Business Solutions & Software Group Blog

The New Year brings a sense of renewal—a chance to start fresh and set intentions for the year ahead. It’s also a time for cherished traditions, none more iconic than the famous Times Square Ball Drop. As millions watch the illuminated ball descend, signaling the countdown to midnight, few realize the rich history and technological evolution behind this beloved custom.

Like it or hate it, it is undeniable that social media is a massive part of the culture. What were once cool websites that you could connect with people of like interests, or at least your extended family and friends you haven’t seen in a while, now are multi-billion dollar businesses that have influence over social trends, politics, and many other social constructs we depend on daily. With social media being so entrenched in the fabric of our digital worlds, it’s important to know exactly where you stand in regard to your individual rights and privacy. Let’s take a look at one contemporary situation that is sure to have ripple effects throughout society in the months and years to come.

For years, you've heard about the growing role of technology in healthcare, promising to stabilize costs, improve access, and personalize care delivery. As these innovations take hold, however, they also raise serious concerns about data privacy. Today, we’ll explore some of the technological advancements in healthcare and their implications for patient data privacy.

Given the widespread discussion surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) in households nationwide, it's evident that this technology has become integral to the operations of numerous entities. AI has found its place, from business and education to civic affairs, even within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). How exactly is the DHS harnessing AI to enhance the security of everyday Americans?

Technology is a major part of all people’s lives, with the most used and pervasive technologies having been created by large corporations that can seemingly do whatever they want without repercussion. Let’s look at the efforts to keep this “big tech” under control and why it’s important for society.

Back in 1942, Isaac Asimov wrote a short story called “Runaround” that formally introduced his Three Laws of Robotics as a complete set of rules that all robots in his Robots series were beholden to. Now, Google has announced that a similar safeguard will inform how their future AI-enabled machines will operate, partially inspired by the Three Laws.

Let’s look at what Google has coined their “Robot Constitution,” and how it works.

For the past six months, the social media giant Meta (AKA Facebook) has attempted to take advantage of the perceived instability at X (AKA Twitter) and create a microblogging community in the same vein, called Threads. Today, we thought we would take a look at Threads and how it is similar to X, and how it aims to pull users away from the microblogging giant. 

In our rapidly evolving society, very few things are as they once were. One thing that feels a lot similar to the past is the Christmas holiday. Sure, it’s more commercialized than ever, but by-in-large many of our holiday traditions stay the same. People make a point to get together and exchange gifts and eat too much; and they tend to do this every year. 

Right to Repair has grown from a simple philosophy to a legitimate movement, with numerous states legislating measures to boost the rights of the consumers and businesses who ultimately pay for and use different pieces of technology every day. Let’s take a few moments to evaluate where the movement stands currently, as well as review what the right to repair would mean for businesses.

Taking care of your technology is vitally important, and that’s something that we as a managed service provider will always espouse, but the truth is that your technology is only as effective as the people using it. Therefore, you should make sure to take proper care of your team, too, and one way you can do this is by sharing these workplace stretches with them. The right stretches can improve physical health, which in turn improves other aspects of their lives—including their work.

We use a lot of technology nowadays—enough that a phenomenon known as “technology fatigue” has started to set in. A lot of today’s employees are using technology at unprecedented levels, and with more being called for all the time, it can stress out these employees and actually act as a detriment to the businesses that hire them. Let’s take a few moments to talk about technology fatigue and how the burnout it causes can be tempered.

We might place the onus on business technology solutions on this blog, but once in a while we like to talk about technology that is just plain cool. Today is one of those days. With this new wearable utilizing artificial intelligence technology, you can monitor your health, making for a very interesting application of the technology.

Cybersecurity is not an exact science, but it is something that you can definitely work diligently at. This will often help your organization do more to handle the risks of doing business in the online world. Unfortunately, the amount of attacks that target today’s businesses are starting to overwhelm a lot of the IT security efforts that they take and can lead to data loss or worse. This week, we will take a look at some of the worst data breaches of 2022… so far.

When the minds that gave birth to classic science fiction technology first introduced it to the world, there was no way they could have seen a future where their ideas could be considered a reality. However, the ideas introduced in pop culture have inspired the brains of today to achieve great, and sometimes bizarre, things with technology.

Technology is so commonplace in today’s society that it’s often portrayed in unrealistic ways, especially in entertainment. Hackers, for example, don’t exist in the same sense that they do in the entertainment industry. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest differences between how hackers appear in television and media compared to what they are really like in the real world.

Remote work might be a somewhat new concept for some organizations, but it has proven to be an exceptionally helpful tool to have at one’s disposal. All that said, however, there are certain weaknesses that must be addressed if you want to take full advantage of the cloud, with one of them being the disconnection that comes from remote work. What does this disconnect mean for your business?

Isn’t it incredible how some people can build bad habits over the span of several years, then break them and replace them with better ones? It might look like it’s easy, but the reality of the matter is that building bad habits and replacing them is an incredibly difficult and time-consuming process. The brain literally undergoes physical changes during this process, and it’s all thanks to a neuroscientific principle called neuroplasticity.

Any organization that holds medical records or other healthcare-related sensitive data needs to consider legislation and organizations that govern the privacy of those records. In this case, we are referring to HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and HITRUST, the Health Information Trust Alliance. These two acronyms are incredibly important for healthcare providers in the United States to understand.

No matter how new a device is, the unfortunate truth is that it will not last forever. Eventually, you will need to replace your device; the question then becomes what you do with your old technology. While you could just throw it in the trash, this is not only wasteful but also a security risk. In order to protect both your personal data and the environment, you must go through the proper channels to make sure that e-waste gets properly disposed of.

It’s not a secret that we spend too much time on our phones, sitting in front of the computer or television, or just looking at screens in general. You don’t have to go out of your way to find commentary on the subject. What you might find interesting is that there have been an increasing number of studies that have consistently shown that the amount of notifications a person receives is directly related to their productivity; or, lack thereof.