Make the Best Technology Decisions for Your Business

business technology

When it comes to business, productivity and profitability are directly correlated. If your company has a high productivity rate, then chances are your company is also highly profitable. On the other hand, if your organization is not as productive, then revenue is most likely down as well. Fortunately, there are simple modifications you can do to enhance your company’s productivity. With the use of technology, you can refine your organization’s process which would in turn increase productivity and profitability.

Automate Technology as Much as Possible

Automation is when a machine completes simple, repetitive tasks by following instructions or workflows. An automated machine runs as efficiently as the human who programmed it. As with most businesses out there, members of your organization will more than likely have several work tasks to complete. Automated processes, such as artificial intelligence, end-to-end management software, and various other smart tools and devices can help alleviate employees’ tasks, all while saving money for your business in the long run.

Improve Your Collaborative Approach

With the proper systems up and running, it is much easier for companies to manage workloads more effectively and efficiently. There are strategies that you can utilize to assist members of your team in collaboration and the development of ideas. Some of the tools you can use are:

  • Customer relationship management (CRMs): CRMs can assist in enhancing client satisfaction which in turn will improve the workflow of your organization. CRM software allows you to manage various job tasks and assign those tasks, keeping members of your team responsible for their specific duties.
  • Video conferencing: Video conferencing can help all employees of the organization, whether they work in the office or remotely from home. This tool allows all members of your team a place to meet and collaborate on any projects the company may have.
  • Collaboration tools: Depending on your organization’s specific needs, there are a variety of tools that can assist in team collaboration. Intranet software allows employees to communicate, collaborate, and perform their job duties efficiently. Software integration is the process of incorporating software parts to allow for increased communication and sharing of data between all members of the organization.
  • Productivity applications: Cloud-based productivity applications provide your team with the tools needed to boost productivity and work engagement. Applications can vary from written documentation to organizing a presentation. As long as users have access to the internet, they can utilize these tools on any device that has a web browser. 

Most Importantly, Customer Satisfaction

Many companies rely on customers to keep their businesses thriving. Previous studies found that the retention of clients is about five times less costly than the acquisition of clients. Therefore, it’s important to involve your customers. The best tool to keep customers involved in the CRM. The main purpose of a CRM is to update your clients and keep them engaged from a business standpoint. Customers will be able to give feedback which provides valuable data for you and your company to make informed decisions.

Your business will continue to grow if it’s operated efficiently and effectively. WheelHouse IT can offer various business technology solutions based on your company’s needs. To learn more, please contact us at 954.474.2204.

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The Digital Employee Experience

digital experience

In today’s day and age, technology has heavily shaped our lives and businesses, particularly in the workplace. It is imperative to understand how your business allocates its time, money, and resources, particularly with technology-related issues that may arise. The digital employee experience, DEX, is an extremely valuable tool that can be used in the workplace.

Defining DEX

All industries incorporate technology, whether it be the scheduling software used in healthcare settings or the Point of Sales systems used in retail stores and restaurants. People must interact and use various digital workplace tools in order to complete their daily work tasks. The digital employee experience, or DEX, is a representation of how people utilize tools provided in the working environment and how they interact with these resources which allow them to be efficient and productive. DEX tracks and assesses the user experience while utilizing the digital workplace tools from an employee’s perspective and how they can be improved. It is important to understand the workers’ experiences with all the resources within the workplace in order to foster a great working environment that benefits the people and the organization.

Why Does It Matter?

When people have some influence on how they complete their work, they tend to work more effectively and be more engaged in their work. Understanding how to navigate and utilize the workplace tools and interfaces may result in better outcomes for the entire company. When employees begin to feel that their work is meaningless, they tend to burn themselves out or leave the company in search of another organization that values their input and feelings.

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed lives worldwide. The one thing that did not change during the pandemic was technology. In fact, technology expanded broadly as people shifted from working in an office to working remotely. Even now, many employees continue to work from home or have transitioned to hybrid work. During these times, it’s important for employees to feel like they have some control over the completion of their work. People want to feel like their ideas and feelings are valued by the entire organization. 

As technology continues to advance, resources that may have worked in previous years may no longer be effective or as efficient compared to the new and improved digital workplace resources. Investing in DEX empowers employees by providing a better experience, resulting in better productivity and enhanced customer experience; thus, benefitting the entire organization as a whole.

Managed IT Services and Training Can Improve DEX

To ensure that your company is adequately using the best digital workplace tools provided, training is required. Managed IT services can assist through the entire process from identifying services and digital tools that can be beneficial for the company to provide IT support whenever needed. WheelHouse IT can provide services and solutions that enhance the employee workplace experience by providing the best training and support.

To learn more about how DEX can help your business, please contact us at 954.474.2204.

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Is a Managed Service Provider Model Better for IT Support?

it msp

Managing technology for your business requires you to have IT support in place to help you navigate repairs when they inevitably occur. The level of support you receive from a managed service provider support model can make a difference in ensuring your business stays up and running with quality tech. 

Break-fix IT support can be a costly option for technology management. It can result in a lot of downtimes, which just pile on the costs and loses customer loyalty. Managing your IT doesn’t have to be done last minute when it breaks down. You can manage your tech through a managed service provider without breaking the budget. 

What is managed service provider for IT support, and how is it better than the traditional break-fix model? 

Why Break-Fix IT is Not Sustainable

Break-fix IT is an option for many businesses because it seems to be a more affordable option. There may not be a budget to have in-house IT support, and break-fix companies will often work hourly. The problem with break-fix IT support is that general upkeep is not an option, and downtime can be spread out over longer periods. 

When your business can no longer access the tech needed to operate, downtime occurs, and your business loses productivity and costly downtime. Your customers will have to wait for services which can increase your losses and damage customer loyalty and reputation. Proactively managing your technology can be better than simply waiting until the last minute to make repairs or replace your tech. 

What is a Managed Service Provider?

A managed service provider is an IT management model that was created to address the challenges of managing tech with a break-fix model. Managed service providers, or MSPs, are a proactive technology management option providing companies with services to help care for and manage their tech. They focus on proactive prevention and real-time maintenance and support.

Managed service providers can provide support plans to fit each company’s needs and unique challenges. They can provide helpdesk support and 24/7 monitoring to protect your network, manage risk and compliance, system and software maintenance, and manage server configuration and management. The way the maintenance is set up with a service level agreement allows each company to pick a level of service. This enables you to get what you need without having to worry about the expensive upfront costs that come with break-fix IT support.

If your company has an IT department, managed service providers can still provide value by providing additional support, upkeep, and maintenance. It allows your IT team to focus on other projects and provides you with a piece of mind knowing your tech is well cared for all around. 

Choosing which IT support model works best for your business can be a challenge, but it doesn’t have to be. Proactively caring for your technology can save you more money and prevent issues down the line. WheelHouse IT helps businesses flourish no matter the level of IT needs. To learn more, reach out to us at 954.474.2204. 

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Integrating New Hardware Solutions Doesn’t Have to Be Difficult

portrait of technician install a new hardware a part of personal computer in office roo

Your business might find itself in a position where it needs new hardware solutions. You must make educated decisions about which hardware to acquire and when, but unless you are a tech guru, you probably need a hand figuring out how to get the most value.

That’s where we come in.

Here are some of the challenges that your business might face when implementing new hardware solutions.

Before getting too far, however, it’s helpful to have an idea of what not to do when replacing your technology. Many businesses will fall into the category of break-fix, meaning that they only replace technology when it has already broken down, often beyond repair entirely. Imagine the downtime that this practice can cause for businesses and the amount of money wasted on it. It’s a serious problem.

To illustrate this severity, consider a server unit that might fail before you replace it. How is everyone accessing the data found on this server? If your workstation breaks down, that’s one thing, but if the device used for business-wide data transmission breaks down, your entire business could be stuck in the mud until the issue is resolved. Meanwhile, you are wasting both time and money figuring out how to resolve the issue when preventative maintenance could have prevented all of this.

First, you must ask yourself, “Should I consider new hardware solutions in the first place?” Sometimes you might upgrade even if you don’t need to, simply because there is a more up-to-date model for a particular device that you have your eye on. Chances are that there is no need to upgrade immediately, especially if your current systems work perfectly fine. You should only consider upgrading away from your current systems when your technology is either causing disruptions to operations or if failing to upgrade will cause problems for you in the near future.

The second question you must ask is “What will I use this hardware for?” For example, if you try giving your video editor a thin unit or a standard office workstation, they are not going to have a good time going about their day-to-day tasks–tasks that are graphic-intensive and require more powerful machines. The idea here is to know what the technology is going to be used for before you implement it. Having unrealistic expectations for how your employees will use the technology is not going to help anyone.

Finally, you must also ask, “What is the timeline for replacing this hardware?” Remember that it is incredibly important to have a technology roadmap that lays out the timeline for when and how you should implement new hardware and other technology solutions for your business. This might include regular hardware refreshes to avoid the risks of hardware failure. At first glance, it might seem like you are replacing technology prematurely, but the difference here is that these are planned occurrences rather than purchases that come out of necessity.

Ultimately, the best way to implement new hardware solutions is to work with a professional like one of our trusted technicians. We can help you stay on the right path when implementing new technology. To learn more, reach out to us at (954) 474-2204.

3 Reasons Why Open-Source Software Can Be Problematic

programmer working lady using computer laptop working on unlock lock with coding symbol.

Every business uses some form of software, whether it’s for word processing or detecting malware. When you add up the costs for programs to open and edit PDFs, perform basic accounting, and create images, it’s tempting to see what’s available through open-source channels.

Although finding open-source software will inevitably cut down on your business’s costs, it is intrinsically problematic, and we’ll show you three reasons why you should avoid it when you can.

What is Open-Source Software?

Open-source software (OSS) is a type of software that is provided to the general public along with its source code. That means programmers can take that code and alter it to suit their needs or fix it up over time. This software also comes with rules about how to control its distribution. Needless to say, most big-name software companies would never do this.

How Does Open-Source Software Work?

Open-source software works by being stored in a public place, often on websites, where the product can be viewed and distributed. Anyone can download the software and use the code or offer suggested changes to it.

Furthermore, OSS comes with a license agreement that details how people can use, alter, and distribute the software. When the OSS code is changed, the alterations and methods used to make those changes have to be detailed in the documentation, and some changes in functionality may not be available to all users free of charge. They’ll become a premium service.

Problems with Open-Source Software

Although it may be tempting to completely outfit a business with OSS, that might not be a wise decision. Take a look at three problems inherent in using open-source software.

Licensing Issues

The legal uncertainty surrounding open-source licenses poses a real threat to small businesses. When using OSS, there is no way for most people to know if the software has code that was copied from another company. If your business was ever caught using legally protected code without permission, the legal consequences could be dire, to say the least. It would certainly cost more than a yearly license renewal.

Vulnerabilities Are Made Public

The year 2021 might go down in history as being one of the worst for ransomware and hacking. More people are figuring out how to exploit vulnerabilities in systems and get away with it.

You may have already figured out the problem with OSS and security: the code is available to everyone, including hackers. These vulnerabilities are made public all the time, and it only takes a savvy person to figure out how to exploit the system and become a threat.

Not Knowing Your Sources

How do you know whether to trust an OSS? The truth is that trust for an OSS comes from a majority opinion of users and developers, and it is built over time. Yet, new open-source programs are being released all the time.

Imagine that you need an accounting program, and you choose to download the first OSS version you find, but it doesn’t have a positive consensus from users and reviewers.  You’ve just put yourself and your business at risk because you do not know the source of the code.

It could be stolen code, a malware trap, or trouble of another sort.

Not all OSS is bad, but there are some bad ones out there, and you need the confidence to say you can tell the difference.

Open-source software is highly customizable but often not as well polished as software from major companies. To avoid the risks associated with OSS, it’s often better to pay for a licensing fee and get the ongoing security and trust that comes from working with an established company.

WheelHouse IT is a gold-level Microsoft partner who can help you get the most out of your software.
Learn more at our Microsoft page or contact us so we can help evaluate your needs and point you in the right direction.