When you’ve been doing business for a while, you pick up a few things. We’ve been around for (as of this writing) twenty years now and have resultantly learned quite a bit—and, since we’re in the business of helping other businesses grow, we figured we’d share a bit of what we’ve learned.

Artificial intelligence has several uses in the business world, many of which utilize machine learning. With greater access to this technology than ever before, small businesses have more opportunities to grow as a result. Let’s go over how SMBs can utilize AI, including how to get started with it.

As businesses grow, the technology that they use needs to adjust. For example, once a business requires more than one computer, it needs a network. Once a business has multiple users trying to access the same information across multiple devices, it needs a server (or the cloud). Every step of growth requires more complexity when it comes to technology.

This is where an IT consultant comes in, and they can help you navigate the options and establish a budget for your technology as your business evolves and grows.

Technology adoption can be a major issue for many businesses, mostly due to the variable costs of adding new technologies to a business’ cache of technology tools. For smaller businesses, adding new technologies that will allow them to compete with larger businesses can be even more difficult. Let’s take a look at the adoption gap between larger businesses and smaller businesses and why they are having a hard time closing it. 

Cybersecurity is one aspect of running a business that absolutely cannot be underestimated in its importance. It doesn't matter if you’re a huge enterprise or a small business; if you don’t take cybersecurity seriously, there is a very real possibility that your organization could be threatened in the near future. The easiest way to ensure your business’ continuity is to develop an internal culture of cybersecurity, and it starts from the top-down with you, the boss.

Working from home adds quite a few additional wrinkles into the workday, including a few that pertain to your team’s communicative capabilities. With many different people operating at their best through different forms of communication, establishing which of these forms best suits your needs is crucial. Let us consider some of the options you have, whether you’re fully investing in a future of remote operations, or simply planning a more hybrid approach as time passes.

Data, at least nowadays, effectively makes the world go ‘round. Data is responsible for powering the operations that a business needs to undergo if it is to survive. This—as you may imagine—makes data incredibly important for businesses of all sizes to protect.

While looking to the past isn’t often an idea tied to information technology, there are times when it can play a valuable role in your strategy for it. Let’s look at some modern IT concepts that rely on foundational ideas set back in the day.

Social media companies are some of the most powerful entities in today’s world. Their ability to connect people with others of like mind or specific wants and needs often goes overlooked because much of the experience of operating online in today’s climate is adversarial. With the average user spending roughly two hours and 24 minutes per day on social media and messaging apps, companies can use that exposure to promote themselves. Let’s take a look at how small and medium-sized businesses use social media to their advantage.

For a couple years leading up to 2020, the Internet of Things was all the rage, but for obvious reasons, IoT hasn’t been at the top of many IT administrator’s minds unless it was in an effort to secure file access for the endpoints of a newly remote workforce. Despite the questions surrounding revenue and budgets, IoT can bring a lot of value to the small business. Let’s take a look at today’s IoT and talk about a few options that you can use for yours.

You don’t need to be repeatedly told just how important risk management is. If you did, you probably wouldn’t have made it this far. One problem you see from business owners today is that while they understand just how many problems there are--and which ones they need to find solutions for first--they want to grow their company so fast that they overlook potential problems and end up hurting their business as a result. This month, we thought we would talk a little bit about contingency planning and how, if it is done right, it can have a marked effect on your business’ ability to carry-on after a problematic event. 

Unfortunately, small businesses are having a hard time right now. If your operations are to continue throughout this time, some significant changes are going to be required. Here, we’re looking at how you can use current technologies to help sustain your business. Chances are, you may already have these technologies available to you.

When it comes to a business’ cybersecurity, there is no magic bullet to solve every problem. No miracle cure, no panacea, no Staples “that was easy” button. Instead, you need to deploy various means of protecting your operations. Let’s discuss how your business’ security needs to be shaped in three different environments: your physical infrastructure, your cybersecurity solutions, and your employees’ security habits.

It’s true that Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is probably going to be cheaper than using an enterprise phone system through your regional phone company. While cost reduction is a good reason to choose a service, VoIP does much more than just reduce communication costs. Implementing a VoIP platform also presents a lot of solid options that can help your business be more efficient and productive. 

Technology is a key part of operating a business nowadays, which is why advancements in business technology solutions are so important for organizations to keep pace with. Let’s review a few solutions and technologies that we predict businesses will (or at least, should) focus on this year.

As any business owner knows too well, a budget is a very finite thing - and this can seem to be doubly the case when trying to budget for your business’ technology. Fortunately, there are also a few ways that technology can help you save some capital. Here, we’re offering some tips to help you reduce the financial toll of your business’ IT.

Technology has enabled businesses to do more with less, although this isn’t always the best thing. Many small businesses simply feel that they don’t have the technology solutions that properly resolve their challenges. However, these solutions exist, and offer all the robust functionality that many businesses seek.

Compared to an enterprise corporation, a small-to-medium-sized business is going to have far fewer resources, especially in terms of its IT. Having said this, an SMB isn’t necessarily without a few quality options. Let’s review the needs that any business needs to have filled, and how they can do so with the right solutions.

With over 90 percent of people in the United States feeling as though their data is out of their hands, it should come as little surprise that many are looking towards the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation as inspiration. However, how close is the United States to passing this kind of legislation… and how will smaller businesses fare if (or when) some is passed?

At first glance, the Internet of Things is confusing, but now that we’ve been seeing “smart” devices hit the market for some time, there are understandably a few very serious issues that come with so many devices being able to be accessed from the Internet. The utilization of “smart” devices carries value. Here we have machines that do a lot of the heavy lifting for us in our lives, and with the ability to remotely control them, they only become that much more valuable.