The Connection, Inc Blog

There has been a lot made about the Internet of Things (IoT) recently. The IoT is basically technology that connects to the Internet or your network and offers some sort of specialized task. Think smart light bulbs, mobile devices, monitoring tools, and other appliances that traditionally aren’t connected to the Internet. For today’s businesses this can bring several pros and cons to the table. This month, we thought we would take a brief look at some of the pros and cons of deploying IoT technology in the workplace. 

In business, experience is always useful. Nowhere is that more apparent than when managing your organization’s IT infrastructure. The problem is that acquiring the expertise to do just that can be quite confusing for most business owners. Today, we’ll talk about how technology management experience can produce better business from one end to the other. 

Businesses that depend on their technology try to stick with it as long as they can so as to not incur large unnecessary costs. Ironically, that may be the thing that is causing a lot of those costs. Today, we thought we would take a look at a couple of variables that can let you know it’s time to upgrade away from your current technology. 

Your business’ technology is a great tool, or at least it can be. Like any other part of business, getting value out of your business’ technology is essential. In order for you to see the kind of value from your tech that you’d expect, you first need to approach it by making good decisions. This month, we wanted to go over a few ways that you could fall into a trap with your IT.

For small businesses with limited budgets and workforces, getting the type of maintenance needed to keep complicated pieces of machinery and technology in tip-top shape seems like a tall order. Sometimes it might be a budgetary issue, where it costs too much to hire in-house staff to handle this burden. Other times it might seem like you just can’t find any talent in your location. Thanks to modern technology—remote monitoring and management technology, in particular—you are no longer stuck by these limitations

As an owner of a small business, there are a whole lot of issues that you have to confront every day. Besides the normal issues, there are always situations that pop up without warning. When your business is small and more easily manageable, they are easier to steer one way or another When your business starts growing rapidly, however, turning things around can get more difficult. This can turn into roadblocks to progress. Today, we will look at some of the issues that a small business owner will encounter when their business grows fast.

If you are an entrepreneur, changing the way that you look at your business can be pretty difficult. Many businesses start out with not much more than a ray of hope, so if your business is doing well, you must be doing something right. When demand makes you think bigger, your technology spend becomes a major priority. Let’s take a look at some of the changes a growing business has to make. 

Have you ever felt like talking to someone in the technology industry was like speaking with someone who spoke a different language? You’re not alone. It’s no secret that the IT industry loves their jargon - and has dozens of buzzwords at any given time. These are a few such words that have the industry buzzing right now!

Any business’ IT is reliant on that business’ computing infrastructure, which makes the infrastructure an important topic for every business to consider. As we progress into 2018, it is important to stay up-to-date and considerate of each new development and trend.

The act of “yak shaving,” also known as “bikeshedding,” is a specific kind of procrastination that can hold you back from getting the most out of your workday. This week’s tip is dedicated to explaining what this nonsensical phrase means and why it’s beneficial to keep your employees on track.

What Does Yak Shaving Have to Do with My Business?
Yak shaving is just another way to define semi-defensible procrastination. It uses the following scenario to make its point: you need to complete a proposal, but you might be tired from a long day of work, making concentration difficult at best. You start to look into the best kind of coffee to get into a productive mindset, and your research yields potent results. The best coffee beans in the world come from a remote island, and they can only be harvested by a yak. So, now you need a yak. You take a trip to the Himalayas to acquire said yak, but the yak can’t take the temperate climate of the island with the coffee beans. In order to bring the yak to the island, you’ll have to shave its long fur off. Once that’s been done, you can take that yak to the island, harvest your coffee beans, and brew that perfect cup of coffee for flawless productivity to finish your proposal.

Basically, it takes a normal problem and uses a ridiculous and overly elaborate method to resolve the issue, but this in itself creates complication to get away from doing the less desired task. Everyone has been in this position before, where a particular task is so unappealing that they would do anything to get away from it, but the fact remains that the task needs to be done, whether you want to do it or not.

How to Identify (and Overcome) Your Hairy Yaks
The first thing to do if you think an issue like this arises is to notice how you tend to react to them. Consider all of the tasks you need to complete; how many of them actually have to be done to reach your ultimate goal? There’s no doubt that looking for excuses will lead to procrastination rather than productivity.

Imagine all the time spent earlier looking into the yak and the island with the coffee. What if you invested all of that time and energy into completing the task? Instead of wasting time, you could have already completed the task, rendering the need for the yak obsolete. Granted, the problem-solving skills you’ll acquire might seem valuable, and they are to an extent, so it’s not a complete waste--just not a great choice in the first place.

Think of the Task as an Investment
Time is money, and time-consuming tasks can be a waste if they aren’t being handled as well as possible. Think about it like this; you’ve already invested a considerable amount of time and effort into one solution, so why not simply go all the way with it and finish it, if the alternative is to waste even more time?

Overall, you need to remember that successfully completing a goal should outweigh the frustration of having to do it. The results are what matters primarily, but if you have only been working on something for a couple of moments, don’t be afraid to change it up.

The technology you use will play a considerable role in the way you complete a task. To learn more about how you can use it to benefit your business, reach out to The Connection, Inc at (732) 291-5938.

Consultation is something that can save businesses a considerable amount of time and resources. After all, you can’t expect a business professional to know everything there is to know about everything. Professional services, like those of lawyers, financial consultants, accountants, advisers, and marketing specialists, are required by just about all businesses to at least some extent. Suffice to say that each of these specialists has dedicated software and IT solutions that are needed for success.

Just because you think that you’re following best practices, doesn’t necessarily mean that you actually are. Take it from this aspiring entrepreneur, who shared his own personal experience with us, so you could benefit:

I used to be a sales manager, taught in the classic, old school approach. Basically, I just got to know my clients really well so I could always talk to them about something. Wishing them a happy birthday, finding out how their youngest did during his baseball game, I had a pretty comprehensive well of topics I could pull from. This let me keep a pretty detailed record of people and their interactions with me that allowed me to really make connections with them.

My dad used to moonlight as a rental property manager on top of his full-time position, and that really inspired me. I slowly saved up my money until I could buy the duplex I lived in, and from there, I was hooked.

That first investment grew into a business that supports my family and my staff. All of the processes of managing properties (things like collecting rent, paying taxes, handling payroll, managing utilities, and maintaining the rental spaces) mean that I rely on logistics quite a bit to accomplish it all.

My dad taught me two things that I have really taken to heart: Measure twice, cut once, and to do as much as I could, and let the experts do what I couldn’t.

The second lesson was really helpful when I was first equipping my rental properties. I like to think my places are pretty nice, so they feature things like quality Wi-Fi connections, smart locks, and other things that need a little bit of management. The commercial properties I have are equipped with even more of these kinds of things. All of this tech needs a lot of horsepower, so to speak, so I have a pretty hefty setup at my main office. I also need my technology to help me keep track of who my tenants are, the documentation they’ve given me and the stuff I have to keep, as well as to manage my employees the way I need to.

Now, I can’t do very much at all with a computer unless it’s something I use it for every day, so I listened to my old man’s advice and called a reputable IT company. They came in, set everything up, and when they recommended a backup system, I approved it. The IT company set everything up, taught my office manager to use it and how files could be restored, and even stopped in a month later to check in.

This was all great, and we went along with our business for a few years after that.

Then, we got slammed from all sides. A few tenants were moving out, there were some maintenance concerns that we were dealing with, it was the middle of tax season, and the office manager who knew how everything worked had just left for a much-deserved cruise with his family.

Of course, it was then that the software we rely on for pretty much everything - internal communication, payroll, and scheduling - it just stopped working, and our data was all messed up.

Nobody could figure out what to do, and I finally had to make the very expensive call to my office manager, who was kind enough to spring for the cruise ship’s cellular service in case something happened. That got us to the backup to restore from it. We had also left a message with the IT company.

It was a good thing we did, too, because when the restore was finished, we were still dealing with bad data. We tried again - same thing.

When we managed to get in touch with the company, they told us that some software change had messed up how data was stored in the backup, so while everything else was fine, that one software just stopped being backed up.

This was important stuff - like, the kind that it would have taken a HUGE amount of work and time to even get back to our normal business functions. Plus, we would still have to go back and ask all of our tenants for their sensitive information again. How would that have looked?

The worst part? We knew about the issue when the software was updated - we just never connected it to our backup.

Somehow, after a lot of stress and a pretty big bill, our data was recovered and we could get back to work. Frankly, while it was a really expensive process, I still look at it as a bargain.

However, with a few better practices, we could have avoided the entire issue. That’s why we’re now sure to test our backup at least once a month. A few hours gives me the peace of mind that my business won’t be thrown in jeopardy again. Basically, we just see if we can operate using only what’s on the backup.

These evaluations have already caught a few additional issues, so we’re already seeing the benefits. Make sure you’re backing up your data, and make sure you’re testing them!

We appreciate having this story to share with you, as it raises an important point. Your network is going to change as time passes, so you need to make sure that it is still working as intended. A secure network hosting an insecure application is effectively no longer a secure network. You can view your backups in the same way.

We test all the backups we maintain in a similar way. After all, if a backup doesn’t deliver what you need, it isn’t going to help you much when you need it.

The Connection, Inc can help you avoid this kind of issue, and many others, from impacting your business. Learn more by reaching out at (732) 291-5938.

Technology innovation in the workplace is something that is constantly shifting and changing, depending on what’s hot at any specific time. These days, it might seem like office technology innovation is stagnating, but we assure you that it’s still constantly improving. We’ll walk you through some of our favorites to improve data accessibility and workplace productivity as a whole.