Have you ever been working on writing a blog article or trying your hand at a formal proposal letter and wondered if your writing was appropriate for your audience? You?re not alone. The readability of a document is such a concern for people that Microsoft Word added a feature that will automatically calculate a document?s readability using the Flesch Reading Ease formula and tells approximate reading level using the famous Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scale. First let?s look at the Flesch Reading Ease Formula. Developed in 1948, the Flesch Reading Ease formula is considered to be the most accurate readability scale in use right now. The formula gives a scale of ease of reading on a scale from 100 or less, 100 being the easiest to read. In this case, the article below has a Flesch Reading Ease Formula of 46.7. This means that it is mid-level difficulty. The Flesch Reading scale also gives an approximate grade level. In this case, the reading level is 10.7, meaning the article is written for an average grade level of between 10th and 1tth grade (based on accepted US school data). Use Word to Evaluate Document ReadabilityMost users are familiar with the basic Word functions in Review – Spelling & Grammar checks and Word Count. After checking over the spelling and grammar of the document, it will post your readability statistics. Think of it like an enhanced Word Count full of all the information a writer could want about how their article is shaping up. It?s broken into three sections: Count – Includes the counts of: Word, Characters, Paragraphs, Sentences Averages – Sentences per Paragraph, Words per Sentence, Character per Word Readability – Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Passive Sentences To activate the Readability Menu, start by navigating to the Options menu item in Microsoft Word. Then, select the Proofing menu item within the Word Options. Scroll down to the option that is labeled ?When correcting spelling and grammar in Word? from there, you see a few check boxes. In addition to making sure that ?Check grammar with spelling? is checked, you also want to check the box next to the option ?Show readability statistics?. As with most scales, the Flesch Reading Ease results should be taken with a grain of salt. Using the scale to gauge whether or not your copy is appropriate for your target audience is helpful tool. Would you like to learn more IT tips and tricks? Subscribe to our blog today!

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. […]

There are dozens of surveys and reports produced each year that evaluate digital threats and cybercrime. Not every publication applies to every business – but many of them do have some important take aways about the best practices of handling IT. Here?s few highlights from the 2017 Cyberthreat Defense Report that offer important insight for SMBs and their use of technology. Challenge – Ransomware and Responses: Approximately 61% of global businesses were impacted by ransomware in 2016 – and of those businesses who had their data held for ransom – 32.7% paid it! The majority of them found out the hard way that cyber criminals aren?t always honest about their intentions… Solution – Preventative and Patches: Ransomware, as with most malware, generally exploits a known weakness. WannaCry, a ransomware that crippled businesses throughout the world in July of 2017, exploited a weakness that had a security patch available to repair it since March of 2017. The businesses who fell victim were those who had the solution – but didn?t deploy it in time. In an ideal world, your company would have had active measures in place that prevented the ransomware attack. Proactive maintenance and security patching of your network and devices will stop the majority of cyber attacks. Challenge – Human Error from Ignorance/Training Issue: Everyone makes mistakes, including you and your employees. Even companies with top-notch internal security measures will find themselves facing malware that was accidently exposed by an employee clicking an infected email attachment. The only thing that you can do to protect your business from accidents is to take measures to prevent them. Solution – Set Policy for IT Use: Education and training is probably the most important thing a company can do to protect themselves from the digital threatscape. First, defining IT use policies will let your team know what is required from them as they?re using technology provided or maintained by your organization. ALL employees and vendors who use technology on your network should attend IT security best practice training at least annually. Posters and reminders should be used to remind everyone of the role they play in security. Of course, training and awareness will not eliminate accidents altogether – but they certainly can reduce them. Challenge – Threat from Within: As much as a business may want to believe that no one on their staff would ever do something to intentionally damage their organization, it happens often enough to be considered a serious threat. While malicious insiders make up only 11% of total attacks, they are by far the most costly and generally take the longest to resolve. Solution – Access Control: Having control over who is able to access what parts of your network won?t eliminate an internal threat, but it will significantly reduce the chances of a malicious insider attack. Access control applications afford businesses the opportunity to give specific permissions to each user. The average SMB would be surprised to learn how much more secure their network would be if employees only had access to the portions of data required for their job duties. To further protect your network, access control allows for easy onboard/offboarding to prevent ex-employees from accessing your network. Challenge – 9 out 10 Companies Can?t Find IT Security Personnel: Even businesses with an established IT department […]

We?ll discuss a few major ways how your business can take full advantage of this mobile revolution, and how you can safely and securely do so without putting your business at risk. Mobile ApplicationsMany of the services that you use on a daily basis have mobile app equivalents that can be of great value to your business. We?re talking about productivity suites like Microsoft Office 365 and Google?s G-Suite, as well as voice chat systems like Skype for Mobile and Google Hangouts–solutions that you may have been able to use on your desktop, but could never dream of using on your mobile device. As business grows more demanding, company executives are looking to get more out of their mobile device, and having near-constant access to their critical assets while out of the office is a great boon that cannot be ignored. Mobile DevicesYour workstation might be tethered to the wall outlet, but your smartphone and laptop certainly aren?t. With mobile devices on your side, you can stay productive even while out of the office by using mobile versions of the same solutions. This offers your business the flexibility to work from anywhere at any time, while also providing a productivity boost that?s often needed to stay one step ahead of deadlines. Furthermore, you give your team the ability to get their work done on their own terms, which can be empowering in its own right. The CloudSimilar to how you access mobile applications while out and about, you can use the cloud to store and access data while out of the office, among other things. You can host just about anything in the cloud, including your business?s servers, workstation infrastructure, data storage, and even applications. All you need is a connected device. After that, the rest is history. Staying SafeGoing mobile comes with certain side-effects–chief of all is the security problems associated with accessing data while out of the safety of the office. Your in-house network is secure from external threats, but hackers will use public Wi-Fi connections to steal unsecured data while it?s in transit. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) encrypts data that?s sent to and received by your device, protecting it from being spied on by any onlookers on a public network. Furthermore, you should be using a comprehensive Bring Your Own Device policy to ensure that any devices accessing sensitive information while out of the office can whitelist or blacklist applications, section off data on a per-user basis, and be capable of remotely wiping any data stored. White Mountain IT Services can equip your business with the means to take your business on the move without putting your data at risk. To learn more about VPNs or BYOD, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

Today, with nearly every business leaning heavily on some sort of computer-based technology, it becomes important for decision makers and business owners to analyze the performance of their tech, and of their staff. In the past, the eye test worked just fine, but today there are ways to measure the productivity and efficiency of every department of your business. It?s called business intelligence. Business intelligence (BI) refers to the practices of (as well as the technology used in) analyzing available information to help you make the best decisions for your business. In the past, business intelligence was very much as it is today, finding practices and procedures that create a better business without all the bells and whistles that contemporary BI practices provide. Every business has plenty of people that depend on it, and the better the business is run, the more it can do for those people. So while it?s easy to think of business intelligence in the 21st century as a complex process, it is just the process of doing what every successful business owner has done from the day they put out their shingle. While BI has been around for some time, modern BI is the practice of using the enormous amount of data your business creates to help you make better decisions. How does this work? Your business has loads of information stored in various places, but most of it is in databases. One stand-alone database may not help you, but if you are able to bring all of your data together in what is called a data warehouse, you can then begin to link the information. Once the information is in this repository, you can begin using state-of-the-art BI software to crawl the data and deliver reports that take this enormous amount of information and provide relatively easy-to-read reports. The best part about this BI software is that you can customize definitions to get the specificity you are looking for out of these reports. The software will return detailed analysis. So whether you run a retail store, a product manufacturer, or a high-volume restaurant, you will be able to ascertain what the best decisions are going forward. These metrics work for operations, marketing, distribution, and any part of the business that can be represented in numbers.  The small business has begun to use technology in new and interesting ways; and, using it to bridge the gap between their larger competitors. Many times BI analysis can surprise even the most savvy business owner with truths about their company. BI lets business owners build efficiency through analysis, not through conjecture. This targeted and analytical approach is sure to be a huge benefit for any business that finds itself battling operational inefficiency or any number of other deficits they encounter. White Mountain IT Services wants to provide our clients with the information they need to build a more efficient business. We offer small and medium-sized businesses comprehensive IT support and other proactive IT services that are designed to eliminate downtime and build overall efficiency. Call us at (603) 889-0800 today to see how our professional technicians can help your business be more efficient.