Companies track all types of things, typically in the form of KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators. These metrics are useful, if you use them properly, but when an organization starts using metrics to measure employee performance (and business performance) that don?t have any causal relationship with productivity, they get into an area where all the time and resources spent creating and mulling over these reports can have the opposite effect. Let?s look at how productivity can be hindered by too many useless metrics. Employee Engagement The first question you are going to want to answer surrounds the way you look at your business? productivity. If you have no problem reducing your employees to numbers it becomes pretty easy to ascertain how they perform and their numerical value to your business. Of course, your employees are the most important aspect of your business, just look at your budget. For your business to be what you?d like it to be, your employees need to be engaged. The problem often becomes that the people you depend on to make the magic happen are less engaged when they are reduced to line-items on a spreadsheet.  Studies show that the people that have the highest contact with customers tend to be the most disgruntled. That means your salespeople and the people who fulfill services. These people are a big part of everything you do, and if they aren?t at their best, neither is your organization. As a result, the metrics you would see in the back end of your CRM may not be the whole story. The more time and resources are poured into finding THAT employees are performing under expectations, don?t answer WHY they are, which is a much bigger concern. Sure, sometimes these two factors work in concert, but ultimately, all data analysis should be geared at better understanding your business, and making it clear that people are more than just numbers goes a long way toward setting the stage for productivity. Missteps of Analysis Not Scaling Your Analysis As businesses continue the shift toward being more data-driven, decision making is more centralized. As where managers had autonomy of sorts just a short time ago, they are more frequently being asked to make strategic decisions based on the data all organizational decision makers have at their disposal. Effective managers are forced to use analysis that may not be specifically built for their situation, leaving their teams less effective than they would have been before their organization started using its data to meddle with productivity. This one-size-fits-all approach to data analysis can actually hurt an organization’s ability to maximize productivity. In others it can actively help it. Analysts need to understand the goals of a particular department, the varying needs of that department?s end-users, and the context in which data is useful. Business doesn?t happen in a vacuum and if you are using data that is irrelevant or not useful, the decisions made with that data will be inherently flawed. Managing Bias Bias can be a big problem on both ends. On one hand, if a production team works inefficiently, and the analysis of the data suggests the same, managers need to be cognizant that–while they may not think that they are performing under the organization?s expectations–they are, and need to do what they […]

Document Everything Whether it comes to mapping out and deploying a 50-user network or just installing a new printer, thorough documentation is critical. It doesn?t matter who worked on the project, someday, somebody else will need to touch that device or software, change some kind of configuration, or replace something. If they aren?t intimate with what was done during setup, they will either be spending a lot of extra time getting familiar with the past or they will miss some key feature or element and need to do the work twice. I?m being vague here, because this literally applies to each and every detail of your organization?s IT. Here?s an idea of what definitely needs to be documented: Hardware/software purchase dates and warranty information License information (how many users/devices, how long is the license for, etc.) Model and serial numbers, product keys, etc. Who installed it and when. What steps were taken to install it. Were any workarounds or special configuration options used? Where can we get support for each individual component and for how long? Configuration settings for the hardware and software. Your documentation will likely change based on what aspect of your IT is being documented. For example, a router will have different information than your Microsoft Office deployment. At White Mountain IT Services, we document everything we do carefully. It?s one of the most important skills we train our technicians to do. Without thorough documentation, supporting complex network environments with a lot of moving parts would be a logistical nightmare and a lot of time and money would be wasted on seemingly simple tasks. Be Prepared for Some Kicking and Screaming Often when a business invests in new technology, someone is going to be resistant to change. ?I liked it the old way,? or ?This doesn?t make sense, it just makes my job harder,? are a couple common responses to anything new. We?re not saying you shouldn?t listen – if productivity is being hindered then something needs to be done. The problem is, changes in tech often require a change in the steps an employee makes. If Larry has been doing his job the same way for eight years, implementing a new line of business app for him to learn is going to take him out of his routine a little and require him to get good at the new software. Ultimately, most employees want to be good at their jobs. To counter the resistance to change, educate your staff about the benefits of the change, and what it means for them and the company. Admit that the goal isn?t to make their jobs harder, and that training will be provided to iron out the new system. The same goes for when you implement new security requirements. Nobody likes having to use two-factor authentication, but the benefits outweigh the hassle.  At White Mountain IT Services, we understand that old routines can be hard to break. If you are looking to revamp and upgrade your network, we can help make the transition smooth. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 to talk about your needs.

How Does Technology Help? Technology can help improve interoffice communication with the right tools. For example, you might have interoffice email, but what about instant messaging? For quick questions or something that needs a quick response in general, it?s the right tool, but it can create problems with the way that your team communicates with each other, as well. For one, it can become a time waster. You might encounter your employees chatting back and forth without really having a conversation of substance. On the surface it might seem like a time waster that gets in the way of productivity, but remember that it?s also critical to preserve a sense of camaraderie. After all, nobody wants to work with people they don?t like, right? Basically, as long as you teach your employees the values of moderation, you shouldn?t have issues like this. It also becomes an issue when your employees become more comfortable communicating with each other behind the veil of their computer screen. Interpersonal skills are important too, especially when working with clients or contemporaries. Remember, technology should never be used as a replacement for face-to-face interaction, only to supplement it in the event that it?s simply impossible to achieve, like with remote workers or international communications. How to Overcome These Challenges Whenever you implement a new solution that threatens to upset the balance of your workforce in terms of communication, be sure to train your employees on how to use it effectively. During this time, it?s important that you don?t place too harsh restrictions on what they can and can?t do, as they will only come to resent you for doing so. Be sure to do your best to encourage proper use of solutions without being overly controlling. You should give employees the freedom to pursue the development of such skills through face-to-face interaction. Schedule employee lunches out to restaurants where they are encouraged to have conversations with each other, as well as employee gatherings that develop camaraderie and help your employees feel more comfortable around each other. Furthermore, hold regular meetings so that people can assign names to faces, as well as see that their boss is a human just like they are, not a blinking picture in their instant messaging software. White Mountain IT Services can help your business overcome any obstacles related to technology in the workplace. Whether you?re not sure how to implement a specific solution or you want to integrate certain services with your current infrastructure, we can walk you through the options and lay out in clear terms what your next steps should be. To learn more about how we can connect your employees with technology, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

Check to Make Sure You Have OneNote Installed If you use Microsoft OneNote a lot, you need to know which version of it you?re actually using. If you have Office 2016 or 365, it?s likely OneNote 2016. If you?re still learning how to use OneNote, however, it?s better to ask yourself if you have the new version that came bundled with Windows 10. In this case, you don?t have to do anything at all. First, let?s check what version you have. The older version of OneNote is labeled as OneNote 2016, while the new version is called OneNote. The icons are a little different, too. To see which version of OneNote you have installed, click on the Start menu and type ?onenote.? You?ll see the app labeled OneNote. Your 2016 version will also show up here. If you don?t see the new version, you will likely need to apply updates. In this case, you will want to work with your IT department, or if you don?t have one of those, give us at White Mountain IT Services a call at (603) 889-0800. Now, even if you were previously using OneNote 2016, your notes will not appear in the new version of OneNote. To make this happen, you will have to migrate your notes over to the new app. You will also need to sign into the new OneNote application for the first time using your Microsoft or Office 365 account, which might require the help your IT administrator. Migrating Notes from OneNote 2016 to OneNote OneNote 2016 has a couple of ways you can store a notebook. It?s likely that even those who utilize OneNote on a regular basis don?t realize how it works. It doesn?t really ask you if and where you want to save notes, but that?s one of the biggest benefits of it; it handles all the heavy lifting for you once it?s all set up. Back up Your OneNote 2016 Notebooks First, open OneNote 2016 and follow these steps to back up your notes: Click File > Options. In the OneNote Options dialog box, choose Save & Backup. On the right, you?ll see a section called Save. Select Backup Folder. Click the Modify? button. Choose a destination to store your backup. A good spot would be a folder called OneNote 2016 Backup in your Documents folder or on your desktop. Once you?ve found a place to put your backup, click Select. Then click Ok on the OneNote Options dialog. Go back to File > Options > Save & Backup. On the right, in the section labeled Backup, click Back Up All Notebooks Now. Wait for OneNote to finish backing up your notebooks. Open Your Notebooks in OneNote OneNote 2016 stores all of your notes from your notebooks, which by default are stored in your Documents folder in their own specific folder. Alternatively, they are stored on Microsoft OneDrive. You can also store notebooks on a shared location on your network, or anywhere you want. If you?re using one of the default options, the new version of OneNote probably won?t have any issue pulling info from your old notebooks. Open OneNote (the new version) and Try Opening Your Notebooks Simply type ?onenote? into your Start Menu and open the new OneNote app.  Click Notebooks to see a list of your notebooks. […]

OneNote has been one of the best pieces of software that isn?t fully utilized by most users in the Microsoft Office suite, including Office 365 subscriptions. It?s perfect for taking quick notes and organizing thoughts, and since it syncs with smartphones, it can be taken on-the-go. If you?ve been using OneNote for a while, it?s likely you are using OneNote 2016, which has been bundled together with Office (and Office 365). Now, you might also have noticed that other Microsoft Office apps received small updates every so often, but did OneNote 2016 receive any? Perhaps not? and for one particular reason. OneNote is Leaving Office OneNote 2016 will continue getting support from Microsoft for a little while, but the main focus for the OneNote app in the future will be the application that comes bundled with Windows 10. You might already have it installed on your computer. To find out, click on your Start menu and type onenote. You?ll see a couple of options: OneNote 2016 and OneNote. These are two separate apps. Microsoft is focusing on making OneNote, not its 2016 counterpart, the definitive version of the note-taking experience. What?s the Difference? Microsoft claims that the big difference between the two is that OneNote comes with Windows 10, making it much more accessible than it was when it was a part of Office. While it might still be bundled with Office 365 and Office 2019, OneNote will be available for anyone using Windows 10 by default. There are more new features that OneNote can write home about, too, including ways to share, sort, and dress up your notes with annotations. Furthermore, if you have a computer or tablet that uses a pen, like the Surface Pro, there is support for it that completely changes the way you experience OneNote. Microsoft has put together a comprehensive list of new features for OneNote, as well as a more succinct version for your perusal. Check out both lists here. This is especially important, as OneNote 2016 will not be getting new features, making the new OneNote app truly the best way to experience this kind of note-taking application. It?s a great tool that can be used to compile and discard notes scattered across multiple notebooks, or even loose scraps of paper that litter your desk. In the future, be on the lookout for a guide that can help you migrate your OneNote 2016 notes into the new version of OneNote. Until then, subscribe to our blog and let us know what kind of tips you?d like to see in the comments.