Tech Terminology: Network

Tech Terminology: Network

Network is a word that’s commonly seen in the office environment in many different ways. In particular, you’re likely to hear about network security, network maintenance, social networking, and switches, but what does it all mean?

In this week’s tech term, we’re going to address what a network is and how it works to tie your business together.

Defining a Network

A network can be many things, but it’s generally a group of computers or hardware devices that are connected. These devices share information and communicate, allowing resources to be shared between them.

Networks are used for different purposes, but the most commonly found one is for a collaborative office environment. A network can accomplish all of the following:

  • Files to be shared among users.
  • Users to share access to additional hardware devices, like a printer.
  • Software solutions to be shared among the network’s users.
  • Information to be accessed by any user with security permissions.
  • Simplified communications through internal tools like email and instant messaging.

The Biggest Network Out There

Perhaps the most well-known and accessible net out there is the World Wide Web. The Internet is the largest net out there, and it shows what can be done with enough computing and enough devices.

Keeping Your Environment Safe

No matter how you use a network–whether it’s the Internet or your business’ internal environment–security is a key point that needs to be addressed.

Thankfully, keeping your network secure doesn’t have to be challenging. A quality IT provider like WheelHouse IT can make it much easier to manage IT security for your organization. It all starts by thinking about security in a proactive way.

We offer several solutions that can help you secure your business, including methods to keep your employees well-informed of basic security best practices, regular password updates, infrastructure updates, software implementation like firewalls and antivirus, and implementing a VPN.

WheelHouse IT can help your business optimize security. To learn more, reach out to us at (877) 771-2384.

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Tech Terminology: Business Intelligence

Tech Terminology: Business Intelligence

If you know more about your organization and its customers, you’ll be able to make better decisions about the future of your business. Thanks to an increased focus on business intelligence, even small and medium-sized businesses can take advantage of these analytical tools to improve operations and customer relations. What is business intelligence? How does it work, and why does your business need it?

Defining Business Intelligence

Business intelligence is an approach to organizational management utilizing software solutions and other services to convert your data into actionable intelligence. Some have even compared business intelligence to descriptive analytics. Basically, it allows your business to see what has worked in the past, as well as what could happen in the future and where your business is currently standing. This is often confused with business analytics, but the aim of BI is a bit different. Instead of guessing what is going to happen, it looks at what has already happened to help you make better decisions in the future.

How Can You Get Started with It?

If you’re like most businesses, chances are that information is stored across your organization in multiple databases. You’ll have to get them in order if you want to take advantage of solutions that depend on it. In most cases, this includes rounding up your data and placing it in one location for easy access. You can then link together tables to create a data cube. Data warehouses can also use dynamic links to databases to make changes to data and change the way that it’s represented at a glance. Some databases can’t do this so, they rely on importing databases in other ways.

How Does It Work?

Now that your data warehouse is set up, you can start analyzing the data with multi-layer queries. Since all of your databases are now connected, you can easily enter in search queries for any information needed. For example, you can search your inventory, as well as create a list of what’s most popular from your business. It can then cross-reference these two lists to determine how much products sell, and when.

Reports Are Important

Every time you run a query, you will wind up running a report as well. Basically, the report ensures that you actually have information to utilize. Reports are helpful because they help you make educated decisions about where and where not to place products. The interesting idea that BI introduces is that older methods of doing business may not necessarily be viable any longer. While the upfront costs of creating a data warehouse may be considerable, BI can provide such a huge return on investment that the expenses accrued aren’t as damaging.

WheelHouse IT can help your business implement business intelligence technology. To learn more, reach out to us at (877) 771-2384.

Today’s Smart Office: Work Smarter Not Harder

Today’s Smart Office: Work Smarter Not Harder

There has been a recent trend in the style of office management to give employees more influence over their environment, providing them with extra comforts to encourage productivity. However, persistent technology shortcomings have continued to undermine these efforts. In response, the concept of the smart office has developed.

What Makes an Office ‘Smart?’

The smart office takes the fundamental motivation behind improving the employee’s work space experience and applies it to their technology. In short, with the help of technology, an employee can be more satisfied with their workplace, and thereby be more productive.

Between cloud computing, the rise in mobile technologies, Big Data, and the Internet of Things, it is no wonder that smart offices enable improved productivity among workers – and that’s before we’ve gotten into the nitty-gritty as to how these technologies are utilized.

In a way, the word ‘smart’ in ‘smart office’ holds two different, but interconnected, meanings. Not only are these offices equipped with smart technologies like the ones detailed above, but they are also primed to enable employees to work smarter.

Why Smart Offices?

Naturally, if we’re going to recommend something, we have some good reasons to do so. There are some very real benefits to embracing the concept of a smart office.

Improving the experience of the user – Not only does a smart office make it easier to be productive, it also helps it to be more enjoyable.

By keeping employees happy and healthy, a smart office can help to keep them motivated and able to maximize their productivity. Furthermore, attendance and creativity have also been shown to improve when a workforce is given the opportunity to be more engaged.

Encouraging Collaboration

The inherent flexibility that a smart office provides enables a business to find the setup and approach that works best for them. This could include providing employees the option to use sit/stand desks, or group those who collaborate more into shared areas of the office.

Optimizing the Office Itself

Smart, IoT technology doesn’t only have to play a leading role in operations, it can do just as much good behind the scenes as well. Some companies have used the IoT to increase their energy efficiency and conservation efforts by collecting usage data through sensors, and adjusting lighting, climate control, and networking components accordingly.

Using this kind of technology, workplaces can be made more comfortable for those who spend their time working there, as well as more effective in accomplishing the organization’s goals.

For assistance with the technology you are currently leveraging and potential improvements that can be made to it, reach out to WheelHouse IT at (877) 771-2384

Tech Terminology: USB-C The difference between USB Type A, B, & C

Tech Terminology: USB-C The difference between USB Type A, B, & C

We often take for granted that people know what we are talking about when we talk about popular connectors, but really how do these systems work? For this week’s tech term, we are going to take a look at something we all have used and probably are actively using: the Universal Serial Bus (USB). We will take a look at the origins of this technology, the development of it, and the difference between USB Type A,B, & C.

The Origins of USB

The first USB cable was developed in 1996. The Universal Serial Bus is a cable that makes it much easier to connect outside devices to PCs. Seven of the top companies in personal computing and communications space, Compaq, DEC, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NEC, and Nortel, wanted to make it fundamentally simpler to connect to the growing number of devices that were being developed that needed to be connected to the PC.

USB provided a standard that allowed 1.5 Mbps-to-12 Mps data transfer. This isn’t very fast by today’s standards, but back then was pretty significant. The first widely-used version was released in September 1998 which provided users 12 Mbps for high-speed devices like disk drives. Apple introduced the iMac personal computer which became the first mainstream product that came with USB. It’s success popularized the USB. The first USB came in two connector types: Type A which is what people think of as standard USB, and type B which was more squared off.

Innovation of USB

USB 2.0 was released in August of 2000 and added the ability to transfer data through them at up to 280 Mbps. During this time the first mini-USB (type A and B) were developed. It also integrated battery charging features, allowing high-speed data transfer from a range of newly introduced mobile phones.

USB 3.0 was introduced November 2008 and featured the SuperSpeed transfer rate of 5 Gbs. Innovations came over the next ten years culminating in the introduction of the USB 3.2 feature in September of 2017. The addition of the Type-C connector provided what is called SuperSpeed+ transfer of around 20 Gbps.

Type-C

The USB Type-C is a 24-pin USB connector system, which is distinguished by its rotational-symmetrical connector. This, in our opinion, is the most important feature – for the first time ever, there isn’t a wrong way to plug in your cable. The USB-C is larger than the micro-B connector and like the typical USB wire, one end features a USB Type-A or Type-B while the other features the new Type-C end and will likely become the standard connection over time.

Here are three innovations found with USB Type-C:

  • It’s designed to be easier to plug in since there is no discernible way that the dongle has to be entered into the device.
  • Data transfer and power capability are basically twice what they were with USB 3.1.
  • It’s designed to become a future-proof option for data and power transfer for mobile devices.

Now if only all of our devices would support one cable.

Technology is everywhere and WheelHouse IT is doing our best in keeping you informed about the newest and most important technology terms and concepts that are sure to change the world we live in. For more information about mobile technology, call us today at (877) 771-2384.

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Paper is Expensive, Here’s How to Phase Out Paper

Paper is Expensive, Here's How to Phase Out Paper

Paper is expensive, but it’s not like you didn’t know that already. In addition to the costs that frivolous paper usage can have to your business, there’s also the environmental impact to consider. Making a few changes around the office can help to reduce your dependence on paper to conduct business, as we’ll review in this week’s tip! Here’s how to phase out paper.

How to Start Going Paperless

As with most elements of business, going paperless will require a little more than just taking it off of your vendor order forms. With a change to something so fundamental to the office, you have to be ready for whatever pops up, which means you need a step-by-step strategy to follow.

Step 1: Identify How Paper is Currently Used

The first step you should take is to identify how paper is being used, filed, and stored. Ask yourself:

Are unnecessary duplicates of data being produced, only to be disposed of? Are your file cabinets filled to bursting with copy after copy of a data set, with only incremental changes between each version? Are you sacrificing needed office space to paper storage?

Knowing the answers to these questions is the first step to creating a plan that eliminates these issues.

Step 2: Leverage Available Solutions

Naturally, in order to properly go paperless, you need to have something to take its place. Innovations in office solutions have largely eliminated the need for you to utilize very much paper at all.

Between digital signage, document scanning, advancing your equipment to allow for such processes to be adopted, and all the other solutions that assist you in going paperless, the initial cost may be considerable. However, the capital you are likely to save in the long run can help make up for it. This also allows you to leverage a cloud solution to store your documents, potentially allowing an increase in productive hours, and helping you to keep files organized and accounted for.

Furthermore, using the cloud and other digital solutions provides a higher level of data security than the antiquated physical document storage could. While certain rules, requirements, and user roles can be set to allow or deny access to certain cloud files, all it takes to access a physical document in a file cabinet is a simple key – and that’s assuming the cabinet was properly locked after it was last accessed.

Step 3: Engage Employees

Like any change around the office, the most important step is quite possibly to get your employees to use it. Remember, they have grown accustomed to doing things a certain way, which means that they are most likely comfortable with that method. To get them to make the switch with minimal resistance, you should not only patiently train them to use their new solutions, you should add some incentives to motivate them to embrace the changes.

Of course, you will undoubtedly encounter some resistance of some kind during your switch to paperless. All you have to do is stick to your guns and try to make the change as seamless as possible.

What other initiatives have you launched in your office? Tell us about them in the comments below.

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