Employees Without the proper communication with your team, you will be sacrificing many business benefits that would otherwise lead to its growth. The reason for this is simple: First off, history has shown that the best business ideas can come from those at the bottom of the organizational flow chart – the ones who are hands-on and experiencing what works well and what doesn?t for themselves. Giving them a voice not only means you can benefit from their insights, it also motivates them to stick around longer – input is a hard thing to give up.  Another reason to make sure you are communicating effectively with your employees is just as simple: it helps to make sure your expectations are met. If your view of success is clearly defined, your employees will understand the benchmarks that must be met. Don?t be afraid to have frequent one-on-one meetings with the members of your staff to work on their individual goals. Clients and Customers This is probably the most obvious piece of the puzzle – but communicating with them requires more than just publicizing your service offering and the seasonal deal you happen to be running. Your patrons can serve as a useful source of information, as they can be considered experts in a variety of business concerns, such as how your services could be improved. By collecting and reacting appropriately to this feedback, you can build their trust in you, demonstrating that you value their input. A trusting client is more likely to come back to you, and less likely to leave. Of course, you don?t need to only collect this information through formal processes. Remember how your employees have that front-line insight? Maybe they?ve noticed some trends in the behavior of your audience, or that many are surprised to learn about a particular offering. Use these observations to your advantage! You Yes, you. In order to be able to really improve your business, you need to take the time and see how well you are aligning your business management to your business goals. While this kind of self-evaluation shouldn?t be easy, it is necessary to do on occasion. Were the goals you set for your business realistic? Was there anything you could have done differently to help accomplish them more effectively?  Once you have done so, it helps to collect feedback from those around you and see if their honest observations mesh with the conclusions you came to. By supplementing your own observations with this input, you can help narrow down the most impactful issues, as well as hold yourself accountable for your operations. White Mountain IT Services can help you by providing the tools to encourage these communications – as well as see to a number of other technological concerns and needs. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

Had Enough?   If your business seems to be caught in a never-ending cycle of computer problems and complaints, perhaps you have been focusing on the symptoms rather than the source of the problem. The underlying cause is most likely a lack of professional IT management. At White Mountain, we take responsibility for the operation, management, and support of your IT infrastructure. Don’t settle for the IT systems cycle of torture, there is a better way, give White Mountain a call today. Why wait? If you think it may be time for a change, give us a call today to schedule a free consultation.  We are experts at providing discreet and confidential advice on how to protect your business and avoid problems and disruptions when replacing your IT support provider.  There is no reason to put up with a never-ending cycle of problems and frustrations, give White Mountain a call and let us help you make things right!   Call today and give your business the White Mountain advantage!

As the deadline (almost literally) knocks on the door, we thought we?d review, once more, what this means to users and what their options are. It is important to understand that it isn?t as though you won?t be able to use the software once the support date passes – it?s that you won?t be able to use it securely. Since your software will no longer receive the updates and patches that it depends on, its functionality will decrease over time. Worse, its lack of security means that the computer running it will have a security vulnerability, which in turn means that any network that the computer is connected to will also be insecure. While there are some means of protecting your network – like isolating your Windows 7 machines so you can still use a certain line-of-business application – you will not be able to completely protect yourself from vulnerabilities without taking these systems entirely offline. With these risks in mind, retiring these systems to protect your business becomes a no-brainer. You Have a Few Options Even with the deadline so close, you still have a few options to avoid serious issues. These options include: Upgrading to Windows 10 While many may be loyal to Windows 7, there is no denying that Windows 10 is the better solution – even if you only consider the security benefits to the switch. Fortunately, Windows 10 doesn?t really need much more to run than Windows 7 does. Here are the minimum specifications your computer should have to properly run Windows 10: Processor – 1 GHZ or faster RAM – 1 GB for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit Hard disk space – 16 GB for 32-bit or 20 GB for 64-bit Graphics card – DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver Display – 800 x 600 resolution Now, as these are the minimum specifications, this configuration wouldn?t give you the best performance. We recommend that, instead of following this list precisely, you upgrade to a 2 GHz dual-core processor, between 4-and-8 GB of RAM, and at least a 160 GB hard drive. Replace Your Hardware Systems While this is far and away the most expensive option, it is possibly the simplest to exercise considering how little time is left. New hardware comes with Windows 10 installed and includes regular updates to Windows 10, but there is the fact that configuring this new hardware to play nicely with your line-of-business applications could take some time. Consider ChromeOS Many businesses are electing to use Chromebooks rather than the more traditional Windows workstations. While this may be a more cost-effective option, it can be a hassle in other ways. All of your line-of-business applications would need to be virtualized, and the need for Internet access could create productivity hang-ups. While this approach might ultimately work got your business and IT alike, it isn?t a cheap approach to implement. Speaking of Virtualization, Use a Thin Client This is very similar to the Chromebook option. However, instead of purchasing new hardware, you are repurposing your old hardware to operate as a thin client. While virtualization has proven itself to be a solid option for businesses, it may not be practicable with so little time left to put it in action. However, there is a service that could […]

Email Email has been and will continue to be a work staple. But it shouldn’t be the primary mode of written communication between internal employees, anymore. The format pushes for inertia and thinking twice: there are intros, polite greetings, splintering email threads, and a dozen rereads that become part of the process, no matter how trivial the content.  Instead, switch internal communications to instant message tools. Slack channels give plenty of space for different groups to carry on a conversation or announce something to the whole group. Embedded chat tools in Salesforce keep the focus clear and the chain of communication public.  Save emails for official matters, rare communications that cross your company’s usual teams or groups, and formal notices. Also, email should be a go-to part of how you communicate with clients and leads. Work Outside of the Office Working from home is here to stay. You’re going to have lots of employees you’ll never meet in person, and you’ll have office regulars who need to work at home for a day because their kid is sick. Set up your team’s workflows and tasks so everything can be done outside of the office. Also, build procedures to make it a regular option: offering flexibility gets you more applicants than even bumping up the salary. On the flip side, you have to have a clear work culture. Some of your employees will take advantage of the freedom to do as little as possible. But many more of your employees will overdo their work, either by worrying that they need to “prove” their work from home status or because they’re out of touch with everyone else’s progress. Maintaining an Online Connection Wifi is everywhere, and that’s good news for regularly traveling employees. The cloud can also be everywhere, which means you can allow tiered access to all of your company files from around the country. That would have been impossible even just ten years ago when remote employees had to have a desktop computer and hardline Internet connection. At the same time, that ever-present access means hackers and automated malware can reach into your employees’ devices. Even unlikely areas and seemingly safe locations are a risk. Make sure everyone has a VPN, no excuses. Information Is the Product Information has always been the product, but the Internet made that truer than ever before. The damage that can be done with mishandled data is also greater than ever before (and that’s before you even consider Facebook’s expected $5 billion fine). Universal internet access means your company is gathering a lot of data about your leads, visitors, and customers. Every site that your employees visit is doing the same thing, and that matters if your company has a BYOD policy or loans out work devices. Get that VPN (we mention it twice because it matters too much to ignore it) and have a network administrator that can clear out the devices before disaster strikes. Business communications aren’t just the information you mean to send. It’s also the information your network and the sites your employees visit pick up along the way. Contact us to learn more about how to modernize your approach to wifi and the cloud.