Imagine walking through your office and seeing an employee sitting at their desk, staring at their phone for 45 minutes while on the clock. You would step in and say something immediately, right?
Yet, this is exactly what happens every single day in small businesses across the country. It does not look like doing nothing, it looks like a spinning loading icon, a slow VPN connection, or a redundant data entry task.
One of the more frustrating parts of running a business with an IT budget is the rush to spend all those dollars before they get redistributed to other departments. This happens more often than you might think, yet despite this, you have businesses spending without thought, trying to use up the funds before they dry up. In reality, you want to have each of your IT purchases be an investment in the future of your business—an investment made with intention and thought.
For many business owners, choosing the right technology is a real challenge. You're faced with countless hardware and software options, each promising to revolutionize your business, often with a hefty price tag. It's a tough spot to be in: you want to empower your team and innovate, but it's hard to justify the cost of a new tool when it might not be worth the investment. At the same time, holding back can feel like you're stifling progress.
You want the money you invest into your business technology to come back in the form of productivity and value, but how often would you say this is true for your business? If the answer is “less than I’d like,” then you might need to reexamine your IT spending and adjust it in a way that makes a difference for your business’ needs and goals. Today, we’ll examine what your infrastructure is trying to tell you and how you can make better spending decisions to make the most of your budget.
Your IT infrastructure is just like your car; it’s easy to put off maintenance when everything is going well, but the second your dashboard lights up, you know your wallet is in for a hurtin’. You don’t need this kind of stress in your life—for both your car and your IT—and the solution is simpler than you might think.
Small businesses put a lot of effort into building their companies. Over the years, you’ve cultivated relationships with customers and vendors, built innovative new products and solutions, and collected vast amounts of data.
What would you do if it all of a sudden vanished—poof—into thin air?
Starting or running a business without buckets of cash is tough. Every dollar has to work hard, and tech decisions can feel overwhelming. Do you usually go with the cheapest thing? Do you think you have a choice? The good news is you don’t need deep pockets to make smart tech choices; you just need a strategy.
If you’re an entrepreneur trying to build your business without bleeding money, today’s blog will be a must-read.
Crises happen. Whether it’s a natural disaster, a cyberattack, or just plain human error, unexpected problems can throw your business off track. The best way to handle them? Be prepared. Let’s go over what a solid crisis plan looks like and how you can protect your business when things go sideways.
Downtime is a business killer, and if you’re not actively monitoring your network to keep it to a minimum, you’re doing yourself and your business a disservice. Downtime can be defined as any time when your organization is not operating as it’s supposed to, and it must be controlled at all costs. Otherwise, you’ll run into the following three issues that are difficult to deal with.
Water is often used as a cooling agent for hardware solutions, including gaming PCs, data centers, and other powerful hardware systems. A business can use similar cooling methods for its entire building. In fact, Microsoft wants to implement a similar style of cooling for its data centers.
In project management, there is a framework called the “iron triangle” that helps you balance the costs, time, and quality of your project’s outcome. While this term is most frequently used to showcase how each of these variables impact the others, it can also be helpful to illustrate why it’s helpful to have someone else work with your IT. You can strategically implement outsourced IT services to make maintaining this delicate balance between cost, time, and quality more palatable.
One of the most important decisions you’ll make for your business is how it manages communications. These days, you have advanced tools that can help you do more with less. Today, we’re covering one of those tools—Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)—and how you can leverage its powerful telephony capabilities to level up your business game.
Technology is important to almost every organization nowadays. Still, depending on their situation, they may run into problems acquiring the technology that truly allows them to get over the hump and be as efficient as they possibly can be. Let’s take a look at three ways you can stretch your IT budget.
Many years ago, the practice of repairing office equipment or household appliances that malfunctioned was a common and practical solution. However, over time, changes in business practices have largely eliminated this option. In recent years, the Right to Repair movement has emerged as a legitimate campaign aimed at advocating for legal protections to safeguard the rights of the modern tech-dependent public.
It’s more important than ever to know just how much your business currently spends (and should plan to spend) on cybersecurity, both of which can be addressed by understanding the goal of cybersecurity protections and how they affect your company’s defenses. Let’s consider how much you should spend on cybersecurity, as well as what protections that spending can afford.
Inflation continues to plague businesses in all sectors and industries, and it’s not letting up. This has led businesses to implement practices which allow them to get as much value out of their investments as possible, including technology. Let’s go over some of the ways you can achieve a responsible IT budget without breaking the bank in the process.
A major concern for your business is protecting the credit card data you collect from your customers and clients, but you also need to ensure that the company credit card you use to make purchases is secure. Here are some tips, tricks, and best practices you can use to keep this incredibly important asset safe and secure.
Despite most security professionals advocating against making ransomware payments, according to a study by Mimecast titled “The State of Ransomware Readiness,” the United States has the highest average payment for ransomware out of the entire world at more than $6 million per victim. This number is shockingly high, as is the amount of people who are still paying the ransom.
VoIP, the shortened form of Voice over Internet Protocol, can be considered the latest and greatest in telecommunication, a solution that is far superior to traditional landlines. Some businesses have embraced this technology with open arms, whereas others still cling to their landlines like their lives depend on it. At the end of the day, relying on your landline when a better solution exists is no different from throwing money away.
Businesses have long used telephony solutions of some sort, but the traditional landline is an archaic piece of technology in the modern office. You can take your organization to the next level with a more dynamic and flexible solution, one that has the same features without all of the headaches associated with traditional telephone systems. A Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solution can completely change your communications for the better.