Directive Blogs

Are you one of the countless people who find themselves performing repetitive tasks like moving files around, working with people on the phone, navigating email, or updating information? It’s easy to find yourself in a situation where one wrong click can create a plethora of issues, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the case of network security.

It’s been said that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. In business, this is more evident every day as organizations have to deal with all sorts of different problems. How business leaders react to those problems ultimately makes the difference between beleaguered results or success. Let’s take a look at three lessons business leaders should be learning from recent events. 

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the way people worked drastically, and it did it very suddenly. As more people are being vaccinated, offices are starting to reopen. Workers, who gained substantial flexibility by working from home, however, are now expecting some of that flexibility to continue. Employers, who up until mandated shutdowns were not enthusiastic that they could make the remote workforce work for their companies are now set up to manage them proficiently. This month we thought we would take a look at the inevitable compromise that is being reached: the hybrid workplace.

Productivity is the core measurement of your business’ ability to complete the work needed to bring in revenue and to keep that work up consistently. Amazingly enough, most businesses experience similar productivity problems over time. What can a small and medium-sized business do to right the ship when productivity is down? Today we explore some ways to do just that.

It’s true that if they are created to be secure, passwords are hard to remember. There is also no denying, however, how important it is to use different ones for each account, all sufficiently complex. If you are doing things right, you probably have too many passwords to remember, which is why a password management system is a solid tool. This month, let’s take a look at the password management system.

What if I told you that 92 percent of all organizations that are hit by a ransomware attack and agree to settle with the scammers, don’t ever see their data again? You’d probably say that you would never, ever pay and those that do, don’t make sense. Most people keep that stance until their choices are to pay for the data in the hopes of getting it back, or lose it completely. Let’s unpack ransomware and the strategy that hackers most utilize to deploy it: Phishing.

When someone decides to join the ranks of the entrepreneur, it can be very intimidating regardless of what type of business they are starting. Technology can help, but finding the right technology isn’t always as easy as acquiring a server. This month we thought we would outline three technologies that every new business should consider. 

For the past several years there has been a steady stream of news hitting the public consciousness about the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT are all the “smart” devices that have been on the market. Some are designed to make managing your utilities more effective; some have been rolled out for businesses to make inventory management and distribution more efficient; some are just commercial products that provide ease of use or analysis that can make a person’s life easier. What you are beginning to see are these smart devices rolled out for more important purposes. This month we wanted to dedicate an article to the innovations we are seeing in the IoT, and how they are ultimately going to change the way things are done.

In 2020, conducting business was hard enough without having to constantly worry that your business was going to be the victim of a cyberattack. Unfortunately, it is an issue that isn’t going away, and can result in massive expenses and alter the course of your business significantly. 

What makes a small to medium-sized business so different from a large, enterprise-sized one? The amount of people and moving parts, of course, but if you really consider it, there isn’t all that much. This is why when looking to control your small business’ IT support costs, choosing managed IT services is a good option. This month, we thought we’d take a look at some of the other benefits managed IT can bring your organization:

Data is the backbone of any modern business. Since your organization relies so much on it, you need to have measures put into place to ensure that your business can access it in some way, shape or form at all times. This is easier said than done, especially for a business on a budget. We’ll walk you through how you can implement a comprehensive data backup solution to protect your organization.

Let me tell you a deep, dark secret about some of your employees... one that you might be a little surprised to hear: 

They aren’t reporting issues to you.

This can snowball into much larger problems. Let’s discuss.

Perseverance recently paid off, with the successful touchdown of the so-named Mars rover. In light of this, let’s consider a past rover launch and how a technical issue it encountered provides a case study for anyone whose business relies on technology.

Productivity improves as time management improves. It seems like a simple notion, but if you aren’t deliberate about managing your time, there isn’t much positive movement that is going to be had in the productivity meter. This month, we thought we would help you by giving you a few strategies that will work to improve your employees’ productivity. 

Professional services include some of the oldest professions in the world, and some of the newest. Regardless of what kind of professional services business you run, it is hard to continue to meet your customer’s needs without incorporating some technological changes. Furthermore, there are new innovations that can help your business thrive. Let’s examine some of this technology to see if it could benefit your business.

With high-speed Internet practically being a necessity for today’s business, it isn’t a surprise that Voice over Internet Protocol has taken off in popularity over the past couple of years. A business that utilizes VoIP for communications rather than a telephone provider can expect to benefit in many ways. These are just a few of them.

If you look hard enough, there is a “novelty” holiday for just about every day of the year. While many are of the fun and goofy variety, like March 13 being National Earmuff Day and March 28 being National Something On a Stick Day, others are used to remind us of important ideals and practices. Let’s take a few moments to shine a light on those days dedicated to important information technology concepts (even though we’ve technically missed National Technology Day, on January 6, Data Privacy Day, on January 28, and National Clean Out Your Computer Day, on February 8).

With so many companies having to deal with security problems coming in from the Internet, they may think that securing against an attack coming in from the outside is where all their attention should go. This can be an oversight that could have dire consequences for your business. This month, we tell you why you need a security strategy that protects your data and infrastructure from all manners of threats—inside or outside your network.

Not everyone understands the ways that businesses can leverage artificial intelligence, among the most popular of emerging technologies, to improve the way they do business. This is because there is fundamental confusion about what exactly AI is capable of. This month, we thought we would take a brief look at AI and how it can be used by even the smallest business to build more efficient operations.

As vaccines are showing promising results, we finally seem to see a light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel. While it is still early to “look back on” the pandemic (after all, we are far from out of the woods), it makes sense to look to the future and consider how the lessons we’ve learned will continue to impact us—and this is perhaps nowhere truer than in the workplace.