Business Solutions & Software Group Blog

After a decade of use, many PC users have grown pretty used to working with Windows 10… as one would expect after 10 years of consistency. However, everyone—business users in particular—needs to upgrade to the next iteration, Windows 11, as soon as possible.

Why? There’s one simple reason…

AI is popping up everywhere these days, and one place you've probably noticed it is at the top of Google search results. Google's AI-generated answers can sometimes be helpful, but they can also be misleading or just plain wrong, depending on where the info comes from. If you'd rather not deal with them, there are actually a few ways to turn them off.

What would you do if you ever lost your phone—or worse, it was stolen? Mobile devices play an important role in most modern-day workplaces, so you’d probably be in for a rough go of it. Data loss, privacy, and security are all risks when you lose access to a mobile device, and often the only way to address these issues is to simply wipe the device and hope for the best… until now, that is.

We understand that Windows, while standard in most businesses, isn’t always the operating system of choice for personal users. With many schools supplying Chromebooks and Macs to students, the number of young users unfamiliar with Windows will likely rise as time passes.

Regardless of your preference regarding personal devices, becoming as familiar as possible with what is available in your professional life is always best. It also never hurts to review these things, even if you’ve used Windows before. A lot has changed, and you may learn something new!

So, if you’re an Apple user and find yourself using Windows in the workplace, consider this your guided tour of how to use Microsoft’s longstanding operating system.

If you think cybercrime doesn’t affect you or your business, think again. It’s more real a threat than you probably realize, especially with how common data theft is these days. Today, we want to highlight some of the ways that data theft can affect you, even if your data hasn’t necessarily been stolen.

No business ever wants to suffer a data loss disaster, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not coming for you at some point during your operations. You have to be careful and take calculated steps to minimize the impact of such an incident. In particular, you want to avoid losing these three types of data, for it could make recovery all but impossible if you don’t.

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.

Communications are a crucial part of every business, and today there are more options than ever. You have your telephone, email, messaging, and other forms of communication that, while valuable in their own right, may actually serve to complicate processes. In today’s blog, we briefly discuss the different parts of a business communications platform. 

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.

Whether you like it or not, 2025 could be a rough year, and not for the reasons you suspect. Businesses like yours might have a hard time with hardware acquisition, among other issues forecast by industry professionals. Today, we want to address some of the most significant issues on every industry insider’s mind.

Net neutrality has been a hotly debated issue for years, with regulations frequently changing based on political shifts. Recently, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) latest net neutrality policy, setting progress back significantly.

For years, the telephone has been one of the most tried-and-true business communications solutions, and that trend will continue into 2025. If you’re still using the phone solutions of the past, however, you’ve got some upgrading to do. Here’s what you need to know about the best communications investment you can make: Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP.

Have you looked at the forecast lately? Not the weather forecast… the market forecast. You know, the one that shows that proposed tariffs could impact the market—including hardware costs—as early as February 2025.

You know what that means: it’s time to upgrade or purchase new hardware today before the price hikes make it impossible.

This year, we’re making a resolution to help more businesses than ever, and part of that is ensuring they have access to the best technology solutions around. If you aren’t satisfied with your current phone infrastructure, we have some good news for you. You don’t have to rely on traditional telephone systems, and there is a better alternative out there in Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

Have you ever noticed how expensive tech stuff can get? Well, businesses feel the same way, especially when prices are going up fast. That’s why many companies are turning to the cloud. It’s like a virtual space where they can store and run everything they need—without buying a bunch of pricy equipment. Let’s see how SMBs can use the cloud to save money. 

Smart gadgets are everywhere these days—video doorbells, voice assistants, and even things like floss dispensers and breast pumps. While these devices are all very different, they usually share one big issue.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is worried because many smart devices don’t tell you when they need updates—or worse, don’t offer updates at all.

Keeping your business technology running can sometimes feel like being on a treadmill—you work hard to keep things moving, but eventually, something breaks, and you’re forced to fix or replace it. You should try a technology needs assessment to avoid surprises and stay ahead. This process can help you figure out what’s working, what’s not, and how to plan for the future.

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.

There are all types of threats on the Internet, but one of the most interesting that has been in the news recently is the SS7 attacks that have the U.S. Department of Homeland Security scrambling to find a solution. In today’s blog, we’ll go through how an SS7 attack works and why they can be so dangerous. 

Legacy systems can be a tough nut to crack. On the one hand, they may be absolutely essential to your business operations. Still, on the other hand, these essential tools may keep you from reaching new heights… particularly if they are never updated.

While such updates are usually far from straightforward for a layperson, a business with access to IT professionals like us doesn’t have much to worry about.