Tip of the Week: Here Are a Few of Our Favorite Security Practices
There will never be a time that we are not committed to improving the security of businesses. To continue striving for this goal, we’re dedicating this week’s tip to describing some solutions that can assist in locking a business and its data down.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 06 February 2019 CompuTech City Blog
With So Many Cloud Options Picking the Best One Can Be Dizzying
Technology plays an integral part in just about all modern businesses in some way, shape or form. Without a place to purchase devices, however, no one can reap the benefits of them. Some businesses are vendors that provide organizations with these devices. In a sense, they act as the middle man between the producer and the consumer, acquiring devices for sale to businesses and users alike. In this way, vendors are critical for every single business.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 04 February 2019 CompuTech City Blog
A PSA PSA: Build a More Efficient Business
In order to build a profitable business, productivity has to remain consistent. If your business offers a service, and you are having a hard time managing all its moving parts, professional services automation (PSA) software may be right for you. Today, we will give a quick overview of what exactly a PSA is, and how it can serve as an extremely useful tool for businesses who operate in the professional services space.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 1 February 2019 CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: PowerPoint as a Multi-Purpose Tool
Microsoft PowerPoint is a well-known solution - well-known enough that the product has become synonymous with the task, regardless of what program one happens to use. Of course, this doesn’t mean that one necessarily must use it to create a presentation to go with a sales pitch. For this week’s tip, we’ll suggest a few other tasks you could complete with the help of a PowerPoint presentation.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 30 January 2019 CompuTech City Blog
Small and Medium-Sized Businesses Need to Prioritize Data Management
For the small business, being more efficient with resources can make a massive difference. In fact, it can be the difference between organizational sustainability and organizational failure. The bottom line is that, no matter how big or small they are, today’s businesses need to be smarter to compete. As a result, some businesses have begun to utilize data management platforms (DMP) in order to put themselves in a better position to understand their business, their market, and their customers. Let’s take a look at the DMP, and how it works to help businesses like yours be more effective.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 29 January 2019 CompuTech City Blog
How to Manage Documents in a Paperless Environment
Consider for a moment how many documents are floating around your business at any given point. Memos, notes, invoices, receipts, and whatever else you happen to accumulate in the course of business, all floating around the office. This isn’t a great approach, and unfortunately, the classic solution for this, the filing cabinet, isn’t the most effective solution anymore.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 28 January 2019 CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: How to Take Better Notes
Are you a person that has traditionally written down things in notebooks? If you are, you probably have dozens of notebooks that are half filled with information, most of which you’ll look at sometime in the future and you’ll be reminded just how helpful that note would have been if you had it when you needed it. Today, digital notebooks offer the same helpfulness, with a few added features that make them (dare we say it) a little better than the traditional notepad.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 25 January 2019 CompuTech City Blog
Startups are Depending on Cloud Services
Businesses spend a lot of time thinking about new technology solutions, but new organizations in particular need all of the tools they can get to be competitive in the competitive marketplace. The cloud is one of those tools that will continue to grow alongside your business provided you take measures to keep it flexible enough to change as needed. We’ll help you understand how the cloud can be great for new businesses, as well as some of the solutions you can take advantage of through it.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 24 January 2019 CompuTech City Blog
Technology Can Help You Retain Your Best Workers
The right technology can be a catalyst for change. While the right kind of change can be enough to drive innovation and push the limits of your business, the wrong kind of change--namely, employee turnover--can put a halt to productivity and force you to trace your steps back down the old, familiar path of onboarding and training. How can you use technology to retain top talent and reinforce the right message amongst your employees?
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 23 January 2019 CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: How to Calculate the ROI of Anything
All businesses are part of their respective markets, and depending on that market, the business will implement technology solutions designed to help them best cater to their business. However, you should only implement technology that can yield a satisfactory return on investment, or ROI. We’re here to help you get the most return on your investment as possible.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 22 January 2019 CompuTech City Blog
Problems Persist in Private Cloud Implementation
Private cloud computing is on the rise, and it’s for a good reason. Data security is a major problem for countless businesses out there, and in the wake of growing concerns over privacy and security threats, it has urged organizations to take it more seriously than ever before. Putting together a comprehensive private cloud system has its fair share of challenges, but if done properly, it can solve the data security problem as well.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 21 January 2019 CompuTech City Blog
Need More Capital: Consider Cutting Printing Costs
When looking to cut costs in the workplace, one of the best places to start looking is at your printing costs. While paper documents were once incredibly important for businesses (they still serve a function), no one can deny that they take up a considerable amount of space in the workplace, as well as take up precious assets that could be better spent elsewhere. What’s the best way to minimize the resources you spend on printing?
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 18 January 2019 CompuTech City Blog
Cloud-Based Communications Helping Businesses Boost Productivity
The cloud is the perfect outlet for businesses to improve productivity, but the degree to which this statement is true depends on the business and how much it leverages the cloud. If you’re not sure if your business can be utilizing the cloud in a more efficient way, perhaps we can help you make this determination and improve the way you take advantage of this technology.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 18 January 2019 CompuTech City Blog
Technology is Helping to Build Better Employee Engagement
An engaged employee will be invested in the future of your company, as well as their own future that they can see within your business. Unfortunately, research showcases that the numbers don’t look so bright for employee engagement in the workplace. According to a 2015 poll from Gallup, only about 30% of employees find themselves engaged in the workplace, while about 50% say they aren’t engaged with their work, and 20% claim to be actively disengaged by their workplace.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 17 January 2019 CompuTech City Blog
Onboarding Remote Workers to Build a Better Business
The funny thing about entrepreneurs is that they have to be very detail-oriented in order to find any modicum of success. This often leads them to inevitably becoming controlling people overall. For years the technology has been present to utilize remote workers, but only recently has the practice become commonplace. This is largely because businesses have begun to seriously consider reducing costs as a strategy to gain profits.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 16 January 2019 CompuTech City Blog
Tomorrow’s IT: Why Managed Services are Crucial in 2019
Technology has fundamentally altered the capabilities of businesses. Cloud computing has provided access to enterprise-strength computing at small business costs, and now IT providers are more able to provide value than simple repair-and-replace services. The name of the game is value, which is why the value-driven IT services of tomorrow are here to stay.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 11 January 2019 CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: Three Ways to Promote Operational Efficiency
Revenue is a key component of any business, crucial to the continued success and efficacy of it. However, in order to sustain an incoming revenue stream, a business needs to be able to operate efficiently enough to support it. In this week’s tip, we’ll review a few ways that you can build this efficiency in your own operations to assist your efforts to build a prosperous business.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 9 January 2019 CompuTech City Blog
Powerful Physical Security Options
Data security isn’t the easiest thing in the world to plan for, especially if your organization doesn’t have any dedicated security professionals on-hand. While protecting your data with traditional methods, like passwords, firewalls, and antivirus, is important, what measures are you taking to make sure a thief or hacker isn’t just walking into your office and making off with your technology
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 7 January 2019 CompuTech City Blog
Prioritize the Protection of Your Google Account
Chances are you have a Google account, whether it’s for business or personal use. It’s more accessible today than ever before and provides a solid way to gain access to several important features and accounts. Considering how much can be done with a Google account, users forget that they can put their security and personal data at risk. Here are some ways that your Google account is at risk, as well as what you can do to fix it.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 4 January 2019 CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: Password Protecting a Word Document
The funny thing about some documents is how the data written on them can strongly influence how important they are. If, for instance, there were two pieces of paper on a table, there is objectively no difference between the two, and so they are objectively equivalent in value.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 3 January 2019 CompuTech City Blog
The Top 5 Smartphones For You Heading Into 2019
With the smartphone market losing ground for the first time in its short history, many of the manufacturers you’ve come to know are either non-factors in the current market, or don’t even produce smartphones anymore. With new demand growing every year, new manufacturers such as OnePlus and Xiaomi are primed to fall in line behind Samsung and Apple.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 2 January 2019 CompuTech City Blog
How IT Benefits a Small Business’ Growth Potential
When we discuss our service offerings, we understand that it can all seem like a little much, especially to the small business that - up to this point - has never needed all these fancy solutions to operate effectively. However, there are a few considerations that the business this scenario applies to needs to account for. For instance, is it certain that these solutions are unnecessary?
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 28 December CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: Watch Out for Scammers During the Holidays
Scammers find the holidays to be a wonderful time for stealing from unsuspecting victims. They know that the gift-giving season inspires others to spend a lot of money, which means that sensitive information, like credit card numbers, is up for grabs in bulk. As a consumer yourself, you’ll have to keep an eye out for these scams to make sure that you’re staying as safe as possible this holiday season.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 27 December CompuTech City Blog
Why You Shouldn't Say “Humbug” to Your Security
The IT guy, Jacob left last month: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. He left without an exit interview, and he didn’t seem very pleased with the way the situation played out. You could never tell if Scrooge cared or not. His demands have never wavered. He expected perfection and when mistakes were made, they were approached as catastrophic affronts to the sustainability of the business, even if that wasn’t the reality.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 26 December CompuTech City Blog
The SamSam Ransomware Is Absolutely No Joke
The funny thing about ransomware is that they give them very strange names: Bad Rabbit sounds like the name of a villainous bunny who gets his comeuppance in some type of modern nursery rhyme, not malware that would ravage hundreds of European businesses. Locky seems like the son of Candado de seguridad, a character Medeco would come up with to educate kids on proper physical security. The latest in a long line of funny-named ransomware, SamSam, isn’t a pet name for your pet ferret you perplexingly named Sam, it is one of the worst ransomware strains ever, and it has caught the attention of U.S. Federal law enforcement.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 24 December CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: Windows 10 Improvements to Try
Windows 10 has a lot of features to offer a user, and more are being added all the time. We don’t want you to miss out on any, especially if they could help to streamline your business’ processes or your users’ experience. Here are four that you might find particularly handy.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 21 December CompuTech City Blog
During the Holidays, Cybersecurity Matters at Work and Home
We’re right in the thick of the holiday season, which means two things: one, there’s a lot of data being exchanged between businesses and consumers, and (on a related note) two: there’s ample opportunities for cybercrime, targeting business and consumer both. Whichever side of the coin you are on at any moment, you need to be aware of the risks, and how to mitigate them.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 20 December CompuTech City Blog
VoIP Is the Leading Choice for Business Communications
Few technological assets are as important in today’s business world as a working telephone solution of some sort. While its form has changed considerably over the years from a traditional handset terminal to a desktop application or mobile device, its functionality remains largely the same. In some ways, it’s even better and more improved, offering unprecedented opportunities for businesses to revamp their entire communications infrastructure.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 20 December CompuTech City Blog
Securing Your Business from the Internet of Things
Now that the holidays have come and gone, you might have a couple of new gadgets in your home or office that connect to the Internet. Depending on what these gadgets are, you might have a serious security issue sitting right in front of you without realizing it. Some devices that don’t normally connect to the Internet--also known as Internet of Things devices (IoT)--aren’t as secure as you’d like them to be, particularly in a business environment.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 19 December CompuTech City Blog
Obtaining the Right Tools Is Extremely Important for Businesses
Your business’ technology infrastructure is built from hardware, and this hardware needs to be properly managed if you want to succeed. The first step to this is to acquire the proper hardware, but for businesses that don’t have dedicated in-house IT departments, even this is challenging. Outsourced hardware procurement is a solution to this dilemma, and we’ll explain how it works.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 18 December CompuTech City Blog
Small Businesses Using Emerging Technologies to Get Ahead
If your business uses technology to be more productive and efficient, you know that as soon as you buy a piece of new technology, there is another one right behind it that has more power, or better features. This is true for consumers as well. This constant innovation is what has made technology a viable option for many small businesses. After all, if computers hadn’t been innovated on constantly, they’d still be the size of a room (or wouldn’t exist at all).
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 17 December CompuTech City Blog
Gift Card Scam Making Problems for Holiday Shoppers
As the modern gift certificate, the gift card has become an institution, especially around the holidays. Thousands of companies offer statically-priced and reloadable gift cards. With that much cheddar flying around it isn’t a surprise that there is big business in gift card theft. The FTC has stated that gift card scams are up a whopping 270 percent since 2015. With so much money at stake, keeping yourself out of the way of the scammers has to be priority one.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 14 December CompuTech City Blog
Tech Term: Mobile Device Management
While smartphones and tablets can help businesses quite a bit, they can also be quite detrimental to their success. If you can get past the issues related to employees bringing their own devices to the workplace, then you’ll be able to save a considerable amount of time and resources on device procurement, but you certainly want to make sure you have a mobile device management policy put in place first.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 12 December CompuTech City Blog
What You Need to Know About Technology Upgrades
Even if we’d like it to last forever, business technology can’t possibly do so for a number of reasons. Due to the fact that businesses and their technology are constantly upgrading and changing, it’s almost a certainty that you’ll have to upgrade your technology at some point, whether it reaches its end-of-life event or just simply becomes obsolete for your organization. In fact, failing to update your infrastructure from time to time can have serious negative side-effects for your business.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 10 December CompuTech City Blog
Can You Stay Productive In the Face of Constant Distraction?
The modern office is filled with distractions, and that’s to say nothing about the everyday user’s life. With so many devices and notifications interrupting focus for users all over the world, it’s more important than ever before to have a strategy for how to deal with these issues and become as productive as possible in the workplace. Today, we’ll be discussing some of the biggest distractions in the workplace and how your employees can overcome them.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 07 December CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: Visiting Useful Windows 10 Features
Windows 10 isn’t just a great operating system for getting things done--it’s also jam-packed with features that you might not even have known about. This week’s tip is all about some of the handy features that Windows 10 can provide for your office.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 06 December CompuTech City Blog
Developers Are Building Blockchain-Based App for Health Records
Many industries depend on their IT working properly to function as intended, and healthcare is among them. Prior to 2009, information technology had failed to take root, but with the passing of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act), the health industry is much more involved and reliant on IT than it has ever been before.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 05 December CompuTech City Blog
Here is How Antivirus Keeps a Business Safe
A lot is made about antivirus as a part of a comprehensive network security platform, but how does the system really work to eliminate threats? Today, we will take a look at an antivirus solution to show you how it goes about removing unwanted files and other code.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 30 November CompuTech City Blog
Tech Term: What are All These “-Wares?”
When you’re talking about something to do with a computer, you’re going to start hearing about some word that ends with “-ware.” You could probably list off a few yourself, but have you ever stopped to think about why they’re all described as “something-ware?” For this week’s Tech Term, we’ll take a peek at why we refer to things that way.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 28 November CompuTech City Blog
Your Technology May Fail, but You Can Still Succeed
If you’ve been in business for a while, there are devices on your network that see little to no use. Even for the most frugal business, due to the fact that technology eventually winds up being arbitrary thanks to the continued development (and deployment) of more powerful solutions, there will always be situations where you have devices that do nothing but take up space. You can reduce the chances of this happening by finding the right IT for the job the first time, while sparingly implementing only IT solutions that will provide a return on your investment.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 26 November CompuTech City Blog
Remote Management Brings Certain Benefits
If your business experiences a technological failure, how many operations simply stop dead in their tracks until the problem is resolved? While it might seem like you have no control over your business’ technology (at least the issues that cause downtime), this is far from the truth. If you take action now, you can prevent issues from cropping up in the first place rather than reacting to them later, after they have already caused considerable problems for your business.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 23 November CompuTech City Blog
Patient Information Security: Where Do You Stand?
Your patients depend on you as their medical provider to keep their data safe, and federal regulations require it. We know you already know that. We also know you want to do everything in your power to prevent personal health information from falling into the wrong hands. But, if you’re like many physicians or practice managers, you’re probably just not aware of where your cybersecurity stands.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 21 November CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: Improving Some Cybersecurity Basics
What are your chances of being hacked, or targeted by some kind of cyberattack? I hate to tell you this, but they’re probably a lot higher than you might think.
For instance, despite almost 90 percent of small business owners believing they’re safe, about half of all small businesses will suffer from a catastrophic cyber-attack.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 21 November CompuTech City Blog
A Secure Wireless Network Allows for Better Business
Wireless Internet access for a user’s devices isn’t just a luxury these days--it’s expected. If the Wi-Fi drops out for any reason at all, chaos strikes, rendering any ability to stream content or access the Internet a moot point. This is particularly the case for businesses that have technology solutions reliant on wireless access. How can you make sure your wireless network is as strong and reliable as possible?
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 20 November CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: You Better Test Your Backup
Data backup can be the difference between a business that fails and a business that succeeds. After all, if an organization suffers from a data loss incident so bad that it has to deploy its data backup, it wouldn’t be able to survive without it. With a data backup and disaster solution, you can ensure business continuity. But what does this kind of system need in order to succeed, and how can you make sure your organization benefits from a data backup system in place?
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 19 November CompuTech City Blog
The Internet Continues to Change Business
With so many people depending on the Internet for a litany of reasons, there might not be the general acknowledgment of just how powerful the ubiquitous use of the Internet really is for businesses. From the storage and redundancy of business’ data to virtualized computing platforms to browser-based interfaces that provide access to productivity and communications software, today’s Internet is filled with solutions for the modern business.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 16 November CompuTech City Blog
Human Error is a Major Problem for Businesses
There is always going to be user error in the workplace. Even the best workers make mistakes sometimes. You naturally want to reduce these occurrences as often as possible, but for the purposes of training and whatnot, you want to assume the worst: that any worker, even the most dedicated veteran, could potentially make a business-ending mistake. Thankfully, there are ways you can make sure this doesn’t happen for your business.Here are three tips for reducing human error in the workplace.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 15 November CompuTech City Blog
Protect Your Business This Year with a BDR
There is a lot on the line for any business when disaster strikes. Is your business ready for a data loss incident? Every year people from all over the world make resolutions as the new year commences; and, this year will be no different. For the business owner hoping to mitigate their exposure to downtime and client backlash in the face of an event like this, having a plan in place is essential to seeing a positive resolution to a bad situation. We’ll go through what constitutes a good backup solution, and what goals you need to prioritize to get your business in a position to succeed if it is put in a tight spot.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 15 November CompuTech City Blog
Communications Are a Big Part of New Productivity Software
When people find new reasons to collaborate, it typically results in something positive. There is some new software that is now making collaboration easier, while still providing people the tools they need to stay productive. These collaboration tools are changing the face of business. Today, we take a look at them and how your organization can use these new collaboration tools to move business ahead faster.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 14 November CompuTech City Blog
Which Cloud-Hosted Solutions Will Work for Your Business
These days, many businesses turn to hosted solutions to take advantage of services that they haven’t been able to use in the past. Whether it’s because they don’t have the staff to properly look after the services or they don’t have the in-house infrastructure for it, organizations continue to take advantage of hosted solutions to varying degrees. We’ll walk you through your options for whether you should build, rent, or buy your hosted solutions to best fit your business’ needs.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 13 November CompuTech City Blog
Emerging Business Technology Innovations for 2018
For those who don’t know, the term information technology is an encompassment of the technology used in the facilitation of rendering, sharing, and storing data. Any piece of technology that is used to process, keep, send, and secure digital information, is considered IT. Today, we will look at some of the emerging technologies presenting solutions for businesses and individuals, alike, heading into 2019.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 12 November CompuTech City Blog
Your Business May Be Most Vulnerable from the Inside
It can be easy, with all the threats covered in the news, to assume that the biggest dangers to your business all come from the outside. This is a dangerous mistake, as there are plenty of vulnerabilities that originate from within your organization, making it easier for outside threats to come in, if not being bigger threats in and of themselves. Below, we’ll review some of the biggest, mostly internal dangers that your business may face.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 09 November CompuTech City Blog
Tech Term: Zero-Day
You might hear the term “zero-day” when discussing security threats, but do you know what they actually are? A zero-day threat is arguably one of the most devastating and dangerous security issues your business could face, and if you’re not prepared, they could be the end of it.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 08 November CompuTech City Blog
Monitoring is Essential to IT Success
More small businesses today depend on their IT. If that technology isn’t working as intended, it can really stymie an organization’s ability to be effective. Our strategy of managed IT support and services can do quite a bit towards keeping a business running efficiently. Today, we’ll take a look at managed IT to see how proactive monitoring can deliver enhanced efficiency to businesses.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 07 November CompuTech City Blog
Cybersecurity Causing You Confusion?
When we ask physicians and practice managers the status of their office’s cybersecurity, they often aren’t quite sure. Some even think they don’t need to worry about it.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 07 November CompuTech City Blog
Understanding the Basics of Server Maintenance
Server units--you’ll find them in most offices out there, but they are all used for different purposes. Since well-maintained data is so essential to the success of many organizations, it’s important to keep your server units in proper working order. Today we’ll discuss the best ways to make sure your servers are in peak performance.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 26 October CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: How Technology Covers a Business’ Needs
If you look around your company, there’s a good chance that it has a lot of technology that you completely take for granted. No matter if you run a small retail store, a factory, or a multi-location office, your business needs IT to function properly. Today, we will take a look into several ways your organization can use technology to improve your business.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 25 October CompuTech City Blog
Instant Messaging Is a Valuable Tool for Businesses
Once thought to just be a cool feature of the Internet--or the entirety of the Internet to your Great Aunt Maddie--instant messaging has a long history on the web. In fact, one could argue that it was the first great Internet-based application. Today, we take a look back at the history of Instant Messaging and how your organization can use it to create a better business.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 24 October CompuTech City Blog
Cloud-Based Security Is Concerning for Small Businesses
The cloud is such an important part of today’s business environment that most organizations use it to some extent, even if it’s just for basic storage needs. However, the cloud needs to be properly maintained, starting with the way you secure your cloud services. Take a moment to ask yourself if your cloud--whether it’s hosted on-site or by a provider--is safe and secure.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 23 October CompuTech City Blog
Tech Term: Responsive Web Design
We all have our favorite websites to visit, as well as those we often have to visit to fulfill our responsibilities. As a result, it isn’t uncommon for us to try and access the same websites on both a desktop workstation and a mobile device, but some websites work better than others while trying this. This is because of something called responsive web design, which we’ll review below for our weekly Tech Term.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 22 October CompuTech City Blog
Is Election Technology Solid or Simply Antiquated
Election Day in the United States is coming up quick on November 6th. It doesn’t matter what your thoughts or opinions on U.S. politics are--the fact remains that millions of Americans will be using the technology available at polling places to cast their ballots, and if this technology isn’t secured properly, the integrity of the voting system will be at risk.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 19 October CompuTech City Blog
Will You Be the Latest Business to Move Your Email to the Cloud?
The cloud helps many organizations expand their territories beyond simply the physical workplace. Employees can now access data and applications on any connected device. Your office can benefit considerably from cloud-based resources, with email in particular being a standout solution for the cloud.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 18 October CompuTech City Blog
Should You Outsource Your IT Project’s Management?
Any project manager will tell you that there are countless issues that can get in the way of a successful implementation. To nobody’s surprise, business technology can aid project management by streamlining operations and making the entire process much easier for everyone involved. We’ll dig into the details about how project management software and value-based managed IT services can help you complete projects on-time and on-budget.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 17 October CompuTech City Blog
Powerful Conferencing Solutions Can Move Your Business Ahead
Many small and midsize companies are forced into spreading their resources out in order to compete with larger organizations. For those that are searching for a way to manage all the moving parts of business, having the means to communicate has to be at the top of the list. What makes it more difficult are that many organizations have a reliance on workers that work remotely. For times like this, a comprehensive conferencing strategy is important. We’ll take a look at what makes up today’s powerful conferencing solutions, and how you can use them to find more success.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 16 October CompuTech City Blog
Emerging Technologies to Keep an Eye On
Information technology has always been a hotbed for future predictions. Whether it was Marconi’s grand plans for wireless communications or the bold prediction that every person would be carrying around a computer that fits in the palm of their hand, the future always looks bright when new technologies are considered. But, what does the immediate future of information technology hold?
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 15 October CompuTech City Blog
Just How Important Is the Data Recovery Process?
Data recovery can make your break your business’ continuity plan, and you absolutely cannot underestimate how important this is for the future of your organization. There are countless ways your business could lose data, and if you encounter even a single one of them, your organization could be put at serious risk. We’ll take a look at operational data loss and how your organization needs to strategize data recovery.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 12 October CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: Keep Your IT Optimized
IT management is critical to the success of your business, but it’s easier said than done. There are countless moving parts that all go into keeping your business’ IT organized. Here are three ways you can make sure IT doesn’t hold your business back from its full potential.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 10 October CompuTech City Blog
Windows 10 Itself Helps Keep You Secure
Windows 10 is the most utilized operating system on PCs today. As a result, Microsoft has made it a priority to take on some of today’s most prevalent threats. We’ll go through these security features based on the state of the computer’s usage to get a better idea of how much is done to improve your security.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 08 October CompuTech City Blog
Can You Use Help with Your Customer Relationships?
Understanding what your customers need is a crucial first step toward improving the way your organization communicates with them. They expect a certain level of service, so how can you make sure to maintain it while still leveling with them on what they require of your business? A customer relationship management software, or CRM, is invaluable toward this end.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 05 October CompuTech City Blog
Tech Terminology: Bookmark
The Internet is home to a vast amount of knowledge. Undoubtedly you’ll find yourself revisiting certain sites more often than others to take advantage of the information contained within. Thankfully, the bookmark system is a great way to make this happen, giving users an easy and efficient way to navigate back to frequently-visited websites.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 03 October CompuTech City Blog
Improving Your Collaboration Can Improve Performance
With the exception of a sole proprietorship, a business of any size relies on its team in order to function properly. As a result, this team needs to be able to work together towards a common goal in order to succeed. To accomplish this, collaboration technologies are becoming more and more common in office environments, and generally benefit the performance of the business in its operations.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 01 October CompuTech City Blog
Looking Back at This Year’s Cybersecurity Issues
Every business in operation today needs to have some kind of comprehensive network security. Simply put, there are too many threats that can come in through an Internet connection for them to continue doing otherwise. The past year provides plenty of anecdotal proof of this fact, as a quick glance back can show.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 28 September CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: 4 Ways Technology Can Benefit Businesses
The way that business is conducted today, the right technology is more of a necessity than a privilege. There are plenty of benefits that it can bring that an organization requires in order to stay competitive. For our tip, we’ll walk through a few ways that your business can be improved through the adoption of certain solutions.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 26 September CompuTech City Blog
Help Desk Support Benefits Small Business
Technology support can be one of the major pain points for businesses, and it’s not something that your organization wants to invest in without thinking about the details. Technology support as a service has a lot to offer when compared with the break/fix method. We’ll help you make the right decision by explaining why remote IT services are a major benefit for any business.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 25 September CompuTech City Blog
Is It Possible For Machine Learning to Help Treat Patients?
There is no denying there is a standing partnership between IT and Healthcare. With costs inflating at a nearly-uncontrollable rate the healthcare industry has started to lean on IT to try and make the delivery of care more efficient. Today, we’ll take a look at healthcare IT, and how the industry is working to use innovative new technologies such as machine learning to provide operational efficiency resulting in better care.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 21 September CompuTech City Blog
Tech Term: Read Only
You open a lot of files and folders during your duties around the office, but some of them might seem a little different from others. These files are marked as “read-only.” What is the significance behind these files, and what does this marking mean? Find out in this week’s tech term.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 20 September CompuTech City Blog
Are Cloud-Based Solutions Right For Your Organization?
You’d be hard-pressed to find a business these days that doesn’t use the cloud in some way or another. Before investing in the right cloud solutions, it’s important that your organization considers several factors. Here are three of the most common ones that your business should consider before investing in and implementing a new cloud service.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 19 September CompuTech City Blog
How to Intelligently Approach Business Analytics
A solid business decision needs to be based on more than just a gut feeling. It takes quantifiable data to choose the right path for your company, leveraged in a process known as business analytics. Today, we’ll explore this process, as well as discuss a few ways you can use it to your advantage.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 18 September CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: 5 Simple Browser Tricks
We all know how to use the Internet (you’re here now, after all), but there are a lot of hidden secrets to it that far fewer people know. Today, we’ll let you in on five of them to try and make some basics a little easier.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 17 September CompuTech City Blog
Getting Our Bearings: The State of Business Technology in 2018
At every turn, it seems as though there’s another best practice or upcoming trend to learn and implement in the realm of business technology. Are you doing all you can to keep your company up to date, relevant, and competitive? Below, we review some of 2018’s biggest IT revolutions so far.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 14 September CompuTech City Blog
Protect Your Business From Phishing Attacks
Spam is a major hindrance when running a business that relies on email, but it’s easy to protect your employee’s time from the average spam messages with the right technological support. Unfortunately, hackers have adapted to this change and made it more difficult to identify scam emails. More specifically, they have turned to customizing their spam messages to hit specific individuals within organizations.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 13 September CompuTech City Blog
If Productivity Is a Constant Battle, Consider Using Mercenaries
The business landscape can be unforgiving. It can be filled with landmines that slow progress to a crawl and blitzes that send your head spinning. If you were to compare the business world to history's great battles, technology solutions are a business’ weapons. They are the tools used to make the everyday grind possible. The more advanced an army’s technology, the bigger the edge they have over outfits that don’t have that technology...as long as it works as intended.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 12 September CompuTech City Blog
Disasters Aren’t Always Caused By Disasters
Disasters are a very real possibility that businesses have to deal with, but not all disasters come in the form of a flood or fire. You can predict weather effects that can create problems for your business, like thunderstorms and ice storms that bring down power lines, but you can’t possibly predict when and how your organization will suffer from a data loss incident. We’ll discuss in-depth how your business can save itself the trouble of dealing with cyberattacks and user error--particularly in regard to data backup and disaster recovery.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 11 September CompuTech City Blog
Data Security Issues of 2018
Each year there are changes that need to be made in the way that organizations manage their IT security. In 2017, ransomware burst on the scene in full force, and cyber security strategies reacted, coming up with fully managed security platform that remediate issues better, and cost organizations far more than they would have spent on IT security just a short time ago. In 2018, the same problems persist, while other developing technologies threaten the natural order of things. Today, we will look at how cybersecurity is being approached in 2018.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 10 September CompuTech City Blog
Your Employees: Your Best Defense, Your Biggest Threat
When it comes to cybersecurity, you should remember the oaths elected officials and other government employees take pledging to “defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Your cybersecurity is like the Constitution, it must be defended from threats originating outside your company and inside your company.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 07 September CompuTech City Blog
Smaller Practices are Choosing Cloud-Based EHR
The medical field has spawned all kinds of new technology that takes patient care to the next level. Regulations demand that even smaller practices need to make the jump to electronic medical record systems (also known as electronic health records). These EMR/EHR solutions provide an interface that give providers and patients a way to keep themselves connected to each other--a tool to promote a more efficient delivery method for these services. We’ll take a look at these EMR and EHR solutions that are hosted in the cloud, giving your organization more information to make an educated choice on implementing this software.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 07 September CompuTech City Blog
Tech Term: Hacker
The term “hacker” is possibly one of the best-known technology-related terms there is, thanks to popular culture. Properties like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the Die Hard franchise have given the layman a distinct impression of what a hacker is. Unfortunately, this impression isn’t always accurate. Here, we’ll discuss what real-life hackers are like, and the different varieties there are.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 06 September CompuTech City Blog
Here Are Some VoIP Features That May Surprise You
The business community has embraced Voice over Internet Protocol as the accepted standard for exceptional communications. While there are countless benefits to using VoIP as your chosen communications tool, you might be surprised at how much can be done with them. In fact, you might even overlook some of the best features about VoIP!
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 05 September CompuTech City Blog
Is E-Commerce an Option for You?
The Internet has made quite a few common processes easier, including buying and selling goods and even services. However, while e-commerce is experiencing extreme growth, it may not be the right fit for every business. There are a variety of considerations to balance out to determine if e-commerce is something that you should be leveraging.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 31 August CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: How to Speed Up a Windows PC
The personal computer is a remarkable tool, allowing us to accomplish levels of productivity and efficiency at speeds that were once only dreamed of… at least, that’s how it feels at first. However, it doesn’t take very long for a computer to seem like it drags on and on before performing the task requested of it. Why is that, and how can this be resolved?
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 30 August CompuTech City Blog
Leave Your Moving Stresses In Your Old Office
There’s nothing quite like signing off on your first business space. It’s like officially saying, “My business is up and running. Visit my office today!” What’s even more exciting, however, is when your organization is growing so quickly that your business space becomes cramped or too small to grow unhindered. Either way, the way you set up your office is going to be an important part of running your business.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 29 August CompuTech City Blog
Which is Best for Your Server Needs, In-House or Hosted?
A server is a necessary component of any business’ IT infrastructure, as its job is to make sure that information and policies are distributed the way they need to be across a network. Once, servers had to be on-site in order to work, there is now the option to have a cloud-hosted virtualized server. Which of these is right for your needs? Let’s do a quick comparison to find out.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 28 August CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: Getting Back to Email Security Basics
Email is a particular favorite attack vector of many who would do wrong by your business, as it is easily one of the most used communications in most businesses today. Do your employees know how large of a responsibility they have to your business’ security just by using email? In order to prevent unfortunate security blunders, you need to make sure you and your employees know a few best practices when it comes to handling email securely.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 27 August CompuTech City Blog
Monitoring Pros and Cons
Dealing with other people, whether in the office or a home environment, can often be troublesome. There is always a case of someone trying to be better than someone else, or trying to take advantage of their naiveté. There are solutions out there that make it easier than ever to help keep your home and business safe. Here are some of the best out there.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 24 August CompuTech City Blog
How is Blockchain Going to Work with the GDPR?
The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has gone into effect, and with this new law comes a lot of information your organization needs to consider regarding individual data protection. In particular, the technology of blockchain is difficult to talk about in regard to GDPR, as it’s basically an encrypted and distributed digital ledger. How can blockchain work properly in tandem with the new GDPR regulations?
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 23 August CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: Lead Your Remote Workers to Success
Organizations that have a workforce outside of their normal office location are presented with a unique challenge. In the case of remote employees, businesses have to figure out how to keep them connected to the workplace, productive with their time, and part of the organization’s culture. This week’s tip is dedicated to helping your organization’s remote workers become more successful--or, specifically, how you can help them be successful.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 22 August CompuTech City Blog
Business Communications Are Changing Rapidly
Communication solutions for business are changing rapidly, and most of the new solutions go a long way toward using existing technologies that allow these organizations to save money and get more for the services they already pay for.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 21 August CompuTech City Blog
6 Tips to Improve Your Medical Practice’s Cybersecurity
As one medical clinic recently learned, you don’t have to be as big as LabCorp to be targeted by hackers. They, like LabCorp, were hit by ransomware attacks that compromised protected data. While the clinic only lost access to about 45,000 records, LabCorp lost control of millions. That’s why it’s key that your medical practice employ effective cybersecurity solutions.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 20 August CompuTech City Blog
WPA3 is Boosting Network Security
Did you know that prior to this past January, the last big update to Wi-Fi occurred in 2004, when WPA2 was released? The Wi-Fi alliance has introduced a new type of wireless connection called WPA3--one that can dramatically improve security. In reality, it was created with the intention of shoring up weaknesses found as a result of the KRACK vulnerability, which exposed serious issues with WPA2 that needed to be addressed.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 17 August CompuTech City Blog
Security Threats and Defensive Measures You Can Take
Network security for small businesses is far from simple. There are countless threats out there that want to see your business fall, and it only takes one to see this come to fruition. Unless you take action now to protect your organization, you risk the future of your business. But what is it that businesses need to protect from, and what measures are out there that can accomplish this feat?
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 16 August CompuTech City Blog
Proactive IT Monitoring Pays for Itself
Every business has some sort of management tasks that requires foresight, and staying up on them can keep headache-inducing situations from constantly causing downtime and costing you time; and, make no mistake, time is money. Being more proactive not only provides sound strategies, it can really mitigate the amount of problems you have to deal with. As we describe what it means to be proactive, and how that strategy will almost always help you save money, consider how you are implementing a proactive approach to your business.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 14 August CompuTech City Blog
Are Higher Gas Prices Costing Your Business?
The price of fuel per gallon is one of the many ways individuals are affected by the constantly shifting industry costs, and for those who commute to the office, it can become a considerable expense. For distributors, the changes in gas prices can be the difference between sitting on a gold mine or losing valuable resources. For the small distributor, changes in gas prices can make all the difference in determining how much it costs to truck goods across the area. How can smaller businesses take advantage of IT solutions to keep costs down while gas prices increase?
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 13 August CompuTech City Blog
What Exactly Do We Mean by “Managed” Services?
Managed services - what are they? The short answer, other people managing the IT systems that you rely on every day to be productive and accomplish your tasks. In essence, they are a freedom from dealing with the troublesome and time-consuming parts of leveraging technology. You may have heard this much about managed services before, but have never been given a deeper understanding of what they entail. That is precisely what we aim to accomplish below.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 10 August CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: Using Microsoft OneNote for Collaboration
Have you tried using Microsoft OneNote recently? It’s a great solution for a business setting, as it can provide your organization with plenty of features and capabilities that keep your staff organized and efficient.Thankfully, these features can allow your business to pass OneNote off as a project management tool. We’ll show you how it’s done.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 10 August CompuTech City Blog
Disaster Averted for One Home Health-Care Organization
Many healthcare organizations think that when things go south, they’ll be fine. For one home healthcare organization that was referred to CompuTech City, they were one incident away from a near total loss. During our initial review of their systems, we discovered that their backup system wasn’t working.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 09 August CompuTech City Blog
Want to Keep Your “Personal” Browsing a Secret? Scam Says: Pay Up!
A new email scam is making its rounds and it has a lot of people concerned with just how much a hacker can peer into one’s private life. How would you react if a stranger emailed you saying they had inappropriate webcam footage of you?
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 07 August CompuTech City Blog
How Technology Could Change the Classroom
Children are the future, as the saying goes, so do we really want the future to be taught using tools from the past? While some schools are still using technology that better belongs in the 20th century, others are embracing innovation and teaching in ways that better translate to the “real world.” Let’s take a look at how our evolving technology is transforming the classroom and explore some ways to get it to more students.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 02 August CompuTech City Blog
Tech Term: Network
It sure does seem that the term “network” is tossed around an awful lot. Network security, network maintenance, social networking, network switch… but what is a network, really? That is precisely what we shall dive into here.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 01 August CompuTech City Blog
What Makes Managed Services Worth It?
Most modern businesses depend on technology in at least some capacity, whether it’s for productivity, efficiency, or even security purposes. Without access to important data and applications, your business is a shell of its former glory. This is why it’s so important for businesses like yours to implement managed IT services. It certainly beats having untrained employees maintain your crucial computing systems!
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 31 July CompuTech City Blog
What Your Practice Needs to Recover From Disasters.
If your practice’s computers crash and data is lost, do you have a backup plan? Will you know how much data was lost since your last backup? Do you know how long it will take to get your practice back up-and-running?
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 30 July CompuTech City Blog
How to Boost Your Business’ Success in 3 Easy Steps.
Running a business is never easy. There are so many moving parts to juggle and decisions to prioritize, it can be easy to skip over key steps on the path to success. While good business savvy is obviously a key requirement for this success to happen, there are certain things that can be done to give your business an extra push in the right direction. Today, we’ll go over three such seeds of success.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 27 July CompuTech City Blog
Tech Term: Encryption Key
It is no secret that security is an absolutely crucial part of computing in the modern era. Data can very fairly be called the most valuable currency today, which means it needs to be protected. One way to do this is through the use of encryption keys. In this Tech Term, we’ll go over how these keys can protect your data, and how they do so.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 26 July CompuTech City Blog
Have You Really Considered Your Maintenance Costs?
Computers need to be maintained in order to ensure that they are working as optimally as possible. It’s also known that technology solutions are prone to failure, be it from users making mistakes, deliberately ruining something in a fit of rage, or components simply failing. If you’re concerned about the wellbeing of your organization’s IT, then you need to rely on a technology specialist who can manage and maintain it.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 25 July CompuTech City Blog
A Short History of Data Backup and Storage
Data backup has become an essential piece of the modern business’ computing infrastructure
but the act of protecting data from being lost is centuries old. Before there was recorded
civilization, there were humans writing on the cave walls and carving notches into bone to aid
counting and other primitive mathematics. Today, we take a look at the history of backing up
data, and how it has brought us to where we are now.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 24 July CompuTech City Blog
Facebook Makes Two-Factor Authentication Easier
If you use Facebook, you likely have a lot of personal information stored there. If you use it for
your business, then your professional reputation also partially relies on what you put into the
social network. If you aren’t protecting your Facebook account, you could be at risk for identity
theft or worse. That’s why using two-factor authentication on your social media accounts is
becoming more important than ever.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 23 July CompuTech City Blog
How To Get Rid of Those Pesky Extra Cables
Do you have cords, wires, and adapters just sitting in a cupboard or drawer, with no purpose
other than taking up space? Of course you do. The average person will replace old or broken
devices, and find the new devices aren’t compatible with the old cables, leaving them stuffed in
a junk drawer or in a random box that they’ve kept “just in case.” Every home or business has
the same scenario going on: lots of wires and cables left over from all the e-waste they have
discarded over the years. If you want to get rid of your unwanted cables, here are a couple of
tips on how to do so properly.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 20 July CompuTech City Blog
Understanding the Importance of .Net Framework
If you’re a habitual user of the Microsoft Windows operating system, there’s a relatively good
chance that you’ve been prompted to install something called “.NET framework.” Pronounced
“dot-net,” this framework is most commonly used for Windows. In this blog, we’ll go over what a
software framework is and is for, as well as examine what makes .NET stand out.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 19 July CompuTech City Blog
Tech Term: Protocol
Computers use quite a lot of different types of protocol to function. In particular, the Internet
takes advantage of protocol to a great degree. You might recognize terms like Hypertext
Transfer Protocol Secure, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, File Transfer
Protocol, Internet Message Protocol, and Post Office Protocol. But what exactly is protocol, and
why is it important?
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 18 July CompuTech City Blog
Some Providers are Offering Blockchain as a Service
There’s a big risk associated with implementing any new technology solution for your
organization. For one, it’s difficult to know how a specific solution will run without first
implementing it. This leads many businesses to avoid implementing a new solution for fear that
it won’t be worth the investment. On the other hand, if they fail to implement a new solution, they
could potentially lose out on valuable new tools they could use to succeed. How can you get
around this issue?
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 17 July CompuTech City Blog
How the IoT Can Be a Security Risk
The Internet of Things means a lot more than just enhanced connectivity. In particular, you’ll
have a considerable security risk associated with the Internet of Things. It’s clear that the more
devices accessing a network, the more risk will be associated with that network, which is where
the inherent risk of the Internet of Things comes into play. How can you control the number of
devices accessing your network, and thus secure your business from the Internet of Things?
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 16 July CompuTech City Blog
Understanding RPO and RTO
Data backup. Nobody wants to think about it until it’s too late to do anything about it. While no business ever hopes that they will be struck by a data loss incident, no business will ever regret implementing a backup on the off-chance that they ever suffer from a worst-case scenario.
What are some of the most important parts of a data backup and business continuity system?
We’ll start with Recovery Point Objective and Recovery Time Objective.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 13 July CompuTech City Blog
Cloud Can Cover Most of Your Business Needs
The traditional computing structure has been under siege by cloud computing for the past
several years. More businesses than ever are seeing the value in cloud-hosted applications and
infrastructure, and while that may not be a huge surprise, the perceptions that the cloud can
solve any of your organizational computing problems depend largely on the needs of that
endeavor. Today, we will take a look at successful small business cloud strategies and tell you
why they find success.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 12 July CompuTech City Blog
Should High-Speed Internet Access Be a Luxury?
With so many new technologies being introduced and innovation at the highest levels in human
history, you’d think that ubiquitous access to bandwidth Internet would be high on the list of the
priorities of ISPs and for residents of every jurisdiction. This doesn’t seem to be the case. With
the disparity between urban and rural bandwidth Internet offerings growing by the day, we look
at the causes of the gap and how companies plan on getting Internet access to people in areas
where the population may be low.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 11 July CompuTech City Blog
Reexamining Meltdown and Spectre
It’s been about a year and a half since the Meltdown and Spectre exploits became publicly known. While patches and updates were administered to reduce their threat, they continue to linger on in a less serious capacity. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the threat has entirely been neutered--you still want to know what these threats do and whether or not you’re safe from them.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 10 July CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: Keep Employees Off of Distracting Websites
As incredible a tool as the Internet truly is, for every website that is beneficial to the workplace, there is another that is certainly the opposite. Naturally, it is these sites that your employees would most likely want to visit if left to their own devices. Sometimes, the best course of action is to remove the temptation and block these websites. For this week’s tip, we’ll talk about a few ways to do so.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 09 July CompuTech City Blog
Clearing Up Some Chromebook Confusion
Chromebooks might be simple, but they aren’t as limited as you might think they are. They might have once been limited, but more recent models are much more capable of accomplishing just as much, if not more, than any of their previous iterations. Here are some of the most common misconceptions that people have about Chromebooks.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 06 July CompuTech City Blog
The Clock is Ticking – Is Your Disaster Recovery Plan in Place?
The clock is ticking. Hurricane Season 2018 started June 1. Last year was the worst hurricane season to hit Florida since Hurricane Wilma made landfall in 2005. In 2017, Hurricane Irma raged up the Florida coast from the Florida Keys causing between $60 billion and $90 billion in terms of lost business and property damage, according to Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 03 July CompuTech City Blog
Do You Know All the Things an MSP Can Do?
It’s a fact that most businesses today are rolling out technology as a part of their strategic plan to improve productivity and make their business more efficient. The more technology your organization relies on, the more crucial it is to get comprehensive IT support for that IT.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 02 July CompuTech City Blog
Tech Term: Safe Mode
Sometimes it can be hard to diagnose a problem with your PC. While it might not be something system-breaking, it’s still important to find the root of an issue before it becomes a major problem. One of the best ways to diagnose an issue with your computer is by logging in using Safe Mode. We’ll talk about when and how you can use Safe Mode to your computer’s benefit.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 29 June CompuTech City Blog
The G Suite Just Got Smarter
With the recent overhaul of Google’s G Suite productivity software products comes a new way to keep your business’ data secure. We’ll go over some of the major changes introduced in the updates, including the integration of artificial intelligence.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 28 June CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: Better Understand BYOD
There are a lot of benefits to implementing a Bring Your Own Device policy for your business. Firstly, people will be able to use the devices that they’ve purchased, and have grown accustomed to, for work. Moreover, many times they can access company information with the use of easy-to-use mobile apps, providing them with more opportunities to be productive. In fact, many organizations that install a BYOD policy see the majority of their workforce work more, which creates more opportunities for revenue growth, and ultimately, higher profitability of the endeavor.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 22 June CompuTech City Blog
Unified Communications Boosts Organizational Collaboration
Communication is one of the most important parts of running an organization, and this is especially true for smaller organizations that need to work closely in order to make progress. Today’s collaborative workplace is dependent on people understanding a unified message and working to succeed in that endeavor. To this end, a unified communications strategy can be extremely helpful.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 21 June CompuTech City Blog
Are You Ready to Adapt to Network Security Changes?
Humankind has always adapted and improved technology to make life easier, starting all the way back at fire and the wheel. Nowadays, our approach to making life easier through technology is centered around productivity and security - if we can accomplish more than before in the same amount of time, without worrying that it will be stolen, we’re happy.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 20 June CompuTech City Blog
Tech Term: Content Management System
In some situations, competition is good for a business; and, for others, it can be terrible. As marketing, and specifically online marketing becomes more imperative for the success of every organization, all the content that is created for this purpose has to be managed. For this week’s technology term, we take a look at the different kinds of content management services (CMS) and what they do to make managing your organization’s content simpler.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 19 June CompuTech City Blog
How to Fire Stress from Your Business
Stress is a reality of everyday life, especially in the workplace. Of course, different people find different things to be stressful, as well. Here, we’ll review some of the biggest sources of stress to be found in an office environment, and what some of the effects of this stress can be.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 18 June CompuTech City Blog
Can You Stay Compliant While Using the Cloud?
One of the inevitabilities of working with the cloud is that you have to face a tough question; what kind of compliance requirements are there for cloud-based data? If you’re storing data for your business in a cloud-based environment, it becomes your responsibility to know where and how this data is stored--particularly if you’re not the one doing the actual cloud hosting. How do you maintain compliance when you seemingly have so little control over how your computing platform is managed and maintained?
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 14 June CompuTech City Blog
Mobile Computing Works to Boost Productivity
Mobile technology is allowing businesses to make great strides in the way that they conduct their operations, but one of the key reasons why it has been so helpful is that it decreases their costs considerably. Thanks to developments in the way that mobile technology works, it can be fit into pretty much any business model, all the while improving your return on investment for your expensive technology solutions.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 13 June CompuTech City Blog
Is Your IT Provider Keeping You Compliant?
HIPAA compliance is necessary for every doctor’s office and medical practicein the U.S.. Staying compliant requires a depth and breadth of technical expertise that most practices simply can’t afford to staff, so they are left turning to outsourced IT solutions looking for answers. However, many IT providers lack expertise, experience and knowledge of HIPAA’s complex requirements, which can spell disaster for the unsuspecting practice.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 12 June CompuTech City Blog
Managed IT Services Is a Solid Solution for Saving Money
How much money does your business waste on managing its technology solutions? You might be surprised by the answer to this question. Depending on the way that your organization takes advantage of technology, you’ll have different needs than other businesses, but no matter what kind of organization you manage, it’s critical that you try to get the best return on investment for your solutions.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 12 June CompuTech City Blog
Which Management Software Is Right for Your Business?
On the surface, you might think that customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) are the same exact thing. However, they both have very specific niches for a business--particularly when it comes to managing organizational assets and interactions with consumers. Here are some of the specific situations in which you’ll find these solutions helpful.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 11 June CompuTech City Blog
Gmail Gets Better with Chrome Extensions
Google has contributed many useful applications and utilities to the average computer user, but one of the biggest standalone contributions that Alphabet, Inc. has made is Gmail, its email program. While this communications tool is comprehensive on its own, it only becomes more useful when paired with the right extensions. Today, we’ll review some of the ones that can best help you boost and sustain high levels of productivity.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 8 June CompuTech City Blog
Tech Term: Encryption
Your business’ data is often quite sensitive, which is why the professional world employs cryptology to keep it secure while it’s in transit. In terms of computing systems, this is called encryption. It’s the ideal way to secure important assets when you send or store information.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 7 June CompuTech City Blog
Managing Your Software Requires Three Actions
It’s imperative that your organization’s software is managed properly. If you can’t do this, then your operations can suffer in the long run. While this might sound like a lot of work, software management isn’t as difficult as it sounds if you break it down into compartmentalized tasks. Ultimately, you can group it into three major steps: leveraging available assets, testing strategies, and understanding the software.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 6 June CompuTech City Blog
Get Rid of Those Filing Cabinets with Document Management
The file cabinet. It may be a staple of the office, but boy can they be a pain in the neck. Every file needs to be printed and collated only to be filed in a dingy file cabinet with the off chance that it will ever be needed again. For businesses that have a lot of paper filed away, a document management system can go a long way toward modernizing your organization, and providing a access-controlled database where you can find any file in seconds.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 4 June CompuTech City Blog
Tech Term: Bits and Bytes
Running a business sometimes requires attention to very minute details, and some things must be measured in order to achieve optimal efficiency. You’ve likely heard the terms bits and bytes used regarding data storage or transfer, but do you know what the difference is between them? Today’s tech term is dedicated to this explanation.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 01 June CompuTech City Blog
Can Hosted VoIP Be a Game Changer for Your Business
Many business transactions may be moving away from the telephone, but it is still a must-have for any business. Not everyone is Internet-savvy after all. Nowadays, there are plenty of telephone options out there, but only one carries no upfront hardware costs or a exorbitant fee structure: Hosted VoIP. Today, we will take a look at the benefits of cloud hosted VoIP, and how to get one working for your business today.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 31 May CompuTech City Blog
Why You Need to Be Careful when Discarding Technology
Nothing lasts forever - especially your business’ technology. However, you shouldn’t just get rid of your old technology willy-nilly. This is mostly for two reasons: one, many of the components in our technology are really bad for the environment; two, carelessly disposing of technology is a great way to put your data at risk. In order to protect your data, you need to make sure that your old equipment is properly disposed of.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 25 May CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: How to Adjust Your Router to Improve Your Connections
Wi-Fi has been one of the single most useful innovations for the modern office. Connecting to your Internet without having to be physically connected to it via an ethernet wire has been an incredibly freeing process--one that opens up all sorts of possibilities of where (and how) you can get work done. How can you make sure that your Wi-Fi signals are as clear and reliable as possible?
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 24 May CompuTech City Blog
Why Artificial Intelligence is Now Key to Network Management
Artificial intelligence is perhaps most commonly known as a malevolent force, thanks to popular culture. HAL 9000, Ultron, and many others have reinforced that A.I. will be the downfall of humanity. In reality, however, A.I. holds more potential utility as a key implementation in your business’ network.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 23 May CompuTech City Blog
Real World HIPAA Violations: Why Your Practice is At Risk
Being audited is of great concern for medical practices throughout the U.S. and with good reason. Annual fines from audit violations can be upwards of $1.5 million. Currently, 16 Florida practices are under an active audit or had experienced a recent violation of HIPAA, including a surgical center in Fort Meyers being investigated for a recent security breach that may have exposed protected health information for over 30,000 patients!
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 22 May CompuTech City Blog
Why The Cloud Should be Approached Responsibly
It can be argued that your organization isn’t considered “modern” without taking advantage of truly modern technology solutions. This includes the cloud, which provides anytime-anywhere access to important information or products. This type of access--also known as Product as a Service--can help your budget by eliminating large up-front costs in favor of smaller payments more regularly. This might seem ideal for your organization, but we urge you to take a step back and think about the solution before accepting terms of service without looking for extra hidden costs.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 21 May CompuTech City Blog
Tech Term: Cache
You may have heard technology professionals use the word “cache,” pronounced cash, in their day-to-day duties, but do you really know what it means? Generally, the context of this word is that users should “clear the cache,” but unless you know what that process entails, you won’t really understand what the cache does or why it’s used in this way. This week’s tech term is cache, so let’s see what hidden treasures this word yields.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 18 May CompuTech City Blog
How to Best Utilize a Physical Backup
How does your business handle its on-premise, physical data backups? This is a question that you don’t necessarily have to ask yourself under pressure of a looming data loss incident. Despite the cloud being the clear victor in terms of restoration and reliability, physical data backup is still an important part of the business continuity process. In the worst-case scenario, a physical backup can be helpful for getting back on track.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 17 May CompuTech City Blog
WARNING: A New Zero-Day Threat is On the Loose
Zero-day threats are some of the most dangerous ones out there. What we mean by “zero day” threats are those that have been discovered by hackers before an official patch has been released by the developers, giving them exactly zero days before they are actively exploited in the wild. One of the more dangerous zero-day threats out there at the moment is one that takes advantage of Internet Explorer.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 16 May CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: How to Reduce the Use of Paper in the Office
Paper can be incredibly expensive, especially with the quantity that a normal business goes through every single day. However, not only is it expensive on the monetary side, but also on the environmental side as well. By making some changes around your office, you can be more eco-friendly and budget-friendly by reducing the amount of paper waste your organization suffers from.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 15 May CompuTech City Blog
Perform a Technology Assessment to Properly Manage Costs
If there is one thing that you can always count on from your business’ technology, it’s that it will inevitably fail at some point in the future. Therefore, your business should have a plan to keep this from happening at all costs. It’s understandable that you would want to make sure that your needs are properly evaluated both now and in the future. To this end, a technology assessment is incredibly helpful.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 14 May CompuTech City Blog
Varieties of Smart Tech to Consider
How often do you see smart technology in headlines? The term is thrown around a lot, and it’s because there are countless products circulating in both the consumer and business environments. These connected devices range from smart forks to smart cars, so you can imagine that there are a fair number of useful (as well as useless) applications of this technology. How has it changed in recent months, and what will smart technology look like in the future?
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 11 May CompuTech City Blog
Hackers Prey on Social Media Users
Social media has been an emerging technology in recent years, and has produced many threats. Hackers have learned that they can take advantage of these communication mediums to launch dangerous new attacks on unsuspecting users. With enough ingenuity on a hacker’s part, they can potentially steal the identity of a social media user. Here are some of the best ways that your organization can combat identity theft through social media.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 10 May CompuTech City Blog
Medical IT: How Is HITECH Doing?
Compliance laws regarding the storage and dispersion of healthcare records were implemented with the intended purpose of urging healthcare providers to better take care of their patients’ personal information, but how effective are they? Unfortunately, there are many providers that have failed to meet the standards for the HIPAA and HITECH compliance laws, and it has brought a hefty price tag along with it.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 09 May CompuTech City Blog
What You Need to Know About Data Recovery
Data backup is one of the most critical parts of protecting your business, but there are a lot of moving parts that need to be considered before implementing a solution. For example, did you know that data backup and disaster recovery are two different things completely? While they may both be involved in the business continuity process, the two represent equally important, yet disparate,parts.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 08 May CompuTech City Blog
How to Stay HIPAA Compliant: 21 Things Your Practice Must Do
As a managed IT provider focusing exclusively on IT for healthcare practices, we’ve conducted over 500 HIPAA compliance assessments just in the past 10 years. We see a lot of practices that just don’t know if they are compliant or not.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 07 May CompuTech City Blog
The Force is Strong with the Internet of Things
The Internet of Things has been growing rapidly, and with this growth it has become a major part of daily life. There are connected devices you couldn’t even fathom being needed, but some have turned out to be exceeding useful. In 1977, the release of Star Wars saw people’s imaginations expand. The science end of the sci-fi went into overdrive, and soon communications and computing would change forever. Despite being a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, the Star Wars universe introduced several concepts of the Internet of Things, decades before the IoT was even conceptualized. This week, we will take a look at the modern-day Internet of Things, and how Star Wars primed us for our own future.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 04 May 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Tech Term: Bandwidth Defined
The Internet has become an irreplaceable part of many business’ operations, which brings the thought into question of how much you rely on it for your daily duties. Technology has changed the way that the Internet works for the better, but there is one part of its operations that still lies at the heart of it: bandwidth.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 03 May 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Email Security Basics
Email is a modern classic as far as business solutions are concerned, and you’d be hard-pressed to find an office that didn’t use it in some capacity or another. However, because email is so popular, it has become a favorite attack vector of malicious users. Fortunately, there are some basic practices that will help keep your email account secure and your communications private.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 02 May 2018 CompuTech City Blog
3 Industries that Smart Technology is Revolutionizing
Smart technology has been growing rapidly over the past few years. As a result, there have been many different companies popping up, trying to develop the next “big” thing. With technology becoming a hot button issue all around the world, and with a consumer base that increases by the day, today’s smart technology is seemingly just the tip of the iceberg. Today, we will look at three industries in which smart technologies are making a big impact.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 30 April 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: 3 Pieces of Screen Reading Software
Wouldn’t it be convenient if your business could have web pages or applications read out text for you so that you don’t have to? While most would consider this a luxury, these screen reading applications are an everyday occurrence to those who are blind, visually impaired, or have a learning disability. Even if you don’t have anyone in your office who needs screen reading, it can’t hurt to be prepared for a day when you might.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 27 April 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Are You Properly Backing Up Your Business?
It’s critical that you protect your business’ important assets, including perhaps the most important of all: its data. One of the best ways to do this is by implementing a solid backup solution. But what’s the best way to approach data backup? After all, every business is going to have different needs. We’re here to tell you all about these different needs, and how your organization can implement a reliable backup solution based on your’s.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 26 April 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Why Nanotechnology is the Next Big Thing
One of the primary goals of technology development has long been to make technology as small as possible, while simultaneously improving its performance. The result of these efforts is the field of nanotechnology, which is now applied in a variety of uses.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 25 April 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Tech Term: Cookies
Browser cookies might not sound delicious, but they are a particularly important part of your browser’s technology. Do you actually know what they do, though? Today’s tech term will explain just what these cookies are, as well as the purpose they serve for your organization.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 24 April 2018 CompuTech City Blog
A Ransomware Cyberattack Struck Atlanta, Georgia
Ransomware doesn’t discriminate with its targets, as the city of Atlanta, Georgia now knows so painfully well. The city became the target of a ransomware attack that crippled many of its critical system workflows. The municipal government suffered from one of the most advanced and sustained attacks in recent memory.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 23 April 2018 CompuTech City Blog
5G Improves Upon What 3G and 4G Established
You might see 3G and 4G on your mobile devices and wonder what it all means. If so, we have an answer for you, and just in time for a brand-new iteration: 5G. With this new technology on its way, it’s time to take a look at what exactly 5G should be capable of, and how it can differentiate itself from its predecessors.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 20 April 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Reduce Your Technology Headaches Go with Managed IT
Does your business have trouble with managing and maintaining your technology? If so, you’re not alone. Many small businesses struggle with even the most basic elements of IT maintenance. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just take this responsibility and shift it off of your employees? The best way to approach technology maintenance is to implement managed IT services.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 19 April 2018 CompuTech City Blog
A New Perspective on Ransomware
We are going to switch things up a bit and walk you through a retelling of a ransomware attack through the eyes of a business owner. Usually when we talk about these types of threats, we approach it from our perspective and talk about what you should do to prepare and what the threats are, but we wanted to try to show you what an event like this could feel like, for you, in your position, and in your own eyes. We hope that this will raise awareness of how crippling an event like this can be on your company, and we hope you let us know if this perspective helps you, your colleagues, and your staff get a more personal sense of what ransomware can do. Enjoy!
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 18 April 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Hosted Utility Computing Allows Businesses to Centralize Their IT
Your business relies on technology to ensure operations proceed smoothly, but the way that it’s managed can have a major impact on the way your company functions. Think about it like this: if you have software solutions hosted on different computers, but not in any centralized location, only those computers will be able to use these solutions--potentially hampering your staff’s ability to be productive. How can you make sure that this doesn’t become a major problem?
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 17 April 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Power Off, or Leave It On?
At the end of the day, do you shut down your computer or do you put it into sleep mode? Depending on what you need from your device the next day, you might want to consider which option benefits you the most. Here are some of the pros and cons of both approaches so that you can pick which one best suits your situation.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 16 April 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Modems and Routers
The Internet is a valuable tool that can be accessed through a wired connection and wirelessly via Wi-Fi, but the devices that offer these connections can be somewhat complicated and difficult to understand. If you don’t know which device does what, you’re in for a treat--today’s tech term will examine the differences between the modem and the router.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 13 April 2018 CompuTech City Blog
How Your Smartphone Keeps Your Data Safe
Smartphones are the predominant mode of communication, as well as now being the devices most used to access the Internet. With so much depending on the modern smartphone, it has become one of the largest, and most competitive, markets of any consumer item. As a result, manufacturers are building devices with software that is able to encrypt the phone against unauthorized access.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 12 April 2018 CompuTech City Blog
How Your Smartphone Keeps Your Data Safe
Smartphones are the predominant mode of communication, as well as now being the devices most used to access the Internet. With so much depending on the modern smartphone, it has become one of the largest, and most competitive, markets of any consumer item. As a result, manufacturers are building devices with software that is able to encrypt the phone against unauthorized access.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 05 April 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Tech Term: Motherboard
A computer is made up of many parts, one of which is today’s Tech Term: the motherboard. We’ll discuss what the motherboard does for your computer and why it’s such an important part for its continued operation.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 04 April 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Are You Making Yourself Vulnerable Over Social Media?
Social media might make it easy to stay connected, but it comes with a lot of negative side-effects--particularly in regard to security for both personal and professional use. If social media isn’t used properly, it could spell trouble for your organization. How can you foster proper social media usage so that your organization doesn’t suffer from poor security practices? It all starts by spreading awareness.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 03 April 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Why Businesses and Government Approach Technology Very Differently
When security and efficiency are some of the biggest benefits to updated information technology, it sounds that IT is something that a governing body should prioritize internally. However, many governments have trouble doing so, oftentimes to their own detriment. Why is that, and what can a business learn from this phenomenon?
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 29 March 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: Best Practices for Cloud Data Management
Data management is exceptionally important for any business, and companies that use the cloud in any sort of capacity need to be considerably more cautious in the way that it’s managed than a business that only hosts data on an internal server or network. The cloud makes things more complicated at times, but if managed correctly, it can lead to unprecedented efficiency for your organization.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 28 March 2018 CompuTech City Blog
A QR Code Could Be your New Wi-Fi Password
There is no understating the importance of strong, reliable passwords to your organization’s network security, especially to protect its wireless connection. However, this can create some friction with your staff when they try to connect to Wi-Fi using their mobile device. To make accessing the Internet easier, scannable QR codes can be used to connect to the Internet.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 27 March 2018 CompuTech City Blog
FREE Printout: IT Security End-User Checklist
This guide was created so that business owners, office managers, and IT departments can provide it as an educational resource to showcase some of the most basic IT security practices that can be implemented in your workplace. We recommend printing this out and handing it out to your staff for maximum results.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 22 March 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Tech Term: Opening the Spam Folder
Spam is a tricky subject to talk about, as it seems everyone has a different definition for it. Yet, most have come to the conclusion that spam is a bad thing. For today’s Tech Term, we want to delve deep into the different kinds of spam out there, as well as theorize where the term even came from.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 21 March 2018 CompuTech City Blog
A “Disaster” Covers More Than You’d Think
What one organization considers a disaster might be much different than what another business might see as disastrous. Perhaps one sees the loss of a few hours and a few files as something that can be recovered, while another sees every lost moment and each iota of data as a catastrophe. Whichever camp you find yourself in, you need to be able to do two things: first, gauge how serious a given data loss disaster is, and secondly, establish what must be done to get back in action following said disaster.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 20 March 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Where There’s Data Loss, There’s Trouble
Data loss can have lasting effects upon your business, usually measured in lost productivity and capital. In other words, data loss is often measured by the cost required to retrieve, restore, and/or repair its effects. Of course, this is only the beginning of how data loss can impact your operations.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 19 March 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Tech Term: An Introduction to Proxy Servers
There are plenty of technical terms and solutions that, while heard of frequently enough, it may not be completely clear what they mean or refer to. A proxy server is an excellent example of such a solution. This week, we’ll examine this tech term and review how utilizing proxy servers can help your business.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 16 March 2018 CompuTech City Blog
BYOD is Only Helpful If the Devices Are Secure
Mobile devices are so common nowadays that you’ll likely encounter your employees bringing multiple devices to the office on a regular basis. Little do they know that everything they bring with them, from their Fitbit to their laptop, poses a security threat. Of course, the threat level from each individual device will depend on what it is exactly, but the point stands that the less you do about mobile device security now, the more danger your organization will be in down the road.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 15 March 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Do You Know What to Do When Involved in Identity Theft?
The unfortunate truth of increased technology use in the workplace is that there is a corresponding increase in the potential for cybercrime, more specifically identity theft, to strike the workplace. The question is, what can you do to help prevent it, and how should you react to it should it strike?
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 14 March 2018 CompuTech City Blog
What Does “Encryption” Mean?
Email is a solution that needs to be protected, lest you expose important information to any onlookers while messages are in transit. Encryption is one of the key ways you can make sure that your messages are safe, but email hasn’t always used this method to secure messages. In fact, it wasn’t until relatively recently that encryption became a staple of the major email providers.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 13 March 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Why You’ll Likely See More and More Chatbots
Chatbots have been around for quite some time, and artificial intelligence is shaping the way that they are utilized for the modern business. Virtual assistants have risen in popularity, and they are featured on most smartphones out there. How can these “bots” help your organization?
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 12 March 2018 CompuTech City Blog
What the Future Holds for Ransomware
Ransomware is a growing problem for businesses, being one of the most difficult threats to remove from an infrastructure. Not only is it easy to spread, but difficult to avoid as a whole. How can your organization prepare for this threat? It starts by being mindful of how ransomware is spread and how your employees react to it, both now and in the future.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 08 March 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Managed IT Services Provide Good Value for SMBs
Every business needs technology support. This statement is more true today than it has ever been before. As your organization adds new technology to its infrastructure, it will naturally grow more complex and difficult to maintain. Thankfully, you don’t necessarily have to go about this alone. By working with an outsourced third party, your business can take advantage of all kinds of great solutions for a fraction of the cost.
by CompuTech City Admin Wenesday, 07 March 2018 CompuTech City Blog
What Is All This Talk About the Cloud?
Cloud computing is one of the best ways that your business can compete with larger enterprises. Today, you can adopt the cloud and take advantage of countless services, but are you doing so yet? If not, we’ll help walk you through some of the best ways that your organization can leverage the cloud.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 06 March 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Failing Technology and Your Data
The sad truth about computers is that when they inevitably break, you have to get them fixed; or, you have to order a new one. When PCs started to be utilized for mass productivity, however, businesses had to find a better way. It’s been years since the first managed services provider hung out their shingle, and over that relatively short time the managed services industry has grown to be a $150 billion-a-year industry. The combination of IT becoming an important part of nearly every business resulted in the obvious demand for affordable IT support. This trend has seen many businesses cutting IT staff to make way for outsourced managed services, and all it provides. A problem that both businesses, and the MSPs that they hire, face is that computers eventually break.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 05 March 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Remote Work is a Huge Help, With the Right Preparation
There are plenty of benefits to allowing your employees to work from home, but that doesn’t mean you can just implement it without consideration and planning. You have to have a system in place that allows you to enjoy the benefits of remote capabilities while mitigating some of its potential risks.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 02 March 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Exploring Network Attached Storage
IT is filled with jargon and terms that are likely to bamboozle someone without hands-on experience with the solutions that power a business. One such term is network attached storage, or its shorthand, NAS. Today, we’ll examine this tech term to learn more about it, and what influence - if any - it should have on your business.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 01 March 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Ransomware Makes Backup a Necessity
Your business relies on its data to succeed, which lends itself to the fact that your organization needs to have some sort of security measures put into place to guarantee its safety. 2018 is thought to be the year of ransomware, so it stands to reason that your business should prepare to deal with it. One of the best ways to deal with ransomware is to make sure that your company has a plan to restore data affected by said ransomware.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 28 February 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Overburdened Business Owners Should Consider Managed IT
It’s no secret that a business owner has more than enough to deal with, regardless of that business’ size.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 27 February 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: Choosing the Right Storage for Your Business
Regardless of where it is kept, your data’s security is of paramount importance. However, this doesn’t mean that the decision between leveraging the cloud or an on-premise server for your data storage needs isn’t an important one. For this week’s tip, we’ll weigh these options against each other to help you establish which is the better option for your business’ needs.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 26 February 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Make the Most of Your Data Migration
Data migration is a sizable task. There’s plenty that could go wrong as you move your data from one server to another solution. As you transfer your data, it helps to keep a few considerations in mind to ensure the process goes smoothly while getting the biggest benefit from the time it takes you.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 23 February 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Has Your IT Team Attained these Goals Yet?
For any business to be successful, it needs access to the technology solutions that allow it to operate efficiently. Your IT team is responsible for ensuring that this access is not interrupted, which isn’t an insignificant responsibility. However, by clearly defining goals for your IT team to strive for, you provide a benefit to all members of your staff.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 16 February 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: 3 Crucial Pieces of HIPAA Compliance
If your work requires you to store medical data, you should be aware of how important your data security is, as a problem could potentially put your business at risk of closing up shop permanently. Security has to be a priority with so many regulations setting compliance standards that must be followed. How can you balance the effectiveness of your business without undermining its security?
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 15 February 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Could Your Favorite App Infect Your Device?
When considering solutions to help ensure your business’ IT security, mobile devices often go overlooked. This makes sense--for most of the time the telephone has existed, it has been attached to a wall, only capable of transmitting sound. However, with phones now being palm-sized computers that we carry in our pockets, keeping them safe from cyberthreats has a new importance.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 14 February 2018 CompuTech City Blog
HIPAA and Wearables May Clash in the Near Future
Today, perhaps now more than ever before, technology is making strides toward making its users consider ways to stay healthier. Wearables are one of the primary examples of how technology is aiming to make users both more active and more interested about their own health. At 2018’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, this technology was front and center, showcasing how far it has come in just a year’s time.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 13 February 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: How to Protect Yourself from Invoice Impersonation
As cybercriminals become increasingly sophisticated in their methods of attack, it is important that your staff--the ones on the front lines--are educated to spot these attempts and know what to do if one is encountered. In order to spot these attacks, it is important to know what to look for.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 12 February 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Will 2018 See Any Changes to Your Infrastructure?
Any business’ IT is reliant on that business’ computing infrastructure, which makes the infrastructure an important topic for every business to consider. As we progress into 2018, it is important to stay up-to-date and considerate of each new development and trend.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 09 February 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Outsourced Project Management a Good Option for Small Businesses
Small businesses often have to rely on different means to achieve the same level of project management as enterprises. This is due to the demands of project management being significantly different in scope, but also the way that your company implements new technology solutions. Instead of worrying about the specifics of project management, you can outsource these responsibilities to a managed service provider.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 08 February 2018 CompuTech City Blog
4 Ways a Managed Service Provider Can Help Your Business
How much does your business rely on technology to keep your organization running forward? As business technology becomes more complex, it’s becoming increasingly popular for organizations to have their own internal IT departments to manage and maintain it. Yet, small businesses don’t often have the necessary funds for such a feat. How can your company afford quality IT service? You can start by pursuing managed IT solutions from a managed service provider.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 07 February 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Here Are the Benefits of Using Cloud-Based Document Management
How many documents does your organization accumulate just by simply staying in business? There’s no doubt that you’re sick of the traditional filing cabinet, which is both hard to move around and a pain to organize. Thankfully, modern technology solutions have afforded businesses just like yours with the ability to host and manage documents in a digital, cloud-based environment.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 06 February 2018 CompuTech City Blog
3 Types of Software and How Businesses Use Them
For the modern business owner or executive, making smart business decisions has become a necessity. Margins are small, efficiency is key, and if we were to be completely honest, business is a day-in and day-out grind. In the course of doing business much is made of cost reduction and curtailing inefficiencies that lead to wasted capital. Much is made of collaborative systems that allow for remote access. Much is made of protocol, process, and performance. With so many moving parts in every business, there has to be the “glue” that allows for cohesive actions to be taken. That “glue” is software.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 05 February 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Do You Prefer Your Reality Augmented, or Virtual?
At the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), new products (and the technologies that fuel those products) are put on display to give industry professionals a look to see what companies are working on. At CES 2018, held in Las Vegas, Band and Olufsen introduced their speakers-as-art-concept, Samsung unveiled a 146” television that is designed to take up a wall, and many companies, including Aura, introduced new smart home security products that are sure to get an intruder’s attention (over Wi-Fi).
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 02 February 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: Managing Gmail with Labels and Filters
Gmail is a great way to take advantage of business email, but do you know all of the ins and outs of how to use some of its finer details? Today’s tip is dedicated to going over some of the more useful features of Gmail, like filters and labels--both of which will be helpful in controlling your inbox.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 01 February 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Targeted Ransomware Checks for Particular Attributes
Put yourself in the shoes of a cybercriminal. If you were to launch a ransomware attack, who would be your target? Would you launch an indiscriminate attack to try to snare as many as you could, or would you narrow your focus to be more selective? As it happens, real-life cybercriminals have largely made the shift to targeted, relatively tiny, ransomware attacks.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 31 January 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Digital Innovations in 2017 That Impact 2018
Although the medical industry sometimes is characterized as being late to the technology adoption party, advancements in 2017 bode well for the industry in 2018 – and more importantly – for patients. Better care and lower costs along with increased patient empowerment are the top benefits of the innovations.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 30 January 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Is Your Business Prepared to Do Away with Paper?
There’s no denying that digital records have quite a few advantages over paper documentation. Benefits of ‘going paperless’ include simplified search capabilities, more efficient storage, heightened security and automated backup capabilities. There are plenty of sources around the Internet that discuss making the switch to paperless documentation, but to keep your business documents safe, it is better to know what you’re getting into.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 26 January 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: Google Drive is Better with these Chrome Extensions
Google Drive provides its users with a considerable amount of utility. However, when combined with extensions made for Google’s Chrome browser, users have the tools to make their use of Drive’s capabilities even more efficient. For this week’s tip, we’ll go over a few Chrome extensions that your business might find useful.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 25 January 2018 CompuTech City Blog
How to Keep IT and the Rest of Your Staff on the Same Side
There are some facets to IT that are universally accepted as important, such as security. However, there are also others that create some conflicting opinions between management and IT personnel. When surveyed, business leaders and IT management held vastly different opinions as to the importance of various IT tasks. Is there a way to unify these priorities?
by CompuTech City Admin Wenesday, 24 January 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Why You Need to Be Certain You’re Using Licensed Software
Using pirated software or abusing your software licenses for your business is heavily frowned upon. However, many software companies, in an attempt to protect their products, have unleashed a practice that can actually reward those who let it happen in the first place.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 23 January 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: Putting Your Old Android Device to Good Use
Considering how often smartphones are replaced, you’re bound to have a couple of them stashed away for a rainy day. These devices are particularly helpful in the event that your smartphone breaks unexpectedly, but there are other purposes that you might want to keep in mind. Here are three ways you might be able to use your old mobile devices around the office.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 22 January 2018 CompuTech City Blog
ALERT: Make Sure Your Business is Safe from Meltdown and Spectre
Intel recently found itself (once again) in hot water, mere months after many flaws were discovered in the firmware that enables all of their chips to do their job. This time, the issue could have potentially caused a permanent dip in the CPU’s capacity to function properly. This has come to be known as the Meltdown vulnerability.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 19 January 2018 CompuTech City Blog
According to Study, Only 28% Utilize Two-Factor Authentication
2FA, or two-factor authentication, is a simple and effective means of boosting your cybersecurity. Despite this, a study performed by Duo Labs suggests that 2FA has not been adopted as much as one might expect, or as much as it should be.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 18 January 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: How to Type Special Symbols
The Internet has enabled businesses to establish relationships on a global scale. Now, an upscale restaurant in Minneapolis can use the Internet to order ingredients from a vendor in Bordeaux. However, there can easily be a language difference when doing business internationally. This is when it is fortunate that Windows 10 makes it so easy to change your device’s language.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 17 January 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Mobile Security Showdown: Cellular Network vs. Wi-Fi
Today’s business relies on mobile devices, like smartphones, to guide them to productivity and efficiency. In fact, the vast majority of people in today’s society own a smartphone. A report shows that 90 percent of people younger than 30 own a smartphone, which means that the forward-thinking business hiring talented millennials may want to start thinking about how to secure any mobile devices that they use to access company data.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 16 January 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Is Your Business Considering Moving to Managed IT?
Your business relies on its technology being maintained properly, but it’s not always as simple as updating a software application or replacing a hard drive following a catastrophic failure. You have to think about who you’re paying to maintain your technology solutions, if there’s anyone doing it at all. You need to consider what happens when you lose data or when your organization experiences downtime. How do you keep technology from becoming a hindrance for your business?
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 15 January 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Do You Have a Unified Strategy to Your Business' Communications
Communication is one of the cornerstones on which your business functions, and without it, you will find that going about your daily duties is considerably more difficult. Communication is one of the many ways your organization accomplishes both major and minor tasks, so you want to pay especially close attention to how your business handles phone calls, email, and even mobile devices--both in and out of the office.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 12 January 2018 CompuTech City Blog
There are New Ways to Secure Your Data
Security is an aspect of running a business that absolutely cannot be ignored, regardless of whether or not you see it as a considerable issue in the near future. The fact remains that your organization will always be at risk unless you take actions to keep it safe today. By taking advantage of some of the latest and greatest security tools on the market, you’ll be able to protect not only from the basic threats, but more advanced ones as well.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 11 January 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Where the Internet Stands in 2018
People spend a lot of money on the Internet. From an individual standpoint, the amount the average person spends on Internet-based services is their largest expense outside of the money they spend on their residence, and perhaps their transportation costs. In order to understand the landscape of what is effectively a battle for Internet supremacy, you first have to take a look at the battlefield itself.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 10 January 2018 CompuTech City Blog
5 Steps to Turn Your Staff into Security Gatekeepers Instead of Door Openers
The healthcare industry is a primary target for cybercriminals. Many medical facilities have outdated technology systems and are home to Private Health Information (PHI), personally identifying information and patient financial information. Protecting this data is an all-important responsibility for doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 09 January 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Hitman Email Scam Threatens Your Life, Instead of Your Data Email scams have become a sort of punchline, often featuring Nigerian princes or wealthy, unknown relatives in need of funds to get home. However, another email scam is anything but amusing, as it uses a unique possession of the target to entice them to comply: their life.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 05 January 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Readers’ Choice: CompuTech City’s Top Blog Posts from 2017
From protecting your business from email spoofs to protecting your laptop from toddlers, 2017’s most popular blog topics were all over the board. Here’s a list of your favorite CompuTech City blog posts in 2017. If you missed one, this is your chance to read it – or to read it again!
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 04 January 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: Do You Know What Your Android Permissions Actually Mean? Downloading an application on an Android device is fairly simple: access the Google Play store, find the app you want to download, and press the button that says install. However, it is also too easy to simply hit ‘Allow’ once the app starts asking for ambiguously-worded permissions. Today, we’ll examine what these permissions actually mean.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 04 January 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Why ROBOT is a Risk After Nearly 20 Years The Internet is rife with potential threats. Some are situational, but most are deliberate actions made by malicious entities who are trying to obtain any semblance of value from you or your company. Some of these exploits have been around longer than you’d imagine possible. This has been made evident by huge Internet-based companies such as PayPal and Facebook testing positive for a 19-year-old vulnerability that once allowed hackers to decrypt encrypted data.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 03 January 2018 CompuTech City Blog
Here’s Our Rundown on Blockchain Technology As we discuss business technology, we occasionally broach topics that not everyone may be familiar with. Despite the recent media coverage that has been afforded to it, Bitcoin and blockchain technology may be a good example of one such topic. To resolve this, we’ve put together the following primer on this technology and how it will impact data security in the future.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 29 December 2017 CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: Why You Should Reexamine Your Business PracticesAs a business adopts certain “best practices,” it is important for business leaders to consider why they are adopted, and more importantly, are they really for the best? There are many problems that subscribing to false best practices can produce, and so it becomes important to identify, adjust, and resolve them.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 28 December 2017 CompuTech City Blog
Technology Has Played a Part in Shaping How We Celebrate the SeasonThe holiday season has always been one of deep-seated traditions, some that draw from ancient customs, and some that are inspired by more contemporary trends. These traditions have been shaped, and often inspired by, the technology available in the day. Today, we’ll reflect on how the technologies we have now have impacted our celebratory traditions.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 27 December 2017 CompuTech City Blog
Secure Your Android During the Holiday Season
Android is a very common operating system on mobile devices around the world, and because of this, you won’t be surprised to hear that hackers are always trying to one-up security developers. If your business takes advantage of Android devices like smartphones or tablets, you’ll want to consider these 11 security tips that will help keep your organization safe.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 26 December 2017 CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: What to Do When the Internet Goes Out
Losing Internet can be a large problem in the business world, as we all become more and more reliant on it. Downtime of this kind can be immensely frustrating. However, not all hope is lost, as there are ways to troubleshoot the cause of an Internet outage.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 22 December 2017 CompuTech City Blog
Are You Accidentally Gifting a Security Breach?
The holidays are a time filled with good food, visits from dear friends and family, and exchanging gifts with those you care about. However, to keep the season bright and merry, you need to be a little cautious during your next gift exchange, as many gifts can present some unexpected risks to your recipient’s security. Be mindful if you see the following items on someone’s wish list.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 21 December 2017 CompuTech City Blog
Warehousing Your Organization's Data Can Bring Serious Benefits
Your data is one of the most important assets at your business’ disposal. It’s really indispensable. Not only are large amounts of it the result of successful operations, it also can help your organization better understand the intricacies of its own operations, and where you want it to go in the future. Does your business have a process for collecting, storing, and sorting vital data so that your organization can figure out where to go next?
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 20 December 2017 CompuTech City Blog
Data Recovery Considerations: the Other Side of Your Backup Plan
If we asked you how your organization backs up its data, would you be able to smile and tell us all about it in detail? While it’s important to be optimistic about the future of your organization, you should never believe that you are impervious to data loss. We’ll discuss some of the most important terminology behind data backup and recovery, as well as the best way to protect your organization from the crippling situations presented by data loss.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 19 December 2017 CompuTech City Blog
Managed IT Delivers Some Serious Value
How does your organization manage its IT? For some businesses, it’s not an easy choice or even a remotely affordable one. Some companies are forced to endure subpar services from break-fix IT providers that don’t necessarily have the tools available to prevent issues from happening. Others try to prevent issues from evolving into major concerns. These others are the organizations that have the right idea behind technology maintenance.
by CompuTech City Admin Monday, 18 December 2017 CompuTech City Blog
Small Businesses Face Challenges in 2018
The modern small business will face several challenges in 2018. The world is changing, and with it, so is business. For many small businesses, this can either be looked on as the opportunity they’ve been waiting for, or, it can be viewed as the beginning of the end. No matter what situations you are faced with this year, understanding what problems your business faces, and how to solve them is imperative to your small business’ success.
by CompuTech City Admin Friday, 15 December 2017 CompuTech City Blog
How Does Your IT Stack Up to These Standards?
Selecting a managed service provider should be like selecting any employee. You need to make sure that your expectations are going to be fulfilled, and that your selection will be there when you need them to be. However, the criteria you examine your potential IT service provider by should be a little different than how you evaluate your other prospective team members.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 14 December 2017 CompuTech City Blog
HIPAA Trends to Watch in 2018 – Leaner, but Meaner?
Although the Trump Administration has a $6.194 million budget cut slated for the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), the office which administers HIPAA, compliance will still be enthusiastically enforced, according to OCR director Roger Severino. The Congressional Justification for FY2018 predicts a shift from routine HIPAA investigations to larger actions with sizable fines.
by CompuTech City Admin Thursday, 14 December 2017 CompuTech City Blog
Tip of the Week: Excel-lent Keyboard Shortcuts
How well do you know Microsoft Excel, the premier spreadsheet building software? Depending on your proficiency with it, you may already be familiar with some of the various keyboard shortcuts associated with it. We’ll list off some of the most commonly used keyboard shortcuts, as well as what you can do to become a Microsoft Excel power user.
by CompuTech City Admin Wednesday, 13 December 2017 CompuTech City Blog
Unpaid Invoices are a Major Problem For SMBs
While many different people open businesses, the primary reason that they all do so is to make money. A positive cash flow is essential if the business is to generate funds that support a cause or provide a decent living. However, to collect this cash flow, a business must have their invoices returned. As it happens, this doesn’t often occur in a timely manner.
by CompuTech City Admin Tuesday, 12 December 2017 CompuTech City Blog
