Disasters are more common than you might think in the workplace. Whether it?s a natural disaster or occurrence, like a fire or electrical storm that hits your infrastructure or energy source, or a hacking attack that targets your business? data, the point stands that an unpredictable disaster could be just enough to knock your business off its game (if only temporarily). Even your own employees aren?t safe from unknowingly causing your organization damage. All it takes is one mistake–an employee downloading the wrong attachment or handing over credentials to a scammer–to create problems for your business. Depending on how severe the breach is, it could cause your business to shut down operations or lose important data? data that is only backed up if you have a solution in place to do so. User error is a common problem in the workplace. A case of a misplaced or deleted file could spawn a considerable amount of trouble, depending on how important the file is. Of course, we all know how easy it is to lose something in the workplace, and the complexity of computers means that this occurrence is almost a certainty. A data backup and disaster recovery solution is great for not just large data breaches or natural disasters, but for even the smallest user error as well. It could save you countless hours of frustration if you take preventative measures now. White Mountain IT Services has the skills and technology at its disposal to make sure your organization has the data backup solution it deserves. To learn more about how your business can implement data backup and disaster recovery, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

What?s the Worst That Can Happen? Consider the industry that your business finds itself in. Do you have any particular compliances that need to be met in regard to network security and the protection of credentials? Some organizations in the health industry may be subject to compliance fines due to breaches of conduct under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, meaning that any failure to protect records could result in negative situations. Furthermore, imagine the chaos that a threat on your network could create. Depending on its severity, it could impact operations to the point where they can?t continue until the threat has been neutralized. It?s even possible that the threat could destroy data or encrypt important files, hindering progress and keeping your organization from functioning the way it?s supposed to. You Might Even Go Out of Business. How?s that for Scary? Just about any business that has any kind of sensitive information could eventually find themselves subject to a hacking attack. Whether it?s financial credentials, medical records, or even passwords and usernames, there is always something of value on any organization?s infrastructure, and it?s your responsibility to be aware of this fact and respond to it. What You Need to Do You might be asking yourself what the best way to keep your organization from experiencing these issues is, and it?s a simple one: implement preventative security solutions as soon as possible. The more time you wait to protect your business, the more opportunity hackers have to make a move against your business. The best thing you can do is actively take the fight to them. White Mountain IT Services can implement the best IT security solutions for your organization based on its specific needs. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

1. Show Up on Time (If Not Early) Want to simplify the workday, while also keeping your bosses happy? One of the easiest ways to do so is to simply show up on time, prepared for the day. Management tends to view prepared workers as more conscientious than their coworkers, and as a result, will often score them higher on performance reviews. Whether or not it can be considered fair, those who perform at their best later in the day are often viewed less favorably than those employees who do their best work in the early morning. Attendance in general is often a concern. We?ve all known someone who seemed to miss days of work until they just… stopped showing up altogether. This isn?t always because this missed time has caused them to fall behind, either. Many organizations will look to people who are in regular attendance at work (but may not perform as well) as better employees than high performers who frequently miss time. As Woody Allen said, ?90 percent of life is just showing up.? 2. Set Aside an Hour to Tackle Your Most Pressing Issues For a place that is designed for getting work done, the office can often be a difficult place to accomplish this. You just get into your swing, when suddenly? emails, phone calls, instant messages, office chats… all start popping up at once. I don?t have to tell you how frustrating these interruptions can be, and how they can throw a day into flux. This is one of the reasons that it is so important to schedule yourself for one hour of uninterrupted work to address your priorities. Leveraging your office?s scheduling system to help manage this time and set aside this hour has shown to be an effective means of boosting productivity. One of the most effective strategies is to proactively eliminate (or at least reduce) distractions. First of all, you need to make sure that your team is aware that you will be unavailable for a period of time each morning. In order for this to be effective, you need to maintain clear and direct communication with your fellow team members. Another option you have is to actually use the tools that you frequently overlook. Take the ?Do Not Disturb? setting on your smartphone, or instance. This tool is a great way to shave back the amount of distractions that you need to deal with. 3. Turn Off the Music With the modern penchant for open office spaces, the workday can get loud and hectic. This makes listening to music seem like a good idea. Unfortunately, this isn?t so much the case, as it simply substitutes one distraction for another. You may be under the impression that you are accomplishing things faster, but the research indicates that this isn?t the case. One neuroscientist of prominence suggests an alternative: instead of distracting your brain with music as you try to be productive, listen to some music before you begin to put yourself in the right frame of mind. By listening to music – and then stopping – before you begin your task, you can also file away your mental distractions so that they won?t cause an issue. 4. End the Day by Planning Tomorrow Those last few minutes of the workday can […]

How It Has Worked in the Past While Office files could always be uploaded to Google Drive for viewing, in order to actually edit a document, spreadsheet, or presentation, the files had to be converted to a Google-friendly format. Google allowed users to comment and edit the files after the conversion. Thankfully, this process was relatively seamless, but it?s not quite the same as simply being able to edit the document without all of the file conversion and whatnot. There was also the option to use a limited toolset through Office Compatibility Mode. Businesses in particular might find this lack of convenience and efficiency an issue, and extra steps could create more opportunities for wasted time and error. For the sake of collaboration and compatibility, Google has been developing native support for some of the Microsoft-exclusive file formats. According to Google, its programs will be compatible with the following file formats: Word filetypes: .doc, .docx, .dot PowerPoint filetypes: .ppt, .pptx, .pps, .pot Excel filetypes: .xls, .xlsx, .xlsm, .xlt Other Collaborative Google Updates In addition to the file types covered above, Google also plans to introduce features that allow implementation with Dropbox Business. What Does This Mean for Your Business? The biggest way this could affect your business is by enhancing collaboration. While it?s important to have your internal solutions standardized, it?s critical to keep in mind that this compatibility is a big step forward for the industry. Hopefully Microsoft can learn from this move and implement some built-in functionality themselves. What are your thoughts on this development? Let us know in the comments.

The first thing that any business owner or small business decision maker has to understand is that people today are more connected than ever. This hyperconnectivity creates greater expectations. This fact has to be confronted by the SMB in one way or another. Typically, the small business wouldn?t choose to invest in big-ticket solutions that are designed to streamline operations and improve the customer?s interactions with the company, but with consumer demand what it is, biting the bullet and making large software investments can bring additional opportunities that wouldn?t be presented otherwise. Some solutions your SMB needs to have include: Customer Relationship Management Incorporating a CRM is basically a must for every business nowadays. There are literally hundreds of options to choose from, but some are clearly designed for the enterprise user and can be a bit much for a small business. More often than not there are industry-specific solutions that can be leveraged that provide integrated customer relationship management capabilities. These solutions provide all the benefits of a standalone CRM, but with options designed specifically for the vertical market in which they are used. A CRM is basically mandatory for a small business as it provides significant automation of tasks that, at one time, were the responsibility of multiple employees. The small business has to function with reduced payroll compared to its larger competitors. As a result, any solution designed to automate whole portions of business-critical tasks has more value to a small business than one that relies on manpower to perform. A CRM does this by integrating customer relationships with scheduling, payroll, and more.   Supply Chain Management For the modern small manufacturer, it is more crucial than ever to meet customer demands. In order to accomplish this, the supply chain, that is the procurement, manufacturing, fulfillment, and distribution of the product has to work in concert. To facilitate this coordination, technology is being used to manage the processes in one, easy-to-use, platform. Some Supply Chain Management options, like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), also provides the features found in a CRM, consolidating the amount of software users need to learn to keep business moving forward. Marketing Automation Today small businesses have to have something of a web presence. Some use social media, some have their own website created. No matter what you currently do, to improve your business? revenue creation, strengthening your online footprint is an affordable and effective way of using technology to its advantage. Using advanced technology to manage and nurture leads with automated systems can cut organizational costs and help business move faster. It works like this: you capture leads with a website and instead of having to wade through the information yourself, the marketing automation integrates all the captured information with your CRM. This can help a business improve its ability to close sales; or, at the very least have the conversations that result in more sales. Every business should be thinking about how to limit their costs and get more done with technology. For more information about how to choose a CRM for your business, call the IT professionals at White Mountain IT Services today at (603) 889-0800.