Wish One: Security Consciousness
While it isn’t a holiday-themed story, the tale of Sisyphus would likely be quite relatable to most IT professionals. In the story, Sisyphus is doomed to an eternity in the afterlife spent pushing a massive boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down when he nears the summit, over and over and over. Many IT professionals might relate as they run between security issues that your other employees cause through their actions.

Reflecting on this, it only makes sense that an increased awareness of security concerns and procedures would make a great gift for your IT resources. After all, if the rest of your team knew how to avoid issues, the result would be fewer issues for IT to juggle, thereby freeing them up to tend to their other responsibilities.

Wish Two: More Cloud
The cloud is a very valuable solution, and few in any organization see that better than the IT department. Not only do cloud technologies and services eliminate many of the time-consuming and outdated tasks that IT has to handle, it enables them to improve the business in other ways.

If given the ability to utilize the cloud more, your IT resources could deliver benefits to your business in many more areas than before, giving you more bang for your buck, and them much less stress.

Wish Three: Improved Working Relationships
The IT team can get a rough deal sometimes. Not only do they have to effectively keep the business running, they also have to deal with the other people involved with the business.

Putting it frankly, they often have to shoulder the frustrations that the rest of the team has when they can’t deliver as quickly as the rest of the team wants and thinks they need. One of the best gifts that you can give them is a policy of hearing IT out. They have greater insight into the workings of the business and the impact that one initiative will have over another on a business’ workflow. There needs to be trust that the decisions they have made at a given time are not without reason, and that those reasons may not be apparent to an outside perspective at first.

Encouraging the rest of your team to keep this in mind year-round will help to make IT’s job a lot less stressful.

If you want a gift that the overworked IT resource would especially appreciate, try a managed service agreement with Patriot Tech Services Inc.! We can lend a hand, allowing your IT resource time to take a breath between their many responsibilities and to focus on the quality of the job they do. Give us a call at 877-874-4629 to learn more.

If businesses adopt technology, there’s this misconception that if it’s not something they need, it will be a waste, but this is certainly not the case. More of a good thing is not going to make your job any more difficult. It can only make your responsibilities easier and more efficient. Whether your organization just wants to implement IT to alleviate weak points in its infrastructure or completely revamp operations, we can help you understand how modern technology solutions can help your business make great strides. Here are just five benefits IT can provide for your organization.

Money Management
The goal of business is to make money, no matter what that business actually is. Controlling the flow of money and managing it should be a priority for business, as it’s a valuable resource that allows it to continue operating as intended. While a spreadsheet can accomplish this goal, there are other dedicated platforms that allow your organization to save time when managing your finances.

Collaboration
The traditional way of storing files is not necessarily ideal for collaboration, as paper files demand that everyone has a copy of the file--and you can forget about all edits being made on the same document in real time unless everyone is huddled around one single sheet. IT solutions, with cloud computing in particular, can remedy this issue and make it easier to collaborate during meetings. All team members who need to see a document or edit it can do so in real time on their own devices. These documents are also saved in a location where they can be accessed at any time by whoever needs to work on it, either as a team or individually.

Efficiency
Your organization has a lot of work that must be done, and any tools to get it done cannot be ignored. If you can use these tools to monitor and schedule time spent on tasks, you can make sure all responsibilities are being met with minimal waste. You might be surprised by how much your organization saves by managing tasks better.

Mobile Work and Telecommuting
Smartphones, tablets, and laptops are all mobile tools that can help your organization go mobile while also being productive. In fact, smartphones today are more powerful and dynamic than even computers were just a decade ago. By making use of these devices, you can empower your employees to get even more done throughout the workday, whether it’s while away from the desktop or away from the office.

Customer Service
Customer service is another major part of your business that you can improve with the right technology solution. If employees are constantly being interrupted by phone calls for support or other customer interactions, you can set up automated systems for general inquiries or questions. If you have a more appointment-based business model, you can schedule meetings with clients or customers on a calendar that can provide automatic updates to both parties involved.

This is only a small sample of what the right technology solutions can do for your business. To learn more, reach out to Patriot Tech Services Inc. at 877-874-4629.

Password Pitfalls
Passwords are great tools for managing access to data, but only if they are made properly. If a password is created without knowledge of best practices, it could be figured out with relative ease and used to crack any accounts that the password is used for. It’s not uncommon for those who don’t know any better to use the same password for multiple accounts.

It can be challenging to make your password easy to remember while also keeping it secure and difficult to guess. You don’t want it easy enough for someone to figure it out on their own, but you don’t want to forget it yourself. A passphrase is a great way to keep track of your password, and it’s much more difficult to guess than a singular word. If you substitute certain letters for characters and numbers, you can make it even more difficult to crack.

So, instead of using “dorothy” or a random series of letters and numbers, a Wizard of Oz fan might use “&Ur1i++leD0g2”.

Malicious Mobile Applications
Applications meant for use on your smartphone aren’t always created with the best quality, and that’s saying nothing of their intentions. Even though smartphone app distributors have made attempts to eliminate threatening downloads, it’s impossible to find them all, and they will occasionally make their way onto the platform. These malicious applications pose a considerable risk for your business.

Even the safe apps that you download from the app store could pose a threat, though. Some are quite loose with how they treat a user’s data, so make sure you keep track of what permissions you’re allowing for each of them. Make sure that any permissions you have for your apps make sense. If they don’t, perhaps you’re better off without it.

Phony Phishing
Cybercriminals will often resort to underhanded tactics and deception to make their way into your business’ infrastructure. They might try to manipulate your employees into acting a certain way or making decisions that aren’t the best for the business. These methods are called phishing, and it’s one of the big reasons why your organization needs to be cautious with messages from both known (and unknown) senders. These phishing scams vary in scope and scale, ranging from the classic Nigerian Prince example to the countless messages that are sent out every day warning the user that their system has been compromised, insisting that “tech support” must be called.

Your staff can prevent these messages from making trouble for your organization by keeping a healthy dose of skepticism when going through their email. It’s also critical to confirm the identity of the one who sent the message via a secondary means of communication, particularly if the message seems to have come from someone internally. This might seem like a hassle, but it’s well worth the annoyance of dealing with a phishing scam.

Wi-Fi Worries
Wireless Internet access has given businesses a lot of freedom in the workplace, providing a way to be productive without sitting in front of a desktop for eight hours or more. Wi-Fi has given businesses more opportunities to get work done, but it also creates opportunities for cybercriminals to access networks and infrastructures if they aren’t properly secured. Some organizations might keep default passwords on routers which makes them prime targets for attacks by hackers. Be sure to change these credentials regularly. Public Wi-Fi in particular is prone to cybersecurity troubles, so make sure you’re using a virtual private network for any sending or receiving of business-related data.

To learn more about how you can keep your business secure, reach out to Patriot Tech Services Inc. at 877-874-4629.