Brief is BetterWhat?s your knee-jerk reaction to a long email? Best-case scenario for the sender, you skim it briefly before moving on to the rest of your inbox. You have other things to do, after all, which probably include reading the rest of your emails. Your contacts are in the same position, so it is better to keep your emails concise and direct. Any extra information that doesn?t serve the email?s purpose can be chopped. If an email is too long for you to read, it will be too long for the recipient to read as well. Write a Persuasive Subject LineYour subject line is your first, and only, opportunity to convince the recipient of your message that it is worth their time to read. You want to introduce the topic of your email in such a way that grabs the attention of the reader and encourages them to open the email and at least see what is inside. Give them a reason to open the email, not fluff. Personalization can HelpIf your email messages read like they could be sent to anyone, from any company, you need to revisit them. Each email that is sent out should look like the time was spent to create a genuine message, which means that you need to take the time to create that genuine message. You should always identify yourself and your company, especially when communicating with vendors, new clients, and prospects. Check Your SpellingIf you want to immediately discredit everything you have to say in your email, try misspelling a word or using improper grammar. These embarrassing and reputation-harming mistakes are easy enough to avoid by proofreading any message that is about to go out before clicking the Send button. Furthermore, don?t write anything that may be conveyed as unprofessional, like a sentence with Caps Lock activated. Business Messages Should be ProfessionalWe?re not saying that you shouldn?t share the occasional meme or joke with your organization, we?re saying that some ground rules need to be established. Provide your employees with an outlet that they can use to share these kinds of casual messages, so that their business inboxes aren?t filled with clutter that distracts them from their work. Otherwise, your email could start to contribute to a lack of productivity and focus. For more information on possible business communication solutions, including email, give White Mountain IT Services a call at (603) 889-0800.

When we say convenience, we are referring to the ability for a business? workforce to access the means of accomplishing their tasks from anywhere, not tied to their office workstation. We?ve assembled some solutions below that we anticipate more businesses will adopt in order to increase their capacity for remote work, and consequently improving their possible productivity. Cloud ServicesIf a company is utilizing remote technology, it is a safe bet that they are utilizing a cloud platform to enable their workers? remote access. Cloud platforms are web-based solutions that allow a user to securely access an online storage space and other utility programs that enable them to collaborate with their fellow workers. Using a cloud platform means that work can be done from anywhere that an employee can establish a secure Internet connection, while the files that this work requires are stored in a protected space. This maintains the security that modern businesses require while allowing productivity to take place. Video ConferencingHow does one hold a meeting when the people who all need to attend are spread across the country–or even the globe–when the meeting is scheduled to take place? Video conferencing provides the answer. Not only does this solution allow a spread-out team to work as though they are in the same room, it pushes them to collaborate. No matter the distance between resources, they can all contribute to a goal without the need to assemble and pay exorbitant travel costs. This is especially handy when one only needs someone to sign off on things from across the country, but that person needs to see some evidence first. TeleconferencingThis is one of the most basic, but most useful, methods of quick collaboration available. Without the ability to call up another resource and exchange critical information in a real-time conversation, progress would slow to a crawl. While email is an excellent collaboration tool, both resources have to be faithfully opening messages as they come in, which just isn?t realistic in modern business. Alternatively, meetings could take place in person, but as we established earlier, this isn?t a realistic method either, especially if your business plans to remain competitive. Telecommunications systems, including VoIP solutions, enable communications to continue despite physical distance, a proven utility in modern business procedures. In short, a business that passes up on these tools is allowing the opportunity to improve their business communications to go by. This is why we expect that most businesses will take the steps to adopt these solutions, assuming they haven?t already. What technologies do you expect that businesses will increase their use of in the coming year? Tell us what they are and why they?ll shape your office environment in the comments section!

It starts by being cognizant of how mobile technology has affected the way that we work. Since mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, and laptops now allow us to access important applications on the go, there is more emphasis placed on mobility than ever before. Being able to access and accomplish work from outside the office presents all sorts of possibilities, including the ability to go on a business trip without falling behind on your other tasks. It?s easy to see the benefit of mobile technology, but is mobile really advantageous for the average worker? There are various risks that come from mobile technology–specifically regarding work/life balance. According to an Accenture survey, 70% of respondents claim that work tends to invade their home life through technology, whether they like it or not. How can the modern business take advantage of the benefits that mobile technology brings, while respecting the sanctity of their employees? work/life balance? We?ll walk you through two of the basics. Ditch the ?Always On? FunctionalityTechnology can be a problematic factor as it has a tendency to increase worker stress levels. This comes from the fact that, if you?re using technology to always be available, even during your off-hours, you are probably pushing yourself harder than you need to. Both the employee and the employer have a responsibility to ensure that availability doesn?t come at the cost of your own sanity. Coordination with Other Teammates or DepartmentsDepending on your workforce, there might not always be a requirement that you be the one to address an issue. Perhaps someone else who is in the office (and NOT on vacation) could handle it for you. If you have to be out of the office for any particular reason, it?s best to have a backup plan to handle any mission-critical responsibilities. The point stands that mobile technology might make work easier to access, and provides the flexibility that the modern business cherishes, but just because something is accessible, doesn?t mean you have to be the one who access it. Separating life from work is important for every person, regardless of what they do. At White Mountain IT Services we can help your organization take full advantage of mobile devices, but it?s on you to have a strategy to keep your workers happy and productive. To learn more about how to utilize mobile technology for your business, call us today at (603) 889-0800.

Neglecting UpdatesTo look at your computer, you?d probably never guess that a war is waged every day over it. Yet software developers and hackers are locked in battle, working to improve their programs to thwart the others? in a digital arms race. While hackers work to create exploits for the vulnerabilities that a program may have, developers seek to improve protection of data and patch existing vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, while a hacker?s improvements are applied automatically, security improvements are released via updates, which require the user to activate. This means that if you have been neglecting your system updates, you have been leaving yourself vulnerable. Skipping the Terms and ConditionsWhile it may seem like a benign prospect, you could actually put yourself at risk by not reading the terms and conditions when prompted to accept them by a program you are trying to download and install. Try to resist the urge to click through before you?ve checked to see what you?re agreeing to. Oftentimes, these prompts will sneak in consent to have unwanted and unpleasant bloatware installed along with the program you intended to install. Before clicking ?Accept,? check with IT to be sure that everything is above board and secure. Not Accounting for Power FluctuationsWhile your computer relies on electricity in order to function, the relationship between your device and its energy source is far from perfect. If too much power is delivered (perhaps due to a lightning strike) you could find yourself dealing with the effects of a surge. These can damage hardware components and necessitate expensive repairs. Using a surge protector or an Uninterruptible Power Supply can help prevent these circumstances. In fact, a UPS will even sustain your devices for a few minutes if the power was to go out, allowing you to safely save and shutdown to avoid data loss. No BackupWe?ve said it before, and we?ll say it many more times: you need to have a backup solution in place to keep your business safe. As much as you may want to assume that a data loss event won?t darken your business? door, the chances of it happening are too great to ignore. By maintaining a comprehensive, cloud-based data backup solution, you give yourself the best chance of recovering your data whenever you need it. White Mountain IT Services can help keep you and your users from making too many mistakes, as well as assist you in bouncing back when errors are made. Call us at (603) 889-0800 for more information.

Some BackstoryBlack Friday was first established in the 1950s as a way to start the holiday shopping season off on a profitable note. In fact, Black Friday gets its name from its ability to bring stores and their annual profits out of the red and into the black. Cyber Monday, on the other hand, was born to encourage shoppers to use the new shopping capabilities to be found in ?cyberspace,? hence the name Cyber Monday. These sales often took place on Monday because, at this point, most personal users were still using dial-up Internet connections, while their offices had the faster connections. So Cyber Monday mainly got its start from workers who were doing their online shopping during work hours. These sales proved to be major money draws for online stores, so they made sure to make it as big of a deal, so to speak, as Black Friday. Nowadays, these two events have blended together somewhat. Black Friday?s sales can often be found online, as well as in-store. However, Cyber Monday will never make the move into brick-and-mortar establishments. Where (or When) The Best Deals are FoundOf course, there is no cut-and-dry answer to this question. There are many variables involved in finding the best deals for different items, and these factors change from year-to-year. Furthermore, if we only consider deals that take place on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we ignore another day that–at least last year–dominated, as far as the best deals are concerned: Thanksgiving Day itself. Turkey Day deals were the best of the three options in almost every category in electronics, computers, and beauty, were the best in half of the kinds of entertainment deals, and dominated home and garden purchases in all categories. Comparatively, Black Friday and Cyber Monday only managed to provide the ideal deals in, at most, one subset of each category. Sometimes, there was no competition, and Thanksgiving Day deals were just the best option. Notable exceptions were Android devices (Black Friday was the best time for these) and laptops (which were available for the best deals on Cyber Monday). Of course, since these are the results from last year, they may offer no valuable insights into this year?s tendencies at all. If you consider yourself a true bargain hunter, it may be wise to find an app that directs you to nearby deals or offers rewards for shopping and scanning your receipt. You also have to take into consideration the other, non-financial costs involved in each form of shopping during this time. For example, the convenience of Cyber Monday often offsets the slightly less-good deals that one may find. After all, isn?t it easier to order something in a few clicks to have it brought to your door than it would be to wait outside in the wee hours of the morning and fight your way through crowds of people, all for a difference of a few dollars? And to the same point, is the difference of a few dollars worth sacrificing the quality time a holiday can bring to scramble around a store? So, to answer the question of when is the best day to find a great deal on holiday gifts (and maybe a little something for yourself): it all depends, so you?ll have to do a bit […]