Seeing just how much this issue monopolizes an employee?s workday, there are many different angles you can take to tackle this problem and streamline operations. One of the biggest areas you can start with happens to also be a medium that you personally have the most control over, meetings. For starters, making meetings more efficient means thinking about how meetings are actually run. Now, you?re likely already doing this to some extent. After all, no leader just shows up to a meeting without a plan or some sort of agenda in place. Instead, we?re suggesting that there?s value in taking a step back and reevaluating the purpose of your meetings. Upon doing so, you may discover that the goal of your meetings can even be achieved in better ways than having everyone gather in one room. If this is the case, then you may be able to forgo the meeting altogether. This is a helpful exercise to go through because of how easy it is to get stuck in the rut of ?meeting for the sake of meeting.? Once you?ve made the determination that having a meeting is the best way to achieve your goal, you?re next going to want to communicate the purpose of the meeting to all who are involved. When everybody understands what the intended outcome is regarding why they?re gathered, everybody will be on the same page and wasting time by getting off topic will be minimized. As a bonus, this move will help you wrap up meetings earlier. This could even help change the way certain employees think about meetings, particularly workers that may be so tied to their schedules that they feel obligated to keep a meeting going until it?s scheduled to end–even if the goal was achieved early on. It should go without saying that ending a meeting earlier than scheduled will lead to workers being able to spend more time, you know, working. Another proactive measure you can take to streamline your meetings is to create an outline and send it to everyone at least 24 hours in advance. By doing this, participants will know what to expect and be able to provide quality input before and during the meeting. This due to the simple fact that they?ve had adequate time to run through the meeting in their head and formulate thoughtful questions and responses. As a bonus, you can send information to the participants relating to the topic at hand, and ask them to have it read before the meeting, sort of like assigning homework. This will make meetings feel less like everyone is ?shooting from the hip,? and more like all involved are contributing in meaningful ways. When the meeting ends, you can streamline the process further by getting honest feedback. By taking time to hear the participants’ thoughts on whether or not the goals were met, and what ideas they may have about improving how meetings are run, you?ll be able to tweak and enhance future meetings based on such feedback. Of course, when it comes to streamlining communications around the office, equipping your workforce with the right technology can be a tremendous help. For example, technology can serve as an aid to make meetings more efficient, like utilizing video conferencing tools so people can participate in a virtual […]

The responses we?ve seen over the years is either employers trying to curb it by supplying company devices, or nixing mobile devices altogether. Both of these options have some serious side effects that must be taken into consideration. I?ll Just Issue Business-Approved Mobile DevicesDepending on the kind of work your employees do, this might be a good perk. You can take serious considerations into the platform (iOS, Android, Windows), contract terms, and how the company will control and protect its data. You can also map out how you will separate work from personal use on the device, clearly lay out what you can do and what the employee can do, what happens if the device is lost, what happens if the employee quits, etc. The problem with this method is that it?s often seen as a quick fix. Throwing money at this problem and forcing employees to use work-issued devices won?t solve the problem of controlling data without putting together the plan. Plus, while statistics do show that employees aren?t necessarily unhappy with corporate devices, if they feel strong-armed into using a device, the staff who were using their own devices to actually work harder and more effectively might feel slighted. That said, other employees might like the idea of getting a new smartphone on the company?s dime. It?s really going to depend on your employees and company culture. I?ll Just Ban All Mobile Devices in the WorkplaceIt?s a big ultimatum: no email access, no file access, no messengers, no note-taking, no mobile devices, period. Anyone caught using a personal device will be penalized or written up. You?ll certainly protect your data this way. Chances are though, you?ll also create agita with staff who were really just trying to do their jobs better. Employees won?t think about the ramifications of lost data, they will just think their boss is making it harder for them to be effective. Fortunately, most employers haven?t resorted to this, but it still happens. Beyond just stirring up emotions, this can drastically set your company back compared to competitors that are welcoming mobility and benefiting from it. It Sounds Bad, But There are OptionsThere is a middle-ground between banning devices altogether and enforcing company-issued devices. Policies can be put in place that protects company assets like email and access to data while respecting the privacy of your employees. Employers can push policies – like enforcing users to set up passwords, patterns, or pins to log into the device, grant the ability to revoke access to email, and even wipe the device remotely if it is lost or stolen. Personal laptops can be granted company antivirus and remote monitoring, or better yet, employers can offer a VPN or hosted desktop solution so they won?t have to worry about the state of the device. The latter can also address other needs such as software licensing and accessing company data while on public Wi-Fi. White Mountain IT Services Can HelpThe best way for a business owner to handle mobile devices in the workplace is to implement a BYOD strategy–one that addresses every security risk while enhancing all the benefits of mobile technology. Every business is different, which is why it?s best to have a consultant like White Mountain IT Services work with you to develop a BYOD strategy that?s tailored to enhance your company?s goals. […]

This blog focuses on the most recent version of OneNote: 2016. Older versions might lack some of the same features, so if you are running an older version of Microsoft Office, it might be time to consider an upgrade to a more recent version. The BenefitsOneNote was designed with the intention of providing businesses with a tool to foster collaboration. You can save your Notebooks on either your local network drive or to Microsoft?s OneDrive cloud. You can then share these Notebooks with other users within your organization, allowing users to collaborate on projects and share notes through a virtual environment. OneNote might not be able to create a myriad of documents like the other Microsoft Office apps, but it can be described as the ultimate highlight reel of the other Office 365 software. You can write, build simple tables, display charts and graphs, and draw on documents. Just keep in mind that it won?t be useful enough to completely replace the features of these other Office 365 apps. Note-Taking CapabilitiesOneNote offers many features that allow you to create notes and organize information. When you create a Notebook, you can divide it into tabs, and further divide them into pages. There are even pre-made templates online that you can use. Alternatively, you can create your own template that best accommodates your specific needs. Your notes can even include more than just simple text. OneNote lets you take clips of web pages and directly insert them into your note. OneNote also allows for the pulling of text directly from images. All you have to do is right-click them, or search for the text that appears in the images. You might be surprised by how accurate this search function can be. This is very handy when taking photos of physical documents and business cards. OneNote even supports handwritten note-taking with the ability to convert it into a font-based text. It also has a great math function. This allows you to type or draw out a simple equation. It can then convert them to text and solve them. You can also format your pages to suit your specific needs. Alongside this, OneNote offers functionality that allows you to link content on one page to other OneNote locations for quick and easy access. In terms of security, notes can be assigned password protection, which means that only those who are given this privileged credential can access them. It?s clear that OneNote is great for any business environment, but how are you using it? Do you currently have OneNote installed, or are you hoping to take better advantage of it in the future? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to subscribe for more great information on SMB technology.

VirusesViruses are pieces of code that infect your system and cause many issues, ranging from being mildly irritating to particularly dangerous. Viruses can cause system slowdown and many other problems with performance, or can open you up to data theft and major downtime issues. A solid security software like an antivirus solution can be sufficient to keep most viruses out of your infrastructure, but more advanced threats will be more crafty in their exploitation of your organization?s weak points. MalwareJust like viruses, malware, or ?malicious software,? infects a system to perform various functions. Variants like spyware can be used to watch your every move and capture keystrokes, while ransomware can be used to lock down your files and extort money from your organization. Either way, malware is problematic, and you?ll want to take steps to prevent infection in the first place. SpamSpam messages are both annoying and wasteful, but more than anything else, they are dangerous for your organization. Spam is the preferred method of spreading threats like viruses, malware, ransomware, and phishing scams, primarily because messages can be sent to countless users at the same time. While some email providers will have measures put into place to mitigate the threat of spam, you want your own secondary solutions that further protect your assets from messages containing infected attachments or malicious links. Phishing ScamsHackers and identity thieves will often try to steal data from organizations or even individuals through targeted attacks designed to harvest credentials. They will pretend to be reputable individuals from organizations that your business might have dealings with, or they will take the identity of someone you might know from your personal life. Either way, they will try to use who you know against you to steal sensitive information, like financial credentials, personally identifiable information, or login information for online accounts. The best way to avoid getting tricked by these scams is to brush up on the giveaway signs, such as poor spelling in messages, out-of-the-blue outreaches from the sender, unexpected urgent final notices, and more. White Mountain IT Services can help you ensure your staff is trained on how to identify these scams. CEO FraudAn increasingly popular trend, called ?whaling? or CEO fraud, occurs when a hacker takes on the identity of someone with authority within your organization, like the CEO or other members of the C-Suite. These types of schemes often present themselves in the form of an email appearing to come from a legitimate source asking for something like a wire transfer of funds. In these cases, the recipient of the message doesn?t necessarily want to question authority, and will instead comply with the request. If this occurs within your own organization, take a moment to reach out to the sender via their official telephone number that you have on record, or by dropping into their office for a quick chat regarding the message sent. It could save you from accidentally transferring huge sums of cash to a hacker. How do you protect your business from the many threats found online? White Mountain IT Services can help you implement powerful security solutions, like Unified Threat Management, to keep your digital assets safe from the majority of threats. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.