Wireless can make your business more responsive, competitive, and connected.

Compare wireless technologies and find the one that is right for you.  Terms like Bluetooth, WiFi, WLAN, and Broadband/ Wireless WAN have become a part of our daily vocabulary. These technologies can help your business keep up with the ever-changing market when you know enough to make the most of them. Find out how to choose the right wireless technology so you can work more productively and stay connected no matter where you are. (more…)

Where will you conduct business today? Chances are that you, your colleagues, or your employees will spend time out of the office. These days, many of our IT support and consulting clients find it’s not necessary to spend eight hours in the office to put in a full-day’s work.

How Things Will Change: Work When and Where You Want
Imagine if you had full, secure access to all your business data, applications, and resources from anywhere, on any device, and at any time. Many small and medium-sized business (SMB) owners already do. They’ve extended their office networks to allow themselves, their colleagues, and employees to work from anywhere they happen to be.

Cisco SMB Solutions enable easy access to your company’s business data, phone system, applications, and resources via secure, wired, wireless, and fast Internet connections. Cisco offers a range of SMB solutions that help ensure: (more…)

Data deduplication is a storage technology for managing explosive data growth and providing data protection. There’s a lot of talk about the technique, but little clarity on details and practical applications.

What is it?
Data deduplication is a method for eliminating redundant data from storage, especially from backups. It works by saving a single copy of identical data, replacing any further instances with pointers back to that one copy.

Here’s a simple example: Say 500 people receive a company-wide e-mail with a 1 megabyte attachment. If each recipient saves that attachment locally, it is replicated 500 times on desktops around the network. During backup, a system without data deduplication would then store the data in that one attachment 500 times — consuming 499 MB more backup space than necessary. (more…)

You most likely couldn’t do your job without your computer and mobile devices. Everyday you use them to work on files, connect with people, and access resources. Keeping them running smoothly is important to working effectively.

So how do you start? (more…)

Every small business owner knows that new technology can be pricey.

But technology can also pay in the form of significant savings-particularly over the long haul.

Savings from technology isn’t just a matter of plugging in a new gizmo and watching the cash roll in. You have to evaluate your priorities and choose the right technology that meets your operating and budgetary requirements. (more…)

You most likely couldn’t do your job without your computer and mobile devices. Everyday you use them to work on files, connect with people, and access resources. Keeping them running smoothly is important to working effectively.

So how do you start? (more…)

Stop Spam and Other Messaging Threats at the Gateway

When it comes down to it, businesses of all sizes face the same email and messaging challenges – and one of the most prevalent of those is spam. In the past, the major problem with spam was that it diminished user productivity because of the excessive time required to sift through it. Now, businesses are faced with more critical issues relating to spam, namely, the strain it puts on bandwidth and storage requirements for messaging.

According to the Symantec Internet Security Threat Report, spam made up 59% of all email traffic between July 1 and December 31, 2006, and the nature of spam continues to evolve, becoming harder to stop. (more…)

Businesses today wrestle and grapple with the thought of hiring their own technology support staff to support their daily need for IT support without fully understanding the risks and the costs associated with having their own team of technology professionals.

Business owners, C level execs and Managers are attracted to the idea of having a team or a consultant readily available within shouting distance down the hall, basically having an IT resource committed to them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, many of today’s business owners across the country are not aware of the total risks their business is exposed to by electing to bring their technology support in-house. (more…)

Technology and the Internet have transformed business in ways that very few people could have predicted years ago. Increasingly the internet is being used as a cost effective solution for many of the business operations. An internet business strategy is basically a plan that how you want to manage your online presence for your business.

Adopting an integrated approach in devising a successfully internet strategy to benefit your business, a well planned web presence can increase the market awareness and branding of your business that brings you tangible results. (more…)

Choosing a phone system is not usually the first thing on a new small business owner’s mind. Even after your office is established and operational, your small business’ phone system will likely function so smoothly that it will fade into the background.

But what do you do when you need to install a new small phone system or replace an existing phone system? Do you know the choices available to you and what every option means? Small business phone systems can seem confusing, but knowing the basics can help you buy the phone system that’s just right for your business.

The first thing to remember is that there are four basic types of commercial phone systems to choose from. The first, Private Branch Exchange (also known as PBX) systems, are known to most of us as the huge and confusing cabinets with dedicated operators. Luckily, there are smaller-scale PBX systems for your small business. Since many office workers are familiar with PBX systems, which are becoming more affordable every year, this is often the best choice for small businesses.

Another very popular option for small to mid-size businesses is the key system. This type of phone system consists of a key system unit that controls all of the other phones in the business. The KSU controls the features and functions of each phone, such as voicemail, and ensures that one line is never in use by more than one user at a time.

The key system allows in-system phones to dial each other directly via extension and lets the operator of the KSU supervise the operation of the entire system to ensure that all users’ needs are met. The key system is also very expandable with new software.

These two types of phone systems have become very similar as technology has progressed. Features that were once available only on PBX systems are now readily available on systems that are referred to as key systems. Phone systems that share features of PBX and key systems are often called hybrids and offer the most features with the most expandability.

For very small businesses of two to 10 employees, a KSU-less system may be the most appropriate choice. A KSU-less system features phones that each contain the KSU-type technology so that they can provide the functions and features that key systems provide, but without the central unit.

One of the largest benefits to the KSU-less system is that it is not permanently wired into the building like other types of phone systems. Since the technology is contained in the phones, there is no complicated equipment to move when your business moves to a new building.

A newer technology in the small business phone system realm is voice over internet protocol, or VoIP. VoIP Phone systems send voice calls over a broadband connection rather than phone lines. VoIP technology can facilitate your small business phone needs for a much lower cost and higher quality than traditional phone systems.

The type of phone system that you choose for your small business depends on your needs and expectations. The easiest way to see if a small business phone system is appropriate for you is to try it out. Just picking up the phones and pressing buttons can give you a feel for how the system operates. Make sure that features are easy to access and understand.

Any time you purchase a new system for your small business phone needs, remember to think of how your business will grow in the future. Ask the installer to give you much more wiring than you need currently to avoid having to pay for pricey future rewiring.

Keep your staff in mind. If you have a large staff, a KSU-less system probably will not be adequate for your needs; you will need to invest in a PBX or hybrid. Luckily, the prices of these sophisticated phone systems are coming down every year. If you time your purchase to coincide with the end of the quarter (when sales reps are hungry for sales), you may be able to get a new small business phone system for much less than you expect. Having the right phone system for your small business can make a huge difference in the way that you and your staff interact with each other and with your customers.