Non-profits are vital to thriving communities. Big cities, small towns, and neighbourhoods depend upon non-profits to provide much-needed services to residents. And, like their for-profit counterparts, non-profit organizations face big challenges when it comes to how they operate and how successful they are. The Council of Non-profits lists implementing strategy as one of the top five issues non-profits deal with today. …
It’s no secret that cutting costs is one way to increase profit. When it comes to tech, most businesses do this by bringing their operations to the cloud,
Moving to the cloud can save you a considerable amount of money, which explains its rise in popularity over the years. What many business owners fail to realize is that some cloud services come with hidden costs. And while they might seem insignificant at first, they can add up to a staggering amount if left unchecked. Minimise your cloud expenditures …
It may not seem as though your printing infrastructure is costing your business a great deal. But if left unmanaged, you could end up with an overinflated IT budget dominated by equipment maintenance and hardware and supplies purchases. Here are some ways to avoid that. Replace outdated printers Outdated and cheap printers may be functional, but they are putting a …
When your employees seek your IT security staff’s help to fix their personal computer (PC) problems, it’s often perceived as a productive use of everyone’s time. After all, employees must have working computers and IT professionals are expected to resolve any technology issues. What doesn’t get acknowledged, however, is that instead of troubleshooting technical problems, your technology support staff could …
If you are a small to midsize business with more important things to do than monitor, manage and support all of your IT systems and users with full-time employees, you have more than likely outsourced this multifaceted, non-core operating responsibility to a Managed Services Provider or “MSP.” When you consider rising costs, increasing competition, growing regulatory overreach as well as …
Starting a business is a big step for entrepreneurs in the IT industry. However, this comes with a myriad of challenges, most of which relate to capital and resources. Among them is the availability of proper equipment. The equipment used in a company determines how smoothly the business will run and must be up to date to ensure success. Because …
Many small and mid-sized businesses waste valuable time and money interviewing multiple Managed Services Providers (MSP) without a strategy or budget in place. This puts way too much faith in the hope of formulating a plan after reviewing 5-10 different proposals from organisations not likely to be in the same service class. National IT providers are different from regional providers, …
A hunch may have a place in sports, detective work, or fortune telling, but for businesses, relying on gut-instinct can lead to disastrous outcomes. That’s why enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and business intelligence (BI) applications are gaining ground as organisations strive to make more data-driven management decisions. Having sound infrastructure pays off almost instantly and in …
Among all the new-fangled gizmos and whatchamacallits that pop up daily, hard drives remain a vital component for all types of computers. It’s completely normal to get a new one every couple of years, but with the overwhelming amount of choices available, a simple purchase becomes a difficult ordeal. Because we don’t have a tech fairy that can conjure up …
Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS) is not a new concept, it’s an old wine in a new bottle. Similar to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), where you pay a monthly fee to a service provider in order to use a piece of software, HaaS lets you do the same and saves you from the nuisance of all the hardware upgrades, maintenance, and management. Here are 5 …
While some businesses do not bother with an IT Budget, they can be extremely worthwhile. Besides helping you manage costs, an IT budget can highlight areas where you might need to invest more resources. It can also keep you on track in meeting your financial goals. Here are eight tips that can help you prepare an effective IT budget for …