Technology Unwrapped

As we make our way into the holiday season and start thinking about what we're buying everyone, it’s important to heighten our awareness of who we’re giving our credit card information to. Don’t let cyber criminals ruin your holiday celebrations! Take a minute to remind yourself, your friends, and your family how to keep personal information safe while online shopping for holiday gifts.

The workforce is changing, and so is the way we do business. While some organizations still run traditionally, with employees in the office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., other businesses are providing more flexible work environments that allow them to accommodate both their customers and their employees. With these changes comes a need to update legacy technology systems that were only built to support the conventional way of doing business.

In the legal industry, time is money. And there’s nothing more frustrating than sitting down to a full day of billable work when your technology starts to fail you. If you don’t have an in-house IT team, this often results in spending hours trying to fix the problem yourself before you finally call in an expert who might be able to fit you in at some point, after they figure out how your system is structured.

Is your business experiencing growing pains? Growth within small to midsize businesses can rapidly change the way it operates. And this can start to put a lot of pressure on your internal IT team — whether that’s one person or a small group of staff helping out. It may be time to evaluate your technology needs and choose a path that will grow with your business on into the future. So, how do you know if your company is ready for this next step? Here are 10 signs it’s time to hire an IT managed ...

Are you paying too much for IT support? The answer may surprise you. The average cost of IT support for small businesses depends on the size and unique technology needs of the company. Though there is no magic number that each business should pay for tech support, average IT support costs and opportunity costs of not hiring professional help can give you a rough idea of how much you should be paying for support.

Hiring a managed service provider (MSP) to oversee IT systems can improve almost any business’s productivity, cybersecurity, and efficiency. However, an MSP can be especially helpful for organizations in the manufacturing industry. An MSP with manufacturing experience understands the unique challenges of your industry — and how to build systems that will keep operations up and running. MSPs can unite various technology in use across production, administrative departments, and management. And, ...

In today’s world, you can never be too careful with your organization’s cyber security. And if your employees are accessing the internet, a firewall needs to be a key part of your cyber security strategy. Firewall tools are not only useful for securing digital assets and protecting hardware, but can also be used to block employees from accessing prohibited sites and to filter web traffic. Certain firewall configurations can even tip you off if a data breach or intrusion occurs, which means you ...

If you’ve read about cloud computing for your business, you’re well aware of the strategic benefits it offers, from improving data security and disaster recovery to scaling resources for your business when they are needed. But as you dig deeper, you’ll come across mentions of the terms “public cloud,” “private cloud,” and “hybrid cloud” — it’s important to know the difference before you settle on an option for your organization. Here’s what you need to know about the difference between public ...

Online video conferencing is proving to be a valuable tool for small and midsize offices, including those in the healthcare industry. When integrated with other communication platforms like email, telephony, and instant messaging, online video conferencing brings a competitive advantage to your business by reducing travel time and associated costs, increasing employee attendance, and improving the organizational structure of meetings. But there are some important considerations to make when ...

Phishing is a common tactic used by cyber criminals, as it can be very lucrative but doesn’t require as much technical, hacking know-how as other types of cyber attacks. Hackers often bank on you recognizing a brand name and being one-of-many that have an account with that company. With this in mind they convince you that the phishing email is legitimate. Often claiming that you’ve been locked out of your account, a payment didn’t go through, you need to update your information, or anything ...