The Current Situation The novel Coronavirus that has economies all over the world shrinking came at a time when most of them were expanding rapidly. Businesses were suddenly faced with some very difficult decisions to make. Some businesses were deemed essential and could continue to operate, but most were forced to either move their employees out of their workplace or shut operations down completely.  To try and keep from losing money, some of these businesses started exploring the capabilities of the tools they already had in place, finding that many of them could offer more automation. In fact, in the face of the virus, and the uncertainty surrounding it at this juncture, it isn?t a surprise that companies are innovating quicker than they probably would have if they weren?t faced with the COVID-19 situation.  The Future With the increased reliance on software-based automation, you are likely to see businesses begin to trust in technology more than they do today. At this point, if automation can offer alternatives to businesses struggling with their costs, it stands to reason that when the pandemic finally fades, that they won?t go back to spending money on parts of their business covered by this newfound automation. The truth is that some workers are going to be made expendable by this forced innovation. The shift was slowly inching along, but COVID-19 changed all that.  You have to decide whether or not you are going to jump at the opportunity that this situation has given you. Automation isn?t going to replace your workers, it will just change their jobs. If they don?t adapt, they don?t fit. The future of your business is tied to how efficient and streamlined it can be, and automation looks like it will give it the best opportunity to accomplish that.  Big changes are happening in business. Some sources say that automation will replace almost 60 percent of jobs in the next five years. It?s your choice. Call the IT consultants at White Mountain IT Services today at (603) 889-0800 for more information about automation and where it fits in your business.

Addicts in Plain Sight There is a stigma that comes along with being an addict. Whether a person is addicted to smoking cigarettes, having sex, or something much worse, the notion that they have lost the ability to moderate their behavior is a big deal, and carries with it serious problems.  Using a mobile phone can be an addictive behavior. The problem becomes, how can you tell smartphone addiction and what negative consequences does this addiction have? The normal person probably uses the smartphone more than is healthy, but people use it for work, to keep in contact with the people in their lives, to recreate, to read, or to interact with their digital community. If your smartphone is both a personal and a work hub, how can using it all the time be problematic? Telltale Signs of Smartphone Addiction Smartphone addiction is similar to drug addiction according to the DSM-5. Using the device releases dopamine creating a physical dependence on having the device at the ready. Some of the most prevalent symptoms include: Conscious use of smartphone in dangerous situations or when it is prohibited to use (driving, walking stairs) causes social conflict A loss of interest in other social or group activities Withdrawal, panic, and anxiety when smartphone isn?t in hand Lack of focus Social anxiety Relationship stress Eye pain Neck pain Insomnia Dependence on digital validation Smartphone Addiction?s Effects While it can be something as benign as not getting enough sleep, smartphone addiction can also have many negative effects on a person?s day-to-day wellbeing. Serious problems such as depression and anxiety can develop, even when the phone is nearby. One study suggests that people with smartphone addiction can have as much as a 270-percent higher-than-normal chance of developing depression. If you think that someone you love has a smartphone addiction, here are some things you can do to aid them:  Monitor usage – if you can, help them monitor their use of their phone.  Don?t use your phone for everything – Phones have very useful features, so substituting the things that a smartphone emulates can work. Things like an alarm clock or physical books can cut down on the dependence on the mobile device.  Turn off notifications – Most people have a steady flow of notifications that come in during the day. Turning off these notifications can go a long way toward getting someone?s mind off their device.  Do you know someone that could use some help controlling their use of their smartphone? Call our consultants at (603) 889-0800 today to find out more ways you can go about working around a smartphone addiction. 

Not all businesses can use the same type of technology, so while we were trying to make our list here we tried to limit it to technology that most businesses could take advantage of, and the addition of which would make a major difference in the way they can fuel productivity, security, and cost effectiveness.  #1 – Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) Protecting your business? assets has to be a priority. There is no better system to protect your data from data breach and data loss than the BDR. The BDR is a network-attached device that incrementally backs up your data as it changes. The BDR can be set to run backups as frequently as every 15 minutes, ensuring that any changes your teams may make are collected and protected from loss. What makes the BDR stand out, is that once the backup is taken, it is also saved in an offsite data center, far enough away from your business as to deliver the redundancy it needs. So while your data is backed up and protected onsite, if something were to happen to your place of business (and there are a lot of disasters that can strike), you know that your data is backed up and safe in the cloud.  #2 – Virtualized Environments A decade ago, this product would have been out of many small and mid-sized businesses’ price range. Today, it is the most effective way to save money on your business? IT spend. Many businesses will dedicate a server for a specific function. That function may not actually use up more than 25 or 30 percent of that server?s resources. Spending five or six figures on centralized computing hardware every five-to-seven years can really be problematic for a small or medium-sized business, but with virtualized environments, a single server can run several virtual machines (VM). Each VM can emulate a specific server, so that each server, outfitted with VM technology can actually serve multiple functions for your business. What?s better yet, that this technology can now be purchased in the cloud, further reducing your company?s upfront costs. If you are looking to get the technology needed to really compete, and do it without spending huge swaths of capital, hosted servers may be your best bet. #3 – Voice over Internet Protocol Every business leans heavily on their phone system. Today, reliable and feature-rich phone systems through a telecom provider will cost any business more than it should. VoIP is the alternative. Using your business? existing bandwidth, your business can have a telephone system with the reliability and features of a traditional phone system, with built-in conferencing, messaging, and mobile calling solutions for a fraction of the cost. VoIP platforms come in all shapes and sizes so you can find one that has the features and the costs that fit your business? specific profile.  Best yet, VoIP solutions have built-in security to help your business keep your communications from being intercepted and your business? operations interrupted. You might expect to pay a lot for your business? technology, but the IT experts at White Mountain IT Services can help you find solutions that work for your budget and for your business. Call us today at (603) 889-0800 to learn more about the IT you can use to get a leg up on your […]

There are many ways that data loss can take place. Malware can permanently delete your data, and ransomware can do the same (we aren?t even entertaining the notion that paying the ransom will return your data to you). Accidentally or intentionally, your end users could be the cause of data loss through deletion or overwriting data. Physical devices can be damaged and fail. When all is said and done, if your data is only stored in one place you will eventually lose it to some degree. Data Loss Does Considerable Damage At any scale, data loss can negatively impact your business and its operations. Consider what could happen if just one sales proposal was lost. If the salesperson who was working on it had no means of restoring it, they would have to go back and do it again. As a result, that?s time that could be spent on sales calls or even making more progress on the sale in question (lest you miss a deadline and lose the sale in its entirety). Now, what if it was more than just an individual file, what if it was an entire server hard drive? That could mean the loss of an entire database, years of client records and data, or months of planning and preparation for the future. In other words, your entire company would feel the impact of this one event. Going further, some data loss events (based on how much data was lost and what kind of data it was) legally require you to officially report them. This is particularly the case when a data breach is involved, but even that can lead to your data being damaged in some way. Any devices that are lost or stolen also need to be treated as data loss, with your business working to minimize the damage and make all the proper notifications. Preventing Data Loss By now, it should be obvious that data loss is something to avoid, as its ramifications are thoroughly negative. The nice thing is, preventing data loss isn?t all that complicated?and, when compared to the alternative, far less costly. All it takes is a secure and reliable backup. To accomplish this, every bit and byte of data you have needs to be stored in a minimum of three places. One copy is the original, the one saved on your workstation or for extra credit, on your network server. Technically, even this ?one? copy of data should be duplicated across multiple server drives in a configuration known as a RAID array, which can lead to improved performance and security. The second copy of your data (again, all of it) should be on another network device, whether that?s another full server, a NAS or Network Attached Storage device, or a dedicated backup device that takes an ongoing record and duplicates it to an offsite location. This offsite location is where your third comprehensive copy of your data should be kept, ideally in the cloud. This copy serves as your insurance policy should some event create wide-spread data loss within your business and will enable some level of functionality to continue in the face of a disaster. For our business, we handle all these steps with the help of a device known as a BDR, short for Backup and Disaster […]

Get Enough Rest There have been numerous studies done that suggest that the best way to maintain focus and productivity is to get enough sleep. Getting between seven-and-eight hours and going to sleep early will allow you to get a fast start on the next day. Peak productivity typically happens about 150 minutes after a person wakes up, so the earlier you start, the more productive you can be. Keep Your Schedule Generally, you will have a good idea of what your responsibilities are before you get started, but priority can change. If you have the flexibility to do so, setting your schedule up to get the most crucial things completed when you are the most alert makes sense. Arranging your assignments into a schedule that will allow you to be the most productie can be a big benefit for you and for your company. Multitasking Doesn?t Help Many people claim to be master multitaskers, while others claim that multitasking isn?t even possible. Studies show that the latter is closer than the former. Focusing on many different tasks at once makes it difficult to proficiently complete one. Selecting the task that has the highest priority and committing to that task gives you the best chance to build a task list that can be completed satisfactorily and efficiently.  In business, productivity is essential, so how to go about it is important. White Mountain IT Services can help you implement the solutions to help support your productivity strategies and help you get your business find the success it is looking for. To learn more, reach out to our team by calling (603) 889-0800.