As we continue to face the coronavirus pandemic, everyone’s safety remains a top priority. Therefore, washing our hands regularly, keeping a safe distance from one another and wearing masks is extremely important since the primary way COVID-19 spreads is through respiratory droplets in the air. However, the jury is still out in terms of if droplets land on objects or surfaces, how long (if at all) are those areas cause for concern of catching the virus. Therefore, as a safety precaution, it’s generally a good idea to keep your workspace and technology clean and disinfected—and to clean it daily. Here are the methods and products we recommend using so that your workspace is safe, but also so that you don’t damage your tech in the disinfecting process. Continue Reading
IT Managed Services
Why IT Support Is More Critical with a Remote Workforce
According to a survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only around 7% of U.S. employees had access to remote work benefits as of 2019. Then the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world—and the nation. Suddenly, many companies were scrambling to support remote work forces as a way to remain economically viable during shutdowns.
According to Statista, as of April 2020, around 28% of adults who were working before COVID were now able to work from home and were doing so. That’s a 400% increase in work-at-home rates over 2019 figures, so it’s no surprise that many companies struggled with the technological aspects of these changes. From ensuring security to providing help desk support, it’s a different world when your employees are scattered in disparate locations.
Common Technical Issues Faced in Remote Work Environment
You’re likely well aware that technical challenges can come up in any work environment, and tech resources can be busy even when everyone’s under the same roof. But remote work environments bring additional challenges, including:
- Security weaknesses, as employees use VPN and outside networks
- Backup failures, especially if employees save to laptop hard drives instead of cloud resources
- Hardware issues, which can be more difficult to manage when the hardware is in employee homes
The Role of IT Support Services
With remote work now a part of the day-to-day for so many businesses—and the potential for this to continue into the future—tech service support desks are critical for companies of all sizes. Employees need someone to contact via chat or phone who can offer immediate help, especially since workarounds such as sitting at another workstation when hardware is down isn’t an option in a remote environment.
You can’t afford not to have help desk support. Without dedicated IT support, employees may spend much of their work time trying to troubleshoot tech issues. Your teams might also spend more time finding work arounds for common issues such as conferencing software and hardware woes, data and document storage and printing. And chances are that people who are focused on the business will make decisions that are heavy on productivity and efficiency and weaker on security.
The great news is that you don’t need a fully staffed in-house support desk to keep ahead of common remote-work tech issues. Managed IT services let you outsource help desk and tech support tasks to experienced professionals so your staff can concentrate on business-facing work such as customer service, training and production.
At Great Lakes Computer, we offer managed IT services throughout Northeast Ohio. Contact us to find out how we can take the burden off your staff and provide greater peace of mind when you’re dealing with a remote workforce.
2020 Technology Trends to Watch For
When it comes to computer technology, it’s important for business owners to stay on top of the trends—ahead even. Not only to make sure they’ve updated their software and replaced equipment with the latest releases, but to keep an eye on the bigger technology evolutions ahead to avoid being left behind. As we begin a new decade, here are some upcoming trends to keep an eye on.
Artificial Intelligence
In many cases, Artificial Intelligence (AI) can mimic human thinking, performing tasks more efficiently and quickly than humans. Therefore, more and more businesses are turning to AI to help with engaging customers, boosting productivity and promoting conversions. However, multiple challenges remain with this technology, such as data security, facial recognition errors and over-personalization.
While AI may seem cost prohibitive to smaller organizations, AI as a Service (AlaaS) is growing in popularity and will make big data analytics accessible to companies of all sizes.
All-In-One Package
It’s always hard for businesses to accept technology change, so by just adding an app here or one new program there, work continues with little disruption. However, with this kind of diversity, it opens businesses up to cybersecurity issues and less-streamlined work. That’s where the package comes in. It’s predicted that businesses will turn to a package offer, where all of a company’s technology and programs are integrated together, creating a more simple, easy to use system, all concerns and issues addressed by the package source.
Automation
Though this is not a new trend, the pressure continues for business owners to implement more automation into their daily tasks. The use of automation can help save businesses time and money, helping with accounting, marketing, customer service and data management tasks. Many business apps are offering increased automation options that are being driven by the AI trend we just touched on.
Increase Computing Speed (5G)
In addition to daily tasks, the need for speed continues to be on high demand for businesses in terms of computing speed as well. With the arrival of 5G in 2019, this faster, higher performance technology offers the ability to be wire free. With it also comes the evolutions of the Internet of Things, driverless vehicles, and cloud computing all the while lowering maintenance costs and energy consumption. How quickly this evolution will happen is the question mark.
Cybersecurity
Cyber breaches are a common occurrence in recent years and because of that, many businesses consider it to be a low-priority matter. But with the arrival of 5G and other new technology, it means the risk is higher and protecting your data should be even more important.
While we’re working faster, we’re more likely to slip up. As it stands, 90% of security breaches are inadvertent, unintentional, and caused by human error. We need to shift focus from our cybersecurity applications, and turn it to our people. To address this, Great Lakes Computer has introduced a comprehensive program designed to assess your exposure to risk on the Dark Web, test your staff for phishing vulnerability, and train to become a Human Firewall. Learn more by clicking below.
