Ferrum Technology Services Blog

Over a quarter of all data breaches happen to small businesses. The cost of a data breach, well, it sure isn’t worth it. To keep your business’ data and infrastructure free of threats and relatively secure, small businesses will need a combination of useful technology tools and well-designed strategies. Let’s take a look at several steps your small business can take to secure itself from digital theft.

Protecting your clients’ and employees’ personal and financial data has to be a consideration for every single business. Not only do you have a responsibility to protect this data, you also may have to do so to remain in compliance with regulations mandated by governments, industry organizations, and even your own business. With data privacy becoming a growing concern, we thought it would be useful to discuss the basics of compliance a bit in this month’s newsletter. 

Remote work doesn’t come without its fair share of issues, but with a little creativity and ingenuity, you can help your remote employees overcome them. Let’s examine structured problem solving, a particularly helpful approach to issue resolution that can help your team be more productive throughout the workday.

Businesses today have more options than ever before for their needs. With so many vendors available outside your typical in-house office environment, you can get most of the services you need via outsourcing. That said, there are certain processes you shouldn’t outsource, even if you think it might be a good idea.

There is a lot made of the importance of productivity when it comes to running a business. Of course, without a consistent output, revenue growth is impossible. As a result, many workers expect the same kind of effort that they give. When they don’t see that effort, tensions can get high and they can get stressed out pretty easily. Today, we will go through a couple of tips that will help you maintain composure when your job delivers more stress than you’d like. 

These days, it feels like there are risks around just about every corner that could affect your business. This can make it hard to navigate the challenges of running your company in an efficient way. Let’s examine some of the risks your average small business might encounter, as well as what you can do about them.

In the coming years, digital transformation is going to change the way people conduct business. So much so, that the shift has an anticipated value of approximately $767 billion by 2026. If your business is looking to get less analog in the way you go about your processes, you need to understand the pitfalls that many businesses are going to experience so that yours can thrive. This month, we take a look at why digital transformation objectives fail and what you can do about them. 

It’s no shock that business executives are already busy enough, but you need to add “knowing more about your IT infrastructure” to that list if you haven’t already done so. It’s critical that you are on the same page as your IT staff, and this relationship will fuel productive relations with both your technology and the staff utilizing it.

Ransomware does not discriminate by industry, audience, business size, or otherwise. It will always be a threat to your organization, no matter what you do or who you serve. Let’s take a look at some of the commonly targeted industries that ransomware is used against.

As we enter the third quarter of the year, now is as good a time as ever to reevaluate how you are spending your IT budget. According to Gartner, your IT spending might actually be increasing, assuming it’s in line with what your organization wants and needs. Are you being intentional with your IT spending? Where are you investing it? Are you spending it on avenues for continued growth? Gartner’s study might yield some interesting ideas which you can call upon to inform your own spending practices.

Your business runs on its data, and without an infrastructure to support your operations, your productivity will be dead in the water. Most businesses choose to host their data on servers, and if you know anything about these complex pieces of machinery, you know that managing and maintaining them can be an involved process. Let’s go over some best practices to ensure you manage your server infrastructure appropriately.

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.