Categories
Casserly Consulting Blog

The Right Data Recovery Strategy Is Important to Protect Your Business

right_data_recovery_400.jpg

Data recovery is a major consideration that every organization that depends on data has to plan for as a part of their business continuity strategy. Since there are so many ways that businesses can lose data, there needs to be a plan to recover data for any possible reason. Today, we will take a different look at operational data loss and talk about how your organization should consider strategizing data recovery.

Data Value in Business
The first thing that you need to know is that losing data is a very big deal. In fact, there is an entire field of study created to deal with this very issue. Called infonomics, this can put a dollar value on an organization’s data. While some organizations continuously deny that data has a tangible value, it is becoming more evident than ever that those organizations (typically insurance and accounting) have a vested interest in data’s value remaining intangible. Every other business can be sure that their data has monetary value.

With the acknowledgement that the analysis of organizational data can help businesses run a more efficient and profitable business, any standard enacted to properly evaluate this asset would be made to promote a strategy of organization-wide data security. If you need to justify spending capital on a data protection and redundancy strategy, you should be able to ascertain what the actual value your data has to your organization. A few ways you can value data include:

  • How much capital would it cost to replace lost data?
  • How much revenue is dependent on that data?
  • How much money could you make by selling or renting the data you have?
  • How much capital will you have to spend to protect this data?

However, you look at your organization’s data, it is an asset, and as those assets are compromised on your network, or removed from your network, you need to have a solution in place to get that data back.

Data Backup
The first step in any data recovery strategy is data backup. At COMPANYNAME, we believe that the best data backup strategy is to promote redundancy. In order to do so we promote a strategy that backs up data locally AND offsite. This presents options to make data recovery more efficient.

Our BDR service initially backs up your entire network. Since backing up an entire network will take a long time, and any downtime is extraordinarily costly, setting up a backup solution that protects the data you need without taking down the network at all, is important. Our BDR keeps data redundant on multiple hard drives and provides an organization with the much-desired data security it is looking for from a comprehensive solution.

Disaster Recovery
The first thing that has to be said is that the best data recovery strategy is one that never has to be used. However, data loss disasters can (and do) happen, leaving your business to pick up the pieces. The best way to do this is to have a dedicated disaster recovery platform in place that takes two crucial factors into account:

  • Recovery Point Objective (RPO) – The interval of time that might pass during a disruption before the amount of data lost exceeds the maximum threshold that your business can weather.
  • Recovery Time Objective (RTO) – The duration of time within which data or business process must be restored after a disruption before it can be considered a complete break in continuity.

By thoroughly managing your disaster recovery program, your organization is sure to be able to get its data back–and its business’ processes up and running–to ensure that your business is able to sustain operational integrity. For more information about how to get a data backup and disaster recovery working for your business, call COMPANYNAME today at PHONENUMBER.

Categories
Casserly Consulting Blog

Know Your Tech: Breadcrumbs

tt_breadcrumb_400.jpg

A trail of breadcrumbs can be a useful thing, whether you’re using it like Hansel and Gretel to find their way back home, or you’re using it in computing to find your way back to a page you were previously on. Today’s tech term is dedicated to the latter.

What is Breadcrumb Navigation?
As per the aforementioned fairy tale, breadcrumb navigation consists of a path leading home. In this case, home is the homepage. With breadcrumb navigation, you can more easily keep track of how you got to the current web page you’re on, as well as the path back to the home page. This path can typically be viewed at the top of the page. Each step includes a link that navigates back to a specific page.

Let’s say that you’re looking at a service page on a website. If the path you took leads back to the home page, you’ll see all of the pages in between in the breadcrumbs menu. For the sake of this example, let’s say the pages in between are the second menu item and the fifth menu item. It would look something like this:

Home > [Menu 2] > [Menu Item 5]

Since these breadcrumbs are links, you can click on any one of them to be brought back to that page. This lets you continue browsing with minimal chance of getting lost on the site trying to backtrack.

More Than Just Websites
You might notice that this navigation style is similar to the ones used in toolbars in file folders or files saved on your desktop. The reason is the same–it makes finding certain files easier at a later date. The location can also be shared with others who need to know where it is.

Breadcrumbs are typically meant for helping users with browsing and organization. Are there any other features out there you can think of that do the same thing? Let us know in the comments.

Categories
Casserly Consulting Blog

Can You Afford to Ditch Your Telephone System for VoIP?

voip_complex_400.jpg

Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP for short, might at first glance seem complex, but it’s really quite simple when explained properly. Unfortunately, misconceptions surrounding VoIP can become a barrier of entry for businesses considering a VoIP solution. We’re going to disprove some of these misconceptions and prove VoIP can be a valuable investment for just about any business in need of a communications solution.

“VoIP is Too Expensive”
Businesses often think that VoIP is more expensive than your typical telephone bill, but this isn’t necessarily the case. The purpose of VoIP is to actually reduce the costs of your telephone bill by eliminating unnecessary services and the costs associated with them. VoIP does this because it uses your Internet connection rather than a phone connection, meaning that you don’t have to have phone lines all over your office just to give each of your employees phones on their desks. All you need to use a VoIP solution is a headset or handset and a desktop/mobile app hooked up to the Internet.

“VoIP Isn’t Reliable Enough”
In reality, VoIP is only as reliable as your Internet connection. If your Internet connection isn’t reliable, then you have a problem as is, so why not use it as an opportunity to both improve connectivity and communications all in one?

“VoIP is More Trouble Than It’s Worth”
Considering that VoIP would be replacing your current telephone setup, it’s reasonable to suspect that the amount of effort put into this implementation would be considerable. However, that’s simply not the case–VoIP requires minimal setup, as it uses your existing network infrastructure. All you’re doing is connecting your phones to the Internet, which takes no time at all.

“VoIP Doesn’t Sound Good Enough”
VoIP often doesn’t sound any different from your typical phone line connection, and if it doesn’t sound as great as you want it to, chances are it’s (once again) an issue with your Internet connection–not necessarily anything wrong with the VoIP service itself.

“VoIP Isn’t the Right Fit”
VoIP can be the perfect fit for your business precisely due to just how customizable it is to your business’ specific needs. You can mix and match the additional features you desire to save money in the long run. All of the features from any old phone company would be a considerably larger investment, and some VoIP features aren’t even offered by your standard phone company in the first place.

VoIP is simply too good a solution to not implement or at least consider. If you want to hear more about VoIP, our IT professionals would be happy to assist you. To learn more, reach out to us at PHONENUMBER.

Categories
Casserly Consulting Blog

Getting a Better Sense of Customer Relationship Management

better_customer_realations_400.jpg

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how important it is to have a handle on your clients’ needs. After all, how else are you supposed to offer them the level of service that they need to remain satisfied enough to stay subscribed to what you offer? This endeavor is exactly why a customer relationship management (or CRM) system is so crucial.

What is Customer Relationship Management?
Customer relationship management is effectively how a company can gauge and improve their interactions with their clients, gradually coaxing them toward repeated business transactions. By compiling data from the many points of contact that a prospect or repeat customer has with a business, that business can build a profile that will help inform their next steps.

With data able to be drawn from website and social media activity, live chat and telephone conversations, and a customer’s purchase history, CRM software can heavily assist you by constructing a database of customer information. Some can even automate certain processes, assisting a company’s marketing and sales forces in more effectively communicating with customers from a more informed standpoint, or allowing labor to be saved by leading an incoming caller through a precomposed voice menu to direct them to whom they need to reach.

A CRM can also be used to optimize internal tasks, like the managerial responsibilities of Human Resources, processing analytics, and automating certain workflows. Some CRM solutions have even begun to incorporate artificial intelligence to better predict a customer’s trajectory.

Customer relationship management systems can be hosted on-premise or delivered over the Internet as a cloud-based solution.

Putting a CRM to Use
A CRM can be leveraged in any number of ways for your business to embrace. Social media engagement can be monitored to identify which platform is most used by an audience, monitoring keywords and brand mentions. Otherwise, it can be used to assist in addressing feedback over social media.

Speaking of feedback, a CRM system can also be of use in a business’ contact center, collecting data from service calls to inform a company’s sales and marketing efforts, as we mentioned above. This is especially useful in a business-to-business application, as it can help to optimize a business’ journey through the sales and marketing funnel.

If a CRM system sounds like something that your company should implement, reach out to COMPANYNAME by calling PHONENUMBER.

Categories
Casserly Consulting Blog

Tip of the Week: 5 Tricks to Using Windows

5_windows_400.jpg

There’s a lot more to the Windows operating system than first meets the eye, especially where handy shortcuts are concerned. Today, we’ll cover five of the shortcuts baked into Windows that may be beneficial to your productivity.

Rename File
Every so often, you will discover that the name of a document isn’t entirely accurate anymore. Naturally, this file name should be changed to accurately reflect its contents. While you could right-click and select ‘rename’ for each one you have to change, it is much faster to simply select the file (or files) that needs a name change, and press F2. If you change the name of multiple files to the same thing, it will even automatically add the number to the end to differentiate them.

Active Window Screenshot
Screenshots can be very useful, but they can also be a pain to capture. Fortunately, there’s a way to easily take a screenshot of just the active window. By pressing Alt + Print Screen, the active window will be captured cleanly.

Problem Steps Recorder
Every so often, you may need to record your steps exactly, whether you’re replicating an issue for IT to check out or outlining a procedure for training purposes. Windows offers the Problem Steps Recorder, which is an easy-to-use action recording program that outlines and illustrates each step you take while the program is observing you. It then generates a step-by-step report to be reviewed. Creating one is especially simple – the hardest part is typing “psr” into the Windows search bar to pull up the program.

Easy Open Applications
The taskbar is extremely useful for storing your most-used programs and files for easy access. Windows has incorporated a shortcut that makes accessing them even easier. First, figure out which number your desired application is in sequence, then press the Windows key + the sequence number to open that application. This also works to maximize and minimize these windows.

Minimize/Maximize
Another way to quickly minimize and maximize your open windows is a little silly, but effective. If you want to minimize all but one of your windows, simply click and hold the window and shake it. All the rest will minimize. The same action will also reverse this, maximizing all of your windows again.

What other neat Windows tricks and shortcuts do you know about? Share them in the comments!

Categories
Casserly Consulting Blog

The Most Devastating Hacks of 2018… So Far

bad_hack_2018_400.jpg

Network security is a crucial consideration for every contemporary business owner, as there are just too many threats that originate from an Internet connection to be overlooked. One only has to look at what businesses of all sizes have dealt with, even within this calendar year, to gain an appreciation for how crucial it is that every business owner consider their cybersecurity.

Here, we’ve assembled a few statistics and examples to illustrate just how serious the threat of cyberattack can be, hopefully inspiring you to prioritize your company’s network security. Consider these cybersecurity figures:

  • In 2017 over 130 large-scale breaches were reported, a 27 percent increase over 2016.
  • Nearly 1-in-3 organization have experienced some sort of cyberattack in the past.
  • Cryptojacking (stealing cryptocurrency) increased 8,500 percent in 2017.
  • 100,000 organizations were infected with the WannaCry ransomware (400,000 machines).
  • 5.4 billion WannaCry attacks were blocked in 2017.
  • The average monetary cost of a malware attack is $2.4 million.
  • The average time cost of a malware is 50 days.
  • Ransomware cost organization’s over $5 billion in 2017.
  • 20 percent of cyberattacks come from China, 11 percent from the United States, and six percent from the Russian Federation.
  • Phone numbers are the most leaked information.
  • 21 percent of files are completely unprotected.
  • 41 percent of companies have over 1,000 sensitive files left unprotected.
  • Ransomware is growing at 350 percent annually.
  • IoT-based attacks are growing at about 500 percent per year.
  • Ransomware attacks are expected to quadruple by 2020.
  • 7.7 percent of web requests lead to malware.
  • There were 54 percent more types of malware in 2017 than there were in 2016.
  • The cybersecurity market will be worth over $1 trillion by 2025.

If that wasn’t convincing enough, what follows is just an assortment of the attacks that 2018 has seen (as of July). To simplify things, we’ve organized them by the intended targets: public (like individuals and government bodies) and private (such as businesses):

Public
January

  • The Department of Homeland Security was affected by a data breach that exposed information about 247,167 current and former employees.

March

  • Atlanta, Georgia was targeted by a ransomware attack called SamSam. This resulted in a massive problem for their municipal infrastructure. The ransom price given was $51,000, but Atlanta’s leadership refused to meet these demands. Overall, the numbers show that Atlanta has spent more than 10 times that number in the fallout of the attack. Some estimates place the actual cost of this event at nearly $20 million.
  • India’s national ID database, Aadhaar, leaked data of over a billion people. This is one of the largest data breaches in history. A user could pay 500 rupees, equal to about $7, to get the login credentials that allowed anyone to enter a person’s 12-digit code for their personal information. For 300 rupees, or about $4.20, users could also access software that could print an ID card for anyone associated with the database.
  • Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics company that U.S. President Donald Trump used to help his campaign, harvested personal information from over 50 million Facebook users without asking for their permission. Facebook hasn’t called this a data breach, but Cambridge Analytica has since been banned from using the service thanks to this event.

June

  • A hack of a U.S. Government-funded active shooter training center exposed the personal data of thousands of U.S. law enforcement officials. This also exposed which police departments aren’t able to respond to an active shooter situation.

Private
January

  • 280,000 Medicaid records were exposed when a hacker attacked the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences. Among the information exposed were patient names, provider names, and full names for affected individuals.

February

  • An unsecured server owned by Bongo International, a company acquired by FedEx, leaked over a hundred-thousand files of FedEx customers. Some of the information leaked included names, drivers’ licenses, national ID cards, voting cards, and utility bills.

March

  • Orbitz, a travel booking site, fell victim to a security vulnerability that exposed 880,000 customers’ payment card information. There was also about two whole years of customer data stolen from their server.
  • French news site L’Express left a database that wasn’t password-protected up for weeks, despite being warned about the security issues regarding this.
  • 134,512 records regarding patients and financial records at the St. Peter’s Surgery and Endoscopy Center in Albany, NY were accessed by hackers.
  • MyFitnessPal, an application used by Under Armor, exposed about 150 million people’s personal information to threats.
  • The WannaCry ransomware claimed another victim in Boeing, which stated that “a few machines” were protected by Microsoft’s 2017 patch.

May

  • Thanks to Twitter storing user passwords in a plaintext file that may have been exposed by internal company staff, the social media titan had to force hundreds of millions of users to change their password.
  • An unauthenticated API found on T-Mobile’s website exposed the personal information of all their customers simply through the use of their cell phone number. The following information was made available: full name, address, account numbers, and tax IDs.
  • A bug found in Atlassian development software titles Jira and Confluence paved the way for hackers to sneak into IT infrastructure of several companies and one U.S. government agency.
  • Rail Europe, a popular server used by American travelers to acquire rail tickets, experienced a three-month data breach that exposed credit card information to hackers.

June

  • A marketing company named Exactis had 340 million records stolen from it, but what’s most shocking about this is that they had accumulated information about nearly every American out there. In response to the breach, there was a class action lawsuit made against the company.
  • Adidas’s website was hacked, resulting in a loss of a few million users’ personal and credit card information.
  • A hacker collective called Magecart initiated a campaign to skim at least 800 e-commerce sites, including Ticketmaster, for sensitive information.

Clearly, if these lists are any indication, companies of all sizes need to commit to maintaining their network security, holding it to a higher standard. For assistance in doing so, you can rely on the professionals at COMPANYNAME. We can design and implement security solutions to protect you from threats like these, and others that may rear their ugly heads. Give us a call at PHONENUMBER to get started.

Categories
Casserly Consulting Blog

How Much Have Smartphone Cameras Made a Difference?

smartphone_camera_400.jpg

When it comes to selecting a smartphone, most consumers look to the camera as a major deciding point – after all, many popular applications geared toward the everyday user heavily lean on the use of a camera. This utility and, in some ways, reliance have only encouraged rapid advancement to phone-based camera technology since its origins in the Samsung SCH-V200.

The very first smartphone cameras were simply a handheld camera that connected to the phone via a cable. This all changed upon the release of the SCH-V200. While the user still needed a computer to remove the images from their phone via cable connection, and the image quality wasn’t great, the ability alone was enough to start a revolution in what is expected of our technology.

In the years since the SCH-V200, phone-based camera technology has grown in leaps and bounds, arguably being responsible for shaping how we view mobile computing today.

The First Smartphones
While the Samsung SCH-V200 was the first phone that featured a built-in camera, this feature was quickly capitalized on and adopted by many, allowing images to be taken and shared. This technology had some time to develop before the release of the original smartphones in the mid-2000s. Both the iPhone and T-Mobile’s HTC G1 featured rear-facing cameras, and while this feature wasn’t particularly focused on by reviewers, the significance of this pocket-sized technology was very quickly apparent.

The Smartphone’s Development
Later on, mobile phones began to sport front-facing cameras. This assisted in the development of “selfies,” giving a newly immersive experience to sharing points in one’s life. This made the expansion of Internet connectivity and advent of social media an even bigger piece of the smartphone experience, making such cameras a must-have feature.

As a result, more and more features were added that made the camera and its use better. The now-standard LED flash, allowed users to take pictures in low light (a much more difficult task beforehand). Software improvements enabled other camera features to come into their own, autofocus, video capture, and optical image stabilization being feasible thanks to the increased processing power that the chipsets possessed.

The Boost of Social Media and Other Applications
Of course, the first few generations of phones that had a camera were limited in functionality somewhat, the front-facing camera only adding so much. However, once the ability to capture high-definition video came into play, this all changed. The combination of this new feature with the birth of social media (at the time, mostly YouTube) made the camera a much more influential feature for the average consumer.

This concept seems strangely foreign, now that there are easily hundreds of apps that integrate both front and rear-facing cameras for their most basic usage. Returning to YouTube for a moment, a full 300 hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute, most of it probably originating from a smartphone. Since their introduction, smartphones and their cameras have captured images and footage that has been inspiring, outrageous, and socially relevant. An iPhone’s camera was exclusively used to shoot the award-winning, feature-length film titled Tangerine.

How the Camera Saves the Mobile Market
As it happens, the camera has become the primary reason to buy a new mobile device, with application development and processing power both plateauing, and the apparent fact that only Samsung and Apple can consistently manufacture smartphones that see any kind of profit. Yet the cameras on these devices only continue to improve, more high-end smartphones now featuring dual-lens cameras. These cameras provide no small amount of benefit to the user, providing them with more options behind their photography, in addition to:

  • Wide aperture – With more light reaching the camera, more accurate photos can be produced.
  • High Dynamic Range – HDR covers the gamut of image capture quality settings, piecing together a variety of shots to produce the best one possible.
  • Burst Mode – If the subject of a photo is in motion, Burst Mode allows a determinable number of images to be captured so that the best one can be chosen.
  • Portrait Mode – In order to provide an enhanced depth of field, a photo can be taken to automatically sharpen an object in the foreground while blurring the background.

Thanks to the continuing improvements in their cameras and software, the smartphone user is effectively walking around with a complete photography studio in their pocket. How well are you able to use your smartphone’s camera? Leave any hints you have in the comments!

Categories
Casserly Consulting Blog

Know Your Tech: Proxy Server

tt_proxy_server_400.jpg

Your server room may be somewhat intimidating to consider. Wires everywhere, mechanical boxes that just sit there, lights blinking intermittently, and the distinct feeling that you probably shouldn’t touch anything – not even a proxy server, whatever that is. However, to help you get to know your tech, the proxy server is exactly what we discuss below!

What Is A Proxy Server?
Oversimplifying things, a proxy server is the device that keeps your end users and the websites that they’re accessing separate, but communicating. Making this a little less straightforward, a proxy server can act as many other things as well, adding to its usefulness in your business.

At its core, a proxy server is extremely useful as a kind of gatekeeper for your users’ browsing. Think of it as a kind of a spam filter for your Internet – instead of a user accessing a potentially infected website, the proxy server allows them to access the data, protecting your network much like a web filter and firewall would. The proxy server also caches the data from common web requests, speeding them up, all the while preserving a user’s privacy online.

A Few Benefits of a Proxy Server
There are a few reasons that a business may utilize a proxy server.

Privacy and Security – As we’ve mentioned, proxy servers have a definite use as a means to protect an organization’s privacy and security. This can be accomplished in a few ways. First, a proxy server is capable of altering some of the identifying information contained in the web request. By its doing so, the destination server has no way of knowing where the request came from originally. This keeps browsing habits and personal information protected.

Furthermore, a proxy server is able to encrypt web requests, protecting them from anyone who may try to sneak a peek. Known malware sites can also be blocked through the proxy server. Finally, your company can use a virtual private network (or VPN) in conjunction with the proxy, enabling secure and verified access.

Internet Control – Let’s face it, as great a tool as the Internet is, it can also be a considerable source of distractions. However, a proxy server allows you to both monitor and control the way the Internet is used. If certain websites are proving to be a distraction, the proxy server can block them, instead delivering the user a nice note reminding them to stay on task. Even if the website isn’t blocked, a proxy server can still be used to track how often a website is accessed, allowing you to judge if your employees are really being diligent in their work.

Speeds and Savings – Bandwidth is a very important consideration to make when your business relies on the Internet’s performance in order to function. A proxy server can assist your network performance by caching websites that are frequently visited, cutting the number of requests to that website to one, as opposed to however many employees are attempting to access it.

If you think that your network could benefit from utilizing a proxy server, call us! COMPANYNAME is the premier managed IT support specialist for AREASERVED, and we are more than ready to assist you with whatever questions you may have. Give us a call today at PHONENUMBER.

Categories
Casserly Consulting Blog

Our 2018 Business Technology Overview

look_at_business_tech_400.jpg

Businesses have a lot to think about, especially regarding best practices and upcoming trends in technology. Has your business been doing all it can to keep up? We’ve outlined some of the best IT innovations that we expect to see in 2018 as time goes on.

Security Worries
It should be clear that in today’s business world, security is everything. There are so many threats out there that one organization alone can’t possibly keep up with all of them, much to the chagrin of security companies. Most notable of these is the Internet of Things, a term used to refer to the collective body of mobile devices out there with interconnectivity features. Machine learning and improved methodologies have allowed organizations to better protect themselves from these emerging threats. Predictive technologies powered by machine learning have also greatly enhanced the ability of organizations to take on threats. Alongside new innovations like blockchain technology and the zero-knowledge proofs associated with it, machine learning will likely pave the way toward the future of security.

Big Data
Similarly, in order to make a meaningful impact on your business, you need to collect data that can be used to make educated decisions. There are plenty of sources out there that can help businesses acquire and accumulate data, if you know where to look. If your business utilizes solutions that allow it to collect and organize data, you’ll be able to make predictions about which decisions will most benefit your company over time. It can also help you make decisions based on trends in security, user experience, processes, and efficiency.

Artificial Intelligence
A.I. is the future of many business strategies. Since businesses today collect more information than any before them, A.I. can be the most efficient way to benefit from it. A.I. can help your business and its employees better manage both time and resources, and with this comes greater opportunity for innovation and savings to your bottom line. In essence, A.I. can potentially allow businesses to save time by automating redundant or time-consuming tasks, all while learning from the experience.

Accountability
Artificial intelligence presents an interesting problem that businesses haven’t had to deal with to this moment–accountability. If something goes wrong and an A.I. does something illegal, who’s to blame? Issues like these, and many more, all need to be addressed before innovations can be leveraged to the best of their ability.

What are some of your most anticipated trends for the future of business technology? Let us know in the comments.

Categories
Casserly Consulting Blog

Budgeting for IT Can Benefit Your Business’ Bottom Line

budgeting_bottomline_400.jpg

Your business depends on a budget to come out in the black at the end of the fiscal year, and the way you invest that budget will have a considerable impact. As you create this budget, your IT needs to be one of your top considerations – after all, it is what effectively powers the modern business. Here, we’ll discuss how diligently incorporating your IT into your budget can help your business be more successful down the line.

How to Approach Your IT Spending
When determining an IT budget, perspective is an important part of the process. It can be tempting to view your IT as just another cost of doing business, but it really is more than that. Your technology (and the state it is in) has ramifications that spread to your entire business, so if it is lacking, everything will be. Employee morale will suffer, your productivity will slow, and your incoming cash flow will falter.

After all, an IT budget needs to account for a lot. There are the costs associated with acquiring and subsequently upgrading your information technology, as well as training your staff to properly leverage these solutions. However, a good IT budget will also account for the odd inconveniences that will require some financial spending to resolve. Furthermore, with your budget in mind as a reference, explore some of your options as far as cost-savings go… are you paying for more resources than you need? Are you leaving money on the table anywhere when those funds could be used more effectively contributing to another goal? While information technology is hugely helpful when leveraged properly, it can become a financial burden if over-invested (or even under-invested) in.

This is how you should actually consider your IT budget: an investment. While some of it will be classified as a business expense, much of your spending will be into endeavors that help your business, either by increasing efficiency or reducing waste. Either way, your IT can be used to put your company in a better financial situation.

Encouraging Financial Well-Being with an IT Budget
If you’re unsure of how to proceed with budgeting your IT, we’ve compiled a handy list of things you should (and shouldn’t) do during the process.

  • Have a set budget for your IT. In order for your business to be able to utilize the caliber of technology solutions it needs for success, you need to put forward the investment into those solutions.
  • Invest in business-enhancing solutions. Whether you’re boosting your internal productivity or fortifying your business against threats that could keep you from conducting business as usual, your IT budget should be spent in ways that directly benefit your operations.
  • Don’t shoot from the hip. Like we alluded to above, if you aren’t investing in your IT solutions correctly, you could find yourself in a worse spot than before. It is crucial that you go about investing in your IT strategically, directing funds to where they are needed and where they will help you to generate more revenue.

Alexa von Tobel, CEO of LearnVest.com, said, “We all have pretty much similar dreams, and at the root of all those dreams is being able to be in control of your money.” We agree, which is why we’re dedicated to providing you with the most value in our IT services without emptying your coffers. To learn more about the easily-budgetable services that we have to offer, reach out to us at PHONENUMBER.