For Your Person There are plenty of smart products that are designed to help people stay on top of their health. The most recognizable of this technology are wearable devices that function as tools to help measure something specific about a person?s health. Led by companies like fitbit, many of today?s wearables are designed as multi-function physical training tools. Products like health bracelets, watches, and smart fabrics are designed to connect to the Internet or to an Internet-connected mobile device. The way it works is that each of these devices are built with microprocessors, sensors, and an energy source of some type. Engineers have toiled over the creation of this technology for over a decade, and today, with advancements in each, products are readily available that interest consumers enough to warrant over 125 million wearable units to be shipped in 2017 alone. Some smart products for your body include: Fitness trackers – Even the simplest ones track steps taken and estimated calories burned, while many also monitor distance traveled, sleep quality, and how fast you go. Smart watches – Some have fitness settings, but many of today?s smartwatches have ecosystems that run on apps. They are capable of a lot of useful things. Smart clothes – Most smart clothes are designed for use in exercise. There are self-cooling shirts that trigger when the body temperature rises to a certain temperature, and even yoga outfits that can help you master your form. For Your Transportation Today, a lot of work has gone into smart technology for the automobile. There are now cars that offer anything from face up displays that are easy to interact with, to screens that show two different sets of content depending where you sit in the car, to self-driving capabilities. This just touches what?s possible for future transportation. At this point, however, we are making headway in what will one day be a sector technology will virtually dominate. You don?t have to buy one of these cars to see smart technology working for you. Since 1996, ever car that has been manufactured has been built with an on-board diagnostic system. This innovation allows mechanics to access data about the vehicle. Today, there are several commercially available diagnostic tools that you can use to ascertain the health of your car without taking it to a mechanic. Today?s smart enhancements reach beyond the actual performance of the car, they make the user experience more immersive. Obviously navigation systems, especially those that also provide a simple interface to control the media, temperature, and drive type bring a lot of value to drivers. The use of cameras have also made a big difference for the modern driver. Not only do many cars now come with standard backup cameras, there are other cameras some drivers choose to use to enhance the security of their automobile. That?s not all. The future holds a lot of innovation for the ?smart? car. The addition of augmented reality displays on windshields and in rear-view mirrors will eventually become standard technology that will give the inside of your car a whole different look. More is being done by Google and Apple to integrate user?s smartphones with the car?s onboard computer, allowing users to have a static interface that will eliminate the need for anyone to pick up […]

Leveraging the Assets Available One of your first priorities needs to be to find a solution that fulfills your needs, and to resist the temptation to follow the convenient route and simply find a solution that covers ?enough? of them. After all, even if it actually does cover enough of your needs now, how can you be sure that your needs will still be covered later? This is why you need to select a solution that offers comprehensive coverage that won?t leave you piecing together your software strategy. Most businesses need productivity suites and payroll/accounting software as a base. As operations get more complex, so will the software you use. Many of the top-tier productivity suites have software that can do multiple things for you, so knowing what your needs are, and how software will help, will go a long way toward solidifying a software strategy that will work for your business. Managing Software Licenses It?s important to understand your software licenses to avoid major issues. For example, there?s the possibility that a team member may overstep the terms of your agreement with the software developer or distributor by installing a single license on multiple machines. This kind of mistake can cost your organization a pretty penny. The only way to mitigate negative situations is to be prepared for the worst. One way that you can do that is by getting with your IT administrator and ensure that he/she knows all the rights your organization has to its software. In doing so you will not only gain the peace of mind that your IT admin knows the situation, you will also get someone in-house who is more proficient dealing with licensing and other software problems. Ensuring all your software is registered, licensed, and working optimally has to be at the forefront of your IT department? software plan. Understanding What It Is You Have As mentioned above, software is a big deal for almost every organization, and when it comes to managing the software you rely on, there is a laundry list of the things that you need to know. It?s not just about compatibility and cost, although those are two of the more major factors. To accomplish comprehensive software management, you?ll want to produce a list of software and the requisite licenses they require. In this repository, you will want to break it down by the way the software is stored (endpoint, server, cloud, etc.), and you will want to include everything. From operating systems, to your CRM, to any productivity apps your staff uses. Once you get the list built, with all the licensing information, you have to go back over the list and make sure that all of the software is legally being utilized by your company. This just puts any doubt to rest. It also gives you a chance to set reminders when critical software licenses expire, which is very useful if your IT department is focused on the litany of other issues your business has. You also have to know how your staff uses the software you have; or, more specifically, how they misuse it. Your software costs are more than just how much you pay for your software, they also are manifested in the time spend learning, using, and troubleshooting the software they need to […]

For example, let?s assume you?re in the market for a new piece of business software, but you aren?t sure what your available options are. You?ve done some research online, but you?d really rather talk to someone one-on-one to understand what is potentially available to you. While your conversation seems promising at the start, you soon realize that it has continued far longer than it should have. Making matters worse, it turns out that the solution isn?t the right fit, meaning that you just wasted valuable time for essentially nothing. For a moment, let?s take a step back and assume that you don?t realize what a poor fit the new solution is until it?s already been implemented. You don?t want to waste your investment into it, so you seek out support from the provider. Before you know it, you?re spending more time than ever trying to sort out issues with your provider, playing phone tag and composing emails to them as you try and explain your situation, so it can be fixed. Going through this for one solution would be bad enough – just think what it would be like to go through it for each one you leverage. Do you really have that much time to waste? Plus, each vendor will have their own set of particular contacts and a preference for how you get in touch with them. Don?t you have enough to deal with without keeping track of each vendor and their offering for you, plus all of their points of contact? Of course, you do, which is why you could benefit from a vendor management strategy from White Mountain IT Services. We?ll keep track of your solutions and contacts and handle your wishes on your behalf. We?ll also keep careful documentation of every detail of your arrangements – which vendors you use, the software you have licensed, and the devices you have at your disposal – and take over their management on your behalf. Therefore, the number of contacts you ever need to reach out to concerning your vendors is one, without the chance of being put on hold or just told to repeat the same troubleshooting tasks you?ve already gone through. Rather, one of our technicians will be able to access the information they need to expedite your support process, getting you back in business with minimal time wasted. To make a long story short, with White Mountain IT Services?s vendor management services, you?ll only ever have to call one trusted source to resolve any of your technology and support needs. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 for more information.

How to Set Up Canned Responses The first step is to log into your browser version of Gmail. Next, click on the Gear icon in the top right corner under your profile image to access the Settings. You should then see a horizontal menu that will show you the option for Advanced. You?ll then see the option to enable canned responses. Click on the radio button to enable them, then save your changes. You can now begin using your canned responses for email. Creating and Using Your Canned Responses Of course, you can?t use canned responses without having any responses saved. First, open up the message composer and build out a message. Once you?re finished, access the message window options by selecting the button in the bottom-right corner. You should now see a Canned Responses option, along with a sub-menu that lets you save a New Canned Response. Gmail will ask you to name your new response so that it can be found again in the future. For more great tips and tricks, be sure to subscribe to White Mountain IT Services?s blog.

The Equifax Problem During the months of May and July of 2017, a credit-reporting firm called Equifax fell victim to a data breach that exposed a whopping 148.1 million records containing personally identifiable information. To put this in perspective, the Equifax data breach exposed almost half of the population of the United States of America. In the wake of this breach, the former Equifax CEO Richard Smith was cross-examined by Congress. Smith?s defense argued that ?human and technology errors? were at the heart of the issue. Ultimately, the Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Greg Walden, came to the following conclusion: ?I don?t think that we can pass a law that fixes stupid.? How to Fix Your Data Security While it?s true that there is no guarantee legislation would resolve the issue, you still need to make sure that your organization is doing the best that it can to keep threats from infiltrating its network. You can begin by implementing specific standards on a company-wide level or a case-by-case level. Here are some ideas that you can start with: Start with compliance: Compliance regulations don?t always have data security in mind. That being said, it?s still an important part of managing your data security, as you could potentially be subject to fines and other troubling regulations. Resolve vulnerabilities: 99 percent of exploits rely on vulnerabilities remaining unresolved in network infrastructures. These exploits also often exploit vulnerabilities that are at least a half a year old. You should make patching these vulnerabilities a priority so that you can best protect your data. Centralize your data security: There needs to be someone at the helm of your data security endeavors. If there isn?t, you make protecting your data much more difficult. This person should be responsible for implementing access control and making sure that nobody can access data that they wouldn?t need for their ordinary workday. Encouraging Employee Security Employees hold more sway over your business? security than they may realize. This makes it difficult to protect important assets, because if you?re overly cautious, you could be compromising your business? ability to operate as intended. For your benefit, here are a couple of ways that your organization can help employees remain cognizant of their responsibilities. Lazy credential habits: Password problems have persisted in business for a long time. Employees should never reuse passwords or usernames for every account that they have. Each password should be a complex, containing letters, numbers, and symbols to maximize security. You can use a password management system if this gets to be a bit too much for your employees. Oversharing information: You should help your employees work toward limiting just how much information they share about themselves on social media so that passwords are not as easily predicted. Avoid using personal anecdotes whenever possible, and restrict who can see what information to minimize the chances of this happening. You also don?t want information to spread outside of the office, as an invoice or receipt with a customer number could be all a hacker needs to cause trouble. Using the wrong Wi-Fi: Public Wi-Fi is dangerous and therefore, not the ideal way to access secure data. You should work together with your employees to make sure that they have secure access to company documents whenever they […]