Ferrum Technology Services Blog

The cloud as a computing strategy is helping millions of businesses be the best version of themselves. The main reason for this is the inherent scalability that is made available through cloud solutions. Let’s take a look at how scalability benefits a business and how it works.

Communications are important for small businesses, but how much do you pay attention to your telephone system? While it might have been useful in the past, chances are your team members and clients are communicating with you in different ways, rendering your telephone system, more or less, obsolete—at least the traditional telephone systems, anyway.

Compared to other options like Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, traditional telephone solutions are simply outdated in nature and scope. Let’s go over what you need to know about VoIP.

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. 

Your business’ operations and performance will vary depending on how you choose to invest your IT resources and budget. If you see marked improvements over the years, then you are doing something right. If things remain the same, however, perhaps you could benefit from a different approach to your technology investments. Let’s examine the subtle art of IT investment and how you should approach it.

Business technology is far from the easiest thing to manage, and it’s mostly because managing technology is not the sole focus of companies (unless you’re us, of course). If you can’t overcome your IT challenges, your business could be held back needlessly. Let’s go over some of the common issues your organization might face with regards to technology management and maintenance. 

When was the last time you made a major purchase? Sometimes spending a ton of money on a big-budget item can seem exciting at first, but then the excitement fades over time, and you eventually start to ask why you even made the purchase in the first place. This is sometimes what happens when companies purchase technology solutions, and it occurs more often than you might expect.

Changing your business technology can be a major benefit for your business. Sometimes organizations struggle with the management of their new technologies, and a lot of the time that is because the people that need to use them find it difficult to successfully transition to new applications. 

With all the doom and gloom surrounding cybersecurity, it’s easy to get lost in the negative aspect of technology advancement. That being said, however, we do really love technology, and advancements in smartphone technology, in particular, have made amazing strides and led to great achievements in business and elsewhere. We just wanted to take today to appreciate smartphones and how incredible they are.

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.

More small businesses than ever before are selling products, goods, and services to their loyal customers, which means they need ways to process these transactions. Enter the point of sale system, a business’ preferred tool to process transactions in a retail environment. What goes into a successful point of sale system, and how can you use one for your business?

If we asked you what the difference is between productivity and innovation, would you be able to give us a clear answer? The answer is that one facilitates the other, aided by technology to improve operations and free up employees to focus on other, more lucrative tasks. Let’s take a look at how improving productivity can improve innovation, thereby increasing your organization’s ability to do great things.

If nothing else is certain, then you can bet that the need to improve circumstances or processes gives birth to innovations of all types. Technology has proven this time and again, as new solutions have emerged to solve previously unsolvable issues and challenges not only in the workplace, but in society as a whole. Let’s examine how economic difficulty has driven innovation, specifically in the technology sector.

As the world record holder for the land’s largest machine, the Bagger 293, a German bucket-wheel excavator, is certainly a sight to behold. Standing at a jaw-dropping 310 feet tall, the colossal machine looms over the Statue of Liberty at twice its height, and sports a massive 722-foot length. What’s cooler than the world’s largest ground-wrecking machine? One with remote technology!

When companies look to make their business more efficient many of them look to do so by taking pressure off their staff. By automating certain points of your business’ process, your team can do more to focus on revenue-generating tasks. This strategy has been working for businesses for decades, but today there is more technology available designed specifically to automate more of your business’ variables. 

Remember when you needed a wired connection between two endpoints in order to access important materials for your business? Thanks to wireless connectivity, businesses can now access online materials in a much easier fashion. The question then becomes, how does a wired connection improve your operations, and is it a benefit for your organization?

Small businesses have to be very particular with the way they utilize their resources, especially when it comes to technology. If implemented properly, new solutions can increase agility and efficiency, but if implemented incorrectly, they can lead to substantial upfront costs and additional resources dedicated to management, maintenance, and upgrades. Let’s take a look at what small businesses must consider when prioritizing their technology investments.

There are plenty of companies out there making technology investments, and chances are you are ready to take the plunge yourself by investing in the appropriate business technology solutions to take your company to the next level. However, we want to caution you to only invest in the right technologies, those that push your business forward. Here are some tips you can use to make sure you are keeping this strategy at the top of your mind.

E-waste is a considerable problem, and not just for businesses; it’s also terrible for the environment. Let’s go over some of the biggest reasons why discarded electronics, including some of the hardware that you invest so much money into, can be problematic, as well as some ways your organization can reduce its e-waste footprint.

We all know that there are many nuances to managing and maintaining technology in an effective and efficient way, but who exactly is in charge of these tasks at your organization? Do you have a dedicated IT resource that you can trust to get the work done, or do you rely on your other employees to stay afloat? If it’s the latter, we have some bad news for you, as well as a silver lining to it all.

There is no greater tool for your business’ success than the technology it uses, at least in theory. If you want to maximize the value you get from your technology, you need to make the correct decisions, which is easier said than done. Let’s go over some of the things to not do with your business technology.