Business Solutions & Software Group Blog

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.

Thanks to modern office technology, traditional office barriers that held businesses back are being brought down. With the right technology solutions, workers can work at any time from any location. This has led many employers to consider hiring remote workers due to the ability to bypass the restraints of geographical locations. Yet, just because you can hire anyone for a remote position doesn’t mean that you should.

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.

Every business has hardware, like workstations, servers, and other devices, that are critical to its operational efficiency. However, managing your hardware can be tricky, especially if you’re a small or medium-sized business that has limited time and resources. If your business doesn’t have a process put in to place to handle hardware inventory and deployment, perhaps it’s time that you consider implementing one.

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.

As a business owner, there are naturally a few things you would prefer your employees not to be able to do on your workstations - least of all cost you a pretty penny in charges as well as in memory space. Taking this into consideration, it is no wonder that an employer would prefer to have access to the Windows Store removed from employee workstations.

Business owners that regard employee engagement as an unimportant aspect of managing a business are sorely mistaken. There are few things more crucial to the success of a business than keeping employees happy and fulfilled. Yet, even if businesses have only the best intentions and want to improve employee engagement, few actually manage to do so.

Publishers have long provided authors with outlets to share their work. However, just like many other industries, technology has changed publishing over the years. Is this a positive change, and are there lessons that the modern business owner can learn from this shift in the way technology is handled and managed?

Every business has crucial IT systems that are imperative to its continued functionality. Usually these systems are maintained by an internal IT department, but many small businesses don’t have this luxury. Therefore, they have traditionally relied on break-fix IT companies to handle their technology problems when they hinder operations.

Upgrading to a new operating system is a challenge that many businesses face, especially in light of several prominent older systems reaching their end-of-support date in recent times. For example, Windows XP reached its end of support date just a few years ago, and this past January, Microsoft pulled the plug on Windows 8. While unsupported software is certainly a problem, why does a business ultimately choose to upgrade away from their current OS?

Businesses are trying to cut costs wherever possible, but the cost of printing isn’t always the most obvious first choice. Businesses consume exorbitant amounts of paper and ink every year, and these resources cost a significant amount of money that could be better spent elsewhere. Thankfully, there are a ton of great solutions that can virtually eliminate the costs of unnecessary printing.

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.

It’s been over a year and a half since Microsoft gave up support on its extremely popular operating system, Windows XP. Without the necessary patches and security updates, Windows XP becomes a hazardous system to run for average users and business professionals. Now, things are about to get worse as Google cuts support for its popular web browser, Google Chrome, for Windows XP and several other older operating systems.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Imagine getting back on the plane home and remembering that you have to go back to work in less than twelve hours. It might feel draining and just plain awful, but you might be relieved to know you’re not alone. Returning from a vacation doesn’t have to be as painful as it sounds. In fact, it can be easy if you approach it the right way.

We’re counting down the days until the release of Windows 10 on July 29th. The Microsoft hype train is in full gear and the world has high expectations for the new OS. This begs the question, “Should your business upgrade to Windows 10 as soon as possible?”

With each new generation comes a new group of workers, and attracting good, quality help can be difficult. Even if you can find good help, it can be a challenge to keep. A study at Cornell University has proven that workplace flexibility can greatly improve the odds of finding good employees - and keeping them around.