Computerware Blog

Have you ever run into this scenario? You are out of the office working with a customer, or perhaps at a trade show or event, and you really need to deal with an emergency with an upset client. You pull out your phone and give the client a call and make things right. All goes back to normal for a while. A few weeks later the client wants to discuss something else and calls your cell phone directly instead of using the proper channels. You politely try to direct them to use your business line, but as the months go by, they start racking up more and more calls to your cell phone, taking your valuable time when any one of your employees could have helped them.

Do you ever feel as though technology is letting you down? You aren’t alone, every day there are things that happen with our IT here and in the course of managing other business’ IT that makes me think to myself that if they just disconnected all this stuff, they’d be doing all of us a favor. In fact, I have a story I want to tell you to put this in perspective. 

Data privacy is the kind of issue that people don’t ever want to deal with. In fact, many of the organizations that we come in contact with have a lot of personal data on file, and some of them (even some of the most reputable) are at risk to have that data stolen from them. This month, we’ll go over what constitutes personal information, why it is constantly being targeted for thefts, and what you need to do to keep your personal information as secure as possible. 

Growth can be very exciting for a business. It generally means that all the hard work that has gone into getting the business to that point has paid off. For some in your organization however, it can be a very stressful time. This is because once you commit to pay new employees, there’s some pressure to get them up to speed quickly. After all, what are you paying them for?

When you talk about line of business software, you are typically talking about the unique applications that your business uses to manage their business. In the retail space, line of business software would typically refer to your Point of Sale (POS), or Point of Purchase (POP) software. This month we will talk about how businesses implement their POS software and how it works to manage different aspects of a retail business.

Cybercrime is at a record high and today’s businesses are the ones that take the brunt of the issues. For the retail business, cybersecurity has a couple of different faces. For Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we thought we’d talk a little bit about the retail space and how businesses are securing their customers’ information. 

We repeatedly talk about the need for data backup and efficient recovery practices in order to save your business from disaster. These disasters come when you least expect them and can really put a hurting on your business. Today, we’re going to take a look inside the retail sector to find why your average stores need to have resilient and up-to-date data backup in place.

Retail businesses have been around for centuries. From livestock bartering 8,000 years ago to the establishment of currency to buy goods 5,000 years ago to the first shopping mall in 1930 to the advent of eCommerce, retail has followed the evolution of society. Like many other businesses, today’s retail stores rely on computers and information technology. This month we will take a look at retail IT, and how managed IT services present the modern retail establishment with the tools needed to run their stores effectively.  

It’s likely that you’ve heard the different terms for Microsoft’s productivity suite offerings in the Office vein. A productivity solution like this cannot be implemented without considering each of your options, including both Microsoft Office 2019 and Microsoft Office 365. They might sound like the same thing, but they are both very different.

Productivity is a hot-button issue in the workplace. On one hand, you want to make sure that your employees have all the tools they need to succeed. On the other, you need to be sure that they are using the tools to get their work done and remain as productive as possible. How can you be sure that your employees are staying on-task and focused? It starts by understanding their motivations and their long-term goals.

A world without any technical issues bogging down your organization is rather picturesque, wouldn’t you agree? The issue here is that it’s often not possible for businesses that struggle with payment to make ends meet--particularly in regard to technology maintenance. You can potentially prevent a mound of problems in the future by providing your team with the technology assistance needed to get them through their day-to-day duties.

Small businesses have been leaning on cloud computing for a few years now as it presents a lot of options to compete without having to make huge--often unavailable--capital investments in their information systems. Public cloud computing can provide any business with value, but what happens when it absolutely has to ensure that certain data stays secure, but accessible? 

Whenever a Windows operating system reaches its End of Support or End of Life, there is always a period of chaos where companies are scrambling to react in time. Is your business one of them? If you fail to take proactive measures by implementing new software solutions before the end of support date, you could be exposing your business to unprecedented danger--especially considering how popular Windows 7 is with the user base.

What kind of hardware and software solutions make up your technology infrastructure? You should know that all businesses have different needs, and not everyone will manage and acquire the same tools. Some businesses don’t even know what their needs are, prompting many to turn to technology professionals for assistance. We want to be the ones you turn to for your hardware and software needs.

Businesses must be very careful when considering how to secure their future. One of the best ways to do so is by implementing solutions that keep your organization alive in the face of adversity. Data backup and disaster recovery is one way you can make sure unfortunate circumstances don’t hold your business back from succeeding in the future.

Productivity. Your company needs it. Your employees are measured largely by their ability to effectively turn their effort into a tangible product or service that creates revenue. In short, it means everything to your business. Why then, if it is so necessary, is it so hard to get the people you depend on to realize just how important their productivity is to the success of the business? This month we will talk about what makes a business productive, and what technology will mitigate the major barriers to productivity.

For the modern worker, the technology your company provides is a big deal. In fact, it has been known to be a point of contention among younger workers when their organizations don’t provide them with top notch tech. So, to say that there is a focus on technology would be accurate. Regardless of what your business does, there is a good chance that if you use technology regularly that it is made possible by other technology that you’ve probably never heard about. We’ll take a look at some of this mystery tech and how it helps run the tech you have come to depend on at work and at home.

The Internet of Things has forced businesses to think about the threats that countless mobile devices pose when they access a network, and it’s not something that is going away anytime soon. How can your business be as prepared as possible for the Internet of Things? We’ll give you some ideas for how you can address Internet of Things devices on your company’s network infrastructure.

The expectations set forth by businesses might seem impossible until you consider that collaboration has enabled more productivity than ever seen before. Modern collaboration tools have the capability to completely change the way your organization approaches certain tasks. With the right collaboration tools, you can overcome just about any obstacle, including geographic distance and many others.

Downtime can break your business if you let it. Not all organizations have the ability to recover from downtime, and it shows when it matters most. Preventing downtime from occurring doesn’t require immense foresight. Rather, it requires the right mindset. We’ll discuss what downtime really is, what its effects are, and what you can do to keep it from influencing operations at your organization.