Business Solutions & Software Group Blog

Stop me when this sounds familiar: you have 15 browser tabs open, each with its own, specific username and password required to log in. Despite what you’ve been told, there’s the infamous sticky note on your monitor, reminding you of your most utilized passwords.

From the business owner's perspective, this mess always results in frustration and missed deadlines, and honestly, it’s hard not to blame your team members. Before you jump to conclusions, however, you should consider something.

Not to skip over the holidays, but the new year is rapidly approaching, and it is more than clear that—short of a Y2K-level event—artificial intelligence isn’t going anywhere. Quite the opposite: AI is being adopted en masse, and for many, it’s without any oversight or strategy… or appreciation for how dangerous it is to feed data into AI without any thought or consideration.

Running a business isn’t cheap. Nobody can blame you for wanting to save a few bucks wherever you can. That said, one place you should not pinch pennies is your business technology, particularly when it comes to updates. While that old computer may still look like it’s perfectly fine, technology being broken is measured on a spectrum. Yours could easily be holding your business back and costing you potential income.

Let’s estimate just how high these costs could be, and how to resolve them moving forward.  

Business is all about friendly competition, and you might be wondering how your competitors reach out to leads to turn them into paying customers. With automated technology solutions like customer relationship management software, it’s as easy as can be. If your competitors are using innovative new technology solutions in this way, you might also be wondering, “How can I use technology to beat them at their own game?”

The success of a business is heavily dependent on the smooth operation of its technology. When the technology it depends on fails, it can disrupt productivity and ultimately alienate customers. Obviously, this is bad for the profitability of the endeavor. One key to avoiding many of the technology pitfalls you could encounter is a conscious change from a reactive strategy to a proactive one. 

Technology should be an advantage for your business, not another headache. You have enough to go around as it is. But for many business leaders, managing their company's IT can feel like a constant battle against unexpected problems and costly downtime.

When it comes to IT support, there are two main approaches: the old-fashioned "break-fix" model and the modern, proactive model known as "managed services." While break-fix might seem simple on the surface, it often creates more problems than it solves. Managed services, on the other hand, offer a more strategic, reliable, and ultimately more profitable path forward.

Employees often face a variety of challenges when learning new software, which can lead to frustration, decreased productivity, and resistance to change. These struggles are not always due to a lack of technical skill, but are often rooted in a combination of psychological, organizational, and training-related factors. Today, we will go through some of the most common ways employees struggle with learning new software.

You want a productive team, therefore, you want to be responsive to their needs. That being said, there comes a time when you have to question if their requests are in the best interest of your operating budget. Today, we want to explore how you can balance the needs of your employees with the needs of your business’ budget.

You want the money you invest into your business technology to come back in the form of productivity and value, but how often would you say this is true for your business? If the answer is “less than I’d like,” then you might need to reexamine your IT spending and adjust it in a way that makes a difference for your business’ needs and goals. Today, we’ll examine what your infrastructure is trying to tell you and how you can make better spending decisions to make the most of your budget.

When you hear the words “digital transformation,” what do you envision? SMBs might be intimidated by such a buzzword, especially if implementing new technology is something they avoid due to the perceived price tag. But digital transformation is something all businesses can afford and benefit from, and we’ll show you how.

Your business data holds vital information, but it needs to be organized and presented in a way that makes this information accessible. Visual representations will be immensely helpful as you translate this data into a form that is more comprehensible to everyone. Let’s go over five ways that data visualizations and interactive dashboards can help you express your information to those invested in your success, whether it's your team or your external stakeholders.

So you want to implement an innovative new IT solution for your business. That’s great, and we’re happy to hear that you’re investing in the transformative power of technology… but what do your employees think about the change, and how can you communicate with them in a way that encourages them to embrace the new technology rather than disregard it?

At a time when artificial intelligence is the biggest technology-based trend going, and while more and more people are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet, there is a question on how the two fit together for workers in different industries. The impact of AI could go many different ways, with many wondering if it will be a solution for businesses that are looking to reduce their expenses (by replacing workers).

We’re continuing our series for Mac users who are new to the world of Windows, whatever the reason you’ve decided to branch out. This time, let's talk about a scenario every computer user faces: a frozen application. On your Mac, you’d hit Command+Option+Escape to force quit. On Windows, your new best friend for this job is the Task Manager.

With Android 16 entering the implementation stage for device manufacturers, it’s time to discuss the enhancements it brings to security. Specifically, we want to look at Advanced Protection. Let’s explore some of the ways this new feature impacts the user’s built-in security within the operating system.

Data loss is coming for you, and if you’re not careful, it could have significant impacts on your business. Like other IT issues that your business can experience, it helps to know what the issue is, how it happens, and how to solve it. Today, we want to share three common data loss scenarios and how you can take action now to prevent them from becoming serious problems for your organization.

We’ve been sharing some blogs over the past few months to help anyone more familiar with Apple workstations become acquainted with the Windows environment, primarily because Windows is still far and away the most common business operating system. Let’s continue by examining the File Explorer and how this key system is organized.

If you’re running a business, you know that technology is the engine that keeps everything moving... but when that engine sputters—a server crashes, the network goes down, or a critical file vanishes—it can feel like the entire operation grinds to a halt. Constantly reacting to these emergencies is stressful, inefficient, and, frankly, bad for business.

Data is what your business runs on, but it can also hold your business back from success—especially if people lack access to what they need to carry out their duties. Data democratization is a solution that can help your business improve operations and make better decisions… but what is data democratization, and what can you learn from it?

There are a lot of risks that could impact your business’ IT systems, and many of them have the capabilities to end your operations for good if you don’t have contingencies in place. Today, we want to highlight some of the most expensive IT problems and what you can do about them.