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What Your Employees Will Expect of You While you are providing your employees with a means of supporting themselves, your employees are providing you with the means to keep your doors open. As such, it is only fair that you live up to a few of their reasonable expectations of you. For instance: Efficient Processes In any business, there are certain tasks that need to be completed, often simultaneously and in conjunction to other, equally critical tasks. Are your employees provided the time and tools to meet their responsibilities? Are their processes filled with bottlenecks and inefficiencies? Do your employees find themselves revisiting the same tasks over and over? As an employer, it is only fair that you put forth your best efforts to streamline the processes that your employees are responsible for completing. One effective way to do so is to leverage automation wherever possible. Look at it this way: the less time your employees need to spend repeating work they?ve already done, or working on repetitive tasks that are frankly making poor use of their abilities, the more time they can spend on something more productive. Freeing your employees of a responsibility by automating it makes better use of their time, and keeps them more engaged in their work. Manageable Workloads Speaking of their work, your employees will only be able to accomplish so much in a given amount of time. If your employees are working for an eight-hour workday, expecting them to complete ten hours’ worth of responsibilities in that time won?t do any good for them, or your business. Frankly, you?ll only wind up disappointed, and your staff will be frustrated. Utilizing a resource management solution will help to prevent this unpleasant situation from cropping up. Ideally, it will also offer timesheet-generation capabilities, ensuring that the appropriate time is being spent on each task – and that time is being spent productively, as it should be. Reasonable Requirements and Deadlines Remember how we discussed your processes above? This consideration ties back to them in a very important way. You need to consider how these processes will influence the timeframe required to complete them. Referring back to keeping workloads manageable, again, you can?t provide an employee with eight hours to complete ten hours of tasks – this will only overwhelm them (especially if they?re racing to catch up with notifications alerting them to their next responsibility). Again, leveraging a reliable resource management solution will help you and your staff to more effectively budget the time available to spend. Furthermore, it will help you and your employees to more accurately track the actual time necessary to perform certain tasks, allowing you to make more appropriate estimates and deadlines for your staff to live up to in the future. Support from Management One of the most important expectations your staff should have is the expectation that you will be there to support them in their efforts. If one of your staff members isn?t performing as expected, assist them in accomplishing what you want them to. This will reinforce that they are capable of more – and if they aren?t going to meet a deadline, communicate with them. Allowing your employees some input into what a task will take will help to set accomplishable business goals – and shows that […]

What Are Biometrics? Biometrics are a form of authentication that, instead of using a password or key code, leverage some physical attribute or qualifier. These could include fingerprints, voice patterns, and even the rhythm that a person uses to type. Not only are they easier for a user to leverage, they can be compounded, enhancing security as well as supporting many other business practices. Let?s dive further into the kinds of biometrics that can be leveraged by a business (although not all of them are practical to do so as of yet). Biometric Types There are two primary types of identifiers that any biometrics rely on, physical identifiers and behavioral identifiers. Physical identifiers, as listed below, are far more commonly seen today: Signatures – Chances are, you?ve seen this variety of biometrics a great number of times in your personal and business life. This signature serves as a confirmation that the person fulfilling an action–be it a transaction or an agreement–is authorized to do so. From retail outlets to financial institutions, this biometric technology is very common in day-to-day life. Fingerprints and Physiological Attributes – This is another common form of authentication, as it is likely you use it to unlock your smartphone. Scanning someone?s fingerprint as a means of confirming their identity has been used for quite some time and has been adopted by many companies and individuals. Physiological recognition is also commonly used, as evidenced by palm scanners, retinal scanning, and facial recognition. Voice – Voice-based authentication is also increasingly common in all walks of life, personal users commanding their virtual assistants and businesses utilizing voice authentication to enable their automated answering systems. DNA – While the technology still has a ways to go, there is some promise of DNA sequencing transitioning from a cinematic feature to a practically-used solution. There are also behavioral identifiers that newer forms of biometric authentication are able to pick up on. These methods are largely still in development. Typing Patterns – Understandably, just like people write differently, they type differently as well. Therefore, by measuring how quickly a user types, the pressure they apply to the keys, and even the time it takes to move between keys, a user?s identity can be confirmed. Navigation and Engagement – Expanding on the basis of typing pattern analysis, our use of technology is distinctive enough from person to person that other behaviors are indicative of our identity. Therefore, everything from our mouse movements to how we actually hold and use a device can be used as a secondary authentication measure now, and potentially be a standalone security measure someday. Reliability (and Risks) of Biometrics As it currently stands, biometric authentication is a problematic technology, simply because the ?key?–the user–can be inconsistent. Voices can sound different for a variety of reasons, and fashion choices can easily change one?s appearance enough to frustrate a biometric system. Imagine not being able to access the office because you experimented with a new haircut or picked up a fashionable new pair of spectacles! However, this doesn?t mean that there aren?t ways to cheat these systems. Photos can be effective, as can recordings of one?s voice. This is why most experts suggest that, if biometric authentication is to be used, multiple factors are taken into account. Security is a Major Concern […]

A managed service provider, or MSP, can provide your business with IT consulting and support services that take a proactive approach to your technology infrastructure management. With the right support, you can keep your business from suffering due to downtime or lost revenue. Here are a few reasons why a managed service provider is perhaps one of the best investments for the future of your business? technology. A Managed Service Provider Reduces Your IT Risks The primary responsibility of a managed service provider is to offer consulting and support, both of which facilitate a better management of risk and optimization. A managed service provider works proactively to keep potential IT issues from becoming actual IT issues. What it comes down to is that working with an IT provider will reduce the odds of encountering issues that keep your business from working as intended. Downtime will be less likely and less costly. A Managed Service Provider Pushes You to Better Solutions Moore?s Law, which refers to the rapid advancement of technology, has been proven to be true, as the capacity for improvement within our modern technology solutions has doubled every couple of years. Therefore, you need to consider this constant state of advancement when planning your organization?s IT. A managed service provider can take the long term into account to make smarter decisions regarding your technology implementation. IT consulting from an MSP can help you put together an upgrade strategy that takes into account the perceived future of your business. Furthermore, a managed service provider will be able to ensure your business can remain compliant with your industry?s regulations and requirements. An MSP is the Economic Option If you don?t have someone managing your technology, you?re essentially operating on borrowed time. If you?re not careful, you could ultimately close your doors because of issues that could have been prevented. Therefore, ignoring IT resources is not an option. If you have an in-house resource for IT management, then we?re sure they understand the intensive day-to-day tasks associated with your business? technology. Unfortunately, many internal IT departments simply don?t have the time and resources they need to most effectively function. Plus, what about all of the other one-off services that you take advantage of? It might seem intimidating to pull them all together and manage them under your organization?s umbrella, but a managed IT provider can make it happen. More often than not, businesses that offer these one-off services aren?t motivated to prevent issues from happening in the future, which is odd considering they will surely hear from you if they failed to do their job the first time. Either way, the end result is the same; a managed service provider makes sure that the services are implemented correctly, preventing you from investing more into making something work that should have been done right the first time. A Managed Service Provider Lets You Focus on Other Things All of the time that your organization would stress about its technology could be spent much more productively if it were managed by an MSP. Furthermore, if you don?t have to worry about locating, hiring talent, and on-boarding new employees for an in-house IT department, you can instead devote the time and resources for other endeavors and initiatives that are more profitable. White Mountain IT Services can provide your […]

How to Set Up Your Message In Gmail, access the Settings menu by clicking the cog icon at the top-right of your display. In the mobile application, select the Settings option from the hamburger menu at the top left and scroll to the bottom of your options. If you have more than one address connected to your Gmail application, you will have to confirm which of your accounts you want to alter the settings of. Locate the Vacation responder section. On the desktop version, this can be found at the very bottom of your Settings. In the app, this can be found about two-thirds of the way down, under General. On the desktop Gmail application, you can set up your responder from there. The responder automatically starts at midnight on the given day, and ends at midnight on the last specified day (if you provide one). From there, you can write your response like it?s any other message. Making sure that the Vacation responder on radio button is selected, activate your response by pressing the Save Changes button. If using the mobile version of Gmail, access the Vacation responder section by pressing the option. From there, you can switch your responder on (again providing the first and last days that it will come into effect) and compose your message. Once you are satisfied, press Done to save your changes. A yellow bar will appear on top of your Gmail inbox, allowing you to deactivate these features while saving your message in the desktop application. In the mobile app, you have to navigate back to the specified account?s General settings to review whether or not your responder is active. There you have it! You are now able to set up any message you want to share with someone trying to reach you while you aren?t in the office. Things to Keep in Mind It is also important to remember that each person who sends you an email will only see this message once every four days. Depending on your role, your mobile working capabilities, and the reason for your absence, you may want to consider providing your mobile device number in the auto response, or contacts in your organization who can help in your absence. While it is important to remain in communication with your business associates, there are times that it just isn?t practical. This is where this feature comes in handy. At White Mountain IT Services, we specialize in providing businesses with the solutions they need to achieve success. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 to chat about what we can do for you!

To this end, consider your employees to be ?customers.? You should aim to give them the tools they need while staying true to the customer service mindset. Methods of Data Collection In other words, we?re suggesting that you take a deep dive into your business? operations through a variety of mediums to best determine which processes can be improved through the implementation of technology. This involves a couple of different methods that you can use to collect data about your business? operations: Employee surveys: Administer anonymous surveys to discover ways certain teams might be able to be more effective at their jobs. Data analysis: Look to see which tasks are taking longer than usual and why. If it?s an internal issue that can be resolved through implementing a service or solution, then look into your options. Face-to-face discussions: Hold a meeting to discuss in-person what each department needs and how to help them get there. Ask Them What They Need Nobody knows your employees? jobs like your employees. If they say that they need something to do their jobs more effectively, you should do your due diligence and investigate what implementing the solution would mean for their effectiveness. Besides, opening up this direct line of communication with employees has a lot of benefits that might not seem clear in the moment. For one, it makes you accessible, meaning that they don?t have to see you as someone they have no hope of reaching. Another is that it shows you care about their work and making it better or more efficient, which can go a long way toward improving trust and transparency in-house. Respond Promptly, but Not Without Consideration Employees appreciate when their words are responded to promptly, but you should never react to what they ask for without first consulting your budget and organizational goals. It?s one thing to hear about issues regarding your workflows, but another entirely to actually act on them. Remember that every solution your business chooses to implement should be able to benefit your company?s bottom line. In other words, if it helps you either increase revenue or decrease operational costs, you can bet that it?s at least worth a shot–especially if it?s as easy to implement as a cloud-based application that can be utilized as a service. Remember, your job as a business owner is to listen to the issues that your employees are having and make it so that they can do their jobs in a more efficient manner. When they have all they need to be successful in their responsibilities, your organization benefits with higher quality of work completed or services rendered. To learn more about how your organization can take a more consumer-based mindset when dealing with your employees and technology, including ease-of-use and accessibility, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.