Technology gives business owners opportunities to expand, and essentially has become the center of most business practices. Marketing, customer contact, all sorts of inter and intra communication methods now depend heavily on technology. Let’s take a look at what the past has brought, and what the future could bring us.

Parker sat at his desk looking at a business card. He watched the snow fall lightly outside his window. He was the last person left in the office, as he typically was this time of year. He put down the business card and got up and walked over to the large pane of glass that was the only insulation from the harsh, cold wintery night. He placed his hand on the window and felt the bitter cold meet the palm of his hand. He stood there for a minute; maybe more than a minute. He began to cry. He was so angry at how things were going.

It’s the holiday season, which means many offices are holding gift swaps between employees. In the spirit of the holidays, we thought it would be helpful to share some gift ideas for the people you work with.

Any healthy market economy relies on innovation. The simple act of making bright ideas even brighter helps boost economic efficiency and growth, creating a higher standard of living. Business processes are being transformed through information technology. Here, let’s look at how some of these shifts are shaping up.

To the average person there are some definite blurred lines between IT security and IT compliance. In fact, these lines are so blurry to most people that they would consider them the same thing. They aren’t. How is it possible to create a fully compliant, completely secure computing environment? You start by understanding how to make both possible.

With technology trending up, it’s not hard to believe that there are solutions out there that can give your business a leg up on the competition. Being a decision maker at a small or medium-sized business, it can sometimes be difficult to find technology solutions created with your business in mind. Most software developers understand that the more options their software has, the more valuable it is, but if you are a small business, enterprise software can sometimes be overkill. Let’s look at three technology trends that have small businesses in mind from the get-go.

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.

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.

Twenty years ago, the term “Internet of Things” was coined by a marketer named Kevin Ashton. Working for multinational consumer goods corporation Proctor & Gamble, his idea to use RFID to help manage P&G’s supply chain led to a partnership with MIT. For his efforts, Ashton became a high-tech entrepreneur and best-selling author, but his lasting legacy will likely be tied to the actual Internet of Things (IoT).

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.

By now it should be clear that the same computer might not work for two different businesses’ needs. In previous articles we discussed how to select the right CPU, RAM, storage, and display for your desktop. This final post will be dedicated to some of the topics that couldn’t fit into previous parts.

Without a monitor for your new desktop, it won’t be much to look at. While you’re recovering from that pun, let’s discuss some of the major considerations you might have for purchasing a display for your new device.

In this second part of our desktop buying guide, we’ll be discussing RAM, or random access memory. Many users find this difficult to understand, but we’ll do our best to make sure it’s explained as adequately as possible so you have all the answers you need when you build your new computer.

Are you in the market for a new desktop computer for your business (or your home office)? We’ve put together a five-part guide to help make sense of the components that go into a desktop computer to give you a better idea about what you may need in a new desktop. We start our guide by breaking down CPUs, and what is right for your needs. 

Businesses often utilize signage to direct visitors to specific points of interest in their offices, but with the advent of digital technologies, the potential for digital signage is nearly endless. If leveraged properly, these displays can be used to provide key insights into operations, as well as notify employees and visitors of important information.

Many businesses have turned to video conferencing as a promising communications solution for their workforces to leverage, and for good reason. There are assorted collaborative benefits that a company can enjoy by embracing video conferencing capabilities. Here, we’ll review five of them.

The Internet of Things is rapidly growing in popularity, which makes it all the more likely that some IoT devices will make their way into your office. Also growing: the reputation that these devices have as vulnerabilities to your organizational security. In an increasingly connected world, it is important to remember how the IoT could quickly become a hindrance to your business if not managed properly.

Data is everywhere. Nowadays, effectively everything we do produces data of some kind - especially where your business is concerned. If leveraged properly, your business can make good use of the data it collects throughout its operations. For this week’s tip, we’ll talk about how you can do so with a data warehouse, and discuss how to select the right one.

It’s hard to think about the modern office without considering the role that information technology plays in it. If you think about it, it wasn’t so long ago that organizations were struggling with gaining access to important resources and maintenance, but sometimes it’s important to reflect on the way things were before IT infested offices all over the world. Let’s discuss how the IT-less office functioned before and after technology solutions were implemented en masse.

Compared to an enterprise corporation, a small-to-medium-sized business is going to have far fewer resources, especially in terms of its IT. Having said this, an SMB isn’t necessarily without a few quality options. Let’s review the needs that any business needs to have filled, and how they can do so with the right solutions.