Back It Up: Choosing The Right Storage Solution For Your Business

Choosing The Right Storage Solution For Your Business

Regardless of the size of your business, you need to have a data storage solution that protects your data and acts as a backup in case your primary storage fails. Just take a minute to imagine how you would go about trying to recover if you suddenly lost all of the information stored on your business computer, and you’ll quickly realize the necessity of data storage. Consider a wide range of options, including both on-site and remote storage, and pick the one that best meets your small business’ needs.

Pros and Cons of On-Site Storage

Keeping your data on-site may seem like the smart choice, given that you feel like you have the most control over data there.…

Continue reading

Cloud Support Services Work To A CEO’s Advantage

Your chief information officer (CIO) may be in the loop about the latest cloud support services and offerings, but how about the company’s CEO? What many don’t realize is that technology consultants often recommend that business leaders who choose to place their data in the cloud, or use cloud-based applications, allow third parties to manage it.

cloud support services

In addition to giving you the ability to improve vendor relationships, cloud support services can help streamline service management, support company growth and give your IT employees the opportunity to focus on revenue-related projects.

Additional advantages of cloud support services include:

A focus on business outcomes.

Continue reading

Managing Business Growth: Fail To Prepare, Prepare To Fail

Managing an expansion is a difficult task. Should you be overzealous or over ambitious, you could end up doing your business more damage than good. Equally, it’s important not to be overcautious, subsequently missing opportunities. It’s up to you as a business owner to find the right balance and largely, your knowledge and experience will dictate this.

tips for managing business growth

That said, there are steps you can take to ensure you navigate the process more smoothly though. Here’s some things to consider before you undertake a big expansion…

Recruit wisely

With expansion, comes the need for extra staff. Integral to this process is a HR manager, so make sure they’re amongst the top of your recruitment priorities.…

Continue reading

Incorporating Millennials Into Your Company

Incorporating Millennials Into Your Company

As the millennial generation enters the workforce in greater numbers now than ever before, employers need to shift their attention to how to recruit this new talent. The recruitment strategies that used to work may not be enough to entice millennials, who care more about following their passions and making a way for themselves in the world than conforming to existing structures. However, if your company is going to have longevity, you’ll need to capture the attention of millennials and incorporate them into your company.

Use Informal Recruiting Strategies

Millennials are tech savvy and personally connected, and they generally don’t mesh well with traditional  recruiting strategies.…

Continue reading

How To Reduce The Costs Of Technology In Your Business

Every company is concerned about the bottom line. Without that attention to detail they’ll constantly be throwing good money after bad. The quickest way to score points with upper management is to show initiative through developing cost cutting measures.

how to cut technology costs

One area where you might have an advantage is by taking a comprehensive review of the costs of your business’ use of technology. Here are some helpful factors to consider when approaching the issue of cost cutting technology.

1.   Find the Cost

There are many layers to a company’s technology infrastructure. In order to target costs you have to become familiar with those layers.…

Continue reading

Are You Consultant-Phobic? Check Out These 6 Mind Blowing Benefits to External Advice

benefits of hiring a business consultant

Ever think about hiring a consultant? Think your business is too small to benefit from a consultant? You’re wrong! Check out these 6 benefits before you say “No Way”.

Regulatory Compliance: A consultant would be able to help decide on the most optimal structure for your specific situation. Other compliance requirements like documentation and tax filing are also better done by a third party. Most regulatory provisions are open to interpretation and a consultant would help you to minimize your compliance costs without incurring any penalties for violations.

Performance Optimization: Consultants typically have access to benchmarking data across diverse industries on areas such as best practices, cost elements, strategy options and so on.…

Continue reading

3 Must-Watch TED Talks For Small Business Success

TED Talks are taking the business world by storm. Short for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, TED itself is an annual conference that brings together leaders from these three industries to share their expertise with the crowd.

Past events have featured speaking appearances by top executives from companies such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Al Gore, Bill Clinton, and J.J. Abrams have also spoke at these conferences.

3 Must-Watch TED Talks For Small Business Success

So what can you take from a TED Talk? Plenty. Here are three success lessons small businesses can learn:

1. A Social Media Presence is More Than a Profile

Several of the more recent TED Talks have been focused on social media – surprise surprise.…

Continue reading

Priorities For Technology Due Diligence

There is limited time and access during M&A due diligence. Knowing this, it is critical to focus on the high priority areas with the largest affect on risk.

merger and acquisition IT due diligence

As we discussed in our previous article, “Due Diligence for Mergers and Acquisitions – Why include IT“, technology due diligence is a critical part to evaluating a merger or acquisition. The less time spent the higher probability of extended integration or other issues. We now discuss which parts of IT due diligence to prioritize in order to minimize risk.

People

  • If the organization you are acquiring has proprietary technology, evaluating the personnel is critical as they support the technology.
Continue reading

Due Diligence for Mergers and Acquisitions – Why Include IT?

include IT in merger due diligenceAs we start to see mergers and acquisitions activity ramp up, we shift focus to the value of technology due diligence.

What do you review during due diligence? You probably look at financials, customer lists, markets and existing executives. You may even review operations, eyeing potential efficiencies, such as those gained by integrating departments like HR, accounting and IT.

Randy Myers, CFO Magazine, states “For CFO’s, valuing the synergies to be realized by eliminating overlapping or redundant systems and operations is a fundamental aspect of M&A due diligence.” But how often do you review the technology area itself?

Not planning ahead can be painful.…

Continue reading

Shrink Your Website Downtime and Get Tech Support Questions Answered Faster

website down, get tech answers fasterEvery second that your business website is down, your software isn’t working, or your hardware is offline costs you money and customers. You need to get back up and running as quickly as possible. And while a lot depends on what you need and the quality of your tech support, you can help make it all happen a little faster.

Here’s how:

Try to Recreate the Problem

If you get an error, or can’t get a feature to work, try rebooting everything and trying again. You may even want to try the same process on a different computer. If it’s a genuine problem that needs fixing, it should happen again.…

Continue reading