A quick disclaimer: some of these tips will require you to change some settings. If you are not comfortable doing so independently, make sure you ask an IT resource or give us a call for assistance. Keep Tabs on Your Browser Tabs with Tab Groups Most people will keep multiple browser tabs open to make it easier to keep track of the information they need. However, this can get confusing when too many tabs are open. Enter Google Chrome?s tab groups. These allow you to collect tabs into groups to condense them into a more manageable toolbar. That way, the pages you need will be more accessible to you. To start a new group, right-click on a tab and select the option to Add tab to new group. Once a group is created, you can add new tabs to it by right-clicking the tab you want to add and selecting Add tab to group. Removing a tab is as simple as right-clicking a grouped tab and selecting Remove from group. Open Certain Web Pages when Chrome Starts We all have a few websites that we routinely go back to throughout the workday, oftentimes opening them first thing and keeping them open throughout our time in the office. Whatever these websites happen to be, you can have Chrome open them upon startup, every time. Access Chrome?s Settings by clicking the triple-dot menu button, and from there, select You and Google. In the On startup section, select Open a specific page or set of pages and then Add a new page. For each page you want opened, paste or type in the URL of your desired startup websites and click Add. These can also be removed from the list. Alternatively, you can simply replicate what you want Chrome to open on startup and repeat the process, selecting Use current pages on the On startup page. Quickly Find Useful Websites I?m sure you?ve also found at least a few websites that deliver exactly what you?re looking for. Chrome can help you find others like it extremely easily. All you have to do is type related: in the address bar before the address of the website you find so helpful. Chrome will kick back a Google search of similar websites. Of course, if you?re looking for useful websites related to managed services, you?re already there. Then again, why stop at our website? Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 to find out how else we can make your business? IT management and maintenance far easier.
The numbers below are from a guide put together by Harbor Networks, and they illustrate just how much the average small business can save by switching to a hosted VoIP solution. The Capital Savings Are No Joke The most immediate savings come from the costs associated with VoIP compared to your traditional telecommunication solutions. A report by Telzio found that businesses saved up to 50% on monthly communication costs simply by switching to a VoIP service. This 50% was separate from the additional cost savings of performing annual maintenance on the telephone system. Furthermore, the startup costs associated with VoIP are practically nonexistent compared to your standard telephone system, and organizations with VoIP can cut costs associated with teleconferencing up to 30%. It is estimated that local calls can save businesses up to 40% compared to traditional telephone systems. Enhanced Productivity Leads to Additional Cost Savings While the COVID-19 pandemic forced many businesses to adopt a more flexible approach to remote work, there was an increasing trend prior which saw many employees working remotely at least part of the time. This led businesses to adopt VoIP in a certain capacity, and businesses that did so saw an increase in productivity. And you know what they say? when time is money, productivity transforms into cost savings. This increase in flexibility as a result of using VoIP saw a 20% rise in productivity and an average savings of an extra 40 minutes per work day, all of which can add up over the days, weeks, months, and even years. Hosting Alleviates the Challenges of VoIP One of the primary challenges that inevitably comes from implementing a solution like VoIP is who will be the one responsible for managing and maintaining it. Many small businesses are already stretching their resources thin, especially when it comes to IT, so what is the SMB to do when their budget is already stretched to the max? Well, hosted VoIP offers these companies a solution to their dilemma. Rather than having someone on-premises manage the VoIP solution, it makes sense for a managed service provider to host the server which houses your VoIP solution. This allows your business to focus instead on taking advantage of VoIP?s great features and maintaining productivity. In fact, only 14% of businesses without full-time IT staff have issues with VoIP, and it?s likely that MSPs like White Mountain IT Services have contributed to this number being so low with our accessible and affordable technology management services. Don?t wait to get started with a hosted VoIP solution from White Mountain IT Services. The sooner you implement these great tools for your business, the sooner you can start to reap the benefits of these cost savings. To find out more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.
Introduction to the Study The study in question, published in June of 2021 jointly by think tank Autonomy and Alda, the Association for Democracy and Sustainability, spanned a total of five years and specifically examined workers in Iceland. The trial was split into two parts: one conducted by the city of Reykjav?k and another conducted by the Icelandic government. Both trials involved employees working shorter hours during the work week. It is notable that employees who participated in these trials did not suffer from a reduced salary as a result of working fewer hours during the work week. Employees participating in the program typically worked 35 or 36 hours per week, while the control group worked the typical 40 hours expected of most positions. In the end, the study involved around 2,500 employees from over 100 offices. In both cases, the studies hoped to find out whether or not shortened work hours could address poor work-life balance and improve productivity. Let?s take a look at the results! The Results The results of these studies are quite promising and indicative that a shorter work week has several benefits for employees. According to the study, the results of the trials show that the reductions in working hours maintained or increased productivity and service provision? and ?Improved workers? wellbeing and work-life balance.? The report examines the following: How effectively work time was reduced How service provision and productivity were affected Whether improvements in workers? wellbeing and work-life balance took place One of the big reasons why a shortened workday is such a concern for some is that it could unintentionally lead to overwork as a result of having fewer hours to accomplish tasks, but this was generally not the case with the anecdotal evidence offered by the study. In general, employees found that they were more likely to effectively organize themselves and their work processes as a result of the shorter workday. Even managers were able to work shorter workdays! As for service provision, the idea was to look for if shorter work hours had an impact on the availability of goods and services. As evidenced by the study, ?On the whole, indicators of service provision and productivity either stayed within expected levels of variation, or rose during the period of the trial.? Finally, we get to wellbeing and work-life balance, the big one that a lot of employees think shorter work days might address. The indicators for this part of the study took place toward the tail end of the study, where stress levels and energy levels were measured. As for work-life balance, employees in the shorter work day group found that they had more time with their families and were less inclined to say no to overtime when it was needed and were less likely to take on a part-time job. Other benefits included easier-to-do errands, more balance in participation in home duties, more time for oneself, less stress at home, more exercise, and so many others. It is clear that work-life balance saw major improvements in participating employees. What are your thoughts on this study? Do you think it might benefit your office to shorten the number of hours worked by your employees? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
Hard Disk Drives When most people think of hard drives, this is the type of component they are thinking of. They are mechanical devices that feature platters that spin at high rates of speed. Since they feature these moving parts, they are more prone to failure than solid state drives, but they do have benefits inside business hardware. HDDs are sometimes less expensive when you need to store a lot of data, especially when we?re talking about multiple terabytes. This allows businesses to get more bang for their proverbial buck as the price per gigabyte can be substantially lower than that of their faster counterpart. As mentioned though, these drives tend to have a limited lifespan and will fail eventually. That might be a year or a decade, but the mechanical nature really limits how long a hard-working HDD will last. Solid State Drives Solid state drives don?t feature any moving parts, as their makeup is wholly digital. This not only makes them faster to read and write data, but the lack of moving parts substantially reduces failure, making them more reliable than HDDs. Early on with SSD technology, there were problems with how much use an SSD could endure before failing, but modern SSD drives are designed to be workhorses?fast, reliable, and stable. They are available with large storage capacities, but the higher end does start to get expensive. Even with prices dropping you can expect to pay more money for an SSD than you would for an HDD with similar storage capacities on the higher end. Which Hard Drive Makes Sense for My Needs? Ultimately, deciding what kind of hard drive to put in your workstation will depend on what you need the computer for. If you are purchasing workstations for your company, you usually want to stick with solid state drives because they are faster, and you don?t tend to need a lot of storage on the workstation itself since you should be storing most of your data on the server. In fact, one of the most reliable ways to speed up an older workstation is to swap out the older HDD and replace it with a new SSD. That tends to make the PC feel brand new again. At White Mountain IT Services, we work with companies of all types to get them the technology they need to function in the most efficient manner possible. If you would like to talk to one of our IT experts about getting the right hardware in place for your company?s needs, give us a call today at (603) 889-0800.
Disasters can be generally defined as any situation where your business suffers from an event that disrupts operations in an impactful way. Some of the following examples of disasters might not be the first ones you think of, but they are important to prepare for all the same. Natural Disasters Nobody likes to think about a flood or a hurricane wiping out your business? infrastructure, but depending on your location, it is a possibility that must be seriously entertained. No matter where you are in the world, chances are that you are susceptible to at least some type of natural disaster, be it a fire, electrical storm, or snowstorm. Make sure you do your research and plan for the worst. Hardware Failures Technology does not last forever, so you cannot expect it to. Depending on the age of your hardware and the amount of maintenance you administer to it, you might find yourself more susceptible to hardware failure than you might think. Thankfully, hardware failure can be predicted somewhat thanks to remote monitoring and maintenance tools, but it is still something that must be considered for any disaster planning scenario. User Error People make mistakes, and the simple fact of the matter is that these mistakes can often have disastrous consequences. Imagine someone deleting Windows registry files or other important operating system files, or accidentally leaking credentials to hackers due to a phishing attack. These things happen, so be prepared to train your employees on how to adequately respond to such issues. The important thing is that they don?t sweep these issues under the rug; make it clear that you expect them to own up to mistakes, and instead of punishing them for being human, respond by helping them become better as a result of it. Hacking Attacks You see the headlines every day: ?New Ransomware Strikes So-and-So,? or ?Millions of Records Leaked in Massive Cyberattack.? These things happen, even to small businesses like yours. The best thing you can do is be prepared for them with proper network security solutions. In the case of ransomware in particular you want to have a contingency plan in place, as these threats lock down files and essentially shut down operations until the ransom is paid. Sometimes threats can just straight-up destroy or corrupt data, too, meaning that you are really stuck if you don?t have a plan in place. Get Started with Data Backup and Disaster Recovery One thing you might notice about all of the above is that they can generally be prepared for with enough proactive thought. If you find your business is underprepared for any of the above, a great way to cover all of your bases is to implement a data backup and disaster recovery solution from White Mountain IT Services. Our solution, called a backup and disaster recovery tool, or BDR, is designed to minimize downtime and expedite the recovery process in the event of any disaster, natural or otherwise. To learn more, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.
