6 Low-Cost Productivity Tips to Increase Competitiveness

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Increasing workplace productivity can mean the difference between a business that succeeds and a great idea that fails. When a company produces more products or delivers higher-quality customer service more quickly than the competition, it gains the advantage. Use these low-cost productivity tips to even the playing field and compete more effectively. To get the most benefit out of technology, however, organizations need to match the technology solution to the business need. Start by assessing business processes to identify areas for improvement. For instance, do employees find themselves bogged down with paperwork? Or does distance hinder effective collaboration? The following…

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Cell Phone Best Practices Empower Work from Home

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Now, more than ever, the lines between work and personal life have blurred. And for the millions of employees working from home, the cell phone represents the ultimate connecting point. More than ever, we use personal cell phones to conduct business. The following cell phone best practices help protect both the organization and the employee. Understand the Risks Allowing (or encouraging) employees to use their personal cell phones for business can benefit both the workplace and the employee. Employees benefit from the convenience of using a single, familiar device. Meanwhile, businesses save money on company phones while enjoying greater employee…

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Is Your Classroom Going Virtual?

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Virtual Classroom: 3 Tips from an Educator Who’s Done It Students milling about the grounds. Professors bellowing in lecture halls. This was the scene in late summer 2020, when Notre Dame University opened its South Bend, Indiana campus for classes as usual. In the midst of normalcy, an invisible intruder lurked, waging a potentially deadly attack. Students, staff and faculty began falling ill with sore throats, chills and fever. Over the next few days, approximately 400 members of the Notre Dame community tested positive for COVID-19. The administration promptly shut down all activity on campus and called for at least…

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How to Change Microsoft Teams Background

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Well into the 2020 summer of work from home (WFH), we’ve become better acquainted with one of the most popular collaboration platforms, Microsoft Teams. With an easy-to-use interface and powerful video conferencing features, Teams gets the job done. To further enhance your Teams experience, let’s learn how to change Microsoft Teams background. With the best collaboration tools on the planet, Microsoft works hard to help you appear professional. So, don’t spoil the illusion with unplanned chaos or messes you didn’t have time to clean up. Avoid unnecessary embarrassment for yourself and other household members by blocking them out. Blur or…

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4 Tips to Reduce Cloud Spending During COVID-19 and Beyond

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Even before COVID-19 sent the workforce home, businesses anticipated steadily increased spending on cloud infrastructure. Now, cloud services take on an even greater importance. In the coming months and years, organizations will continue to increase cloud usage. But severe budgetary constraints will put pressure on IT managers to reduce cloud spending. For example, in 2019, Gartner estimated that organizations would spend over $206 billion on public cloud services, particularly Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). But they inserted a caution. $14.1 billion of that spending would go to waste, due to idle resources and oversized infrastructure. As businesses struggle through the…

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Tips for Transitioning to Remote Work

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Over a period of three weeks, most of the workforce in the United States found themselves transitioning to remote work. Fortunately, the trend toward digital transformation means that many businesses had already begun to adopt cloud-based tools and policies. However, this abrupt switch to fully-remote work has sent both employees and IT departments scrambling. Moving an entire workforce home virtually overnight brings unique challenges. Individual employees need to set up home offices, often sharing Wi-Fi with family members. Teams need to develop collaboration strategies over distance. And security personnel must work to protect networks and data in a dramatically broadened…

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Working Remotely, What You Need to Know

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The COVID-19 crisis – Working remotely to help These are trying times. First, know that that your health and safety is the highest priority. Second, we’re all in this together so cooperation and our best efforts are required. We appreciate the leadership of local, state and federal government officials and the dedicated healthcare professionals on the front lines. With a united effort, we can overcome the challenges ahead and return to conditions of health and prosperity. That said, we want you to know that with the coronavirus outbreak impacting populations worldwide, it looks like we’re in this for the long…

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Stop Abbreviating 2020 and Essential Tech Tips for the New Year

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While you work on those resolutions to eat right and exercise, make a few resolutions for your business, as well. A fresh year presents the perfect opportunity to tighten security and run some much-needed maintenance. Protect your business with these basic tech tips for the new year. 1. Stop Abbreviating 2020 Commit now to writing out all four digits of the year. Writing “20” instead of “2020” leaves the door open for fraudsters. For example, suppose you sign a credit contract with the date 1/27/20. A bad actor could change the date to 1/27/2019 and attempt to collect an additional…

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How can Green Computing Energize Your Business in 2020?

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From recycling to water conservation and solar panels, the Green Movement touches many aspects of our lives. For small to medium businesses (SMB), going green often begins in the computer room. Not only is it environmentally responsible, but green computing makes good business sense. What does Green computing means? In basic terms, green computing involves reducing the environmental impact of technology. That means using less energy, reducing waste, and promoting sustainability. Green computing reduces the carbon footprint of a business and provides a reputation boost. From a budget perspective, eco-friendly computing can reduce energy and operational costs more than 30%….

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Is Private Browser Really Private? Short answer: No

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Is Private Browser Really Private? Short answer: No used with permission from Norton by Symantec by Alison Grace Johansen You probably expect your “private” browser to be private. It’s not. So-called private browsers are a standard feature of several web browsers, and have private-sounding names like Private Browsing, Private Tab, and Private Window. Using a private browsing mode can help you to do a lot of things, but maintaining total privacy isn’t one of them. That doesn’t mean they’re not useful. It’s important to understand what a private browser does, and does not, do. For instance, do you know that…

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