by Felicien | Jun 5, 2017 | Education
Undeniable Link Between Strategic Tech Implementation and Sustainable Business Practices
Now more than ever, business professionals in every industry are looking for the most sustainable and cost-efficient ways to reduce their environmental impact and drive sustainability. In an increasingly fast-paced and digital-based business environment, technology is playing a larger role in the effort to develop and maintain a business that is wholly sustainable.
Taking advantage of technology to drive sustainability isn’t just about saving paper or setting timers for light switches. Modern tech resources offer the capacity to optimize the whole of business practices while putting an end to downtime traps and costly procedural inefficiencies. However, for busy professionals who are focused on their core business, sustainability-minded technology can often take a back seat. That’s likely the reason that outsourced managed IT services, from a strategic provider, is becoming an increasingly popular way for business owners to kill two birds with one stone – technology and environmental sustainability.
Initially, our clients come to us looking to get their technology situation under control. However, what they often realize afterward is the many ways in which optimizing technology can reduce the overall environmental impact of business practices.
{company} helps business clients of all kinds make sustainable technology decisions including:
Recycling old servers, computers, and printers to make way for new, power-friendly replacements
Switching from paperless documentation systems to digital or cloud-based platforms
Expanding communication capabilities like Skype and remote access solutions that minimize the need for unnecessary business travel
There’s a lot of misconceptions about technology and sustainability. Making environmentally friendly technology decisions does not have to mean an impact on a business’ bottom line. We help companies of all kinds make the right technology decisions to maintain environmental sustainability and business prosperity.
WithWorld Environment Day falling on June 5th, 2017, {company} wants to remind local business professionals that getting on top of environmental sustainability doesn’t have to mean an increase in cost or a vast array of new and expensive resources.
by Felicien | Jun 2, 2017 | Education
Small businesses are particularly at danger of data attacks: Here’s Why
There’s a common and flawed line of thinking among many small companies that goes something like, “Hackers only target large companies that have lots of customer information and data, we don’t really need to worry about being targeted like they do.” There’s a bunch of things wrong with this thinking, and we’re going to point them all out so that no readers fall into that trap again.
Hackers Love to Target Small Businesses
Yep, it happens. In fact, it happens a lot. Reports say that around 60% of attacks focus on small and medium-sized organizations and that 43% of attacks are aimed at small businesses specifically. So you can forget about that whole, “Small businesses aren’t really targeted” idea. It’s very, very easy for today’s hackers to throw attacks at a whole lot of organizations at the same time. They tend to find a lot of easy marks among small businesses during these attacks because smaller companies are the very ones that don’t have necessary security, instruction, or planning to prevent problems. So while data theft from large international corporations may get all the headlines, remember that the majority of attacks are directed at small companies.
Small Businesses Don’t Have Data Security
The problem isn’t only that small businesses are common targets, but also that they just aren’t prepared for data attacks or theft. They may be highly rated as concerned about data theft, but when it comes to actual security measures, only 14% of small businesses say that their ability to mitigate cyber risks as highly effective. That’s a whole lot of talk and very little action, and you can guess what the end result is. About 48% of security breaches are malicious, and they know exactly what they are doing when attacking unprepared companies.
…But They Do Have Sensitive Data
Another common excuse that’s thrown around smaller organizations is that they don’t have to worry as much about data security because they don’t use as much private or financial data, so there’s somehow less to steal. That may be a comforting thought, but it’s absolutely false. According to the latest data, around 68% of small businesses store email addresses, 64% have phone numbers, and 54% keep data on billing addresses. That contact information is exactly the sort of data that hackers love to steal and sell for a few quick bucks on the Dark Web. You wouldn’t believe what simple contact information like that can do when it comes to identifying theft and more.
Attacks are Growing More Frequent
Hacking isn’t going away. On the contrary, it’s getting more popular all the time. Around 50% of small businesses report that they had data breaches that involved customer and employee information within the past 12 months. Even more had some sort of cyber attack that didn’t specifically go after data. These attacks are absolutely getting more common as the hacking tools become easier for anyone to download and use to scoop up data from a few unsuspecting companies. This isn’t a case of sitting tight and hoping the problem goes away if you don’t look at it.
You Probably Can’t Afford a Million Dollar Recovery
You heard that right. Small companies spend around $880,000 on average to recover from a data attack. Add in the disruptions to business operations and cash flow, and the cost of an attack rise to an average of $955,426. Do you have this kind of money lying around? You don’t? How surprising. Maybe that’s how around 60% of small businesses end up going out of business six months after a data attack. A successful hack isn’t just bad news for your organization, it has better odds than a coin flip to end your organization, permanently.
Most Attacks are Web-Based and Phishing Attacks
In other words, they involve human error and everyday tasks on your computers. It’s not just about stolen devices or highly advanced ransomware. Clicking on the wrong site, ad, link or document remains the top way for cyber attacks to initiate, which means taking constant care.
Competitive Advantage
Let’s end on a high note. The good news is that if you adopt proper security methods for your data, you’re in the minority of small businesses. That means you stand to gain fleeing customers if any of your competitors suffers one of these devastating attacks: Your {city} business could grow even stronger!
But it’s important to start with a solid data plan – and {company} can help! Contact us at {phone} or {email} to find out more about our IT services and how we can help you!
by Felicien | Jun 2, 2017 | Education
Keep primary goals in mind when planning a rollout! Here are a few tips on encouraging the tough changes.
It’s not easy being a vCIO these days: Frequently a target for blame when data attacks happen, and rarely praised for keeping the business functioning, this leadership position is challenging, to put it mildly. But we see you, vCIOs and other data security leaders! We know how important you are!
That important is especially evident when the company is struggling with a large tech rollout that is changing multiple parts of the workplace…and suddenly everyone is looking at the vCIO for instruction, solutions, and generally to just make things easier. Here are a few tips on managing those tricky rollouts when everyone else is feeling discouraged.
Move Money Away From Legacy Systems and Toward Adoption
You hear a lot of talk these days about “two-speed IT” where you have legacy systems that are stuck in the past and move very slowly or not at all, and more dynamic edges of the business at marketing, sales, and service where you move much more quickly to adopt fixes and new technology. The two-speed approach was meant as a way to deal with the legacy system problem, but it’s really more of a “delay” than a deal: It keeps old systems ancient and in place while holding new services back by limiting what they can do.
Here’s a much better way to deal with legacy systems: Get rid of them via the power of the budget. Move money away from legacies and toward newer adoption, with plans to eventually phase legacy systems out complete. Then you can use two-speed in a more productive way, to identify which teams need to be extra agile and which teams can take it more slowly.
The problem with this approach is that moving money away from legacy systems is going to cause a lot of outcries initially (at least, it usually does). But you need to get people used to the idea that their old machines won’t be around for much longer, and this is a reasonable way to make your plans known.
Use Micro-Services to Attain New Agility
All right, removing legacy systems is well and good and probably a priority on a lot of lists already – but what should go in their place? Here is where a lot of information leadership gets stuck in the mud, reviewing endless options that will never quite work.
We suggest focusing more on micro-services for the individual, team-based solutions, rather than trying to adopt a company-wide approach that treats everyone the same. It’s a lot easier these days than it used to be. Vendors offer full suites of services that can be adapted as needed for individual goals. Office 365 now works with a plethora of external apps that can immediately be integrated into any Group that needs them. Basically, micro-services are a lot easier to pick up and drop as needed without making major, unpleasant changes. It’s a great new model to adopt for the right workplace.
When in Doubt, Aim for Collaboration
If you are struggling with choosing which features to include in a new system, which features to make a priority, or which features to drop as you wrangle with budgeting and deadlines, then here’s a bit of often-useful advice: Always choose the option that encourages the most collaboration. As long as data can be easily moved and shared within the company and its partners (in a safe manner, of course), then you are probably on the right track. One of the best ROI abilities of IT these days is enabling more collaboration, remote work, simultaneous project assignments, and generally making data more flexible and readily available to the right people. Don’t lose sight of that one.
Don’t Budge on Security – Provide Proofs Instead
The silver lining behind all of the latest data attacks, vulnerabilities, and related fines is that there’s now a ton of evidence on just how costly a data breach can be, and how it typically costs more than a business can afford. Use this to your advantage, and never back down from security necessities. This is one area that is not open to debate, but vCIOs and related leaders are the ones who have to understand this first – otherwise, no one will care, and the company will continue until a fateful data attack happens. Guess whose fault it will be then? So amass your proofs beforehand, and set a full security plan in motion no matter what type of rollout you are working on.
For more information on the latest data and security services for the {city} area, contact {company} today! Reach us at {phone} or by email at {email}.
by Felicien | Jun 2, 2017 | Education
Getting ready to adopt a new security strategy? Here are the top tips on preparing your company!
All right: Let’s assume your organization has taken note of WannaCry and other EternalBlue malware attacks and has finally decided that it’s time for a big security update to meet the threats of the modern digital world. That’s great news! Many companies don’t even make it that far. But now that your business understands the need for a security overhaul, it’s time to create a plan. And that’s where we have a few ideas to help out.
Clean House Beforehand
Let’s get an unpleasant subject out of the way first: If you are overhauling IT security because of a data attack, and some heads may roll. It’s a common reaction, especially for IT leaders that may not have adequately performed their duties. Even more, shakeups may occur if the entire IT department needs to be reorganized. It’s not fun, but it happens. However, we want to emphasize how important it is to make any personnel changes before you start on your overhaul. It’s common business wisdom: Get the right people in the right places, and then start your big project. So if someone needs to be fired, let them be fired quickly and find a replacement before beginning any major changes. Everyone needs to be on board for this.
Get an Outside Audit
When a company needs new data security practices, an external viewpoint can prove invaluable. Remember, a data security auditor has experience helping many different kinds of companies find what they need to change, and that experience can prove invaluable in creating the right kind of overhaul plan. More advanced audits can use white hat attacks and other services to find specific vulnerabilities if necessary, and follow-up consultations can prove equally valuable. You don’t have to go it along – and a third party may be exactly what you need to get away from myopic internal perspectives.
Plan Ongoing Education
Employees are one of the worst vulnerabilities in any organization. Time and again, studies have shown that employees are careless with company data, and even when trained, still go against guidelines when it comes to basic tasks like using password protection or reporting the loss of stolen devices. It sounds cynical, but from a security perspective, you simply can’t trust them. The solution is an ongoing education effort that involves not only orientation training but constant re-training and reminders that explore the latest best practices and remind employees of just what is at stake.
Place Automated Detection Early On
Automated detection is an ideal way of keeping track of security for larger in-house projects. These systems basically track all data actions and look for unusual patterns that are associated with data attacks. They then report these findings to a human, who can go in for a closer look. It’s a great first line defense for monitoring any potential attacks, and highly efficient compared to past solutions.
Adopt the Right Service Security
The cloud has brought many new tools for data security, and – particularly important for smaller companies – allows you to shuffle off some security requirements to vendors and other external parties. It’s an opportunity…but don’t let it become an excuse. Take every vendor your organization uses and explore their security and encryption practices. Demand to know them if you have to. If they don’t meet current best practices then yes, it is time to find a new vendor for that service.
Create a Top-Down Strategy for Mobile Data Control
Because of a couple issues we already mentioned, such as difficulty trusting employees when they aren’t under direct supervision, mobile data is particularly vulnerable at this point in digital security. There are a few things you can do about that. Some organizations avoid putting data on mobile devices at all and use virtualization instead. Others use a more traditional method of creating security guidelines on an app by app basis. Others focus on properly protecting their Wi-Fi networks and only allow company data to be used on the business network. Often, a little of each strategy is necessary. Don’t be afraid to start back at the beginning and completely re-imagine your company’s mobile perspective.
Maintain a Robust Update Schedule
Every security strategy needs updates and patches to stay current. Plan for it, and make sure those plans don’t go ignored! For more questions on what your unique {city} business needs for proper data security and patching, contact {company}. We offer a variety of IT services for companies that are ready to bring their security up to today’s standards: Contact us at {phone} or {email} to learn more!
by Felicien | Jun 1, 2017 | Education
Give your customers something sweet – and update your IT services!
Since June is the official National Candy Month, we are going to spend some time talking about sweet things – and we’re going to start by talking about how to sweeten the buying experiences for your customers via IT services. Many companies assume – understandably – that IT services are mostly a background/backroom consideration, something that the client actually isn’t involved in. But everything in business is connected, and today’s latest advanced services connected to customers in all new ways. Is it time you increased your value offering with some of these treats?
Data Security is Important, and Customers Know It
Data breaches tend to make a lot of splashy headlines, and customers are passionately concerned about the security of their private data: Much of any company’s reputation relies on data security, especially these days when an online buying option is common to most industries. That data security that you are investing in isn’t just for compliance or making lawyers happy or avoiding a hacking attempt that disrupts business. It’s about showing the customers you understand and care what happens to their personal information – where it is stored, how it is used, and how it is encrypted. Don’t be afraid to boast about your security upgrades! They are a benefit to your customers, too.
Immediate Contact Options Will Answer Questions Fast
The ability to immediately post a message in a Facebook Group, or open a chat box on a company website, or shoot a colleague a quick question over Yammer, should not be underestimated. Customers appreciate when their questions are answered quickly: They don’t like to hang around listening to on-hold music, or trying to search through a new website, or needed to send an email they aren’t sure anyone will ever read. Fortunately, today’s services provide ways to communicate much more directly and to find experts instantly when required. When customers get such a speedy, full response, they become much more invested.
Don’t Do Mobile? Do Mobile
Today’s buyers are a mobile bunch – there’s no getting around or denying it. More searching is done on mobile devices than desktops. Google’s new SEO approach ranks pages by how well they do on mobile devices before considering desktops. It’s time to embrace mobile.
We understand that investing in an optimized website, app, mobile data protection, and all the rest of it may seem like a weighty undertaking: However, it’s all one package. You need the security, and the optimization process, and the mobile data storage strategy, to make it all work together. That’s why it’s all right to bring in external IT services to help set up and manage mobile services. Your on-the-go customers will appreciate it.
CRM Can Make Customers Feel Special Again
How long has it been since you overhauled your CRM systems? Maybe it’s time for an upgrade that automatically tracks customer loyalty points and discounts, can send out recommendations for specific products based on behavior, and never forgets to email customer surveys, newsletters, or other significant bits of information. Automation is just one of the tricks that the latest CRM solutions can offer – they are also compatible with a vast array of apps and platforms that you may already be using, so don’t hesitate to improve CRM if the time has come!
Faster Upgrades for More Capabilities (and Scalability)
IT services have a significant benefit over hardware like servers: They are far, far easier to upgrade. Have you been wanting to upgrade your IT capabilities for a while, but haven’t reached a point where you are ready to replace hardware yet? It may be time to switch to cloud-based IT services that receive automatic updates and are easy to customize and upgrade as your business grows…so that your customers don’t get left behind.
The Power of Simplification
Finally, think about giving your customers a treat by making things simpler. Many of today’s IT services are more about making things less confusing rather than adding new abilities. That means slimming down websites, cleaning up inter-office platforms, reducing the number of tools and formats you use, and overall making everything more minimalistic. Customers, short on time and tried of complex interfaces, tend to love these sorts of changes.
Is something else on your list to deliver to customers? Let us know what it is! {company} can help your {city} company achieve its systems goals: Let us know how to help at {email} or give us a call to ask about services at {phone}.
by Felicien | Jun 1, 2017 | Education
Yammer is now more integrated than ever, so check out what this business social space has to offer.
If your teams use Microsoft technology at work, there’s also a good chance they use Yammer, a social media app designed specifically for the workplace: Yammer allows employees to network, share posts and content, comment on topics, and answer questions (it looks a little bit like a minimalistic Facebook and a little bit like Office 365, too). Microsoft likes this idea – the company likes it so much, it’s working on several ways to make Yammer more useful, and specifically more connected with SharePoint data. Take a look at the ways that Yammer has recently changed, and what that could mean for your business.
Seamless Sharing
A number of months ago, Yammer received an update that allows for seamless document sharing across all Office 365 applications, which absolutely includes data that you use on SharePoint. Basically, this allows people to easily share files no matter where they are kept when asking questions, explaining a point, or maybe just showing off a little. At any point, you can see the most recent documents you have worked on for quick sharing, but you if you have to go digging for a file, don’t worry about compatibility issues. If it’s on Office 365, you can post it in Yammer.
Video Compatibility
Office 365 Video is growing as well, and part of that growth is newfound compatibility with Yammer: In short, you can share and play videos from Office 365 or Microsoft Stream on Yammer. That’s in addition to videos from places like YouTube and Vimeo, which Yammer already supported. That may not sound like the biggest change to you, but video sharing was difficult to use on Yammer unless you were part of the marketing team or just wanted to share a joke: Now internal videos, safely encrypted on Office 365, can be watched and shared. This opens the door for Yammer-based work on presentations, interviews, and much more. It also allows for greater control over who can see the video, with authorization controls for private videos. Microsoft suggests that these videos can be used for Q&A, executive messages, product updates, and new product campaigns.
Connectors for Broader App Use
Connectors is an Office 365 feature that makes it possible to use many external (and highly popular) apps within the O365 framework. That makes it easier to utilize popular apps that everyone likes and that make some jobs far easier, from GitHub and Twitter to Trello and Asana (although probably not all at the same time). Anyone on Yammer using Office 365 Groups can choose to “Add or Remove Apps.” Any app that can be added can then be customized for posts in Yammer for updates, specific news stories, or even reports about weekly activity within that app. It’s especially useful for marketing, but it also has a lot to offer for workflow and productivity if used correctly – we don’t suggest piling up too many apps at one time.
Dynamic Groups
Speaking of Microsoft Groups, Yammer has now begun offering something called “dynamic group membership.” Sure that sounds like one of those useless business terms that everyone laughs at, but in O365 it has a particular purpose: It means that groups are formed by rules – as in, “group up everyone working on this spreadsheet” or “group up all the team leaders” based on what kind of filters you use. When people switch projects or move into different positions, all the groups you look at or create are automatically (“dynamically”) updated so that the group continues to have an accurate membership without any manual authorization needed. Hey presto – now you can easily find specific groups of people on Yammer based on parameters you can decide, making communication much easier.
New Mobile Functionality
It’s no surprise that Yammer has received some more apps: It now works on an iPad, Windows or Mac device. That makes it easier to fit into a BYOD workplace or just a more flexible mobile environment.
Future Interface Integration
Microsoft also plans on improving how SharePoint data shows up in Yammer and making other quality of life changes to the interface so it will be more useful to businesses. Basically, it’s a good time to start considering Yammer if you’ve been looking for an online conversation place that’s still safe for work but allows all your employees to communicate and share content easily. For more information on how to use Office 365 effectively and what new tech strategies are worth adopting in {city}, contact {company} today. You can send us a message at {email} or give us a call at {phone} to learn more about our IT services.
