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 …
Remember in 2012 when Dropbox’s data, which contained details of around two-thirds of its customers, were leaked? At the time, Dropbox reported that a collection of users’ email addresses had been stolen, but it wasn’t until recently that the company discovered that passwords had been stolen as well. So what does this mean for Dropbox users? Simple. You should reset …
Love them or hate them, projectors are the modern day soapbox. They give you the platform to present your case to a wider audience without compromising your content. Like most hardware purchases, however, they’re accompanied by a list of measurements and specifications you likely have little experience with. If you’re in the market for some new projection hardware at your …
If genie lamps were out of stock before you could place an order for one, the next best thing to manage and grow your small- and medium-sized business lies in CRM. Short for customer relationship management, a real difference is possible, with the right software of course. With the numerous options out there, finding the most suitable one is like …
Like new cars and smartphones, new keyboards are also initially alluring enough to elicit everyone’s oohs and ahs. But as their novelty fades, it’s easy to start taking them for granted. Is typing on them slower than before? Is the gaming experience they deliver no longer up to par? Whether for leisure or business purposes, good keyboards really make a difference. Next time …
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 …
Productivity, collaboration, freedom. These words are often touted when the benefits of cloud technology are mentioned. But do all businesses that make the cloud switch achieve these? Unfortunately the answer is no. Some businesses flounder in the new technology, and some even become less productive because of it. So how can you avoid such a fate? Well, attitude plays a …
Running a small business takes an intelligent, resourceful person. From day one you must make important decisions in all areas of business, from the marketing strategy chosen for a product to the brand of printer you will use to print out flyers. One of the biggest decisions you will make in the early stages of a business involves your SMB’s …
Many businesses are now looking towards “cloud computing” to provide them with the IT systems and services that they would have previously had in their office. Cloud computing encompasses many different technologies and services with a huge variety of “as a service” providers. This presents a considerable number of challenges for businesses over security, reliability, backup, performance and costs as …
Dealing with IT suppliers and service providers is challenging for many businesses and many have concerns over reliability, security, cost as well as other factors. The key to hiring or dealing with a supplier is to do the research and leg work up front to ensure you know who you are dealing with, and the supplier you engage can service …