Benefit #1: Technology Can Help Your Business Operate More Efficiently Successful businesses know how to leverage technology so that their organization runs smoothly and efficiently. Software and other programs can help employees save time so they can be more productive. Key integrations, automated tools, and other technological tools can help everyone complete their work faster with less effort. Benefit #2: The Right Technology Can Elevate Your Brand Image  Technology can also help elevate your company’s brand image or give it a certain cache. If your business uses the latest software and equipment, you will be considered an early adopter – especially if your industry is not that tech-savvy. Chatbot marketing, a polished Customer Relationship Management system and responsive web design will give your customers the impression that your business is up-to-date and very tech-savvy.  Benefit #3: Certain Types of Technology Can Reduce Overall Liability  Every business owner must carefully manage risk for their company to survive. One of the great things about technology is that it can reduce overall liability. IT technicians can download backup copies of important files, web developers can put up firewalls to protect the company’s website and other IT staff can encrypt sensitive information so that it would be less susceptible to malicious cybercriminals.  Benefit #4: Technology Can Help You Take Advantage of Other Business Opportunities There are certain opportunities that your company as a whole may not be able to enjoy if it doesn’t have the right technology. For example, your business won’t be able to leap into the smart home device space and set up Google Home or Amazon Alexa skills if your business is not prepared or doesn’t have the right technological tools. You also won’t be able to take advantage of several opportunities that are available online if your business does not have a website or social media presence.  Benefit #5: Technology Can Help Your Business Save Money  Technology can also make it easy for companies to scale faster and more efficiently, which can help them save money overall. An example of this is when a software system can do the job of three people and you can lower your payroll expenses since you won’t have to hire more employees.  Now that we have discussed several ways your business can benefit from using technology, here are several reasons why you should consider working with a managed IT service provider: Managed IT Service Providers Can Help You Strategize Additional Ways to Save Money If you (or anyone else on your staff) are not subject matter experts when it comes to technology, you should seriously partner with an outside IT provider. Their team can help you make informed decisions and guide you towards technological strategies that can usher in additional cost savings. They can also assist you and other leaders in making educated budgets and provide other guidance.  Managed IT Service Providers Have a Team of Experienced Professionals Another advantage of working with an outside Managed IT Service Provider is that you will never again have to worry about finding and hiring qualified staff for an in-house IT department. The Managed IT Service Provider you select will have already vetted their workers and assembled a large team of experienced professionals who can handle your company’s concerns. They can also provide very fast technical support at all […]

If You Can, Shop on Sites You Trust I, for one, don?t love creating new accounts across the Internet. If I can find a product on an online store I trust and already use, I?m comfortable paying a little more for the peace of mind. For example, Amazon isn?t always the cheapest option, but they?ve had a good track record for getting me what I order on time. Look for the Lock When you are doing any kind of shopping online, you need to check to see if your connection to the website is secure. Most modern browsers will show a padlock in front of the page address if you are browsing securely.  This lock means you are surfing a site that is using an SSL certificate. This basically means your connection to the website is encrypted. It doesn?t mean that the whole website is 100 percent safe, but at least the initial connection is secure. Use PayPal, Apple, or Amazon Pay if Possible Sometimes, when making purchases online, the website will give you the ability to use a third-party payment system to make the transaction. For example, a site might let you choose to pay via PayPal or to type in your credit card information. The nice thing about using PayPal (or one of the other highly trusted payment systems) is that you aren?t plugging your financial information into a website you don?t trust. The transaction goes directly through PayPal and you are then redirected back to the online store.  Be Aware of Phishing and Scams The holiday season can be hectic, to the point where many people might let their guard down. Cybercriminals know this, and will try to game the system to steal your information. Be skeptical of emails that seem fishy or look too good to be true. If you receive an unexpected email from an online store about your account, don?t click any links in it. Instead, log back into the store and navigate to your account area. Most ecommerce sites use email to relay information about your purchase, but they expect users to interact with them on the website itself. The Internet can make holiday shopping much easier, but with its conveniences, you still need to be safe. Although we can?t really help you pick out the perfect gift for your in-laws, we can help protect your business from online threats. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 to learn more!

The software giant has begun to roll out warning signs in their Patch Tuesday patches, but it hasn?t been enough for people (and businesses) to upgrade away from Windows 7. Let?s take a look at more about this shift. January 14, 2020 We are now just a month away from Windows 7 End of Life event. Computers running the software after January 14th, will not be receiving technical assistance from Microsoft; and therefore will be in danger from a new wave of oncoming vulnerabilities.  Why Shouldn?t You Run Unsupported Software? The way it is written, software isn?t always secure. Developers need to make consistent changes to ensure that hackers don?t have access to vulnerabilities. Since a data breach can effectively wipe out your company, you need to ensure that all of your systems are up-to-date and patched thoroughly.  Not only that, a data breach can flatten any forward momentum a business has. That?s not even taking into account that the fact that today, with ransomware being a consideration, making sure all of the software you depend on is supported keeps your business secure.  Besides the security issues, there are other considerations to contend with, like a loss in functionality.  What are Your Options? Upgrade to Windows 10  To be honest, your options are shrinking by the day. You only have about a month before Microsoft pulls the plug on the software for good, and you need to upgrade away to keep threats from piling up. Windows 10 only requires at least a one GHz processor, 2 GB of RAM, and 20 GB available on a hard drive, which may allow your business from facing huge upfront costs if its technology already meets those standards.  Extended Support With only a month left it may not give some organizations enough time to make the change. For businesses that qualify, Microsoft is offering a costly extended support package that will be available for all Windows 7 Pro and Windows 7 Enterprise customers with volume licensing through January 2023. For qualifying businesses, costs for Enterprise will be $25 per device from 2020-2021, $50 per device from 2021-2022, and $100 per device from 2022-2023. The cost of support for Pro versions will be double that.  Under these platforms, you will need to upgrade away by 2023. Microsoft 365 Another option for the business that needs to move away from Windows 7 quickly is to utilize the Microsoft 365 platform. Microsoft 365 is available in enterprise, business, and education budgets, and includes Windows 10, Microsoft Office 365, and much more. Paid by the user, per month, major hardware upgrades can be tabled or done incrementally, allowing a business to pay as they go until they get to where they want to be.  Call us at (603) 889-0800 if you are looking for help moving off of Windows 7.

To do so, we?ll be examining each of our contenders, Microsoft Outlook and Google?s Gmail, based on the same considerations. To start, let?s consider the actual interface that a user must navigate in each option. Interface Your preferences will come heavily into play as you weigh the two very different interfaces against each other, as each takes a very different approach. Gmail keeps it very simple, clearly and prominently labeling a user?s options to make it relatively easy to grow accustomed to. Different options will appear based on context – hidden until the user completes an action or accesses the in-message menu. Outlook, on the other hand, takes the opposite tack – giving users a plethora of options to make use of (to the point that a user could potentially review multiple email accounts simultaneously). However, as many could find all of the options Outlook offers to be intimidating, the Office 365 version of Outlook does offer a trimmed-down version of the option Ribbon that stretches across the top of the screen. All you have to do to switch between these options is to click on the downward caret in the far right of the Ribbon. Nevertheless, it offers its users so many options that Outlook presents its greatest weakness – its complexity. In addition to the Ribbon – stuffed with options as it is – there are three panes that make up the rest of the program. First, you have a comprehensive list of all email accounts you use Outlook to manage, second, a list of your messages that allows you to run inbox-specific searches and sort them based on assorted criteria, and third, a basic reading pane to view your messages, with the options to reply, reply all, or forward the message. That said, Outlook is what the majority of businesses have been using for decades, so chances are you are pretty familiar with it. Composing Messages This is a really important consideration to take into account when you are trying to determine the best email client, as you might assume. While Outlook may arguably have too many features displayed in its various menus and toolbars, this issue was not carried over into the message composer? although this is not to say that a user is exactly short on options when it comes to formatting their email message. Microsoft has also made it easy to share documents stored in OneDrive, a user?s PC, or items created in Outlook itself. The Ribbon, of course, offers a litany of other features to make creating, scheduling, and reviewing your emails much simpler. Comparatively, while Google offers a little less through Gmail, the apparent focus on simplicity gives a user a very usable solution with all the features that most will ever really need. Attaching media to an email can admittedly be a complicated process, namely due to the three separate ways to do so. There?s a button to insert files from the computer?s storage, a button for inserting photos from Google Photos, and a button to insert files from your Google Drive. Finally, as a very compelling feature, Gmail allows you to cancel a message that is being sent if you catch your mistake quickly enough. Email Management Finally, in order for you to actually be productive as you use your […]

Two-factor authentication (sometimes called multi-factor authentication) is the practice of expanding on the protection that is attained by using a password. After a person logs in with their password a two-factor authentication platform requires a separate code–typically generated by an authentication app or a text message or email to an assigned number/email address–to gain access to whatever is secured. 2FA is pretty standard on most online-based platforms nowadays. All things considered, it does help beef up security; but, can 2FA be more trouble than it?s worth? Let?s take a look.  With many software developers now incorporating two-factor authentication into their applications, it has become pretty commonplace to have the option regardless of the software you are using. Some of the best times to roll out two-factor authentication are when you have sensitive, personal, or proprietary information to secure. While there are cracks in the foundation of this method of access control, many businesses require that their staff sign into email or line of business apps using a 2FA system. Better safe than sorry, right? In the business setting, it makes sense to put this strategy to use. While it may be mildly irritating for your staff, the benefits, if only for organizational piece of mind, are worth the reward. Individuals, on the other hand, don?t typically need the end-to-end security that a business needs. Those that do employ some degree of additional security (beyond passwords) don?t always find it to be helpful. There is also the small matter to discuss that suggests a 2FA platform doesn?t even work. Wait, Two-Factor Authentication Doesn?t Work? Studies have shown, and have been corroborated by industry professionals, that two-factor authentication is just like any other currently-used, non-biometric security standard: about to be antiquated. Today, hackers are creating phishing websites that look just like the corresponding site on a web services website that states that their account information is about to go bad. The fooled party enters the information needed and now the hackers have the password, the one-off authentication code and complete access to the system.  This may be a troubling trend, but rest assured, it is typical of every security strategy that has come up. The predominance of hacking makes all efforts seem insecure. Think about what you?ve been told. Just a short time ago you had to have a near-random passphrase, before that you needed to use a password manager, before that you needed to have a complex password of at least 12 digits that included capital and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. That?s not to say that 2FA doesn?t work. It absolutely does. Just be mindful that relying too much on one part of your access control strategy will likely result in data breach, headache, and frustration.  2F-Awesome Situations to Use Two-Factor Authentication Two-factor authentication may not be the be-all, end-all to your security needs, but it is still better than nothing. Here are a few situations where you will absolutely want to institute 2FA: Remote access to corporate networks – With businesses using a more mobile workforce, securing remote endpoints makes a lot of sense.  Ecommerce – Anytime you require people to submit or view sensitive or financial information, using 2FA is a good practice.  Cloud services – Shared computing resources in the cloud should be secured to their max. […]