The Internet of Things is growing rapidly and can be of benefit to your organization if it is deployed correctly. It offers a massive opportunity to automate certain parts of your business, saving money, and ensuring that human error is taken out of the equation. A majority of businesses have not fully taken advantage of the time and money savings a well-positioned IoT device can provide. Let’s take a look at three of the most useful IoT devices that a small business can implement.
k_Street Consulting, LLC Blog
The modern smartphone market is one of ingenuity, communication, and productivity, all of which are extraordinarily important in today’s business world. To help you stay apprised of the various developments in the smartphone market, we’ve put together a blog detailing the various flagship smartphone devices for early 2022.
How does your business manage its IT resources? Do you have a chief information officer, or CIO, in-house who manages everything related to your technology? If not, who is the one responsible for managing and maintaining your systems? If you don’t know the answer to this question, we have a reality check for you: you need to.
Science fiction shows artificial intelligence to be an entity compelled purely by logic, driven only by objective facts. AI tools used by businesses and in the real world, however, are a far cry from this perception. AI systems have some biases in their operations. Let’s take a look at some of them and how you can resolve these issues.
Blockchain has been one of the most talked-about new technologies for several years now. When we first heard about it, it had the potential to solve hundreds of problems, but there weren't any real-world applications available. Today, we’ll take a look at three applications for blockchain that are available today.
The holidays are rapidly approaching and each year people position themselves to get the best deals they can on all the potential gifts, whether they are gifts to themselves, or to others. Like many other years, bargain shoppers wake up from their tryptophan naps, bundle up, and head out to try and score the best deals they can. Today, we thought we’d talk a little about Black Friday and Cyber Monday and why they are great to get the technology-lover on your shopping list the products they’ll love this holiday season.
Just like business has changed dramatically over the years, so too have the tools they use to remain successful. One such tool is the telephone system, which is now capable of a host of impressive features that make it vital to the success of any business. What does hosted VoIP bring to the table, and how can you leverage it to your organization’s success?
When something goes wrong, it makes sense that you have a process in place to go over the issue and find a solution. This process, also known as troubleshooting, will have several variables that must be accounted for, but the general process itself remains unchanged. Here are the five steps to troubleshooting any problem, as well as ensuring that the issue does not become more problematic in the future.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a business that doesn’t rely on the Internet in some way, and everyone uses web browsers as a method of interfacing with the Internet. These browsers, however, are not necessarily the most secure applications by default. With some adjustments to the features, you too can optimize security and privacy when using your preferred web browser.
Most companies utilize a word processor of some sort, and one of the most powerful and dynamic (not to mention commonplace) is Microsoft Word. If you want to get the most out of this great solution, we’ve got your back. Stay tuned for a quick look at some of the most commonly used keyboard shortcuts that we think you will find helpful during your business’ day-to-day operations.
With so many types of business software solutions out there, you might not immediately know what you should aim to use and why. Thankfully, while there are countless types of businesses and organizations out there, some staple applications make their way into most offices, giving your company a decent starting point. Let’s take a look at what some of these software programs are and why you might want them.
Just about all modern businesses rely on the Internet—especially the wireless kind—for at least part of their day-to-day operations. This means that there is a direct correlation between the strength and speed of their connection and the amount of productivity they can experience as a result of this connection. As your business grows, it is incredibly important to think about your Wi-Fi setup and how you can support its continued growth. Let’s go over the process for properly scaling your wireless network to accommodate its growth.
Voice chat and communication via telephone may have been the norm for years, but these days, video conferencing has really taken off in popularity. With remote and hybrid work still trending worldwide, now is as good a time as ever to reconsider the features of your video conferencing solution. Let’s take a look at some of the features that you should look for when implementing video conferencing.
With Windows 11 releasing sometime this year, most users are looking to upgrade to hardware that actually supports it, but today we are instead focusing on upgrading away from one of the more controversial of Microsoft’s recent operating systems, Windows 8.1. With its end-of-life date creeping up in January 2023, it’s never too early to start thinking about how your company will move away from this operating system toward a supported one.
With so many changes in the office environment over the past several decades, it’s no wonder that some of the staples from way back when are no longer crucial to the success of any organization. Technology has driven many conventions of the old office environment into extinction, rendering them obsolete and, in some cases, pretty much pointless to keep around. Here are just a few ways that technology has replaced some of these conventions.
Some keyboard shortcuts work within applications, but there are others that work all throughout the Windows operating system. To help you be as productive as possible throughout the workday, let’s go over some of the most common keyboard shortcuts that work not only within your applications, but whenever you are just navigating your operating system. If you use these effectively, you can dramatically improve your productivity and look like a Windows master!
In a world of “as a service” business models, where services are distributed by month or by billing cycle, users are not necessarily buying things outright to replace them at a later date. The issue with this Software as a Service (SaaS) model is that too many of these solutions implemented all at once can create a messy web of software that needs to be managed. How can you make sure that you are getting the most out of your solutions without driving yourself up the wall?
With more companies opting to get involved with the “as a service” market, it’s no surprise that Microsoft, one of the world’s leading software companies, went this route with the Microsoft 365 cloud-service offering. Microsoft has been aiming to take their strategy even further with Windows 365, a way for organizations to opt into virtual desktops. Here’s what you need to know about Windows 365.
No matter what role you are in at your company, be it management or otherwise, there are certain terms related to technology that you are going to want to be familiar with. Doing so will not only help you make the process of asking for help when it’s needed easier, but it will also help you stay current on business technology in general, leading to more awareness of what goes into a successful business technology strategy. Let’s discuss some of the important technology terms for everyday business operations.
When you purchase new technology for your organization, the decision is not always clear-cut. One decision that can be difficult is whether to implement hard disk drives (HDD) or solid state drives (SSD) for your desktops or other technology solutions. To help you make the best and most educated decision possible, we’re here to explain the differences and help you make the best choice.
What does your email inbox look like? Do you keep it clean for the most part, or do you let it get out of control because of how many email lists you find yourself on? If you find that you have a lot of trouble with managing your email inbox, well, read on. You’ll find some tips for how you can effectively manage and potentially even clean up your inbox!
Technology management is a pain point for businesses, particularly smaller ones that might not have the vast amount of resources as larger organizations or enterprises. That being said, small businesses have a secret weapon that allows them to compete with larger businesses, and it comes in the form of managed IT services. What is a managed service provider, and how does working with one dramatically change the dynamic of your business’ operations?
Over the week of June 14, a lot of applications and websites experienced outages, creating problems for many companies until it was resolved. Not only did these outages create business continuity issues, they’ve also exposed just how vulnerable the Internet is to these kinds of issues. Let’s take a look at what happened.
Mobile technology has permeated the workplace in countless ways. Many businesses will provide company-owned devices, be they laptops or smartphones, to employees so they can get work done while out of the office. This brings several opportunities for productivity into focus, but it also highlights some of the many risks associated with mobile devices.
Businesses are always looking for a way to be more effective. Whether that be avoiding operational hiccups, cutting costs, or anything else that aids them in an effort to provide a superior product or service. For businesses that take advantage of dynamic technology solutions in efforts to enhance productivity through collaboration and automation, keeping the platform that fuels those initiatives managed and maintained is important. No organization is situated to effectively do that better than an IT services provider.
Businesses go about their human resources in all different ways, but in today’s small and medium-sized business, it may not be looked on as crucially as it once was. The HR department may have a lot of responsibilities, but today there are tools that are available that can keep organizations from investing large amounts of capital into HR. Let’s take a look at the way HR is being approached today.
With a global market share of 71.9 percent, the Android operating system that Google provides is well and away the most utilized there is today. Despite the fact that different phone manufacturers will fiddle with the OS to fit into the devices they create, Android tends to be pretty stable—which is part of the reason why many users were surprised around March 22nd, 2021. This is when these users discovered that their applications were crashing incessantly.
Every business’ goal is to turn enough of a profit, and some businesses are better at it than others. One way that modern businesses can improve their revenue generation is by utilizing technology to cut down on inefficiencies and fuel productivity through collaboration. Today, we’ll take a look at some of the ways that businesses can expand their business through technology.
“Paperwork” has long been associated closely with life in the office, but like so many other “classic” workplace elements, it has been replaced by more modern means. In this case, a Document Management System (or DMS) offers a small-to-medium-sized business far more utility than its predecessor, the filing cabinet.
For all the communication services and tools available to businesses nowadays, the telephone remains a staple in everyday processes—despite it often being difficult to manage and expensive to maintain. This is largely because today’s technology enables businesses to use a telephone system that exceeds the capabilities once provided by telephony, for a far more manageable investment.
Internet connectivity is an increasingly important component to a business’ capabilities in this day and age, as well as all the more crucial to an individual’s everyday life. However, with financial difficulties restricting this access for many, the Federal Communications Commission has stepped in. With a $50 subsidy being made available to low-income homes each month, this situation warrants a closer look.
Software is a major part of doing business nowadays. Not only do you depend on it to manage core functions of your business, that software can be purchased in multiple different methods. When choosing management software, your business needs to choose one that fits your needs, returns long-term benefits, and provides a platform that will help you build your company. Let’s go through some considerations you’ll need to consider when choosing management software.
You’d think that the healthcare industry would be at the very cutting-edge when it comes to information technology implementation. That isn’t always the case. One technology that developers are really looking to take advantage of in the healthcare space is blockchain. The technology behind cryptocurrency is being used to help patients better control their care. Let’s take a brief look now.
In business, building a strategy that produces results is the goal. If you are looking, you can find all types of stories about entrepreneurs changing the tried-and-true methods and finding abrupt (and sometimes sustainable) success. These stories may even have you questioning the way that you do business, especially if things aren’t going terribly well. Rest assured, that the best thing that can happen is to build processes that promote consistency.
Whenever you ponder the purchase of a new computer, one important specification that you likely consider is its data storage. This was especially the case when you considered a new machine for family use—there are a lot of documents and photos to store, and any kids you have will want to fill it with games and other apps. Nowadays, it’s a little different. Rather than focusing on storage, you’ll want to focus on the computer’s speed. Let’s get into it a little further.
Printing is costly and those costs come from a lot of different directions. They come from paper and ink and the fact that printers seem to need constant maintenance. For some businesses, it’s all too much and they are actively looking for ways to go paperless and cut out their printing and filing costs. Today, we will examine whether or not forsaking the troublesome printer is actually cost effective.
One of the major shifts we’ve seen in business in 2020 is the establishment of the remote workforce. Stay-at-home orders brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic made it necessary for businesses to find solutions on how to securely transfer information from what could be unprotected networks. The virtual private network is a solution to this problem. Today, we will describe what a VPN is, what its primary use is, and how secure it really is for secure file transmission.
It’s no secret that 2020 has been relatively tough on all of us, down to the technology that so many use and rely on each year. Now that we’re in the home stretch towards a hopefully better 2021, let’s look back at some of the technologies that didn’t deliver as promised and some of the other issues that we saw this year—some relatively harmless, and some decidedly not.
For the past couple of weeks we’ve taken a look at the 2020 flagship smartphones as well as some innovative new devices that are available now. This week, we will take a look at some of the budget options that are available to consumers. Not everyone has $1,000 to pay for a smartphone, but there are some pretty solid options out there that can provide a sufficient user experience to meet people’s mobile challenges. Let’s take a look at some of the options.
Social media companies are some of the most powerful entities in today’s world. Their ability to connect people with others of like mind or specific wants and needs often goes overlooked because much of the experience of operating online in today’s climate is adversarial. With the average user spending roughly two hours and 24 minutes per day on social media and messaging apps, companies can use that exposure to promote themselves. Let’s take a look at how small and medium-sized businesses use social media to their advantage.
The modern smartphone user is dedicated, spending an average of three hours and 15 minutes per day using them. On average, people check their phones 58 times a day. With this amount of traction, it’s not a surprise that people want to get the best devices they can. Today, we will take a look at what makes a flagship phone, and give you a couple of popular options that are available for the power user right now.
Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, is a common business communication solution nowadays… but it is still possible that you aren’t aware of what VoIP is and the many benefits it can deliver to your operations. To remedy this, let’s briefly review the concepts behind VoIP, and how your business can embrace them to its advantage.
After a long period, punctuated by no shortness of user demand, Chromebooks can now finally support Windows applications. Well, in a manner of speaking. Let’s examine the process that now allows a user access to the applications once denied to ChromeOS users, to consider if it is worth using after all.
For a couple years leading up to 2020, the Internet of Things was all the rage, but for obvious reasons, IoT hasn’t been at the top of many IT administrator’s minds unless it was in an effort to secure file access for the endpoints of a newly remote workforce. Despite the questions surrounding revenue and budgets, IoT can bring a lot of value to the small business. Let’s take a look at today’s IoT and talk about a few options that you can use for yours.
It hasn’t been too long since connectivity required an actual physical connection between the connecting endpoints, making a wired connection the de facto option for businesses. However, now that wireless connectivity is so widely available, businesses now have a choice… but which is the better option? Let’s compare some of the pros of each to make the answer a little clearer.
Mobility has to be one of the most talked about technology trends in business, and for good reason. Consumers use mobile. They use it for shopping, banking, checking the weather, for driving directions; and today, they use it for productivity. Let’s take a look at the rise in mobility and how small businesses can use it to their benefit.
A business has to have a telephone system. It is the simplest and most utilized method of communication. Many businesses, however, have to consider many variables before choosing theirs and it adds up to a lot of confusion. They need to take into account the cost, yes, but also the feature set, and the phone system’s ability to support much-needed mobility. Today, we will tell you about an option that checks all the boxes: a hosted VoIP system.
There is no denying that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused some major operational shifts in how most businesses conduct themselves and their processes, with many of these shifts relying on technology solutions. While there’s still no telling for certain how much longer these conditions will persist, we predict that many businesses won’t abandon these solutions once the present danger has passed. Let’s discuss why we have this expectation.
Wi-Fi can be found in many homes and businesses alike, as it is perhaps the simplest means of connecting your various computers and mobile devices to the Internet without installing networking cables or risking going over any data caps you may deal with. Of course, some devices may take priority in such a setup, so it could be very useful for you to partition your Wi-Fi.
A lot is made about data breaches and hackers, but I think you’d be surprised to find out that over 80 percent of cyberattacks are the result of stolen authentication credentials. This has led many security-minded IT administrators to try and find a better way than the old username & password strategy that we’ve all been using for as long as there have been user accounts. One organization that is actively making waves trying to replace the username/password combo is Microsoft. They are at the forefront of the move to passwordless authentication.
Email is one of the most popular business communication tools, with Google’s Gmail service being a popular choice with a market share of around 33.7 percent. It therefore makes sense that a lot of time is spent using Gmail, time that you might like spent on other initiatives. To help reduce the amount of time spent in Gmail on routine correspondence, we’re sharing how you can use Gmail templates to get the job done.
It may be hard to believe but Windows 10 has been around for five years. It may not have reached the on-every-device OS Microsoft had planned, but it still can be found on over a billion devices worldwide. That’s pretty impressive. Today, we will be taking a look at Microsoft’s plans for Windows 10 and how it might just be the last build of Windows.
Remote work has certainly shown its utility over the past months, but despite this there are still many businesses who struggle to effectively run remote meetings. As remote meetings aren’t likely to phase out anytime soon, we felt it would be helpful to offer some tips to help make these meetings a little smoother for all involved.
Business success is largely based on the quality of the relationships you develop with your prospects and clients. Of course, no relationship is ever easy, and they usually don’t number in the hundreds. To simplify things for you, we want to discuss a tool that provides a lot of benefits: CRM software.
We all store data on our computers. Whether you have family photos and text documents on your home computer, or databases and on-premises applications running your entire business, data is typically stored in exactly the same way. If you knew how delicate your data actually was, you’d never let a single file exist in one place ever again. Let’s explore that.
Millions of Americans are suddenly working from home. Students are now learning online. We’re all surviving the quarantine by binge watching our favorite shows on Netflix and Zooming with our friends and family. How does this bode for the Internet, and security in general? Let’s discuss some recent findings.
When a budget comes into play, it is important to remember that there are a few ways that you can adjust it beyond eliminating line items. For instance, you can instead optimize some of the most egregious financial requirements your technology has--its support costs--by translating the unpredictably variable costs you likely deal with now for your support, to the much more sustainable agreement that a managed service provider will operate through.
It is pretty apparent that there are a lot (a lot) of acronyms used when discussing IT. In fact, that itself is an acronym for information technology. They can all get pretty confusing if you don’t necessarily think about these things every day. Considering this, we’ve put together a list of terms for you to know that we think may be handy to have.
With the widespread support of social distancing that current events have encouraged, remote working options are seeing an understandable surge in popularity. In order to make the most of “telecommuting,” as it is referred to, there are a lot of reasons to use a Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, solution. Let’s go over some.
Each March 31st, we like to observe World Backup Day, where we educate people about the benefits of having a comprehensive backup plan in place. This year, with tens of thousands of people being affected by Coronavirus, business has ground to a halt in large portions of the world. Today, we are going to look at the business continuity strategy and how, in times like these, you’ll be glad you have your data backed up.
It is never a good situation when a widespread illness strikes. Not only does it impact many individuals on a personal level, the impacts reach to the businesses that employ them as well. As we deal with the current outbreak, it helps to keep in mind that there are various means out there to allow for a business’ productivity to continue… even if its employees shouldn’t be near one another.
When we start working with a new client, we’re often left surprised at their data backup and recovery strategy. It’s not always that they don’t really have a strategy for it (although this happens more than we’d like to admit), it’s just how sure many of them are that they don’t need to spend a lot of time and effort on it. This ambivalence is a major mistake that often leads to hardship. Today, we will talk a little bit about why backup is such a big deal.
Blockchain is one of the most dynamic new technologies, but up until recently, there hasn’t been a lot accomplished in the way of creating viable distributed software titles. In fact, the most recognized technology created with blockchain is cryptocurrency. This says quite a bit. Today, we’ll look at blockchain-enhanced software and how it’s only a matter of time until it is a commonplace addition to most businesses.
It’s true that Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is probably going to be cheaper than using an enterprise phone system through your regional phone company. While cost reduction is a good reason to choose a service, VoIP does much more than just reduce communication costs. Implementing a VoIP platform also presents a lot of solid options that can help your business be more efficient and productive.
Most companies have some sort of human resources department. Some are bigger than others. Some are more effective than others. Typically, the HR department deals with a lot of the stuff that no one else likes to. Today, software is being created using artificial intelligence that will be able to complete many of these tasks. Let’s take a look at how automation is affecting the modern human resources department.
Now that text messaging is being used for marketing, it isn’t that rare to see messages in your inbox that are from businesses. Most of these messages, however, seem to come from a random number. Google has taken notice and is rolling out a way for businesses to verify that they are the ones that are sending users messages.
For today’s business, agility is important. Things can change so rapidly that if a business commits to one way of doing business, it could spell curtains for them if they are forced into making changes that don’t work with certain strategies or technologies they’ve chosen to use. These days, software integration can allow businesses to optimize the flow of information and change course quickly, all while keeping their business running effectively. Let’s take a look at this integration.
The dreaded printer is often ignored by business professionals, until they have to use it, and it’s out of ink/toner, has a paper jam deep inside the machine, or they mysteriously disappear from the network for no reason. They are forgettable machines that hardly function properly and need constant maintenance; and, this can get really expensive.
There is no question that smartphones have assimilated into our daily communications, both on a personal level and in the professional sense. Apps allow us to be social, to accomplish work-related tasks, and yes, kill some time with the latest silly trending game. Of course, as time passes, these devices only grow more advanced. If you’re due for a replacement, you may want to examine some of your options before pulling the trigger.
The Consumer Electronics Show is where people get to see emerging technologies first. Typically thought of as an event where innovations in, well, consumer electronics are put on display, a lot of the technology on display at CES can be big news for businesses as well. Today, we are going to review some trends that CIOs and other business decision makers should be paying attention to.
Businesses today rely on a lot of data, and of course, this data typically isn’t stored all in one place, or even in the same format. Normally, this would make trying to manage this data far more complicated, but modern organizations have a way to simplify their data management: data virtualization.
There is some fear in the implementation of new technology. Not really knowing what to expect and how it will resonate with your current systems and staff can be nerve-racking for even the most hardened entrepreneur. Today, there are a few technologies that have emerged and are on the cusp of being integrated into more business settings. Today, we take a brief look at these technologies.
Every business can use some cost reductions. Most businesses have seen their margins shrink and would love to save some money, especially when it seems like as soon as it’s made it’s heading right back out the door. One way businesses can shave off their operational expenses is by shifting their business’ telephone system to a VoIP system.
The Internet is more than a piece of technology, it fuels huge swaths of the modern world. The economic benefits of the Internet are hard to estimate, but Cisco has tried, giving it a $19 trillion valuation, or about 21 percent of the total amount of money that is currently available in the world. So, if you have a resource that is valued at almost a quarter of humanity’s total monetary worth, you try to maximize the use of it.
You have to establish your organization as a contender. To do so, you’re going to need to use at least the caliber of tools that your competition is using. According to the 2020 State of IT report that Spiceworks has released, the majority of businesses with fewer than 100 employees have plans to adopt new technology solutions.
There is no question that today’s business operations require technology, but even that doesn’t tell the whole story. Not only do businesses need technology, they need to maintain this technology as well. Below, we’ll review the three basic steps to technology maintenance… and how we can help simplify these steps for you.
Microsoft has always offered a variety of business solutions, some which conform to your needs and others that do not. The beauty of this, is you can pick what solution will benefit your business, and leave the ones that will not behind. Here, we will discuss Microsoft 365 and what is offered within the Microsoft 365 package.
Many companies today are increasing their adoption of remote working strategies, enjoying the operational benefits that come along with them. In order for you to take advantage of these benefits in your own operations, you need to be sure you have the tools needed to optimize remote work. Here, we’ll review what you need to make the most of your remote worker strategy.
The smartphone is quite possibly the most important invention of our era. As time has passed, these devices have only continued to improve. These improvements have led to ever-increasing demands on the batteries that power our devices... batteries that, for about a decade, have changed very little. Here, we’ll examine the batteries that power our smartphones, and what we may see happen to them in the future.
Blockchain is typically associated with Bitcoin. This shouldn’t come as a shocker because primarily that IS what it’s used for. However, blockchain isn’t a program, it’s not a product -- it’s a technology. Blockchain technology has endless possibilities when it comes to real world implementation. In the near future it will likely be utilized in many business transactions due to its versatility.
The Internet of Things is growing rapidly, and with that growth there will be a stage where thoughts about IoT technology change forever. From RFID sensors to mobile devices to commercial goods, machine-to-machine communications have already made their way into people’s homes and businesses. What can we expect to happen with the IoT in the future? Today, we take a look to answer this very question.
I don’t think we’re going too far out on a limb when we say that the Internet is one of the most amazing inventions ever concocted by humans. 50 years ago, the precursor to the Internet, ARPANET was launched by the U.S. Department of Defense at four west coast universities, changing the way people shared data forever. Let’s take a look at ARPANET and how it grew into the Internet we all use constantly today.
If your business is in retail, you’re going to need a Point-of-Sale (also known as a POS) system. This is a common device in businesses that directly sell to their clients and customers, as it can do a lot to assist these businesses as they manage their processes. As you seek out a POS system for your business, you’ll likely be looking for (and avoiding) certain features.
Businesses use servers and servers are very expensive. They are expensive to build and to maintain. Since most servers have top-of-the-line hardware inside them, and are only used for one purpose, a lot of a server’s available resources are left dormant, essentially wasted. The virtual machine allows expensive server hardware to host multiple virtual servers, allowing any business to get more out of its IT investments. Let’s take a look at the virtual machine and its uses.
Microsoft Office is the most common productivity suite in the world, and it’s for a good reason. One of the biggest reasons for this is that they routinely update the applications with great features. Office 2019 is one of the biggest improvements that Microsoft has made, and it features several apps that make the modern office work.
Businesses are increasingly adopting more advanced technologies to benefit their operations. We’ve seen a few of these technologies really come into the public eye this year. That’s why we wanted to take some time and review these tools and time-saving solutions with you: to tell you about ways that your business procedures can improve through their implementation.