Ferrum Technology Services Blog

Managers and employees might work for the same company, but the reality is that their responsibilities and experiences are two very different things. When you promote someone new to management, or if you join their ranks for yourself, you’ll have to keep certain practices in mind. Let’s go over some of these practices and how IT can ease some of the burden.

When a workforce can sustain high levels of productivity, the business they work for tends to grow fairly rapidly. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of reasons why your staff's productivity wanes; and, yes, some of them are your fault. One element that you may not have put too much stock into is the fact that people tend to be more productive when they are comfortable.

With so many employees working outside the confines of the office environment, communication solutions are more important now than they have ever been. While you might be used to your traditional telephone infrastructure, we’re sorry to say that it’s simply not going to cut it any longer. We recommend you make the shift to VoIP, or Voice over IP, as soon as possible.

Global supply chain shortages have been affecting businesses of all types for the better part of two years. For businesses that deal in computing, this problem has seen a jump in the price of some computer components, an inability to get some, and overall an interruption in their ability to supply the insatiable demand for technology. Today, we’d thought we’d take a look at some of the variables that have led us to the situation we now face. 

You have many employees on your payroll, each with their own specific expertise and skillsets. For the positions you just can’t seem to fill, however, there is outsourcing. Let’s go over how this practical method of hiring can help businesses take advantage of skills that they might otherwise be unable to procure for their companies.

When budgeting capital for your company’s technology, it isn’t always simple to know how much to allocate. In fact, a lot of times it can be a convoluted and troublesome experience. Our consultants spend quite a bit of time and effort working out workable budgets for our clients and today, we thought we would talk about how we come about our figures to comprehensively support a business’ technology.

There is a lot to say about having the right IT, but at some point, you have to ask if you are receiving diminishing returns on your investments. Implementing too much technology can be a very real problem, especially in terms of the software you choose to implement. Let’s take a look at some of the warning signs and see what you can do about them.

Employees come and go in the business world, so you should be prepared to handle this turnover when it happens. If your company does not have an adequate response to employee turnover, you could potentially put your business at risk. Here are three ways that you can make sure former employees cause you the least amount of worry, especially in regards to staffing and cybersecurity.

Modern businesses need to take advantage of every opportunity they can get in today’s crowded marketplace, almost regardless of the industry they work in. One great way to gain an advantage is to put technology in place that can significantly enhance how your business works, inside and out.

The pandemic placed a heavy emphasis on the capabilities for organizations to shift to remote operations, and if you were one of the many companies to seek additional equipment and hardware to make this happen, you might have noticed a lack of product out there. The global chip shortage has made it difficult for companies to procure new equipment, but there is another darker side to this story, particularly in regards to issues in the supply chain.

With all the communication tools that businesses use today, there still is no tool you depend on as much as you do your telephone system. Unfortunately for small businesses, the telephone system can be expensive and hard to manage. However, there is a way for you to get a full-featured telephone service with some of the most important communication tools, for a fraction of the price that you currently pay for your current telephone system. That way is through incorporating a VoIP system. 

Technology supply chains have been world-renowned for being some of the most dynamic and strongest for over a decade. Currently, companies are having problems procuring computers and networking equipment because of a global shortage of computer chips. Let’s take a look at the issue in today’s blog. 

When the pandemic hit early in 2020, many business owners didn’t understand the situation they were about to face. Many businesses didn’t have the technology in place to support remote work, and the ones that did likely had employees that weren’t prepared for the responsibilities that come with working from home. Now, as millions of people are getting vaccinated and governments are slowly lifting restrictions, the question becomes: What now?

Revenue generation is the name of the game for every business and sometimes technology is looked on as more of a hindrance to profitability than a tool to cultivate it. To turn this notion around, a business needs to make strategic investments that will return some type of benefit, whether that be the availability of alternate revenue streams, a boost in productivity, improved collaboration, and more. Today, let’s take a look at some ways that businesses can invest in their IT and improve their profitability as a result. 

We’re right in the middle of tax season and accountants are having to manage potential attacks on their data. Since people depend on your organization to keep their most sensitive information secure, having an effective strategy to protect that information is extremely important. As an IT service provider, we have solutions to help accountants handle this issue. Let’s take a look. 

There is no denying that, as far as Christmas days go, 2020’s is much different than most of us are used to. Instead of visiting with family and friends, most of us are remaining at home and awaiting the normalcy that a vaccine to COVID-19 will bring. With that normalcy, we also anticipate a return to something like typical business operations.

2020 is finally coming to a close. It has been an extraordinarily long year for most small businesses. Even if yours hasn’t seen a lot of the financial problems that thousands of businesses are seeing, you've definitely had to make some major adjustments that often come with additional cost. Through it all, one part of your business has been a rock, your people. 

Your IT budget might be a mess or it might be on point, but regardless of where you are on that front, you’ll come to face some situations that could be handled better. Today, you can optimize some of the most egregious financial requirements your business has regarding your technology--its IT support costs--by translating the unpredictably variable costs you likely deal with now for your support, to the much more sustainable agreement that a managed service provider will operate through.

COVID-19 is still a factor that businesses need to consider, especially in terms of their continued operations. With major adjustments required to stay open, many small and medium-sized businesses will need to accept the situation their business is in and implement changes. Fortunately, research that Salesforce summarized in their fourth Small & Medium Business Trends Report suggests that this is happening.

A lot is being made about running smarter businesses. Two terms you typically hear during this conversation are business intelligence and business analysis. This month, we will take a look at the two terms, decipher their meaning, how they are different from one another, and how they can help you determine the resources a business needs to improve itself.