XFER Blog

Opening a new location is an exciting event for any business, but it's not without a litany of difficult decisions to make. One thing is certain, challenges always emerge. One thing you can do is plan your technology needs strategically to avoid headaches in that arena. Today, we take a look at how to best get your new location outfitted with the technology it needs to succeed.

Security is a hot topic among businesses, especially where technology and data are concerned. If you want to ensure that you are doing all you can to protect the important assets and customer data on your infrastructure, you’ll want to work with a managed service provider who can offer all the services you need to make security a top priority. Here are just a few of them.

Technology is undeniably important for the future success of your business, but one thing that is continuously overlooked is if the technology that you bring is actually right for your business. Today, we will look at some of the technology that businesses use that can actually have a negative effect on your business’ effectiveness. 

Businesses are complex beasts, and there can be a lot of moving parts that need to be addressed in order for them to run effectively. Business technology can aid in this effort quite substantially. Here are four ways you can implement technology to help make managing your business easier.

The State of Maine in the United States has been the victim of a cyberattack.

That’s right, the whole state was hacked by a Russian hacking collective. 

The state claims that over 1.3 million people’s personal information was compromised via an already known vulnerability in secure transfer service MOVEit Transfer. Unfortunately for the people of Maine, this vulnerability is known to be used by the Cl0p ransomware gang, based out of Russia.

Successful businesses often need to adapt to changing market conditions, consumer preferences, and industry trends. This means that they have to not only understand their business, but they also need to stay open to making innovative changes. Let’s look at six examples of changes that the average business may need to make to remain successful.

Businesses are relying on technology more and more. As they implement more technology, controlling their support costs is important for any organization if they plan to manage their budget effectively. With between three and six percent of a business’ revenue being spent on technology, going over the monthly budget can have negative effects on your business’ ability to spend elsewhere.

Business continuity is a tricky beast, and one that is best fought with proactive and preventative measures. The reason for this is simple: any situation where your business’ data is put at risk could mean the end, and we are not catastrophizing when we say that. Let’s look at two issues that are only small problems at the surface level, but could snowball into serious problems.

Managing your business efficiently requires judicious allocation of limited resources, encompassing budget, time, and the capabilities of your workforce. It is paramount to ensure their effective management. Let's delve into fundamental practices that can help you optimize the resources at your business' disposal.

Businesses can harness the power of technology to streamline various aspects of their operations, including their sales processes. Let's explore several ways in which businesses can leverage technology to empower their sales teams and achieve greater efficiency.

When it comes to running a business, it's not a single task but a web of interconnected responsibilities that collectively determine its efficiency. For smaller businesses, this web can feel even more intricate, demanding more from their limited workforce. This month, we want to shed light on the substantial impact that even modest technological investments can have on a business's operations.

Businesses that don’t leverage managed services for their technology infrastructure are leaving a lot of money on the table, but it’s not always easy to see until you break down what the solutions really do for you. In isolation, they might not seem valuable, but when combined, they save your business significant amounts of capital.

Without hardware, where would your business be right now? You can’t run your mission-critical applications and software without devices to host them on. You need to do all you can to ensure it stays in a proper state, but there will always eventually come a time when you cannot sustain it any longer and need to upgrade.

Here’s what you need to know about your hardware refresh cycle, including what it is, what you can do with one, and how to plan it out.

If you want your business to grow, then you’re going to have to get used to dealing with complex problems that require complex solutions. You can implement technology to make solving these challenges easier, but at the same time, you want to be careful that the solutions you implement are not going to get in the way of productivity. Today, we want to discuss good old-fashioned bureaucracy, and how while you might not want to build it into your strategy, it will probably happen anyway.

The challenges that remote work has presented employers for the past few years are being remedied, not by a full-scale return to the office, but with hybrid work strategies. These strategies promote both the return to the office and the retention of schedule flexibility for remote-capable workers. It is a compromise that is having eye-opening results. 

Small manufacturers and distributors require a completely different set of conditions than your typical small business. Most small businesses just don’t have the resources at their disposal to properly address issues that surface. One way these organizations can improve the way they perform is through the use of a logistics platform.

When you have a lot of tasks to get done, you might find yourself stressing out about the sequencing or ruminating on your circumstances. How did you let it get so bad? Why does this always happen to you? If this sounds like an everyday occurrence for your organization or your employees, we want to share three ways you can help to make things easier to manage, even when it feels like there is just too much to handle.

As helpful as technology is to optimizing what your business can accomplish, this kind of optimization relies equally on the people you have working there as well. This starts with hiring the right people, which means you first have to attract the right people. Let’s talk about how your business’ IT can help to make your business more appealing to talented potential applicants.

It shouldn’t be any surprise to hear us say it, but technology is one of the most effective means of supporting your business and its processes. Let’s dive into this idea and share a few tips that you can use to directly drive your business forward.

In recent months, publicly-accessible AI tools have ignited interest in using artificial intelligence amongst businesses, and for good reason. While these tools are very, very limited in what they can do—which we will discuss here for sure—they still show enormous potential.

However, this potential introduces a few major questions to the conversation. Let’s examine some of them.