a skewed consideration or thought when met with what is known to be a seemingly neutral stimuli. In some cases, they can cause more harm than good, which is why it’s a good thing to take another look at how you approach certain situations. Researchers have discovered several trends about why we hold certain biases, as well as how we can overcome them.
Your signature has a lot of power, particularly in the business world. Because of this, it’s curious to see how so many companies are moving over to the more digital alternative. In order to fully take advantage of digital signatures for your organization, you need comprehensive security measures that can reinforce the authenticity of your signatures.
The primary reason that businesses are opened is to make money. Whether it’s to sustain a lifestyle, provide funds for a cause, or some other goal, a business needs an incoming cash flow in order to stay open. However, this is a fairly large problem for many small businesses, as their invoices often don’t return in a timely manner.
Your business’s IT strategy is of incredible importance, especially when you consider how much your operations stand to benefit from a functional infrastructure. More than anything, though, IT can ensure that your business remains competitive in a world where the slightest advantage can mean all the difference.
As a business owner, how do you handle employee complacency? A feeling of complacency among your employees can come from many sources, including an apparent inability of advancement. People want to develop professionally, so they’ll look elsewhere if they feel like their current job doesn’t allow for growth. How can you eliminate employee turnover due to a complacent and unchallenged workforce?
Email may be crucial to the functionality of your business, but at times it can seem like your inbox is far beyond your control. You might find yourself throwing away hours on end just to clean up the pile of unread messages in your inbox. Thankfully, with a bit of effort, you too can free yourself from an overburdened inbox.
Big data continues to be a big topic for businesses, as organizations stand to gain much from analyzing data and identifying trends. This can help you understand how your business will function in the future, but there are two topics of concern that you need to consider before using the data: how exactly do you want to use the data, and will the data that you’ve collected help you in achieving that goal?
As a business owner, we understand that you’re an exceptionally busy individual. Even when you’re not keeping operations moving forward, you have other important matters to attend to, like your real life. However, science has (almost) proven that there’s one activity that you may (or may not) do that can inadvertently improve the way you do business: read literary fiction.
If we asked you to tell us how many hours a day you actually work, what would the figure look like? Chances are that you as a business owner put in a little more than the average worker, but would it total over the requisite eight hours? A recent study shows that while eight hours of work 200 years ago was considered revolutionary, it might be a bit on the long side to expect good work from good employees.
Tracking metrics is a major part of today’s business world. Many organizations use time-tracking software and other KPIs to ensure that their team is working at maximum efficiency, all day every day. Yet, some organizations are so bent on doing so that they’ve forgotten to ask the question of whether they should be doing all of this.
Even though taking a break from work seems like something that everybody would want to do, many cogs in the corporate machine choose to forgo breaks in the name of productivity. Oddly enough, this is a counterproductive move, seeing as taking breaks actually makes you more productive by improving your job performance.
The appeal of a do-it-yourself project is that you’re the one doing the work. With the Do It Yourself (DIY) approach, whatever it is you're working on, you know for sure that it’s getting the attention it deserves. This is why it can be rather unnerving to have someone who you don’t fully know or trust work on your stuff. This is especially the case when it comes to your company’s technology.
We talk about the cloud and how it changes the way that businesses approach their technology solutions a lot, and for a good reason. It’s become so commonplace in the business environment that you’d be hard-pressed to find any organization that doesn’t take advantage of cloud computing in some form or another. In a competitive industry, the small business needs all of the help it can get, and the cloud delivers.
Naturally, businesses put a lot of time, energy, and resources into growing their sales figures and bottom line. All of that is great, but if business owners don’t also plan for how success is going to add new pressures and challenges to their IT infrastructure, then a lot of time will be wasted reacting to growth-related network issues. Scenarios like this can be easily avoided by planning your network to grow alongside your company.
When you’re shopping around for new technology for your business, you’ll encounter all kinds of solutions that are designed for different business models. As a small business owner, you probably wonder why some vendors label their solutions as “enterprise-level.” Well, we’re here to explain that.
Fun is often misconstrued in the workplace and identified as being unproductive, or even lazy at times. However, more businesses than ever before are embracing the power of fun and letting the creative juices flow. Using game-like elements to achieve your business’s goals, or to improve operations, is called gamification, and you can take advantage of it.
The Internet has given modern businesses the ability to grow like never before. On the flip side of the coin, the Internet can quickly bring down a business if a dissatisfied customer chooses to broadcast their negative experience and opinions. Therefore, it’s essential to take customer service seriously.
Whether you’re presenting at a trade show, webinar, conference, or giving a sales demonstration, giving a solid presentation is a crucial skill to master and add to your strategies. However, if you are part of the 74 percent of people who suffer from speech anxiety (glossophobia), these opportunities may seem incredibly daunting. With some solid preparation before your presentation and a few tricks to master while giving one, any professional can master the art of public speaking.
Not all new operating systems released are popular. A few examples from Microsoft’s past include Windows Vista and Windows 8. The reasons why they don’t take off vary, but the end result is the same; less users overall than other Windows operating systems. With Windows 10 on the horizon, one has to wonder if it will have a profound effect on the business world.
ClearView IT presents to you, “Real Men of Brilliance.” Today, we salute you, Mr. Do-It-Yourself Entrepreneur.
We live in an age where we are trying to get the most out of our employees, but sometimes it can be difficult to keep up the hard work all day. Productivity applications and software can only go so far when your team is exhausted. Sometimes you might wish you could be back in the good old days of elementary school when naptime was a thing. So, why not give it a try in the workplace?
If a company neglects network security, they’ll quickly find their network inundated with threats. However, if you fail to protect your business from internal problems as well, you might have a whole other monster on your hands. Some businesses have encountered this problem when employees access certain documents and then accidentally misplace or delete them, causing damage that your organization was not particularly prepared for.
Business is booming, and you are busier than ever. Your company is expanding at a crazy rate. But, what if something were to happen to you? Would your company be able to carry on in your stead, or would it crash to the ground in a blaze of glorious defeat?
“It’s as if a thousand stores cried out in terror.” This was the case February when RadioShack filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced plans to sell between 1,500 and 2,400 of its stores. For anybody with an affinity for technology, this announcement is sad news. Let’s honor the passing of an American institution by taking a look back at the Shack.
As a business owner, you know that the key to the path of your success is in the relationships that you forge along the way. These same relationships can be just the boost you need to get the edge on your competitors and knock them out of the game. It all comes down to your communication with the your surrounding community.
It’s always important to know about what you’re investing in before you take the leap of faith. In the world of business and managed IT, we understand that jargon and abbreviations can potentially kill a sale. This is what we call “geekspeak,” and while it’s generally avoided as much as possible, it can cause some business owners’ eyes to glaze over and zone out.
