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Before getting into how to cut costs, it?s prudent to look at all of the costs that are associated with printing in the workplace. Consider this: your business not only has to acquire printers, the paper and ink or toner required to do the printing (including color ink/toner when necessary), and filing cabinets to keep everything you print stored in a secure location and this doesn?t even mention the time spent maintaining and managing these devices. Let?s look at three ways you can adjust your printing needs to cut costs:  Upgrade Your Printers Depending on how outdated your printing infrastructure is, your organization could benefit from a hardware refresh. For example, if your business is still using old ink-jet printers, perhaps you could benefit from an upgrade to a laser printer. The reason for this is that laser printers are often more efficient with their print jobs, and they can cost you less money over a period of time due to their comparative longevity. Manage Your Resources More Efficiently While it might seem like cutting out printing entirely is too much, this doesn’t mean that you can?t control how your resources are spent. By closely monitoring your printing resources, you can more efficiently store what is needed and cut down on waste. Simply changing settings on your computers or printers could eliminate some of the waste, and storing just the right amount of surplus without risking running out is key to success here. There are also print management applications that can limit the amount of printing individuals can do. Businesses spend thousands of dollars a year per employee on printing and a lot of that money could be saved if they were more conscientious about their printer use. Putting in a system that controls output will surely save you plenty on ink and paper costs.  Go Paperless If you find your business suffers from having too many loose papers, or just has too many physical documents to keep track of, you can implement document management software that can give your organization the means to securely store your documents in a digital environment. This means you don?t have to store paper files onsite. You can scan them into a searchable cloud-hosted database where you can retrieve and share any file in the system from anywhere on nearly any device.  If you want to cut your organization?s costs of printing, White Mountain IT Services can equip your business with tools to both minimize the need for printing and methods to keep track of just how much waste you suffer from. We can even help you out with a hardware refresh for your printing devices. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

What Impacts My Business Internet Speeds? There are many things that could influence the strength of your Internet connection and its speeds. Here are just a few of them: The Infrastructure Connecting You to Your ISP It doesn?t matter what your contract is with your Internet service provider; the speed of your Internet connection will vary depending on the infrastructure managed by your ISP. For example, cable and fiber-optic lines are capable of delivering Internet at speeds much faster than your traditional DSL connection via the telephone network. How Far Away the Network Centralizer is from Your Business Data might move pretty quickly, but it still takes time to go from point A to point B. The farther away the network centralizer is, the longer it will take to transmit data to the destination. How Many Users and Devices are Connecting at Once When there is only so much to go around, naturally the Internet bandwidth will be smaller per user. Every device that connects to your Internet connection will slow it down to an extent, and the more there are, the slower the connection gets. The solutions to a slow Internet connection are not always the easiest or the most possible. Sometimes it?s a matter of paying your Internet service provider more just for the speed boost. There are ways you can make the most out of what you currently have, though, and it all starts with optimizing your technology solutions. White Mountain IT Services can help you get the most out of your technology and potentially save you some cash in the process. To learn more about what we can do for your business, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

Change Your Mouse Speed Through the Control Panel All you have to do is navigate to the Control Panel. First, open up the app by searching for it in the search bar. You can then type Mouse Speed in the search bar of the Control Panel. You should see an option to adjust the mouse pointer?s display or speed. Click on the appropriate setting and adjust the slider to your preference. You can also change settings that allow you to see the location of the pointer when you press the CTRL key or hide the pointer when you are typing. Change Your Mouse Speed Through Settings Another way you can adjust the mouse settings is by opening up the Settings app. You can then click on Mouse in the left-hand column. You?ll see an option like Mouse Speed or Cursor Speed, depending on the device and the operating system. You can adjust the speed to your liking using the slider. It?s easy enough to make simple changes like these for productivity?s sake, but larger, more drastic changes should always be adjusted by your IT administrator. This will make sure that your changes don?t break your infrastructure or create even more problems for your organization. For more great tips, subscribe to White Mountain IT Services?s blog.

First, it is important that we understand what a data breach response plan is. A Data Breach Response Plan is a Field Guide to Business Continuity That?s really what it all boils down to?a data breach response plan is simply a collection of strategies that you?ll need to follow to mitigate the worst impacts of this data breach. Your response plan should specify the following: The definition you use to describe what qualifies as a breach The internal procedures used to share news of the breach The contact details for each member of the team responsible for dealing with the breach The procedures to identify the cause of the breach, to isolate all impacted systems, and to notify all required parties The list of reparations to be made to those whose data was impacted, like identity theft protections and credit monitoring Having this plan prepared can help you eliminate many of the high costs otherwise associated with breach response and management, while also helping you preserve your reputation and your business? all-important uptime. The Steps of Data Breach Response Development 1. Identify Potential Vulnerabilities If you want your breach response to be effective, you need to have an idea of what might lead to your business? data being breached?employee error or intent, data loss of all kinds, disruption of service?while also considering the outcomes, like a hit to your business? reputation and legal ramifications. 2. Assign Roles for Your Team Members Responding to a data breach needs to be an all-hands-on-deck situation, with people in all positions playing a part. Documenting the responsibilities of each team and department in your response plan will maintain transparency. 3. Have Assorted Protections in Place As we always recommend, there is an assortment of security solutions needed to keep as many threats as possible out of your network. Ensuring your team is compliant to stringent password policies, maintaining redundant copies of your data in both on- and off-site storage solutions, and a variety of other safeguards will be critical to your success. 4. Establish Processes From identifying that there is an issue and what caused it to communicating amongst the team to isolate and remove it, you need to have established processes that have been tested to be effective. You also have to ensure that you have a list of all parties that need to be notified after a breach takes place?government entities, business associates, and the media, if need be. 5. Review and Adjust Finally, you need to consider your breach response protocol to be a living process. With threats constantly evolving and advancing, you need to evaluate how effective your breach response tactics are and improve them periodically. We Can Help You Establish a Response for Data Breaches? Or, Ideally, Prevent Them Don?t just trust that you won?t be targeted. Reach out at (603) 889-0800 to find out more about our services.

Data Backup Solutions for Longevity Imagine what could happen to your business if you were to lose all access to your data. Even a disaster like a hardware failure could lead to data loss, and let?s not even get started on what could happen if your network were to fall victim to a malicious attack like a ransomware infection. In cases like this, it?s always in your best interest to have a data backup system in place. We recommend that you practice the 3-2-1 rule: three copies of your data, in two different locations, with one being stored offsite, preferably in an offsite data center to ensure that if you need to restore data quickly that it is ready and available.  Cloud Solutions for Anywhere Access If you can only do your job from your office, then you will be in for a rude awakening when you are forced into circumstances that prevent you from getting to the office? like, say, a global pandemic. In situations like these, having cloud-based solutions for anytime-anywhere access can make all the difference for your operations. Not only does it improve accessibility and reliability, as long as you have an Internet connection, it also dramatically improves productivity, as work can be done from anywhere on any device, as long as it supports an Internet browser. Basically, hosting data and applications in the cloud only helps your organization, and while you might have security concerns about its hosting, there are ways to get around these issues. Just ask one of our certified and trustworthy technicians about them! A Plan of Action, Just In Case You never know what could happen in business, so you?d best be prepared for just about anything. This includes having a plan for alternative operations in case your office isn?t accessible, having a clear line of succession in the event management is incapable of performing their duties, and ensuring continuity of your company?s vital operations in whatever capacity is necessary. A business continuity plan, thus, takes much more than just your technology into consideration; it?s a comprehensive look at your operations and how you can minimize the damage done by issues outside of your control. White Mountain IT Services knows that dealing with disasters can be difficult, and while we hope you never stare a disaster in the face, we want to make sure you are always as best prepared to do so as possible. To learn more about how we can help you confront any disasters, be they natural or man-made, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.