Month: May 2017

The office telephone has been a staple in the business environment for generations, but the extent that each organization uses their telephone will vary. Factors like the number of users, telephone handsets, and wiring required will influence how much use you get from your telephone solution. However, these questions don’t have to be as difficult to ask if you consider the many benefits of a hosted phone system.

We’ll discuss some of the best reasons for using a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and what it can offer your business.

Fewer Costs
A traditional telephone system is provided by your local telephone company. Sometimes these agreements include services that aren’t needed by your organization, like television or otherwise. This can be frustrating, as all you want is the ability to use a telephone, and instead you’re forced to go all-in on some entertainment package that you won’t use.

VoIP doesn’t demand that you sign up for any extra services. In fact, you actually wind up saving money thanks to VoIP using another service that you’re already paying for–your Internet connection. With VoIP, your voice is transferred over the Internet rather than through the traditional telephone lines. Just keep your bandwidth in mind, as VoIP will likely use up more resources than your other network-connected services.

A Simplified Infrastructure
There’s a reason why you take so much time to plan your cabling infrastructure before implementation, and that’s because it’s not easy to make changes once you’ve set your network up. Of course, this also requires that you anticipate growth, which isn’t always easy. For all you know, your business can grow substantially over your first few years in business. How can you anticipate such growth?

While VoIP can’t predict the future, it can help you adapt to change with one-time setup costs. You won’t have to tear down walls or run new telephone lines just to accommodate new employees. All you have to do is contact your VoIP provider and add new users to your system.

More Flexibility
How many phone numbers do you have? Chances are that, as a business owner, you have your personal cell phone number, as well as your in-house number for company affairs. You wouldn’t be the first professional to think that it would be extremely convenient to have all of your numbers on one single device. Thankfully, VoIP offers a solution for this dilemma, too.

With VoIP, you and your employees have a great way to access your work-related phone numbers and contacts. Since VoIP can be used on desktops, smartphones, and even the traditional telephone handsets, it’s a customizable experience that lets you use your phone solution in the way you prefer. Plus, the extra accessibility allows your employees to be productive off the clock too, which can be great for getting ahead.

No matter how you look at it, VoIP can be a valuable investment for your organization. To get started, reach out to us at (978) 988-5500.

The cloud is a great asset that your business can use to your business’ operational efficiency, but only if you’ve put plenty of thought into the implementation process. Since the same cloud solution likely won’t work the same way for two different organizations, you’ll need to intimately know what your business needs so that you can build and deliver a cloud solution to meet these demands. This week’s tip is all about helping you determine the best cloud solution for your organization.

Here are three factors that you need to consider when seeking out a cloud solution.

Hosting and Maintenance
It’s likely that hosting complicated technology solutions isn’t your organization’s forte. Not only is it a time-consuming endeavor, but it’s also technical and challenging. Plus, your organization may not have anyone dedicated to the task. In this case, it’s ideal to simply outsource this responsibility so that a cloud provider can host your solution and maintain it for you.

There are three types of cloud solutions that allow your organization to adapt to its specific needs: public, private, and hybrid. Public clouds allow your organization to store data in a shared online space that’s managed by the provider. Private clouds, on the other hand, can be hosted on-site on your own network, or virtually by an outside provider. Hybrid clouds are designed in a way which allows for the convenience of a public cloud while retaining the privacy and functionality of a private cloud.

Flexibility
Since your business will inevitably grow, you’ll be likely to add new users and implement new technologies. You’ll obtain more clients, and in doing so, your workload will increase to the point where your previous infrastructure might not be able to handle it properly. Therefore, if you want your cloud solution to be a valuable asset in the future, you’ll need to think about growth.

The cloud allows organizations of all shapes and sizes the flexibility to adapt to changes in their workforce or the number of devices accessing company data. You will have complete control over how many user accounts and how much data storage your organization has. The main difference, however, is that the public cloud makes it a bit less expensive to expand. If you choose a private cloud solution, it is sure to require a substantial investment on your part, as you will have to secure the resources. The main benefit of the private cloud is that you will have full control over the management and maintenance of the computing infrastructure, providing complete situational flexibility.

Security
When it comes to running a business, there are few things more important than security. Considering how cloud storage is based in the Internet, you have to worry more about hackers. There are security solutions designed to keep breaches from occurring, but not all cloud solutions offer the same level of protection.

What’s the major difference between these cloud solutions in regard to security? The public cloud generally allows for a set level of protection, with the potential for increased levels of service depending on how much you’re willing to pay. The good news is that the public cloud is relatively safe, the reason being that these cloud providers generally have trained IT teams that are dedicated to keeping your data safe. Of course, this is just to keep their own organization safe, but it’s nice to know that you can count on them. The same can be said for any managed service provider who offers a private cloud hosting service. If you host your own private cloud, you can implement whatever measures you desire.

Do you need a hand choosing a cloud solution for your business? If so, reach out to us at (978) 988-5500.

Entrepreneurs are the heroes of today, making great strides in the business world by introducing new ideas to their industries. However, the intrapreneur is a bit more of an enigma; they create commendable ideas within their own organization. In fact, your organization probably has its own intrapreneurs. How do you take advantage of their skills to your business’s benefit?

Simply put, the intrapreneur is an employee that can see past the short-term and look at what must be done in the long-term. They understand that their ingenuity can help your organization achieve its goals, and they go out of their way to make sure that their ideas are used for the benefit of the entire organization.

Tim Beerman, CTO of Ensono, describes to CIO what exactly makes a good intrapreneur, and why organizations should look to individuals like them for helpful insight: “These are the employees who want to get their hands dirty and are often the first people to volunteer for a job. Intrapreneurs are not content with the status quo. They often see how things could be part of a bigger picture and come up with ideas to realize this new vision.” Who in your office fits this profile?

Here are a few more characteristics that business owners should look for when identifying their own intrapreneurs.

• Intrapreneurs are capable of motivating those around them, especially with challenging their perspectives with new thoughts and ideas.
• Intrapreneurs stick to their loyalties and are always willing to go above and beyond to create positive change for your organization.
• Intrapreneurs have plenty of skill to be successful outside of your business, but they insist on staying employed by your organization.
• Intrapreneurs are always challenging the way that your business functions, inviting disruption not to mess with operations, but to improve them.
• Intrapreneurs can identify where your workplace needs to improve and provide ways to resolve these problems. Moreover, they are willing to take risks to resolve issues.

It’s clear that any intrapreneur will be easy to spot. They are naught but your most loyal, motivated, and thoughtful employees. The real question from a business owner’s point of view is what to do with them. They’ll challenge you to the best of your ability, whether they mean to or not. Will you step up and embrace this challenge, or will you feel threatened by their contributions?

The best way to take advantage of intrapreneurs is to encourage them to step up and communicate their ideas. In particular, you need to make sure that there are various ways that they can communicate their ideas to management. If they don’t, you’ll simply crush the spirit and nobody will be benefitting from their good ideas anymore–certainly not your business. These employees will just put in the minimal effort, get paid, and go home at the end of the day, rather than use their intuition to help your business improve. In a worst-case scenario, they may even leave and find another company that’s more willing to hear them out.

IT professionals can make it much easier for your intrapreneurs to express themselves. Beerman explains: “An intrapreneur might see inefficiencies within his or her company’s workflow, but may not necessarily have the experience to fully develop a solution. The IT department can then act as a partner to find the right recommendation. When intrapreneurs and IT teams are communicating regularly, there are more windows of opportunity for collaboration. Innovation and collaboration will eventually become business as usual, once initial bridges are crossed.”

This type of collaboration doesn’t have to be difficult, but can, as expected, require a major change in your company’s culture. If you want quality communications solutions that can help your organization benefit from each and every great mind behind your operations, reach out to us at (978) 988-5500.

Ordinary fishing, where you hope for a simple-minded fish to latch onto your hook, relies on using a proper lure. The same can be said for the virtual method of phishing, where a hacker will use a similar type of “lure” to convince the target to bite. These phishing scams are especially useful for hackers who want to take advantage of social media to find new targets. A recent study has shown that this is a surprisingly effective method of phishing.

A report from phishd by MWR InfoSecurity orchestrated a simulated phishing attack that attempted to target a million users. ITProPortal told of their findings: “Almost a quarter of users clicked a link to be taken to a fake login screen. Out of that number, more than half (54 percent) provided user credentials, and 80 percent downloaded a file.”

This means that about 10 percent of users fell victim to the first two stages of the simulation and gave up their account credentials. Now, compare this rate to how often a normal scam, like spam, accomplishes its goal. While the typical spam message will only have a fraction of a percentage point rate of success, social media provides a substantially larger chance of success to hackers.

James Moore, the Managing Director of phishd by MWR InfoSecurity, states: “More concerning is that out of those targeted with a social media request or a promotional offer, more than 10 percent downloaded a potentially malicious file via their corporate email accounts.” This is especially a problem, as there are so many people who connect their social media accounts to their work accounts–risky business for any organization that wants to avoid a critical data breach.

If anything, this study shows why your business needs to keep data safe. This includes being capable of identifying phishing scams and responding to them properly, but also the implementation of security tools like antivirus, spam blocking, and content filtering. If you’re very concerned about social media phishing, you can go so far as to block social media websites completely on your network. Additional measures such as comprehensive training can help your users identify phishing attacks both in and out of the office, on a variety of platforms. Often times, the lures used by hackers can be so tantalizing that they’re able to bypass your security, so the only thing standing between you and a data breach is the knowledge you’ve imparted to your users.

You can’t trust anyone on the Internet, be it a new friend on social media, a new entry into your address book, or a seemingly-legitimate website. You have to be ready for anything, but this can be a daunting task. Thankfully, you don’t have to endure it alone. With Casserly Consulting L.L.C. by your side, you’ll be prepared to handle any cyber threat. To learn more about what we can offer your business, reach out to us at (978) 988-5500.

A cracked screen can happen to anyone at any time. All it takes is bumping into someone or your grip slipping off of your device, and boom–cracked screen. In cases, such as this, what’s the best way to move forward?

The first step is accepting that you may have made a mistake and dropped the phone, but this doesn’t help you fix it. Here are six ways that you can approach your cracked-screen scenario.

Just Leave it Be
If you really don’t want to get a new device or look into ways to fix your phone screen, well… just leave it as it is. This is certainly an option if the screen still works fine, but it might be a bit annoying to deal with. One thing you can do is patch up the screen with a screen protector so that it doesn’t fall apart, and hope for the best. However, if the crack is on the outside and you’re scratching your fingers on it, the next choice might be worth looking into.

Try to Find a Replacement
Since everyone and their brother owns a smartphone these days, and they are often replaced before the devices themselves are unusable, you’ll have an easier time finding a spare than ever before. It’s often the case that if you find a suitable device, all you have to do is move the SIM card from the old device to the new one. Just keep in mind that your replacement device needs to be on the same carrier (a Verizon phone, for example, can’t be used on a Sprint network). If you are the owner of a business that likes to provide phones to your workers, ensuring that you have insurance covering the phone can be the best way to mitigate the cost of one of your people inevitably cracking the screen on their company-issued smartphone.

Gamble on a DIY Repair
If a second-hand smartphone doesn’t sound like something you’d enjoy, perhaps you could attempt to repair the device yourself. While there are plenty of YouTube tutorials for do-it-yourselfers, you’ll be taking a risk that you might otherwise be better off without. Therefore, only attempt to fix it yourself if you’re aware of the consequences and committed to accepting the results, even if it doesn’t work out your way. You can probably find a replacement screen on the Internet from sources like eBay, but it might be more complex of a job than you’ve bargained for.

Have Someone Fix the Screen
If you’d rather not take any chances with your device’s maintenance, you can try to find someone who is willing to do the job for you. In most cases, this means finding a local company that you can hire for the repair job. Sometimes the service provider itself will handle this, but more likely they would have to send it out for repairs. You want to avoid going through the manufacturer (unless you’d rather foot a pricey repair bill), so it’s best to reach out to your internal IT department or a trusted IT provider.

Trade or Sell Your Phone
If you know that you’re just going to buy a new phone anyway, you might be able to get a little bit of value out of your old device before it’s gone forever. Try trading in your phone or selling it to someone who’s willing to pay a little bit of extra cash for it. Just make sure that you eliminate any data located on the device before handing it over. If you don’t know how to do this, just give us a call and we’ll be happy to assist you.

Look for a Better Price
If you’re just going to purchase a new device, you can find unlocked smartphones online–often at a better price than their designated commercial value. Even better is that these devices aren’t held back by contracts, so wireless carriers aren’t a problem either. However, it’s important that you find a device that actually works. Look for sellers who have a good reputation for providing quality used products. Remember, every time you purchase a used device, you’re dealing with at least some sort of risk.

With smartphones being extremely important for communications and remote productivity, every business should be cognizant of solid smartphone practices. If you are looking to manage the role smartphones have on your network security, or, if you’d like to expand the role smartphones have in your business, you should talk to one of Casserly Consulting L.L.C.’s IT professionals. We can present solutions like mobile device management, allowing your business to take advantage of a comprehensive bring your own device policy. We also have lines on innovative ways to affordably improve organizational smartphone deployments. Call us today at (978) 988-5500.