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Keeping Up with Your Office Printer

As the pandemic continues in this country, so does working from home for many Americans. In fact, one study shows that roughly 42% still work from home. For business owners, it presents multiple problems and required adjustments, but what many don’t think about is what does that mean for your office technology, just sitting there collecting dust? For computers, it mostly means turning them on from to time and uploading any necessary updates, but what about printers? If you don’t keep up with them, multiple issues can arise and your whole business could suffer. To keep your printer working smoothly during these unprecedented times, we’ve got some easy maintenance tips so that when regular office hours resume, your printer is functioning properly and ready for work!

Weekly: Update and Run it

First off, since you or someone is most likely going into the office to at least collect mail, make it a regular item on your to-do list to check the office printer once a week. You’ll want to turn it on (or wake it up from sleep mode depending on your preference), give it time to warm up and then print something. This will help to keep the ink from drying out and keeping the nozzles free from clogs. Just remember to also check your network connections when you do this—connectivity problems from lack of regular activity could cause a printing delay.

At the same time, you’ll also want to check to see if the printer driver requires any software updates. If it does, make sure to then notify the staff that they will most likely need to update their printer software on their computers when they return to coincide with that update.

Monthly: Clean It

Cleaning your printer is also a great thing you can do to help your printer live a long and happy life. And we’re not just talking about the dust and debris that can collect on the outside (though that is important to remove, either with a small vacuum or a lint-free dust cloth—no cleaning sprays!). It’s important to clean inside of it. When dust collects on the inside, it can cause paper jams and the ink to streak. Your printer manual can provide specific guidance, but you’ll want to specifically clean the printer heads regularly. Most office printers include a self-cleaning feature for this, so you’ll just want to run it. But if not, following the manual, you’ll want to remove the printer heads and clean them with warm water (let them dry before returning them).

Monthly: Check the Cartridges

When it comes to ink cartridges, besides keeping them clean, it’s also important to keep them moving. If you print something once a week, as we previously suggested, that will help. But it’s also a good idea to take them out every month and give them a good shake (and clean the printer heads after you shake). This will help the toner from drying out and keep the pigment from settling. When the cartridge is dry, it can damage your printer head (resulting in costly repairs or having to purchase a new one all together).

In addition, you’ll also want to check for any low ink warnings (it’s a good idea to replace them relatively soon if they do appear), as well as check their expiration dates. Many office printers will not operate if the cartridge is past its due date. (And please, we know ink cartridges can run pricey, but it’s better to buy good quality ink, than the cheap stuff which can damage the heads and produce poor prints.)

Other Good Practices

Some other helpful suggestions include:

  • Room Temperature: It’s tempting to want to save money while the office is empty and turn off the air/heat, but it’s a bad idea for your technology. It’s important to keep it away from heat, as well as moisture, at a comfortable temperature. Air generally gets in the nozzles and if it’s hot, the ink could dry up in a matter of weeks.
  • Cover It If Possible: Some office printers are too large for this, but if you have a smaller one, try to cover your printer if you can. It will help keep the dust out.

Having Printer Problems?

If you find you are having regular issues with your printer—such as frequent paper jams and slow processing—remember, your manual is your friend. It could also be something simple, like you purchased the wrong ink cartridge or your paper tray is overfilled. But if you find that doesn’t help and your printer is malfunctioning, before you run out and a buy new technology, give us a call.

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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.

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2 Keys to Successful Team Collaboration Post-COVID

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the economy, companies across the globe have been forced to seek digital reforms to protect their employees and consumers. Businesses have no choice but to review and modify their operational strategies to find new ways to function.

Those that were invested in building their digital capabilities prior to this crisis have been able to continue to collaborate with their teams, engage with customers, and generate sales at a time when the economy has almost ground to a near-complete halt. As such, these businesses are best positioned to manage and recover from the COVID-19 crisis.

Below are some examples of how businesses have tapped into new strategies to successfully navigate this new challenge.

Leveraging Video Conferencing for Improved Collaboration

Stay-at-home orders, distancing guidelines, and capacity restrictions are forcing companies to get comfortable with video conferencing, quickly. While many digital-forward enterprises were already using this tool, SMBs have lagged behind in adaptation and are likely at higher risk of breach or security issues as they lack the resources to support a robust IT support team.

Market leaders in video conferencing tools such as Microsoft, Google, Slack, Zoom, and others have seen a considerable increase in usage as businesses strive to keep up with their workforce remotely and connect with consumers. Some of these services are being offered for free, but SMBs beware, you may get what you pay for. While these services may be seem intuitive and cheap, they may create vulnerabilities in your security you weren’t aware of.

The National Law Review recently published tips on how to safely integrate video conferencing to ensure your business is protected:

Educate employees about company policies and acceptable use guidelines when it comes to using new technologies on work devices or to perform work functions, such as team meetings. To avoid unauthorized or inadvertent exposure of sensitive employee or company data, employees should know to first check with a designated team, such as IT or legal, to see if a new product is company-sanctioned and/or governed by a commercial license or agreement that will protect the company and its employees by keeping sensitive data secure.

Research the product manufacturer to learn about any past practices that may demonstrate a failure to make data privacy and security a priority, such as past lawsuits, investigations, negative media or consumer attention, or settlements with government investigative agencies.

Create a culture that keeps everyone safe online by raising awareness about personal use or use by family members. As consumers, take the time to read terms of use and privacy notices, so that you know how the information you are sharing through the use of an online product, such as video recordings and conversation transcripts, is secured, used, and shared. 

Addressing Data Protection Through VPNs

Data security and protection is more critical than ever with a remote workforce. Whether workers are using company-issued PCs or their home computer, that link from their house to your office needs to be kept secure.

Businesses are encouraged to use Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to ensure data security and mitigate the risk of data leaks. VPNs provide an encrypted tunnel that protects your data and the location of your employees. Moreover, a good VPN allows you to control how your remote employees access the internet during working hours.

For added security, we encourage the use of multi-factor authentication (MFA) as well as regular patches and updates to your network to ensure it is protected against ever evolving threats.

Embracing the New Normal

Companies need to re-imagine their business models to confront challenges and discover new opportunities as they seek to overcome the crisis. There is a silver lining to successfully adapting these technologies now – this is the direction you needed to be going anyways to stay successful in the future. While this change was sudden, it was actually just forcing the adoption curve to come a little sooner.

Independent business owners like you are at the heart of Great Lakes Computer Company. We are laser-focused on helping your business navigate your IT challenges. We can ensure your team can work productively and securely with the right IT setup. Whatever your remote workforce needs are, contact us to get started!

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Working from Home = Virtual Private Networking

With all that’s happening in the world right now, home is becoming the workplace for many of us. However, depending on your area of employment, that can present a number of problems. You’ll need a quiet place to work, strong phone signal, fast internet, as well as a secure network. In times like these, the latter is not on the forefront of everyone’s mind—we all need to get back to work right away. But it’s important to your business to consider technology that will add an additional security layer to both private and public networks (including internet and broadband hotspots): Virtual Private Networking (VPN).

What is VPN?

Virtual Private Network is the most secure way to send and receive data through the internet. It was created with remote users in mind to ensure they have a private and secure network—no matter where they are. It uses encryption plus a layered tunneling through its own servers, making breaches extremely difficult.

In addition, VPN protects both your identity and location, making the user invisible on the internet. So if you’re looking for protection from phishing attacks and security when viewing private information (no matter where you are), a virtual private network is worth consideration.

Tips on VPN

There are a few things to think about before installing a VPN:

  1. Is your computer ready? You’ll want to make sure to run an anti-virus program on your computer to catch any breaches and to ensure you haven’t been compromised by malware. You wouldn’t want to install VPN while you already have a spy on your system! It would defeat the purpose. Consider a Free Dark Web ID Scan to learn if your information is available for sale on the dark web.
  2. What sites will you be using? It’s important to know that some websites block access to VPN technology. You’ll want to make sure you can access what you need for work.
  3. There are free VPN options out there, but be warned: They come with a host of limitations. Giving priority to paid members, free users often have limited data and bandwidth. Sessions can be time-limited, access to content from certain countries can be denied, and they often come with tons of advertisements. They also rarely have a service agreement.

The security of your work should be of the utmost importance, and a VPN can keep your data safe and secure. At Great Lakes Computer Corporation, we place tremendous value on data security. We offer a variety of services that provide our clients with the tools they need to protect their valuable information including backup and recovery, cloud computing, network management, and setting you up with virtual networking computing. If you are interested in broadening your cyber defenses, please give us a call.

Get Your FREE Dark Web ID Scan

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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.

BUILD A HUMAN FIREWALL

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The Trouble with People

A standard practice for businesses today is to invest in cybersecurity. However, data breaches still continue to happen daily, and compromised data is becoming more and more common. And unfortunately, it’s got very little to do with your security investment, and everything to do with the people that work for you. In fact, a recent study showed that a quarter of corporate data breaches are due to human error. When you combine that with these averages–that a cyberattack occurs every 39 seconds and that only 5% of a company’s documents are properly protected–it makes for a scary situation for business owners.

But your employees are only human, right? We all make mistakes? It’s hard to speak that lightly about data breaches when a simple human error can cost your company thousands, sometimes millions, of dollars. The most common human errors include misdelivery, falling for phishing scams, poor user password practices, mismanagement of high-level accounts, and letting unauthorized users access corporate devices. Preventing these common mistakes is no easy feat, but there are a few options available to help.

More People Problems

One solution many companies consider is to have a dedicated IT individual or team on staff that has the technical expertise to monitor your system. But that’s often not an affordable solution, since creating and maintaining a round-the-clock security operations center (SOC) is costly. In addition, the IT staff also cares for equipment, updates (and sometimes replaces) software, and sets up and educates new hires. Indeed, that is helpful to have, but they can’t be solely dedicated to cybersecurity matters and they are only available 9 to 5. It’s the trouble with people.

Can Alexa Help?

A new trend for businesses is to turn to artificial intelligence (AI) to help with data breaches. Though AI can more easily detect threats, and are experts at password security, AI has its drawbacks and limitations as well. It not only takes a long time to get AI set up and running (due to the fact it has to be “trained” through accurate data sets, which are difficult to obtain and afford), but it requires a TON of memory, data and computing power in order to be effective. And once AI is operational, it’s known for sending a tremendous number of false alarms and alerts. It’s exhausting! 

The Answer = Managed Security Services

The easiest and often ideal solution is to hire a Managed IT Services Provider (MSP). By hiring an MSP, your network will be secure and regularly monitored, alerting you to and resolving any cybersecurity issues as they arise. Their services often include an assessment of your current technology, identifying holes and areas of risk, followed up with a customized strategy that they’ll help you and your employees to implement. They’ll monitor your network security remotely, plus they can help with technology budgeting, all the while saving you money. 

Great Lakes Computer Corporation can protect you. We offer a range of services designed to help our clients protect their businesses from data loss, from preventative maintenance to the latest in security services, at a price businesses can afford. Find out what we can do for you.

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