Business Solutions & Software Group Blog

September was Disaster Preparedness Month; a time to seriously consider where your business stands if a disaster were to strike. What would be considered a disaster? That depends on your situation, but if something were to happen to your business, are you prepared to continue operations quickly? What solutions have you implemented to protect business continuity if something unfortunate were to happen to your organization?

Many business executives are skeptical about employing millennials, particularly because of misconceptions that they’re unwilling to work hard and have no manners. However, just like many individuals out there, these thoughts aren’t necessarily founded, and some business owners are finding it particularly fruitful to hire millennials. The reason? They have a knack for working with technology.

In the wake of a ransomware takeover, it seems like the world can’t go a few months without some sort of data loss disaster occurring. The antics of hackers grow more dangerous and difficult to dodge, and IT departments have their hands full dealing with the fallout. What’s keeping you from contracting this ransomware, and how can you keep your business from suffering its consequences?

For a business to prosper, there has to be more than a casual consideration of the expense report. Most businesses do their budget yearly, but some smaller organizations have gone to a three-month (or quarterly) budget to improve their ability to be more agile with their capital. There are times, however, where no matter what you seem to do, expenses outfox profits and your company has to take a hard look at what they are going to do to right the ship.

It’s been a few years since the mobile industry embraced the fourth generation of wireless communication. Tabbed “4G”, it has been the accepted communications platform for devices since 2010. While it’s important to understand where we are, it’s equally important, especially regarding technology, to see where we’re headed. Due to the immense demand these networks have on 4G, is there a chance that we will see an upgrade of this system soon? Analysts say it’s not likely.

The advantage of managed IT service is that it allows businesses to secure the IT support they need, without having to take on the responsibility and expense of managing these services. When coupled with the development and deployment of computing resources, it becomes clear that outsourcing IT is the smart way to go for small to medium-sized businesses looking to do more for less.

Wouldn’t it be nice to boost your WiFi signal and access it from anywhere in and around your office? Sometimes the solution is purchasing a new, more powerful router, but you might be able to get more out of your existing device by improving the placement of it.

The newly-released Windows 10 operating system has been well received by the tech community. Yet, no OS is perfect and you shouldn’t blindly upgrade just because you’ve heard good things about it. Before upgrading to Windows 10, be sure to take into consideration these four shortcomings.

What if you can have one employee who’s dedicated to receiving calls and answering tech support questions from the rest of your staff? Essentially, someone having this role would be like a help desk for your business. If you don’t think you can afford filling in a seat like this, consider how much time/money a move like this would save you if employees didn’t have to waste time seeking out needed information.

One nail-biting aspect about email is that you’re never sure if the person you sent your message to has actually opened it and read it. This is especially the case if it’s an important message. When you don’t hear back as quickly as you’d like, you then begin to doubt if the message was ever even received, which could lead to unnecessarily contacting them by different means. This only looks desperate. To calm your nerves, there’s an extension for Chrome that tracks details like this for Gmail.

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.

In July, IBM announced the development of a computer chip that’s four times more powerful than anything currently on the market. As cool as this news is, what makes it extra exciting is the fact that it’s an ultra-dense chip. Developments like this will be the driving force behind the advancement of computing, well into the next decade and beyond.

Who is Cortana? Windows 10 users all over the world are finding this out as they turn to Microsoft’s newest personal assistant with their important questions. One thing we know for sure about Cortana is that she can do a lot more than just search Bing. Here are six useful things you can have Cortana do for you.

Modern society has become fully reliant upon technology. While technology has certainly done much to improve just about every facet of our lives, it also leaves us quite vulnerable to a scenario where we abruptly lose it. What would a worst-case scenario like this actually look like?

Do you know anyone affected by recent ransomware activity? The tragedy of Cryptolocker/Cryptowall, where files are locked down and returned in exchange for a ransom fee, might still be fresh in your minds. Well, the FBI warns that the end of cyber extortion is still far off, and that the next hacking technique that will be used is likely the DDoS attack.

One of the greatest parts of the Internet is how easy it is to search for new information on a particular subject you’re unfamiliar with. Usually this is done by utilizing a search engine like Google, but the search giant’s web browser, Google Chrome, makes this way easier by providing built-in search functions into the browser, including a super-simple drag and drop search function.

Following in the iPhone’s footsteps, it’s been confirmed that Samsung mobile devices will no longer feature the removable battery and MicroSD card slots that differentiated them from its competition. While it’s not clear if this change will affect sales figures, it will probably be a while before Samsung users understand that their phones no longer feature removable batteries, which could lead to some potentially messy lawsuits.

Cloud computing has reached a point where the majority of businesses are utilizing the technology to some extent. According to a 2014 survey, about 70 percent of enterprises either have infrastructure or applications in the cloud. As more companies migrate more of their operations to the cloud, we’re getting more questions about what it takes to make such a transition possible.

With hackers having their way with seemingly-impregnable organizations (like the IRS and Sony Entertainment), companies are investing more into network security. Thankfully, a simple solution like multi-factor authentication presents an easy (and often free) way to dramatically improve security. More applications are making multi-factor authentication available to its users, like Office 365.

Hackers are always looking to take advantage of the latest technology in new and unexpected ways. The Internet of Things is making their job way easier by providing a plethora of Internet-connected devices. Among these devices is the automobile entertainment system, and, you guessed it; hackers can take control of that, too, if given the right circumstances.