1. Show Up, and Be on Time (or Early) One way to ingratiate yourself with your new bosses, and make life easier at work is one of the simplest work strategies you can undertake. Just be there on time and be ready to work. Workers that show up early to work are typically viewed by management as more conscientious and nearly always receive higher performance ratings than their contemporaries. Fair or not, people who perform better late in the day aren’t viewed as favourably by their managers as people that come in ready to take the bull by the horns early and often. It goes without saying that people that miss a fair amount of work tend not to work anyplace for very long. This isn’t just because they don’t meet the demands of their schedule. Many organizations view those that perform satisfactorily at work but miss a fair amount of time with illness (diagnosed or otherwise), in a much less favourable light than people that are there on time every day and don’t necessarily perform at the same level. Like Woody Allen once said, “90 percent of life is just showing up.” 2. Schedule Yourself One Hour to Tackle Your Most Pressing Issues Working efficiently at the office can sometimes be a task in itself. There are so many times when your positive momentum is broken by emails, phone calls, visits for conversation, or IMs that you actually don’t produce as well as you are capable of. That’s why it is important to prioritize tasks, of course, but also to schedule yourself for an hour of uninterruptible work. Since most offices utilize some type of scheduling program to manage time, scheduling yourself for an hour early in the day has been proven to make people more productive. The best strategy is to start taking some proactive steps to avoid distractions. The first is to ensure that people know you will be unavailable for an hour every morning. Direct communication with your contemporaries is essential for this strategy to work. Another strategy to take is to understand that the technology that we all typically ignore, like the “do not disturb” button on your phone, works, and can be used for your benefit. By actually using the tools you already have that are designed to help people avoid distractions, it will be much easier to actually avoid them. 3. Stop Listening to Music to Focus The office can sometimes be a hectic place. This is especially true if you work in an open office. It might feel like you need to listen to music to get anything done. This is actually a non sequitur since you are just choosing the method of your distraction. IT consultants may seem that it helps you to get stuff done faster, but research shows this simply isn’t true. One prominent neuroscientist suggests that instead of listening to music while you try to be productive, listen to some beforehand so that you are relaxed and in a good mood. Music allows you to mentally put away some of the things that may distract you from any given task before you undertake it. 4. Wrap Up Your Day by Scheduling Tomorrow Sometimes, the end of the workday can’t come soon enough. The anticipation to get out of […]
How it Worked In the Past Office files could technically be edited in Google Docs before, but they had to be converted into a Google-friendly file format. Once the conversion is finished, Google’s collaboration tools can be used to edit and comment on the file. There was also the option to use a limited toolset through Office Compatibility Mode. Unfortunately, this method isn’t particularly convenient, especially for businesses, where extra steps means extra time spent on something that adds up in the long run. For the sake of collaboration and compatibility, Google is working on native support for some of the Microsoft-exclusive file formats, which is a considerable development to say the least. According to Google, its programs will be compatible with the following file formats: Word filetypes: .doc, .docx, .dot PowerPoint filetypes: .ppt, .pptx, .pps, .pot Excel filetypes: .xls, .xlsx, .xlsm, .xlt Other Collaborative Google Updates In addition to Microsoft’s various file types, Google intends to include similar features that will be implemented through Dropbox Business. What Does This Mean for Your Business? The one big way that this could affect your business is through enhanced collaboration. You should still keep your internal solutions standardized, but the one big takeaway from this is that, if you were to use Google for your operations, you wouldn’t have to worry that your solution isn’t compatible with other solutions on the market. Of course, whether Microsoft gets the hint and makes a similar move is yet to be determined. SRS Networks can equip your business with any solution it needs to stay competitive and productive. To learn more, reach out to us at (831) 758-3636.
These numbers, by the way, come from a cybersecurity firm, as neither the federal government nor the Federal Bureau of Investigation track these kinds of attacks. As of May 10, of this year, there were 22 known attacks on the public sector. Unfortunately, there are likely more that we just don’t know about yet, as reports of these attacks usually crawl in months or even years after the fact. March Attacks March saw a few ransomware attacks on municipalities. The sheriff’s office in Fisher County, Texas, was infected and couldn’t connect to a state law enforcement database as a result. In Albany, New York, the capital city quietly announced that it had been victimized by a Saturday ransomware attack – a tactical choice on the part of the hackers, as there would be nobody there to fight back on the weekend. While the city initially gave an understated account of the attack’s effect, the real problems were much larger than a few belated marriage licenses and birth certificates. In addition to the clerical delays, the ransomware attack had also impacted the Albany Police Department’s systems. As these systems are effectively entirely digitized, the department was left without their incident reports, crime reports, and even their schedules. April Attacks April saw the entirety of Genesee County, Michigan’s tax department shut down by ransomware for most of the month. The infection has since been removed. May Attacks May has been exemplified by the complete shutdown of Baltimore, Maryland, due to an attack using a ransomware known as RobinHood. As a result of this attack, government emails can’t be sent, payments to city departments are on hold, and real estate transactions have been paused. While RobinHood leverages a notoriously powerful algorithm – even the National Security Agency may not be able to break it, according to cybersecurity expert Avi Rubin – it doesn’t help that Baltimore was also using outdated hardware and software. Baltimore City Mayor Jack Young has already gone on record to state that the city will not be paying the ransom of 13 Bitcoins, or approximately $100,000. Instead, the FBI and Secret Service have been called in, along with assorted cybersecurity experts. Despite these resources, the city isn’t expected to recover for months. Rubin provided some insight into why not paying the ransom is the right call for Baltimore, pointing out that if nobody paid the demanded ransoms, these kinds of attacks would quickly go out of fashion. However, many companies struck by ransomware will quietly pay up. Analysis has found that a full 45 percent of affected organizations ultimately pay the ransom to try and get their data back, while 17 percent of state and local governments will fork over the demanded cash. At SRS Networks, we have some experience in dealing with these kinds of things, which means we can confidently agree with the actions of Mayor Young and the statements made by Rubin – paid ransoms only encourage future ransomware attacks. What’s worse, what guarantee is there that any data will be restored even after payment is made? No guarantee at all. That’s why we’ve dedicated ourselves to assisting business users in protecting themselves against ransomware. Give us a call at (831) 758-3636 to find out more.
Are You Running in Blind? One of the biggest mistakes that any organization can make where their technology is concerned is to start making changes without having any strategy to support their actions. As can be easily seen from an outside perspective, this lack of planning has the tendency to create inflated costs with little return on the investment. When you are planning for improvements to your technology, you need to have some kind of strategy in place to avoid these costs. Without taking the time to create this strategy, you’re apt to add unnecessary technology that – as mentioned – will pointlessly inflate costs. It is also important that you remember that improving your business’ technology solutions needs to be an ongoing process, so part of your strategy needs to prioritize certain improvements over others. Will Your Company Culture Create Issues? While it may seem that your company’s technology would have little to do with its internal culture, the two are very much intertwined. Let’s face it – changing the technology that your organization uses can be relatively easy… getting your staff to accept this change might not be. Consider what your new technologies may appear to be to your employees. Even if it is intended to make their jobs easier, there could be some very real fears among your team that this technology will make their jobs obsolete (or in other words, unnecessary) and will, in time, replace them. You need to communicate with your staff, acknowledging that they may feel this way, and trying to waylay these fears by reinforcing how the new technology solutions you are implementing are intended to make their jobs easier. You don’t want your employees to self-sabotage–whether they realize it or not–in resistance to these changes. Are Your Business Goals Aligned with Those of IT? Too often, the operational side and the information technology side of the same business are looked at as two separate entities. As a result, the goals of each can often be mismatched, creating difficulties down the line. Today’s reality is that business and IT aren’t two separate entities anymore. However, many business leaders find this paradigm to be intimidating, as transforming their business and its processes to accept this shift involves considerable risk. However, those businesses that involve their employees as they adopt new solutions are generally more successful, as employees are able to be retrained as new solutions and processes are introduced. Are You Prepared to Manage Your Data? Data is huge. Huge enough, in fact, that there are multiple considerations to make as you undergo your next adoption initiative. First, you need to consider your infrastructure. It needs to be able to accommodate and scale to a variety of business technologies and tools, especially those that are on the cutting-edge. Secondly, you need to make sure that your data will remain secure. Keeping your data centralized will help to accomplish this, while retaining the capability to scale your solutions. Penetration testing is a good way to identify shortcomings in your data security, allowing you to resolve potential issues before they actualize. SRS Networks is here to help with every step of this process – from planning your technology implementations to ensuring that all goes off without a hitch. To find out more about how we […]
These solutions include a unified threat management tool, a Bring Your Own Device policy, and a virtual private network solution. Unified Threat Management A unified threat management, or UTM, solution provides comprehensive network security through the use of several IT solutions. It includes the following: Firewall: A firewall examines the data that flows in and out of your network, looking for threats and actively keeping them out of your infrastructure. Antivirus: If a threat manages to slip past your defenses, you will need to react accordingly. Antivirus solutions allow you to address any issues that do manage to get past your first line of defense. Spam blocker: Email provides hackers with a direct line of attack to your business, with spam and phishing attacks being some of the most dangerous ones. A spam blocker can keep your organization from dealing with most dangerous messages, and when you don’t have to waste time with these messages, you can instead spend it being productive. Content filter: Your employees might be accessing dangerous or time-wasting websites. A content filter can help you make sure this is kept to a minimum. With all of these solutions combined into one, you can enable much greater network security for your business. Bring Your Own Device If your business’ employees have mobile devices that they use for work purposes, they could act as a bridge between hackers and your network. We recommend that all businesses that find themselves in this situation implement a BYOD policy. This policy should place limits on what employees can and can’t do with their mobile devices. A proper BYOD policy should also have measures in place that can whitelist or blacklist apps based on security, as well as the ability to remotely wipe devices that have been lost or stolen. Virtual Private Networks A virtual private network, or VPN, provides a secure method of connecting to data while out of the office. This is especially important for employees that do a lot of traveling, as they will need this encrypted network to keep sensitive data safe while out of the office. This keeps data from being stolen while it’s in transit, when it’s most vulnerable. SRS Networks can equip your business with all the security solutions you need to keep your data as safe as possible. To learn more, reach out to us at (831) 758-3636.
We’ll go over a few practices that you should follow if you ever find yourself suspecting that a crucial file may have been deleted. Step One: Stop Creating More Data When a file is deleted, it usually isn’t actually deleted immediately. Instead, it’s only hidden. However, as you create and download more files and data, these deleted files are the ones that are overwritten by these new files. Therefore, you will want to avoid installing any software, streaming media, or downloading anything. Your files might not be overwritten if you do, but they could be, so it’s better to err on the side of caution and avoid the situation entirely. Step Two: Check the Recycle Bin/Deleted Items Unless you’ve deleted the contents of the Recycle Bin after deleting your file, there’s a decent chance that you’ll be able to find it there. This is simplified by the Search Recycle Bin option, as well as your ability take its contents and Sort by Date Deleted. If your file was stored in a cloud storage service, you have the opportunity to check your cloud’s deleted files and potentially restore your file from there. Step Three: Check That the File Wasn’t Just Misplaced Chances may be slim, but you may have just misfiled whatever it is you’re trying to find. This is where the File Explorer’s Search function really shines. Before you do anything else, check to see that the file wasn’t just moved by searching for it… you may just luck out and find it. Step Four: Turn to Your Backup Solution Of course, if you’ve committed to maintaining a backup solution that subscribes to best practices, you should be able to restore your deleted file from there. While backup solutions are commonly associated with disaster-level data restoration needs, they are just as invaluable in less-cataclysmic situations – like when a file is deleted accidentally. If your business is in need of a backup solution, reach out to the professionals at SRS Networks. Call (831) 758-3636 to learn more.
Integration #1 – Trello for Gmail Trello is one of the best Gmail extensions, as it helps people stay on task with their Gmail inbox. This software gives users the ability to share files and links with their team, create task lists, and assign expectations or due dates to these tasks. In a way, Trello centralizes Gmail as your organization’s go-to task management tool. Learn more about Trello for Gmail here. Integration #2 – DocuSign for Gmail DocuSign gives your organization the ability to digitally sign a PDF document through Gmail. DocuSign is the leader in eSignature, giving organizations a fast and secure way to sign documents through Gmail. You can forgo annoying tasks like scanning, printing, or mailing contracts or other documents. DocuSign is used in 188 countries, further proving that it’s a great tool for businesses of all kinds. Learn more about DocuSign for Gmail here. Integration #3 – Wrike for Gmail Having project managers who know what they’re doing and how to manage a project is critical, and thanks to Wrike, you can make it easier to integrate project management into Gmail. You can write out tasks with emails, as well as view and edit those tasks. Furthermore, you can also collaborate with your team, all through your Gmail solution. Learn more about Wrike for Gmail here. Integration #4 – Boomerang for Gmail Unlike the previously mentioned solutions, which give the opportunity to use separate features in your Gmail, Boomerang is specifically meant to help users more easily manage their email. Users can set a time to send emails, remind them if they don’t hear back from someone regarding a message, and help them follow up with everyone they communicate with. Learn more about Boomerang for Gmail here. Perhaps with the use of these integrations, your organization can get maximum productivity and efficiency with your business’ Gmail solutions. Does your business use Gmail? If so, how do you use it, and do you have any software integrated with it? Let us know in the comments and be sure to subscribe to our blog for more great tips, tricks, and solutions.
What Can You Use the Cloud For? Do you need communications tools? Check. Hosted-VoIP and email. Do you need processing power? Check. Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service. Do you need applications and storage? Check. Software as a Service and hosted Storage. The truth is that anything you can do with onsite hardware, you can accomplish with cloud resources that are billed per user, per month; or, per gigabyte. In the cloud, you can quickly deliver your business functionality, redundancy, and everything else that it needs to be effective. It works great for full-time, part-time, and temporary workers, alike; and, can be leveraged quickly, with only short setup processes before it is a viable, and mostly secure tool. What Are the Drawbacks? The drawbacks of cloud computing, especially in environments that are hosted by an outside service provider, are typically caught up in the lack of control your organization has over the hardware itself. Businesses can choose to create onsite “private” cloud systems that return the large capital costs to the company, but provide controls and management over their hardware systems as well as the accessibility needed to remotely access the system, among the other superlative aspects that cloud access brings to an organization’s IT. One of the major drawbacks is, ironically, cost. Since the IT infrastructure used to run the solutions is housed and managed by the service provider, they price solutions accordingly. If your organization needs 30 cloud licenses, the solution could get costly quick. What’s worse, if you have people leave your employ, and you don’t reactively cancel the cloud solution before your monthly license is up, you will be on the hook for the cost of the monthly fee. If this doesn’t seem like a costly scenario, think about the times when you assemble teams that work on projects. These projects require three or four cloud-based applications and other resources. If each member of a project team is costing the business hundreds of dollars a month in software, a month or two paying for solutions for a large team that has all but wrapped up its project just decimates the ROI of the project. In order to ensure that you aren’t paying for cloud-based resources that you don’t need to pay for, having a strategy in place to manage all of your organization’s cloud-based resources is important. At SRS Networks, we have a tried-and-true system to ensure that your cloud resources are managed and that you aren’t paying for more than you need to. Call us today at (831) 758-3636 for more information.
Some businesses, however, don’t, or can’t afford to trust that resources found in a public cloud can work for all of their business’ needs, but require the kind of accessibility a cloud solution provides. For these companies, only a hybrid cloud will do. Today, we will take you through the hybrid cloud, how it fits into a business’ IT infrastructure, and what hybrid clouds are typically used for. What Is a Hybrid Cloud? The hybrid cloud is the use of a combination of computing and storage products from public cloud providers and private, self-hosted cloud systems. Since there is no single point of failure, the hybrid cloud is a great solution for any organization that uses variable systems. Today’s business uses quite a lot of technology resources. From email to collaboration to application deployment to storage; there are a lot of moving parts. For most of these parts, there are now public cloud services that organizations can use to cut down on the large capital costs, set up, and management of computing systems that, while they may not hold too much sensitive data, are still critical for the sustainability of an efficient business. Why do Businesses Use Them? The modern business is doing more with less. As a result, businesses are looking to take advantage of cost-cutting actions. With the amount of IT that most businesses use, they would need additional hardware for every process. The capital costs of a new server are substantial, not to mention the setup and management of that hardware and the software systems used to facilitate business. This can put a major dent in a business’ ITT budget, and with the variable nature of costs, present major problems for CIOs and other decision makers when trying to budget their organization’s IT expenses. Public cloud services typically charge organizations by the user (on a monthly basis), providing a clear expectation of what the IT costs are. The availability to scale the amount of users up or back is also real easy, as is the setup and management of the solution as a whole. Typically, it is baked right into the cost of the solution. This is where the hybrid cloud solution comes in. A business may find that they need to have more control over certain parts of their IT resources and storage. This is difficult to do when you use public cloud resources that are managed by the service provider. For these systems, providing a faster (and often more secure) system that is hosted onsite is the right play. Some businesses only need a system for a short amount of time. For the company that already has its core processes handled through an onsite, private cloud solution, the hybrid cloud gives them the ability to add onto their existing infrastructure in times of need and scaling back when that is appropriate. It provides a great deal of flexibility to organizations that get busier in certain seasons. How Do You Go About Getting Them Both to Work for you? The main question many have about hybrid cloud adoption is how do you get them to work together? Since hybrid cloud platforms are used by companies that work in the legal, medical, or financial sectors, those examples are the best to look at if your business is […]
Applying Tags OneNote features a set of preconfigured tags that can add additional context to your notes. By default, pressing Ctrl+1 adds a checkbox, allowing you to create a simple to-do list. Other shortcuts can add other tags, like Ctrl+2 adding a star, or Ctrl+3 adding a question mark. You can also customize these tags and reassign these shortcuts. If using OneNote Desktop 2016, all you have to do is access the Home tab and select Customize Tabs. From there, you can add new tags and reorder them so the ones you will use most often are in the top nine, and accessible via keyboard shortcuts. Embedding Files If you need to be sure that you can access a particular file, especially in the context of one of your projects, OneNote offers a useful tool in its capability to embed files into the notes you take. Once you’ve activated the Store attachments in cloud option (found in Settings > Options in Microsoft Outlook) any file you attach to a OneNote page from Outlook is also uploaded to OneDrive and linked to with a live preview. Creating Subpages After you’ve used OneNote for a while, there’s a good chance that your notes will become somewhat difficult to manage. Using subpages to create a hierarchy can make this a lot easier – and organizing your notes is super simple. All you have to do to turn one of your pages into a subpage is to click and drag it under the page you want it associated with, then dragging it right to indent the title. A/V Capture When your notes need that added touch of context, OneNote’s ability to record and incorporate audio and video becomes particularly handy. By clicking Insert and then selecting either Audio or Video, the selected media type will automatically begin recording. Once you’re satisfied with what you’ve captured, you can stop the recording by pressing Stop on the Audio & Video tab. Content Search Again, once you’ve used OneNote for a while, you’re apt to accumulate quite a few notes – enough to make it challenging to find something specific. To simplify things, OneNote offers a built-in search function that allows you to scan your notebooks for the word or phrase you are trying to find, greatly simplifying the process of finding what you need. What other OneNote tips do you know about? Share them in the comments!