Data Net Blog

Business continuity planning is not an alien concept anymore. In recent times we have witnessed a lot of events that only serve to further intensify the need for business continuity planning. Examples include natural calamities like hurricanes, floods, wildfires, events like terror attacks or even pandemics like the recent Covid-19 outbreak.

Using the right technology can streamline operations, enhance customer engagement, and boost overall productivity. Despite its potential benefits, many small businesses often make significant mistakes when it comes to technology implementation. Let’s explore some of the biggest technology blunders small businesses make and how to avoid them.

IT strategies play a pivotal role in helping companies navigate this complex terrain, but they often require a substantial amount of time to be effectively implemented. This week, we'll explore the reasons behind the seemingly sluggish pace of IT strategy implementation and why patience is indeed a virtue in the world of technology.

The WFH model makes businesses much more vulnerable and easy targets for cybercriminals. Some of the reasons include

Much of our blog content discusses the technology used by businesses as a part of their operations, but technology is extremely valuable for several other parts of running a business, including managing relationships with existing and potential customers. The technology of marketing can be remarkably effective for getting the word out about your goods and services, and you will want to ensure your IT is up to the task of managing it.

Data is a critical asset for modern businesses, simply because it can be utilized to help improve an organization’s operations in a variety of ways. Let’s explore some of the various approaches you can take to leveraging the data you collect to add value to your business.

Businesses make money by providing services to their customers that bring them value. This business model is at the core of managed IT services, where the offerings are widely considered to pay for themselves, so to speak. Individually, the services might not seem like they would impact your bottom line that much, but when combined, they are a force to be reckoned with.

Google is one of the world’s biggest technology companies, but have you ever wondered how exactly it manages to maintain its iron grip on the search engine market? It’s especially curious when you consider that there are other major technology companies out there that might want a piece of the pie, like Apple, yet choose not to. Well, it turns out there is a very good reason for that, and as you might suspect, large amounts of money are involved.

Businesses have been utilizing flexible working conditions in increasing droves, due in no small part to the pandemic, but many continue to hold onto these policies in at least some capacity. Businesses, therefore, need to be very cognizant of data retrieval policies and security measures that can keep their organization safe.

Outsourcing has become a fairly common element in business processes today. What started off as a means to cut business costs and take advantage of cheaper resources based offshore has now become an essential part of running a business today. (Its definition doesn’t necessarily include offshore outsourcing, of course) This blog looks at two additional areas where IT outsourcing can dramatically improve revenues. In particular, outsourcing can avoid high-fixed costs when you are trying to meet peak demand periods or have 24/7 coverage available.

When it comes to smaller and medium sized businesses, anything that distracts from the day to day concerns about bringing in revenue tends to fall by the wayside. With that in mind, we have put together a list of seven things that a small business needs to prioritize if you want to keep your business up and running. Remember, a cyber attack on your data security could be the biggest threat to your revenues that you face, even more serious than a recession or a pandemic

Looking for a few ways to quickly protect your data and IT infrastructure from cybercriminals? Here are two great places to start. The first is so obvious that almost everyone overlooks it, especially in smaller companies where there is little time for proactive training on any topic.

Make no mistake, you want your business to grow. There is no better sign that you are resonating with customers and providing the value you set out to deliver. Unfortunately, for a lot of companies, they simply aren’t prepared when their product or service takes off and it ends up ruining what could be a very good thing. Today, we’ll take a look at three actions you can take to keep your business humming along when it sees extraordinary growth. 

Like most small business owners, unless you hit the lottery and started capitalizing your business all by yourself, you probably have some key shareholders who serve on your Board of Directors. You may also be finding that they are increasingly concerned about strategies to assess risk management. Most small businesses tend to overlook risk management issues—they usually just don’t have the time. Every minute is spent building the businesses and making sales. Operations and sales consume 120 percent of a small business owner’s time. In this e-guide, we’ll do a quick run-through of some topics that you may wish to address with your board as you collaborate to protect your business from cybercrime, as well as other negative events.

When people talk about the growth of technology in business, no small part of that is what the Internet of Things makes possible. From cost control, to automated scheduling, to helping build operational efficiency, the IoT can present a lot of interesting benefits for a business if you strategically implement systems designed to use the data created by smart devices. Let’s take a look at some of the ways IoT works for small businesses.

For small business owners, it may seem your daily energy is caught up with just keeping the doors open and revenues coming in. However, unless you were very fortunate when you started up, you have a board of directors; most likely initial investors whose focus is on the long-term success of the company and on strategies for future growth. Part of their concern will be threats and risks to the present business. A particular concern may be the risks to the business in the case of a cyber-attack. Small businesses are just as vulnerable to cyber attacks as large companies. However, they are far less likely to have the resources to recover.

We’ve been talking about social media as a good way to market if you're a small business. Facebook , in particular, can be useful not just as a marketing tool, but as a platform that can serve as your website. If you don’t have a website, Facebook offers a way to have a “faux” website. It can provide basic information about your goods and services, and it can be easily updated. Unlike a website, it takes no web skills to change the content of your Facebook page. So at the very least, this is a pretty safe way to get into the shallower waters of social media. It is important to remember to update your Facebook page. Leaving it to get stale doesn't send a good message. If you don’t care enough to keep it up to date what does that say about how you run the rest of your business?

Last week, we wrote about how patience plays a big role in people’s ability to be productive and efficient. This week we want to explore a few ways to help the people in your organization to become more patient. We all know people in our lives that seem like they could definitely take a chill pill. If that is you, using these four suggestions can help you be more patient in situations that demand it. 

Entrepreneurship is extremely frightening to a lot of people, and that’s probably why a lot of people make the choice to work for others. If you think about it, a lot can go wrong; a lot more than can go right. Today, we thought we’d highlight how business owners are able to get through all of the problems to forge ahead and create successful companies.

People can be very productive. They can also be pretty terrible at being productive. The staff that can find consistency in their productivity typically results in a pretty successful business. Obviously, people have all types of suggestions on how to improve staff productivity, individual productivity, and a lot of it is just hitting on the same stuff. There is one variable, however, that is found in a lot of productive people: Patience.