Posts Tagged ‘Computer Company’

How to Work from Home?

October 27th, 2020

Today many businesses need to “Work from Home” to keep the business running.  Is it time for your business to move to the cloud? Cloud computing increases efficiency, helps improve cash flow and offers many more benefits…

Check out ten of the best below.
By-the-way, any three of the benefits would be enough to convince many businesses to move their business into the cloud. But when you add up all ten? It’s time.

1. Work from home during the Coronavirus

With cloud computing, if you’ve got an internet connection, you and your employees can be at work. And with most serious cloud services offering mobile apps, you’re not restricted by which device you’ve got to hand.

The result? Businesses can offer more flexible working perks to employees so they can enjoy the work-life balance that suits them – without productivity taking a hit. One study reported that 42% of workers would swap a portion of their pay for the ability to telecommute. On average they’d be willing to take a 6% pay

2. Disaster recovery

Businesses of all sizes should be investing in robust disaster recovery, but for smaller businesses that lack the required cash and expertise, this is often more an ideal than the reality. Cloud is now helping more organisations buck that trend. According to Aberdeen Group, small businesses are twice as likely as larger companies to have implemented cloud-based backup and recovery solutions that save time, avoid large up-front investment and roll up third-party expertise as part of the deal.

3. Security

Lost laptops are a billion dollar business problem. And potentially greater than the loss of an expensive piece of kit is the loss of the sensitive data inside it. Cloud computing gives you greater security when this happens. Because your data is stored in the cloud, you can access it no matter what happens to your machine. And you can even remotely wipe data from lost laptops so it doesn’t get into the wrong hands.

4. Capital-expenditure Free

Cloud computing cuts out the high cost of hardware. You simply pay as you go and enjoy a subscription-based model that’s kind to your cash flow. Add to that the ease of setup and management and suddenly your scary, hairy IT project looks at lot friendlier. It’s never been easier to take the first step to cloud adoption.

5. Increased collaboration

When your teams can access, edit and share documents anytime, from anywhere, they’re able to do more together, and do it better. Cloud-based workflow and file sharing apps help them make updates in real time and gives them full visibility of their collaborations.

6. Flexibility

Cloud-based services are ideal for businesses with growing bandwidth demands. If your needs increase it’s easy to scale up your cloud capacity, drawing on the service’s remote servers. Likewise, if you need to scale down again, the flexibility is baked into the service. This level of agility can give businesses using cloud computing a real advantage over competitors – it’s not surprising that CIOs and IT Directors rank ‘operational agility’ as a top driver for cloud adoption.

7. Document control

The more employees and partners collaborate on documents, the greater the need for watertight document control. Before the cloud, workers had to send files back and forth as email attachments to be worked on by one user at a time. Sooner or later – usually sooner – you end up with a mess of conflicting file content, formats and titles.

And as even the smallest companies become more global, the scope for complication rises. According to one study, “73% of knowledge workers collaborate with people in different time zones and regions at least monthly”.

When you make the move to cloud computing, all files are stored centrally and everyone sees one version of the truth. Greater visibility means improved collaboration, which ultimately means better work and a healthier bottom line. If you’re still relying on the old way, it could be time to try something a little more streamlined.

8. Automatic software updates

The beauty of cloud computing is that the servers are off-premise, out of sight and out of your hair. Suppliers take care of them for you and roll out regular software updates – including security updates – so you don’t have to worry about wasting time maintaining the system yourself. Leaving you free to focus on the things that matter, like growing your business.

9. Competitiveness

Wish there was a simple step you could take to become more competitive? Moving to the cloud gives access to enterprise-class technology, for everyone. It also allows smaller businesses to act faster than big, established competitors. Pay-as-you-go service and cloud business applications mean small outfits can run with the big boys, and disrupt the market, while remaining lean and nimble. David now packs a Goliath-sized punch.

10. Environmentally friendly

While the above points spell out the benefits of cloud computing for your business, moving to the cloud isn’t an entirely selfish act. The environment gets a little love too. When your cloud needs fluctuate, your server capacity scales up and down to fit. So you only use the energy you need and you don’t leave over sized carbon footprints. This is something close to our hearts at Salesforce, where we try our best to create sustainable solutions with minimal environmental impact.

Not moved to the cloud yet?

Any three of the above benefits would be enough to convince many businesses to move their business into the cloud. But when you add up all ten? It’s time.

 

(this article was re-posted from: Salesforce UK)

Email Encryption – Why?

September 21st, 2017

Why Should You Consider Getting Email Encryption?

Ensure Your Communications Are Safe & Confidential

When sending emails to customers, employees, or business partners, your business has to ensure that any sensitive information you send is completely secure. Every industry in today’s marketplace has a need for encrypted email communications – simply hoping that no unwelcome eyes are viewing your information is not enough. Keep your emails completely confidential with The Computer Company’s encrypted email services.

Encrypting Your Emails is Easy

 Once our email encryption services are implemented, securing your emails is simple. With a click of a button, your emails can be encrypted and decrypted. Receivers of your encrypted email only have to go to a secure site and create an account to view your email. Once your email receiver has an account, they just login to view any of your subsequent encrypted emails. Your email encryption is easy, simple, and fast thanks to The Computer Company. Best of all, it’s guaranteed to be secure. While other companies may have to worry about hacking, phishing, and other digital threats, your company can rest easy knowing your communications are under lock and key.

Email Encryption Is Especially Important For…

  • Finance – Whether you’re in the finance industry, or simply handle a lot of money in your day-to-day business dealings, email encryption is key to ensure financial information is secure.
  • Government – Government entities need to be more concerned than the average organization about security and privacy of information. Our email encryption services can handle thousands upon thousands of encrypted emails and receiver accounts. The public trusts you – and you can trust us.
  • Healthcare – Patient information is one of the most sensitive issues in the medical field. This is true whether you are a hospital, a clinic, or an insurance company. Allowing this sensitive information to fall in the wrong hands can lead to legal troubles, emotional harm, and even patient illness or death.

Your company can’t afford to have your private and confidential information hijacked by a hacker or a competitor.

Don’t risk your securitycall (860) 635-0500 today to learn more about our secure email encryption service.

Future-Proof Ideas for Websites

March 15th, 2017

When you’re talking about the future it’s hard not to get carried away. The future of almost everything seems exciting. Futuristic cars, houses, television, and of course, websites, will seemingly be able to perform almost any function, thanks to creativity and advances in technology.

But instead of focusing on the technology side of the future, focus on the human side. Human behavior is a more consistent bet than technology. If we prepare our website for the future with human nature in mind, we will put our organization in a good position regardless of how the flood of technology leaves things.

Future-proof ideas for websites

If we bet on technology, we can either be really right, or really, really wrong. But if we bet on human nature, we can count on consistency and know that our website is going to be well-positioned for the future.

The website of the future must be:

  • Simple
  • Mobile
  • Fast
  • Human
  • Useful and/or interesting

1. Make it simple

People value simplicity. Every day, more than 100 million pieces of content are shared on Facebook. More than 90 million Tweets are Tweeted. About 50,000 new blogs are created to get stacked on top of the 150 million+ that are already out there. As you read this, some of the 294 billion emails that are sent each day are being written.

We’re in an era of information overload. Our audience members are busy people who are overcommitted *outside* of their Internet lives. It’s a small miracle each time they make it to our sites so we shouldn’t overwhelm them once they get there.

The first step in preparing your website for the future happens offline. Websites are often a reflection of the organization that created them. If our organization is disorganized, and poor at communicating, our website will be, too. Design by committee often results in a battlefield of compromise where your visitor is the casualty. As an organization, we must go through the difficult task of truly answering some basic but powerful questions:

  • What kind of person is my audience member?
  • What’s the one thing they actually want from me?
  • What one action do I want them to take?

There are no Swiss army-knife sites We need to simplify, specialize and stick to our core mission or risk becoming irrelevant.

If the future of the web is simplicity, here’s how you can prepare:

  • Boil down your organization’s core offering
  • Conduct a website audit: check for competing initiatives on your own site
  • Check your analytics to see where you are losing visitors

2. Make it portable

People value convenience.

The world is going mobile in a hurry. You’ve heard the stats. By 2015, 63% of U.S. citizens will browse the mobile web. Nearly 150 million people will own smartphones and mobile traffic will increase 26-fold.

Mobile isn’t a trend. Mobile is the trend.

But the web isn’t just going to mobile devices, it’s going to any screen that can present the internet. Think kiosks, augmented-reality digital signage, screens we haven’t thought of yet. The web is going to be portable: found wherever a digital screen exists.

When you’re creating a mobile version of your website (which should be your priority over running out to create a mobile app just to create one), the simplicity you gained in step 1 (“Make it simple) will help pave the way for you to create a simpler menu that satisfies your audience members desires on your site.

To prepare your site for mobile:

  • Start thinking now about how you’d simplify your navigation menu and site content
  • Discontinue developing Flash elements into your website, focus on HTML or JavaScript
  • Focus on mobile-friendly first

3. Make it fast

People hate waiting

Nobody likes to stand in line. Waiting is tough for people. That’s why 40% of web users have abandoned a page after 5 seconds of loading.

Taking the steps to making sure our sites load quickly will have benefits to user experience and SEO. People are more likely to click through more on quickly-loading sites. And Google has mentioned that they take load speed into consideration in their algorithm.

Remember, simple sites load faster. And this is even more true (and more important) in mobile.

To get your site sped up for the future:

  • Check site load speed
  • Create a checklist of tweaks to apply to your current site

4. Make it human

People crave human interaction

We’ve heard the statistics on social media. And to be fair, a lot of organizations are at least trying social media. But the humanization of your website shouldn’t be limited to your social media pre-approved channels.

Social media – or the human element – should be a layer across your digital presence, not channel-based. Humanity evokes emotion from people. Showing the human side of your organization can have many benefits.

For instance, during a Fund donation drive, an A/B split test was conducted to see which donation form was more effective and generating donations. One form had a photo, the other did not. The one with the photo – the human – element – converted 10% better and resulted in $1 million more in donations.

The social side of your organization can come out anywhere you have content. Your email subscription thank you, your administrative copy, your error messages can all incorporate the human element.

For instance, a error message was written in a more human-friendly way and decreased the bounce rate by 66%

If the future of the web is social, here’s how to prepare:

  • Take inventory of your social media outposts: are you acting like a logo or a person?
  • Investigate where your audience socializes online
  • Start monitoring social media to keep tabs on influencers and your audience

5. Be useful or interesting

People love a good story

An article this long has to include the cliché “content is king” at least once so here it is: content is king. In a recent survey, 73% of people said they preferred to learn about organizations through articles as opposed to ads. Content is 61% more likely to drive someone to make a purchase than ads, and content can live forever on your website.

  • The power of a good story is strong.
  • And content can pay dividends down the road for your site. A Tweet or Facebook post usually only lasts for hours. A blog post can last for years.
  • The future of the web is storytelling, so start generating content that captivates your audience because it’s useful or interesting (or both!)
  • If you want to prepare for the future of the web, focus on human nature. Make it simple, portable, fast, social, useful and interesting you’ll be ahead of the race.

Put your website to the test!

30 Second Test – Things to look for:

  • Does your website communicate your message clearly?
  • At the end of the day, what do you want your website to do?
  • Does your website effectively explain your product/service?
  • How do your clients react to your website? Do they like it?
  • What does your sales staff say about your website? Does it help or hurt them?
  • Does your website sell for you the way you want it to?
  • Do you know If people are even using your website?
  • What do visitors do while on your website?
  • Bottom line, all websites have a call-to-action, even if it is to click on the next link or read the next page. Is your call-to-action getting you results?

If one or more of these questions cause you concern, call us today at 1-800-418-2358 and let’s get your website ticking again.

The Computer Company, Inc.
15 Commerce Drive, Cromwell, CT
(860) 635-0500

What does the end of Windows Server 2003 mean for you?

May 28th, 2015

Support for Windows Server 2003 ends on July 14, 2015.
Organizations still running windows Server 2003 should plan their migration. There’s not much time left and the migration process will involve more than just installing a new server. Though you can continue using the 2003 server after support ends, it is not recommended and will cost you more time and money in the long run on performance, security, and server management issues.

Small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) running Windows Server 2003 will run into vulnerability issues once support ends and can lose business due to compliance issues.
Businesses still running the 2003 server that handle regulated data like those in healthcare and payment card industry (PCI) data will face fines or be cut off from key trading partners like VISA, MasterCard or American Express that are looking to protect their own regulatory compliance status.

Customers reluctant to migrate out of 2003 servers will inevitably deal with having personal and clients’ information stolen. Your IT staff may not be able to fully restore information from malicious attacks or electronic data loss from cyber-security risks on an outdated server.

Upgrading from the Windows 2003 server means not only having to move on to a new up to date server but upgrade to new hardware as well to support the system. Though the upfront cost may seem expensive it is more cost effective in the long run than to deal with irretrievable data loss, security issues, and maintenance issues while dealing with frustrated clients.

Companies with about 100 servers can expect the process to be around 3 months or more to be fully migrated into new servers. Those more technologically savvy should work quickly, Microsoft’s end-of support website for Windows server 2003 is a great place to get started in accessing how many 2003 servers systems you currently have plugged in to move forward into the migration. A great resource is Microsoft’s Server and Cloud Blog at TechNet with informative posts like this multi-part migration guide (Parts one, two, and three).

There you can follow the four steps of migration planning:

  1. Discover: Catalog your software and workloads
  2. Assess: Categorize applications and workloads
  3. Target: Identify your destination(s)
  4. Migration: Make the move.

You can contact The Computer Company Inc., a Microsoft Licensed Partner to ease you into the migration process with personalized in-person tech support and 24/7 customer service.

 

 

 

 

References

1. United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (2014). Microsoft ending support for windows server 2003 operating system
2. Small Business Computing (2015). Say Good-bye to windows server 2003
3. Microsoft Download Center. Payment card industry data security standard compliance planning guide
4. ebuyer (2014). Businesses using windows server 2003 could face VISA & MasterCard backlash
5. IDC (2014). Windows server 2003: Why you should get current
6. Microsoft TechNet. Windows server versions

The Computer Company and CRIS Radio launching on-demand kids’ content

September 20th, 2011

Some 72,000 Connecticut children with special needs will be among the nation’s first with on-demand audio-text access to children’s programming via CRIS Radio in Windsor, officials say.

The content, which includes kids’ magazines such as National Geographic Kids, Big Backyard, Ask and Muse, also will be available as podcasts on smartphones and as downloads from CRIS Radio’s Web site, www.crisradio.org, said CRIS Executive Director Diane Weaver Dunne.

State and local education, business, and nonprofit leaders will be at CRIS’s Windsor broadcast center on Monday at 3:30 p.m. to officially launch its on-demand children’s programming service.

The programming will help students achieve independence with homework, provide a teaching tool for parents and educators, and offer students timely access to current events, Weaver Dunne said. The service will cost from $5 a month to $30 annually.

Nonprofit CRIS Radio is the state’s only radio-reading service for people who are blind, learning disabled or physically challenged.

CRIS says it partnered with The Computer Company in Cromwell to develop the kids’ on-demand service, and collaborated with nonprofit literacy organization Everybody Wins CT! to test the new programming in Hartford schools.

Story from: http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news