What is AI? The AI that we see in business today isn?t the same AI that we see portrayed by sentient robots in the movies. This is undoubtedly a good thing, but with each passing day more AI is being used for business. AI and machine learning (ML) are the underlying processes of machines using algorithms to perform tasks without the explicit parameters that are typically necessary. Through AI and ML, businesses are benefiting by eliminating work.  In the course of doing business there are a lot of small, mundane, and repetitive tasks that cost businesses a lot to carry out. Typically due to the costs established from having people performing those tasks. Today AI/ML systems are capable of accomplishing many of these tasks with a keen eye for small deviations. In some cases, they respond well to larger deviations. Let?s take a look at some of the way’s businesses are using AI/ML right now. Network Security In the course of keeping networks secure, there are dozens of very mundane, very repetitive tasks that need to be accomplished. Integrating AI into IT services and hyper-converged infrastructure systems, helps balance workloads by automating network security tasks. Cyber-Defense Aside from regular network security tasks, AI/ML systems provide answers to the breakneck speed of network interactions. By being able to check network packets faster than ever, and quickly discern what is in them, these AI cybersecurity systems can work to quickly cross reference information to ascertain exactly what information should be allowed and what should be blocked.  Chatbots Everyone knows that customer service is a major part of doing business, and many sectors have begun to roll out AI-fueled chatbots to handle the product and service support via a website-based chat application. These interfaces are building intelligent conversational abilities with machine learning. Since most support questions are asked frequently, the chatbot can learn how to return useful conversation about products, services, and company information.  Business Intelligence and Predictive Analysis One of the most important uses of AI is as a supplement to a dedicated business intelligence platform. AI can enable BI tools to produce much clearer, much more useful insights. The clearer and more useful the insights the more forward-thinking decision makers will use them. Accounting and Billing Accounting has been one of the most straight-forward aspects of businesses, but now, with AI, more and more organizations are trusting the useful AI-field applications to streamline data entry and data reporting. AI systems are also being used to maximize the costs associated with payment processing, invoicing, and other financial tasks necessary to any business.  AI may not be what we envisioned at this point, but it is useful enough to help your organization streamline its operations enough that it will be sure to have an effect on your bottom line. How would you like to see AI used to improve your business? Subscribe to our blog for more great information about today?s most dynamic technology trends. 

Understanding Hackers, Based on Motive In truth, popular entertainment has taken quite a few creative liberties with the concept of a hacker, while simultaneously reducing them into a few noticeable stereotypes and tropes. You have the standoffish and reclusive criminal, the quirky member of a given law enforcement acronym team, and a handful of other, very similar archetypes.  However, these tropes have all contributed to a predictable, stereotypical caricature that most people associate with the term ?hacker?: Someone sitting alone in a room, surrounded by monitors, typing while windows open and close on their screens. But again, this is a caricature, an exaggerated approximation based on a limited view of reality. The Real-Life Varieties of Hacker In the real world, there are many different kinds of hacker, differentiated by their ultimate goals and the methods they employ to achieve these goals. Admittedly, there were originally just two, differentiated by referencing the costuming traditions of Western movies. The hero would wear a white hat, the villain, a black hat. Hackers were categorized between white-hat and black-hat, initially, with more colors being adopted to accommodate the many varieties that developed. White Hat: These are the good guys – they?re the ones who go through official channels and try to hack into program so that vulnerabilities can be identified and resolved. The white hat hacker frequently uses vulnerability assessments and penetration tests to accomplish their objective. Black Hat: Again, in keeping with the traditions of old Western movies, the black hat hacker is a villain, and is closest to the stereotype of a hacker that most people are familiar with. Generally with selfish, greedy, or vindictive motives, a black hat hacker seeks to do harm as they steal financial information, trade secrets, or leave an unpleasant surprise on your network. Grey Hat: You have to mix black and white to get grey, and that?s more or less how it applies to hackers. Acting as a kind of online vigilante, the grey hat hacker largely works to take down online threats as a white hat hacker would – but by employing the kind of tactics that a black hat hacker would use. Red Hat: Red hat hackers are the guerillas of the hacking world. Intercepting the attempts made by a black hat hacker, red hat hackers attack their systems to sideline the black hat hacker. Green Hat: Inexperienced and uninitiated, green hat hackers have no practical hacking experience. However, they will lurk on forums to learn more about hacking attempts from other hats. Blue Hat: Another form of amateur hacker, a blue hat will take advantage of preexisting attack vectors to infiltrate their targets. They are often inspired into action by their personal feelings, and use very basic attacks to their advantage. Why Hackers Hack There are many reasons that a hacker may be driven to do what they do – and there isn?t always a single reason for it. Some common motives include: Theft and Distribution for Profit This is one of the most obvious reasons for a hacker to do what they do, as there are many ways that a hacker can use stolen data for their own benefit. Whether they steal a person?s credentials and drain their accounts, blackmail them with private data, or simply steal data to sell to other […]

What is Office 365? Microsoft Office has been a line of Microsoft applications that have been around for almost 30 years. The most common are Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, but Office has always been bundled with plenty of other applications with various tiers and license options for home users, students/educators, businesses, and enterprises. Every few years, your version of Office would become out of date, and you would need to purchase new licenses of the newer version. A single license could cost hundreds of dollars, so upgrading licenses for your whole staff could feel like a very big hit. Office 365, which was first made available in 2011, has a subscription-based offering, and updates are applied when new versions are available. You no longer have the perpetual license, but you also don?t have to worry about Office becoming outdated, incompatible, or insecure software. On top of that, Office 365 adds massively valuable online services which we feel are underutilized by many New Hampshire businesses. OneDrive for Business OneDrive is Microsoft?s cloud-storage and collaboration platform. Every user gets 1 TB of online storage. Files and folders can sync between OneDrive and the user?s desktop, so files can be accessed offline as well, but having access to documents from anywhere on any device is a huge advantage, especially in today?s mobile ecosystem. One feature that is especially nice is Files on Demand which allows the user to see their files and documents from within Windows in the same way they?d view files on their desktop or on network folders. This makes it much easier for users who sometimes struggle to acclimate to new systems. OneDrive also empowers your users to share documents and larger files with just a few clicks. Want to share a presentation? Right-click the file and select Share, and you can send a document to a contact or create a link to allow others to view/edit the file. OneDrive can also be accessed from mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Speaking of mobile access? Online and Mobile Versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint If you have staff that sometimes need to work from home, coffee shops, airport lounges, hotels, client sites, or conferences, they can access files AND the applications that open them from virtually any device. Office 365 includes mobile applications, which are available on Google Play and Apple?s App Store. The apps are free to download, and users simply log in with their Office 365 account to use them and get access to their files. If you aren?t comfortable with editing documents on your smartphones, you can also log in to OneDrive in any web browser and edit Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations. Skype and Microsoft Teams Skype has long been the de facto standard in online meetings. It allows you to hold HD video conferences with team members, partners, and customers. Microsoft Teams is Microsoft?s modern instant messaging tool, allowing organizations to set up groups for collaboration and communication. SharePoint Online SharePoint has long been Microsoft?s enterprise-driven collaboration tool. It hosts a huge suite of tools and features to allow file sharing, communication, and team management. Where OneDrive is more of a user-centric system, SharePoint is controlled from the top down, and administrators can restrict what gets shared. Exchange Online Microsoft?s Exchange has long […]

1. You need time to get rid of the bugs. No network shift runs completely smoothly. Changing out the hardware ? even if you schedule the bulk of the work for the weekends when no one is around ? inevitably causes delays and inconveniences once Monday starts up. If your company decides the best way to improve network speed is to get rid of the server and shift everything to the cloud to clear up space, everyone else on the team needs ample time to get used to the readjustment. Holidays already have complex problems, dozens of emergencies, and potential system crashes. 2. Increase user familiarity before complex problems start. If your company is large enough to have an in-house IT team, that can smooth out a lot of the headaches from upgrading your network or changing network providers. However, they will still need training. They’ll also need a gradual release of the training wheels of the new network. It’s easier to train IT employees, especially entry-level employees, on routine problems and solutions before throwing in complicated, season-specific problems.  The earlier you make the change, the more time they have to start making training manuals and simplified or templatized responses to tickets.  3. Changing your network has beneficial impacts on your supply chain.  No matter what industry you’re in, you’re both part of and have a supply chain. This is true even if your company specializes in services. While your network’s slowdown might be an internal problem that hasn’t yet reached customers, speeding up in-house processes still has a direct impact on external success. A faster network allows your company to maintain inventory better, especially in complex integrations that pull from multiple programs at once. Internal problems are also just the beginning: they can quickly spike into site shutdowns during peak buying seasons. Instead of pushing off the warning signs for the new year, solve them before they can impact Q4. 4. Support hours are more expensive during peak times. Subscription management plans are always the way to go when they’re an option. Paying for preventative maintenance isn’t just cheaper than paying for repairs. It means there’s no (or at least far less) unscheduled downtime. But when you’re making systemic changes, most service providers will charge hourly or daily rates. There may also be flat fees for expedited requests if you call halfway through November for a weekend switch before December. Schedule any potentially expensive projects during off-seasons as much as possible. Not only are you going to avoid peak fees or emergency hour fees, but your technicians will also be less rushed and are more likely to do a high-quality job. Seasonality impacts everyone, so don’t get caught up in the price hikes. it’s one thing to know that it’s time for a network change. It’s another thing to know how to get started. Contact our team today at White Mountain IT for easy, friendly support. 

1. Establish Good Communication Habits If there?s anything that the success of your project will directly rely upon, it is how well you communicate with everyone involved. This will require you to not only have reliable communication solutions, but to actively put them to use. From the very beginning of your project, make sure that everyone involved is sharing all of the information that is appropriate to be shared, with whom needs to see it. As the person in charge, you should set this communication in motion, leading by example. As we will cover in more depth below, this means utilizing the tools at your disposal appropriately – keeping conversations pertinent to the group as a whole visible to the group as a whole. 2. Define Milestones, Objectives, and a Timeframe Any project should have four distinct stages to it: initiation, planning it, executing it, and a wrap-up at the end. Each of these stages should be punctuated by different milestones and objectives to be reached, as well as a set schedule as to how quickly each needs to be achieved. This can benefit you in a few ways. First off, it is always better to be more organized during these kinds of things, as it helps eliminate the chance of wasting time and money. Look at it this way: if you have Tasks A, B, and C to do in a project, and three employees to see to them, it isn?t going to help much if all three of them go out and spend their time on three separate versions of Task B.  Furthermore, timeliness is usually a factor in these kinds of things, so it is important to establish a set schedule based around any limitations. Let?s say that you were planning a Halloween party for your office… it wouldn?t do much good (or make much sense, for that matter) to have that event two-thirds of the way through November, would it? Your projects are likely influenced to some degree by outside stimulus, and so should be treated the same way – set deadlines and timeframes ensuring your preparations don?t run long. 3. Use the Tools and Resources Available There are many business solutions out there today that make the many processes involved in managing a project from start to finish much easier. Take, for example, the practices we?ve already reviewed in this blog – there are many communication solutions that are ideal for group project work within an organization that you may not be using to their full advantage. Likewise, there are project management solutions that allow you to better track and manage how your team is using its time and energy. Finally, you also have the option to utilize automated solutions to simplify and expedite many of the moving parts that a project has. Rather than risking a crucial step be missed in the flurry of responsibilities your employees have, allow the facets that can be automated to be, and let your business solutions serve their full purpose. Interested in learning more about how your internal projects and other processes can be benefited by technology solutions? Reach out to us at (603) 889-0800 to learn more!