Analyzing the Costs While most users will understand cost in its literal term, it?s critical that you consider the other factors that make up cost. By definition, cost is what you give up in order to attain something else. Cost primarily focuses on what you?re giving up instead of what you get, so it tends to look at concepts such as pricing or other manners of investment. Cost can also include factors other than monetary value, including time, effort, or other resources. Analyzing cost can help you optimize the way that your assets are applied, thus reducing the amount of waste and ensuring the desired outcome for your organization. That being said, the cost of an item is only half the battle. Analyzing Value If cost is what you give up in order to receive something, then value is what you get out of something. Value can be inherently based on financial gain, but many times value is actually the total yield versus the total investment. One of the best examples is starting off communications with a new client, as one good action could create a considerably more valuable relationship with them as time goes on. An example where we can see the difference between cost and value for technology would be purchasing a new workstation. It?s one thing to look at the price tag, but this doesn?t give you the whole picture. Your old workstation hasn?t cost you much financially because you paid it off a long time ago, whereas a new computer is of considerable cost. However, your old workstation might suffer from issues related to outdated operating systems or components, making it a difficult piece of technology to work with from. The value in this case is saved time and enhanced productivity. Calculating Your IT?s Value If you ever need to calculate how much a certain action or decision will cost your company in terms of value, you can try to compare it mathematically. After all, numbers don?t lie. This helps you keep track of what you?ve invested, as well as how much you?re getting in return for your investment. To determine the value of something, you can use a simple ?x=y? equation. In this case, the invested cost is ?x,? while the result (the value) is ?y.? Now, let?s try out an example. You need to determine if your business? technology investment actually equals productivity. In this case, you can use a simple ratio method. Let?s say you invest $25 into a workstation and increase productivity by 10%, when investing an extra $30 will improve efficiency by 17%. If investing $31 only raises productivity by 16%, instead of investing more in something else, you just narrow down the cost until you have achieved the maximum value per dollar. White Mountain IT Services can help your organization get more value out of its technology. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

Remote monitoring and management, or RMM, can provide your business with several benefits that would be difficult to achieve otherwise. Here are just a few of them, in no particular order. Patching and Updates In order to keep your business? applications up to date at all times, you?ll have to continuously keep an eye out for new patches that shore up any weaknesses in your organization?s network infrastructure. This can be a time-consuming process, and the amount of time it takes to do this for your organization is commensurate with the number of workstations, server units, networking devices, and mobile devices that your company has to keep track of. Remote monitoring and management can be used to administer updates to all of your company?s devices as needed, even if the provider isn?t necessarily on-site to apply the edits. Since you don?t have to manually install updates on each and every one of your devices, you can instead invest this time elsewhere. Network Security Management When it comes to network security, you want to be both proactive and reactive to threats. Part of the way you can be more reactive to threats is by actively monitoring your organization?s infrastructure for breaches of security. Imagine being able to detect an attack and deflect it automatically or be notified in real time if your network is accessed by someone who is unauthorized to do so. Monitoring and maintenance technology allows for this as well, and it can be a great way to ensure that your organization can effectively react to a data breach. Saved Time and Resources Imagine how much time your business could save if the majority of maintenance could be done without an on-site visit? Not only would you save a ton of money, but you would also save a lot of time. Since you don?t have to wait for technicians to arrive on-site for most problems to be resolved, you?re saving a considerable amount of time on problem resolution. Plus, you won?t be paying them for the time that they spend on the road to your office. It?s a win-win scenario for both you and the provider. Does your business want to implement remote monitoring and management? White Mountain IT Services can help. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

Simple Automation Productivity is the primary goal of just about any office, and Google Home can help reach this goal through some basic automation. The device itself actually serves several purposes in your office, but only through integrations with other devices and services does it reach its true potential. A big example of this is your office thermostat or light switch. These devices can adjust your office?s environment when they receive a command from your Google devices. This provides a lot of control over your office?s environment that you might not have otherwise because you lost the remote control to your air conditioning unit, or you have to get up and turn the light off manually. Instead, you just say, ?Hey Google, turn off the lights in the conference room,? or ?Hey Google, set temperature to 73 degrees.? This allows you to continue being productive seamlessly without interrupting your workday. More Advanced Automation One example of a web service that integrates very well with Google Home devices is If This Then That, commonly referred to as IFTTT. This can automate your organization?s functions to a certain degree. Through IFTTT, you can connect your Google Home device (or whichever device you?re using) and customize the trigger for which command you want to use. These triggers will be activated by your voice, but there are some variations that you can try. Once you have assigned your commands, click Create Trigger, then click through ?that.? You can also search through any available channels that you can trigger with your Google Assistant, select the desired one, and fill in the necessary configurations. Once you?ve finished this process, your device will be all set for automation. Activating More Commands Your Google Home devices can also do a lot of other commands that you might find useful in the business setting–particularly those that require multiple devices to be effective. One example is if your office is large and you can?t get ahold of someone through messaging or a phone call. You can use your Google Home device to work like an intercom to page the employee. This function uses the ?broadcast? feature of Google Home to replay whatever message you want to any Home devices connected to the account. A Google Home device can follow commands from more than just yourself, though. In fact, multiple users can be connected to it, totaling up to six accounts with potential connectivity. The device can even customize potential answers based on who?s accessing the device. If you allow visitors in your office, they can also take advantage of Google Home via Guest mode. They can connect to the device without connecting to the Wi-Fi. You can thus keep your wireless credentials to yourself without handing them out to any stranger visiting your office. Do you have an interesting way that you take advantage of Google Home? If so, let us know in the comments.

Why Cost-Per-Page is So Important It is pretty common knowledge in the business world that, in order for a printer to properly print, it needs to have ink with which to print. This ink comes in the form of ink cartridges, which need to be replaced once the ink within them has been spent. These cartridges are, unfortunately, anything but cheap – and you usually have to purchase multiple to get the full benefits of a multicolor printer. This is part of the reason that it is important for you to know your printer?s average cost-per-page (CPP), or at least have a figure that is reasonably close. If your business relies heavily on paper documents in its daily processes, these costs can be considerable. How to Calculate the Average Cost-Per-Page Despite different ink cartridges being made for a variety of different printers, the calculation to determine your CPP is relatively simple. All you have to do is divide the price of the cartridge by the cartridge yield rating, or how many pages the cartridge should be expected to print. This number can be found on the cartridge?s packaging. So, if you spent $25 on a cartridge of black ink with a yield of 525 pages, your formula would look like this… 25/525 = 0.048 …giving you a cost of about 5 cents per page. Calculating CCP in More Complicated Printers The fact that not all ink cartridges are the same can add a step or two to this calculation. Since many modern printers now rely on different cartridge configurations, like an individual cartridge for each color (black, cyan, yellow, and magenta) or two cartridges that cover them all (black, and cyan, yellow, magenta). Regardless, your calculation will be more or less the same, with minor adjustments to account for how the colors are clustered or divided. Basically, when adding color into the equation, find the CPP of each color and combine your totals – including black. It is important to remember that when printing something in color, you?re apt to use just as much, if not more, black ink as well. Furthermore, it is important to consider that ink cartridge manufacturers will often base their yield rating on standardized business documents, with a certain percentage of the document being covered in ink. Therefore, printing something that doesn?t fit into these constraints will throw off the yield, which can happen based on what kind of document you are printing, and even what kind of paper you?re using. Controlling Your Prints Calculating your investment into each print can also provide you with some invaluable insight into the goings-on at your office. Mostly, it may show you that you are spending far more than you should be on printed materials. White Mountain IT Services can help with that. We can help you implement the solutions that will allow you to cap each user?s printer use, streamlining and optimizing your ability to use it and remain fiscally responsible. Alternatively, we can also offer collaboration solutions that can help reduce your reliance on physical documents entirely. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 to learn more!

On Thursday, May 3, it came to light that there was an internal log upon which an undisclosed number of account passwords were recorded without any protection. As a result, this unknown amount of passwords can no longer be considered secure, even though there is no apparent evidence that any data breach has occurred. Twitter uses a process called hashing to protect their passwords, as many companies do. However, a bug created a log of passwords before they were hashed, leaving them fully legible. This bug has since been resolved. In response to this situation, Twitter is being proactive and recommending that all of its users change their passwords, just in case. To do so, log in to your account in your browser, access Settings and privacy, and from there, Password. It is also a good idea to enable two-factor authentication by accessing Settings and privacy, clicking into Account. Once there, click on the ?Set up login verification? button and follow the instructions. You will find yourself on a Login verification screen, where you can activate the means to generate another authentication code. While disaster seems to be averted this time, you should not hesitate to change your password as soon as possible, and makes sure that all of your online accounts have strong passwords in place. For more information about keeping your identity safe online, call the IT professionals at White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800.