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Let?s say you were working with the following data, outlining the departments each of your employees are a part of, along with when they were first hired and their current pay rate. As you scroll down this list, you might find it useful to have a reminder of what each column is describing?and this only becomes more the case as your spreadsheets grow larger and more complicated. Luckily for us, Excel makes it easy to have certain data remain on screen. How to Freeze Panes in Excel Freezing a pane simply means that you?re telling Excel to keep that data visible as you scroll, and again, it?s laughably easy to do. First, select the row immediately below or the column immediately to the right of the data you want frozen. In our example, since we want to keep Row 1 in sight, we?d select Row 2. With the appropriate row or column (in this example, row) selected, you?ll next access the View tab in the ribbon and select Freeze Panes. You?ll then be presented with three options: Freeze Panes, Freeze Top Row, or Freeze First Column. For our purposes, we?ll be selecting Freeze Panes (although Freeze Top Row would also work in this context). Once you?ve done so, you can then scroll freely, with your top row remaining in sight. And just like that, you have continued access to critical context for your data! What else would you like to know how to do with your essential business software? Reach out to us at (603) 889-0800 and let us know, or to learn more about how we can generally make your IT maintenance a non-issue for your business.

The Minutiae ?Business operations? is generally used as an umbrella term, not necessarily in relation to a particular task or what makes up that task. Some of these tasks can be repetitive, and while they are important and must be fulfilled, they can often make even the best employee feel like their time is underutilized. Thankfully, there is an alternative solution that might be able to address this challenge. Automation Can Be The Remedy You Need Some studies have indicated that automation of rote tasks can save as much as two hours of work every day? per employee. Imagine how much more you can get done as an organization if you save that much time. You could focus on revenue-generating tasks or other intensive work tasks, and employees would be less likely to disengage from their work. More time could be spent focusing on what matters and innovating for a brighter future. Most business automation occurs through software solutions. Manufacturers can also incorporate robots to handle many of their automated tasks. Small businesses, on the other hand, will use automation to support their Standard Operating Procedures, using technology to build repeatable and trackable processes that provide them with much-needed consistency. How You Can Build Better Automation Processes Some businesses will find automation integration to be easier than others. Certain tasks will be easier to automate, while others will actually come at the detriment of your organization. Let?s examine the best ways automation can provide a return on investment for your business. Lead Generation Managing your lead lists can be time-consuming, but it is essential to optimizing your profits and revenue generation. If you automate these tasks, you are making it easier for your sales team to pursue meaningful connections with potential clients, improving your business? profitability as a whole. You can automate the process of inputting leads into your customer relationship management software or even assign them a score based on how likely they are to yield a return. You can then use these scores to make the most educated decisions possible for pursuing new prospects. Notifications Internal communications can be challenging to manage, too, but the fact remains that if they are managed effectively, they can improve your business? performance across the board. Automated notifications can improve the speed and efficiency at which your business communicates, and you can set them up to work with your pre-existing tools like instant messaging, phone systems, email, and so on. These notifications can help you better manage inventory, provide better support, update users on tasks, and so much more. Customer Support Small businesses have been innovating to provide better customer support and service through the use of automation. Technologies like AI-powered chatbots can provide excellent front-end customer support to handle simple, common issues, leaving your production staff more time to handle other tasks. Chatbots are just a good supplement to your current support team, providing yet another option for customers to receive support the way they want to. Automation can make your business much more profitable and productive. To learn more about how you can take advantage of it, be sure to contact us at (603) 889-0800.

In a nutshell, when accessed on a desktop, Google now operates in the same continuous scroll format that was implemented in October 2021 on mobile devices. How Will Continuous Scroll Work on Google? Similarly to how many social media platforms work, Google will now present the equivalent of six pages of results before giving users a ?See more? button that loads additional results. The idea is that this will make searching quicker and easier for users?and, if only slightly, reduce how critical it is to be one page one (although the fact remains that the higher a result is in the search results, the better it is for that webpage). What do you think of this change? Let us know, and don?t hesitate to share any updated jokes that better fit the new approach Google Search is taking.

What is a Business Continuity Plan? Essentially the business continuity plan is exactly that: it is a strategy put in place that will allow a business to get back up and operational quickly after an event happens that causes interruption. Only part of a continuity plan has to do with your business? technology, but since most businesses have built a major reliance on their technology to operate, understanding how it fits into their continuity strategy is essential to mitigate major problems if they do arise.  This isn?t always easy. In fact, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) found that about a quarter of companies aren?t able to reopen if they are hit with a natural disaster that takes out their ability to operate. That percentage grows pretty rapidly the smaller your business is. Of course, having a plan in place to mitigate the effects of flood, fire, and other major disasters is pretty commonplace, but a lot of times there are just so many situations that arise during an interruption event that keeps a business from being able to completely recover. Business Continuity Plans Need to be Flexible Let?s disregard catastrophic weather events and look at a threat that has been causing massive amounts of downtime to even more businesses?ransomware.  In 2021, a whopping 37 percent of all businesses in the United States were impacted by ransomware of some kind. It?s worth pointing out that ransomware is constantly being improved (so it?s becoming more and more dangerous) and thus the amount of downtime and risk has only increased over time. When a ransomware attack strikes, it often disrupts business for several days. Depending on the severity of the attack, it could even steal your data, whether you are able to recover it or not. This type of situation requires a massive amount of work to identify what was stolen, communicate to partners, staff, and customers, and remediate the situation. This is only scratching the surface of how to respond to a data breach, but the point is, it?s a lot of work and a lot of disruption before business can go back to normal. A business continuity plan needs to have the pieces and processes to take this on. Fortunately, for this type of disaster, the most fundamental IT piece of a business continuity plan is a pretty good first step in combating a ransomware attack. Restoring the impacted servers from a previous backup should eliminate the ransomware. This means your staff can get to work sooner, although the threat isn?t over yet. You?ll need to work with cybersecurity experts (like White Mountain IT Services) to root out the source of the attack and determine the possibility of a breach, establish chains of communication, perform preventative actions to harden the network, etc.  On the other hand, let?s say a key individual in your organization suffers from a sudden health issue and is out of the box for 6 weeks. Your business continuity plan needs to account for the shift in command, the delegation of responsibility, and again, the communication involved to keep everything running smoothly. Every Business Continuity Plan Needs an Iron-Clad Backup Strategy Remember, you can?t benefit from the backup you don?t have.  If your business isn?t backing up its data, you are simply asking for risk.  Fortunately, we offer the world?s […]

Explaining Zero-Day Exploits Zero-day exploits are flaws within a system or application that go undiscovered until a threat actively targets it. Depending on the severity of the attack, it could then expose this vulnerability to the general public, or if the attack is more discrete, it could remain hidden, making the attack even more difficult to pinpoint. In any case, the definition of a zero-day exploit remains the same; it?s an undocumented flaw that becomes exploited by a security threat. What Makes Zero-Day Exploits So Dangerous? There is a big reason why there is so much trouble made out of these types of exploits, and it?s because they are undocumented and difficult to predict or anticipate. The unknown factor means that researchers and individuals don?t know that these threats exist, making them difficult to prepare for or remedy until it is too late. When these types of threats are discovered, developers do all they can to remedy the problem before the threats cause too much damage, but it?s not always simple to fix them. Every moment that the flaw is not resolved is a moment when attackers could be leveraging the flaw?especially if it is out in the open. What Should You Do About Them? Since zero-day flaws are generally unknown to security researchers and professionals until they are actively being exploited, it is hard to take action with them until a fix has been issued. That said, you do a lot to protect your business from the majority of threats, even if there are issues with your security infrastructure. Comprehensive security solutions like the ones we offer at White Mountain IT Services can go a long way toward keeping your business safe in a general sense. We also like to recommend that you train your employees on security best practices, and if you aren?t already monitoring your infrastructure to start doing so immediately. You don?t want to react to problems as they appear; you want to prevent them from happening in the first place. This proactive strategy is at the heart of all the services White Mountain IT Services offers. To learn more about how you can protect your business from all manners of threats and resolve those that are discovered after the fact, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.