Telesys Voice and Data Blog

The modern small business will face several challenges in 2018. The world is changing, and with it, so is business. For many small businesses, this can either be looked on as the opportunity they’ve been waiting for, or, it can be viewed as the beginning of the end. No matter what situations you are faced with this year, understanding what problems your business faces, and how to solve them is imperative to your small business’ success.

In the technology world, 2018 will be more about utilizing innovations to the technologies that are already available rather than deploying newfangled technologies, as many small businesses focus on revenue generation rather than simply cutting their technology costs. Chances are your organization already takes advantage of many of today’s most cost-prohibitive technology trends. Whether or not you are using them properly will ultimately be the difference in meeting your yearly projections. We take a look at some of the most compelling variables a small business owner needs to consider in order to take their business in the right direction.

Running a Smarter Business
While 2017 was a good year for the small business, many smaller organizations fall into the trap of not focusing on revenue generation; setting their sights on sustainability rather than success. If your business has been around the block a bit, you may be comfortable with the “business as usual” approach. You may be surprised to know that by changing the way you approach certain core strategies, you can initiate greater revenue generation and stop focusing so much of your time and effort on practices that aren’t effective and just hold your business back.

Cost cutting initiatives have been all the rage for the past several years. Many businesses utilize outsourced services such as cloud computing, print services, and staffing agencies to reduce their capital expenses. This strategy is sound--it provides an organization with more upfront capital--allowing for more a targeted approach at projects that can spur on revenue generation. The issue is that by not making ANY true capital investments, you are likely paying more.

One way to improve your business’ position is to consider the value you get from recurring services. A service like the one Telesys IT Services provides, where you can see an immediate return on your recurring investment, is valuable, and rare. There are some services, however, that don’t provide a rapid or sustainable return, and by paying more up front, you could actually mitigate cost that adds up over time. Paying for software you barely use per month may seem affordable if you look at the operational cost, but in true capital, renewing a yearly license for a single copy of the software may actually save you money.

As far as the revenue generation problem goes, there are two solutions that are available to every business that, once implemented, are likely to provide a solid ROI. The first is analysis. Your company generates a lot of data, and much of that data is relevant in the context of making better business decisions. Business intelligence, that is the structured analysis of warehoused data, can provide some very useful answers. Consider that your operational data, data about staff effectiveness, data about your marketing and advertising initiatives all hold in them a small piece of truth about the way your business operates. By gaining a more comprehensive understanding of how your business functions, you can make better strategic and operational decisions.

At Telesys IT Services, we are just starting to understand how to help our clients run smarter businesses. Since profit margins and returns on many goods have shrunk significantly over the years, businesses have looked to services to fill in the gaps when they don’t have the capital to undertake major investments for staff, technology, or otherwise. Today we can set up a data warehouse to store all the relevant data so that you can use automated analytic software to crawl the data to get the truth about how your business functions, and what to do to boost revenue generation.

The second is sometimes looked on as an antiquated strategy; but, in the information age it remains as true today as ever. Invest in your people. It’s simple, the better your people enjoy working for you--the more they see your sacrifice and hard work--the more they have reason to be proud to have their job with your organization--the better your company will function. While we push automation every day to help you get more out of your company, you won’t get anything out of it if you view your employees as a hindrance. Think about it this way, your people are your biggest expense, and as a result, should be your biggest priority.

With the technology that is coming, this tried-and-true method of running a smarter business is going to be tested. Many larger enterprises have begun utilizing automation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence in an effort to provide higher returns for their investors. It’s only a matter of time before small businesses around the world will be using the same technologies to try to turn a penny into a nickel. While there are some jobs that can be eliminated with these technologies, there will be different jobs created through the use of them. With automation beginning to redefine the job market, independent workers will be in demand to fill in the gaps. So, while these jobs have less definition, the need for hungry, happy workers will be there for as long as goods and services are produced.

To get your staff working the way you need them to work, you have to invest in them. Here are three ways you can run a smarter business by getting more from your staff:

1. Improve retention - Onboarding new workers is expensive and time-consuming. It puts a strain on almost every part of your business. Small businesses often can’t pay their workers the same rate that a major corporation might, but they can provide them with more value. By investing in training/professional development, benefits, and other courtesies, people will want to work for you and won’t be continuously looking for a way out.
2. Improve morale - If your workers are stressed out, you can see it immediately. How do your workers interact? Is there a buzz in your place of business, or is it silent? A silent workplace is great if you run a public library, but if you run an office the lack of noise is deafening, and a telling symptom of people just waiting to punch out for the day. Most people may work for the paycheck, but if they are working for the weekend, you need to make an effort to boost morale.
3. Two-way Loyalty - Many small business owners demand loyalty out of their people, but refuse to reciprocate. There is nothing that will make a worker throw in the towel faster than a lack of loyalty. Very few people prosper in an unsupportive environment. To keep your workers in a productive mindset, make them realize that you are working together for a common goal, not just working for you.

Getting smarter about the way you do business doesn’t start with technology, and doesn’t start with capital, it starts with a dedication to do the right thing for your clients, for your staff, and for the myriad of other people that depend on your business. If you handle your staff in the right way, it will provide you with the largest ROI of any investment you can make this year, and any year.

Learn Where You Can Compete and Where You Can’t
Many of today’s small business owners look at their more-successful competition and try to emulate the practices that have made them a success. The fundamental problem with this strategy would be that you are in competition with these companies for revenue, and by doing things the same way as they do it doesn’t set your business apart from them. That being said, there is are reasons that the company you are setting out to emulate is having success. By copying your competitors’ best features, you could create some space in even the most saturated market. Whether they boast superior brand recognition, have superior customer service, are superior at fulfillment, etc. you have to know your place in your market. In fact, many experts consider the act of finding your niche inside of your target market to be one of the largest differentiators to achieving success for a small business.

Consider your smartphone for a minute. You decide to start a company to make smartphones. Chances are you aren’t going to compete with the Apples, Nokias, and Samsungs of the world. So, while it stands to reason that you may want to abandon your plan altogether, you start looking at the data and there are no phones made specifically for doctors. If you deliver on your promises and create a device that works for the needs of doctors, there is a chance that you can compete within that niche market, while not really competing at all in the larger market at all.

Anything you can do to deliver your goods and services to the most people should be the aim, but be cognizant that by setting your sights too high, you may just be putting your company in a perilous predicament. You need top tier customer service, a trustworthy product that you stand behind, and a plan on how to get your product to your consumers if you are going to compete in any market. Find your differentiator and exploit it.

2018 is another year where technology will be in the mind’s eye of every business owner, but to find success by using technology, you have to apply it in the right way. For more information about business technology, how to stretch your IT budget properly, or any other technology related subject, call the IT professionals at Telesys IT Services today at (817) 590-9339.

While many different people open businesses, the primary reason that they all do so is to make money. A positive cash flow is essential if the business is to generate funds that support a cause or provide a decent living. However, to collect this cash flow, a business must have their invoices returned. As it happens, this doesn’t often occur in a timely manner.

In today’s political, social, and economic environment, information is more valuable than ever. However, this increased importance, paired with the speed that data can be dispersed via the Internet, has enabled many to use false information to manipulate the general public into agreeing with their views and acting upon them.

It’s no industry secret that one of the most important pieces of IT any business should have is a data backup solution. However, this is like saying that every business should have a plant: the type of plant, and (by extension) the type of data backup, matters. You want a data backup that is more like a peace lily or a cactus, hardy and resilient, and less like a basil plant or orchid, high-maintenance and requiring very specific conditions to prosper.

As a managed service provider, we’re naturally going to be a little biased when comparing the positives and negatives between an in-house IT team and an outsourced approach. However, each has its benefits in the right situations, and each can have its downsides. Today, we’ll discuss each to establish which is the better choice for your situation.

If your business were to be struck by a Distributed Denial of Services (DDoS) attack, would it be able to recover in a timely manner? Do you have measures put into place to keep them from hampering your operations? While most organizations claim to have sufficient protection against these dangerous attacks, over half of them have simply proven to be ineffective against DDoS.

Business security is a common issue for many small organizations with limited budgets, but it doesn’t have to be an issue. We’re here to help you master the seemingly endless threats and security problems that major vulnerabilities present to the small business environment, and it all starts out by understanding how even basic security solutions protect your organization.

With 2017 on its way out, there are many great technology solutions that businesses can take advantage of. Some of the most notable topics in business technology in recent years include business intelligence, artificial intelligence applications, and machine learning. What are some of the most important technologies that you’ll want to keep in mind for the 2018 business year?

IT maintenance is something of a sensitive topic for some organizations. While most understand that it needs to be done, they often don’t have the resources to make it happen, either due to a limited budget or timeframe. How does your business handle IT maintenance? If your organization is having troubles managing its annual technology budget, or if you are consistently experiencing profit-sapping downtime, consider managed IT services the answer to your problems.

Simply put, the traditional method of technology maintenance doesn’t work well anymore. The break-fix method to technology management is generally how small businesses have run their organizations for quite some time. Break-fix relies on your business reaching out to a maintenance provider only when your systems are malfunctioning, causing downtime and inefficiency that is sure to show up on your organization’s bottom line.

Without a reliable way to guarantee that the downtime-causing issue won’t happen again, the break-fix method is like slapping a Band-Aid on a wound and hoping that it won’t reopen. Managed IT, on the other hand, is designed to address problems before they happen by taking preventative measures.

Managed IT accomplishes this goal by providing you with comprehensive access to technicians who you can proactively monitor and fix any technology problem you may have with your network or infrastructure. For businesses that lack an internal IT department, managed IT can fill the void you have in technology administration quite nicely. Furthermore, managed IT can provide value even for organizations that have dedicated internal IT staff.

More often than not, a small business will have, at most, an internal team consisting of only a handful of technicians who, more than likely, have a lot on their plate. By supplementing their skills with a managed IT service provider, you’re giving them more time to focus on the quality of their work, as well as assisting your in-house team with any technology problems they might have. It also allows your organization to add profitable IT projects to its roadmap, which provides for higher degrees of productivity and a rapid ROI.

Basically, managed IT does whatever needs to be done for your business’ technology, be it acting as a supplementary force to support your current technicians, or taking on the full responsibility of managing and maintaining your organization's current IT infrastructure.

One of the most important factors of managed IT services is how much more affordable it is. This is explained primarily by how you prevent issues from happening in the first place. Plus, by keeping issues from evolving into bigger problems, you can spend less on your technology support.

Could your business use help with your IT solutions? Reach out to Telesys IT Services at (817) 590-9339.

Black Friday: it’s the name given to the unofficial first day of the holiday shopping season, and is associated with the generally unparalleled deals on consumer products. Many consumers use this day’s incredible deals to justify spending their day buying (and often fighting over) a limited amount of goods. However, have you ever considered that Black Friday can also be a good day to both advance your B2B operations and take advantage of some deals yourself?

Its flu season in Fort Worth and you can't go anywhere around this town without someone offering to poke you with a flu shot.

In my younger years, I would avoid getting a flu shot like the plague. I was firmly entrenched in the camp of folks that feel that getting a flu shot made no sense - why would I want to be injected with a virus I was trying to avoid? After all, getting sick is part of "natural selection"! Why would I want to go against nature? I'd be WAY out-gunned!

At the end of the day, your body does a pretty good job at fighting off the nasties that we call germs and bacteria. But, it could use an assist every now and then. Below are a few helpful practices that you might try to help you keep from picking up the dreaded germ arround your office.

1. Clean Your Keyboard and Mouse with an Approved Electronics Cleaning Cloth or Solution
It is a fairly easy process to accomplish, and worth the effort for sure. Think about it – you dug into the candy dish after multiple people at the office, you and Sally swapped TPS reports, you shook hands with a visitor and you used the doorknob to vacate the restroom. Then, you came back to your keyboard and started typing. You see where I am going with this. Speak with the office manager to see if you have any approved cleaning solutions on hand, then reach out to your IT solutions provider before moving forward with the scrub down.

2. Don't Eat around your Computer
Those crumbs that fall between the keys might as well as be a smorgasbord for infection. If all of those germs described above have collected on your keys as you type away and take a bite of your McMuffin – well that is pretty gross. You are eating those germs, and then incubating them in your body. Long story short, you may not want to eat at your desk.

3. Wash Your Hands, Please
I know, we are not six years old anymore. Still, too often people neglect to wash their hands or do so properly, hence why I'm reiterating this. Just do it. A good rule of thumb is to massage the soap into your palms, between the fingers – basically every crack and crevice – while singing happy birthday (in your head). All in all, it is just the respectful thing to do for those around you as well, since it will help prevent the spreading of germs.

4. Sneeze Away from Your Computer
Take a walk over to an employee that you do not like, and sneeze on their computer instead. JUST KIDDING. However, I have witnessed co-workers sneezing in their cubicles, and not covering up their mouths. As a result, their workspace becomes a breeding ground for whatever ailment they are carrying. When you sneeze, cover your mouth like Count Dracula. Sneezing into your elbow is a good practice when there aren't any tissues readily available. Keep a roll of cleaning wipes in your desk drawer, and give your work area a good wipe down once a week – or more if needed.
I've evolved a bit in recent years. I've got kids now and I've had them bring sniffles home from school, wipe their runny noses across my shirt in the afternoon only to find myself on the floor of the bathroom the next morning after a night of sweating and shivering and other bad things that make my stomach hurt to think about.

I think I've reversed my position on flu shots in recent months. I'm proud of myself for that. Perhaps the flu actually has helped me to evolve after all. I hope these tips will help you to keep from enjoying the Fort Worth flu but if you do get it, maybe it’ll help you evolve too, and you’ll be better for it.

The new smartphone models are here. This year there are plenty for consumers to get excited about in the smartphone space. The return of the Galaxy Note, the evolution of the Galaxy s8, a premium iPhone, and the return of two of the industry's heavy hitters highlight this year’s best smartphones.

When tablets first hit the market, the general prediction was that they would eventually replace PCs as the de facto device for computing, However, based on their steadily declining sales, this prediction seems to be a little off base--but, why? A closer examination provides some insight into why tablet sales have dipped.

You’ve used a mouse for years, but do you know of all the neat little tricks that it’s capable of? We’ll show you just how much you can get done with your mouse.

How does your organization manage its mission-critical technology solutions? We know that most small businesses have some sort of trouble with this topic, either due to budget constraints or a lack of personnel. Either way, we know that there is a better way to manage your business’ technology, and it’s all thanks to an approach called managed IT services.

If you are a dedicated user of Google Calendar, you’ll have realized that it’s recently undergone a significant improvement. Google has pushed out an update that has really polished their calendar in terms of both visual appearance and functionality, which is something that you’ll really appreciate, especially if you are a G Suite user. How can you use this new version of Google Calendar for your business?

Whenever you download a file from the Internet, the file will, by default, go to an aptly-titled folder in Windows called Downloads. Unless you change the default settings, your files will always be saved here. But what if you want to make it so that your downloads go somewhere else? You can accomplish this pretty easily. We’ll walk you through how to do it for some of the most popular browsers, including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox.

Physical security is more or less what it sounds like: security intended to protect the physical infrastructure that houses your business and your critical data. Many of the pieces of physical security will seem very familiar, even if you didn’t know the right terms for them.

If you have spent any time using iOS you been prompted to input your iTunes password. This measure can ensure that no one but you can access to your important account data. However, iOS will ask for your password quite often, and security researchers point out this good-intentioned practice could actually have the opposite effect.

Apple’s constant insistence that users enter their passwords leaves them open to phishing. It’s not only the frequency of requests, but the way iOS asks for that password makes it very easy for malicious developers to steal passwords. You might think you’re just typing your password into yet another Apple dialog box, but it could be a fake.

Until Apple makes some changes, users can protect themselves by pressing the home button before inputting their password in dialog boxes. If the box is spawned by the app, it will disappear along with the rest of the app. If it’s actually a system dialog, it will remain on the screen.  

Most people don’t think to try and print something out from their smartphone--particularly because it’s such a new concept. With smartphones quickly becoming just as fast as desktops from just ten years ago, it shouldn’t be such a stretch to suggest printing from them. Thanks to the cloud, you can use your Android smartphone to print something directly from the device.