Business Solutions & Software Group Blog

When it comes to cloud computing, there may still be business owners who are hesitant to take advantage of it. This may be due to major security breaches reported in the news, or just that the idea of hosting their sensitive data off-site doesn't sit right. However, cloud computing security has come a long way over recent years; consider these three ways that the cloud enhances IT security.

Having an Internet connection is an important part of your business’s operations. Why are we stating something so obvious? Sometimes you might be experiencing network issues that could be caused by heavy or unexpected traffic, technical difficulties, or worse. Depending on the problem, it could be as simple as restarting your modem. We’re here to help you figure out why your Internet connection is less than optimal, and what you can do about it.

Is your business using Windows 10? If so, did you upgrade because you wanted to improve operations, or to stop Microsoft’s endless upgrade notifications? Regardless of why you upgraded, you’re now one of the 25.3 percent of people using Windows 10. But are you using Microsoft Edge as your preferred web browser?

The last time you implemented a technology solution, how did it turn out? Was it a great initiative that continues to provide a return on investment, or was it a failure that hurt your company? As it turns out, half of the IT projects started by businesses turn out to be a failure, and the numbers are only increasing with time.

More often than not, when you’re using your smartphone for streaming media, you want to use your Wi-Fi rather than your mobile data connection. This helps to keep what are known as data hogs (applications that use a significant portion of your monthly allotted data) from breaking your budget and causing overage charges. Here’s how you can limit the damage done to your data consumption by your favorite smartphone apps.

Business owners that regard employee engagement as an unimportant aspect of managing a business are sorely mistaken. There are few things more crucial to the success of a business than keeping employees happy and fulfilled. Yet, even if businesses have only the best intentions and want to improve employee engagement, few actually manage to do so.

Publishers have long provided authors with outlets to share their work. However, just like many other industries, technology has changed publishing over the years. Is this a positive change, and are there lessons that the modern business owner can learn from this shift in the way technology is handled and managed?

Users of Android mobile devices have plenty of great assets at their disposal, and the new functionality of Google Translate offers yet another reason to use the versatile mobile OS. Thanks to the Tap to Translate feature, Android users have a new way to translate text, and all it takes is the press of a button.

More students today are earning online degrees than ever before. Thanks to online learning management systems, the classroom experience can marginally be replicated in an online environment. One of the biggest problems associated with online teaching, however, is that students have trouble getting the attention they deserve. Enter: Artificially intelligent teaching assistants.

Unfortunately, stories of major data breaches are the norm in today’s news cycle. However, what often gets left out of the story is how the hacker profits from the stolen data. In the case of a recent major hack in Russia of more than one billion credentials, what the hacker did with all of this data has us scratching our heads.

What makes Facebook so valuable is that it connects you to a wide variety of people. However, for many users, having such a diverse audience means holding back on sharing their personal opinions, which kind of takes the fun out of social networking. Did you know that Facebook allows you to exclude certain people from seeing your posts? For this week’s tip, we’ll show you how to take advantage of this feature.

In the wake of a dangerous zero-day vulnerability found in Adobe Flash, which required that users either uninstall it or update to the latest version, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that the web needs to find a new way to support rich media integration. Now, Google plans on slowly phasing out Flash in its web browser, Google Chrome, and switch to HTML5 as the default rich media player.

Not too long ago, cloud computing was considered more of a luxury than a commodity. Nowadays, however, many companies, even those who are just getting their feet wet in the business environment, are fully capable of using the cloud for all sorts of purposes. As the cloud transforms into a more accessible technology, many large companies have pushed their cloud platforms to offer secure storage, software deployment, and communications, in an effort to reduce costs.

If your computer is underperforming, then it may not have enough RAM to do what you’re asking it to do. When selecting a PC, how do you know if you have enough RAM?

Microsoft Office 365 can enhance a company's operations in a variety of ways. Yet, due to the fact that not every business is the same, your organization will benefit more from a solution that’s customized to meet your needs. This is a big reason behind Microsoft’s customizable offering: Office 365 Business Premium.

Every business has crucial IT systems that are imperative to its continued functionality. Usually these systems are maintained by an internal IT department, but many small businesses don’t have this luxury. Therefore, they have traditionally relied on break-fix IT companies to handle their technology problems when they hinder operations.

For the busy business owner, demands on schedules make it mandatory to use their smartphone while on the go. While it’s important to be productive, safety is even more important. Therefore, you should never use your phone while driving in such a way that puts you and others at risk.

Have you ever purchased a new appliance that you set aside for several months, only to take it out and find that you misplaced the manual for how to use it? Before the Internet became a major part of everyday life, you would be out of luck, or you would have to contact the company for assistance with your device. Now, it’s simply a matter of looking for the online electronic manual.

If we told you ten years ago that you would be able to print machine parts out of your printer, would you have believed us? Probably not; yet, that’s just how far technology has progressed in the past decade. All types of industries, particularly manufacturing, have found that 3D printing is a great alternative to traditional manufacturing processes.

Before 3D printing became possible, there was a ton of hype surrounding it. People thought it would be a game-changing innovation. Yet, some skeptics (who we like to call negative Nancys) and falling stock prices may give people the wrong idea about 3D printing. There are plenty of reasons to be excited about 3D printing, especially in the form of successful implementation into finished products. 3D-printed car parts are being used in the manufacturing of vehicles. While 3D printing may have once been viable only as a prototype printer, parts that are being produced in this way are more than capable of being used in end products.

Here are some statistics from a PwC study concerning the implementation speed of 3D printing:

• 31.4 percent of manufacturers are using 3D printing for prototyping, 6.6 are using it for end-product production, and 13.2 percent are using it for both; all three of these figures are considerably higher than they were in 2014.
• 17.4 percent are experimenting with 3D printing - down from 2014, when 28.9 percent claimed to be experimenting with 3D printing.
• 42 percent of manufacturers feel that 3D printing will be used in high-volume production within the next 3-5 years.

Granted, it’s important to take into consideration the repercussions that mass-producing 3D printing machines will have on the manufacturing industry. While the costs of 3D-printed goods are dramatically lower, will this disrupt the status-quo of how traditional supply chains work?

Furthermore, there is some concern over how 3D printing will affect intellectual property. As the demand for 3D printing technology increases, the costs will decrease, and the results of this innovation will become more apparent. Then there’s the problem of meeting the required quality and retaining enough speed to efficiently make use of the 3D printing technology. These uncertainties are why organizations are slowly moving toward implementing 3D printing, rather than jumping the gun and diving right in.

Whether or not 3D printing becomes a major part of the manufacturing environment may be up for debate, but it’s a great example of how innovative technology solutions can directly affect an organization’s bottom line. By efficiently managing your organization's technology solutions, you can achieve the best return on investment for them. However, just like a manufacturer implementing 3D printing, your business needs to carefully consider how implementing new solutions will affect your current operations.

To achieve an understanding of this sensitive topic, feel free to give us a call at (954) 575-3992. Business Solutions & Software Group’s technicians will be glad to discuss any new technology that your business wants to take advantage of.

We’ve all been in a situation where we’re watching our inbox waiting for someone to send an email back. However, you might be limiting your own success by making your emails be too long, too wordy, or even too brief. According to a study by Boomerang, there are several ways to make your emails more viewer-friendly, and it all starts by analyzing what you’re currently doing with your outbound communications.