Coleman Technologies Blog

Involve Your Team

In a crisis event, you need to have your team at your side (even if they must physically stay home) and supporting you. Here are a few ways to encourage this:

• Keep your team in the loop. Make sure that everyone has the information that they should, as withholding as much as possible will only distract from the goals you are trying to accomplish and make effective communications more difficult. Of course, don’t share information that they shouldn’t hear.
• Set the tone. As much as you can, maintain control of the situation at hand and make sure everything that you need to complete is still completed. Your employees will probably follow your example, making progress and recovery much simpler.
• Trust who you’ve hired. There is a reason that you haven’t fired your employees: they can contribute to the business. Allow them to make these contributions, rather than taking on too much yourself.

Evaluate the Situation and Adjust

Of course, a disaster is going to require some deviation from your standard operating procedures. Considering this, you need to be prepared to do a few things:

• Take stock of your situation. Try to get a comprehensive understanding of how things have been impacted by the disaster, and what is likely to happen as a result. Once you do this, you will be more prepared to shift your strategy as need be.
• Make the hard calls ahead of time. As you are anticipating the future, figure out what you will need to do to potentially deal with your predicted scenario. Start with the smaller stuff, like how your business hours might be influenced, and move on to the major ones, like how long of a shutdown your business could survive.
• Adjust to continue operations. Use the technologies available today to figure out alternative methods of completing your usual workflows. Give remote work a try, or open an online store to sell merchandise.

Keep Your Chin Up

Finally, it is important that you and your team maintain a healthy frame of mind as you make these adjustments, never mind deal with a disaster’s other ramifications.

• Find some normal. Keep yourself grounded and thinking clearly by finding something that helps you disconnect from the influence of a disaster. This can be something as simple as a new hobby, fostering an animal in need, anything that keeps you occupied and engaged.
• Help. If you have any free time, spend it doing something that can help someone else, even if it’s just writing a card. Even the smallest gesture can make a big difference.
• Stay informed via reliable sources. With the low barrier for entry that today’s technology provides, it is too easy to find and share incorrect and inflammatory information out there, not to mention opportunistic scams. Make sure you only trust news sources with a lengthy and proven history of reliability… even if it doesn’t make you feel better, at least you’ll know the information is trustworthy.

A big part of what Coleman Technologies does as a managed service provider is to help make sure that our clients are able to use the tools we give them to make it through scenarios like this. Call (604) 513-9428 today to learn more about how we can help, and make sure you are staying safe.

The modern business is more technologically driven than ever before, but there are some out there who haven’t embraced the benefits of technology and have alternatively chosen to stick with their more analog, tried and true methods. In today’s blog, we’ll discuss why technology is important and how to get started if your business is stuck in the 20th century.

Identify Your Biggest Analog Pain Points

Before diving headfirst into purchasing digital tools, take a moment to assess what’s causing the most headaches. Are you drowning in paperwork? Losing track of customer records? Spending hours manually entering data? These pain points will guide your digital transformation, helping you prioritize which areas to upgrade first.

Start Small with Easy Wins

Going digital doesn’t mean you need a full IT department or a Fortune 500-level budget. Start with small, manageable changes that have a big impact. For example:

• Swap out paper invoices for digital invoicing software.
• Move from a physical filing system to cloud storage.
• Use an appointment scheduling app instead of handling bookings manually.

These small changes will save you time and reduce errors, making your workflow smoother without disrupting your entire business.

Keep the Processes That Still Work

Just because something is digital doesn’t mean it’s automatically better. If certain analog processes work well for your business and aren’t causing problems, there’s no need to force them into the digital world. The goal is to enhance efficiency, not to overhaul everything just for the sake of modernization.

Train, Not Strain, Your Team

Technology is only useful if people know how to use it. Make sure you and your employees get comfortable with new tools by offering training sessions and step-by-step guides. If something feels too complicated, look for simpler alternatives. The best technology solutions are the ones your team actually wants to use.

Try to Automate, But Don’t Lose the Human Touch

Automation is a game-changer, but it shouldn’t replace the personal touch that makes your business unique. Use tools like chatbots and email automation to handle routine tasks, but make sure there’s still room for real human interaction where it matters—like customer service or relationship management.

Secure Your Data

Moving to the digital world means thinking about cybersecurity. Use strong passwords, two-factor authentication, and encrypted storage to protect your business from cyberthreats. The last thing you want is to trade your analog problems for digital disasters.

The biggest mistake businesses make when going digital are when they try to do everything at once. Instead of overwhelming yourself and your team, tackle one upgrade at a time with the help of the IT experts at Coleman Technologies. We can put you in a position to gradually update your technology and your corresponding processes. Give us a call today for more information at (604) 513-9428.

Technology is only effective in the hands of the right—or, at least, well-trained—employees. To work toward this goal, you’ll have to ramp up your hiring processes to ensure you garner the interest of the right candidates for the jobs. Nowhere is this more true than for your IT department. Let’s go over how you can make your business an attractive employment option for skilled and innovative technicians.

Better Technology Means a More Attractive Workplace

No one wants to work for a business that refuses to upgrade its technology and makes do with substandard solutions—especially in today’s flexibility-minded era. If you want to attract and retain top talent, you’ll need to offer them options like the opportunity for remote work when necessary, or at least part of the time. Your IT department is going to want these capabilities anyway, after all, because they only serve to improve your business’ operations.

Technology Makes Recruitment Easier

Keep in mind that you’re not the only one out there looking for top talent. If you take too much time during the hiring and interviewing process, you might find yourself being ghosted by candidates who were contacted by other, faster organizations. Automation is one tool you can use to ensure that your candidate searches go as efficiently as possible. The right solution will make scheduling interviews and reviewing resumes much easier. This should not only help you attract the attention of top talent, but do so before the competition does, too.

Technology is Great for Professional Development and Education

The last piece of advice we want to leave you with is that you should always encourage your team to expand their current skill sets. Again, with IT requiring constant learning, and sometimes relearning, of various practices and principles, you’ll want to ensure that your team has time to pursue tasks and skills that enrich your business. Automation can free up more time for training by virtue of making tasks easier and less time-consuming. Plus, it also allows your team to be happier with the tasks they are charged with because they will be more impactful and meaningful than rote work. 

If you’re worried about attracting top IT talent, look no further than Coleman Technologies. We can be your in-house IT department just as easily as an outsourced agency. To learn more, call us at (604) 513-9428.

The reliance on remote workers has grown exponentially over the past couple of years, and presents businesses some stark challenges as well as some amazing opportunities. As a result, a lot of businesses have tried to find middle ground and started implementing a hybrid approach to their workforce. Let’s take a look at what hybrid work entails and how it can benefit your organization.

Let’s Start from the Beginning

Remote work was growing slowly for years, but as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and government mandates were levied, a lot of businesses moved to remote work to try and sustain their operations. A lot of businesses did so reluctantly, with many more just choosing to shutter their business rather than take the risk. The organizations that did embrace the strategy still considered it a short-term solution to a major medical disaster. 

As the pandemic carried on, however, many businesses realized that it wasn’t going to be so simple for them to simply recall their workforce as many workers started looking for remote only work. For workers, it was everything that they thought they wanted, but they too were confronted with challenges. Sure, they eliminated the commute and the long hours at the office, but they then had to navigate the same expectations while working from the same place that they used to spend time unwinding from that same activity. 

As the threats of the pandemic wound down, a lot of companies wasted no time recalling their staff. This ended up backfiring for a lot of organizations as there were enough remote jobs available that paid competitive wages that lots of people quit their in-person jobs to continue to work remotely. This is now known as the Great Resignation. While some of this was just older workers taking early retirement, most of the people who quit did so to avoid going back to the grind.

A New Strategy

While many people quit due to employer demands, many people didn’t. They returned to the office, but were soon longing for the flexibility they had while working from home. This saw unprecedented losses of productivity and employers had to come up with another strategy to keep their workforce happy and effective. 

You see, business owners and employees both had ideas on how to make this work. For the business owners, they had invested in real estate, resources, and company culture to help their workers feel more at home in the office. A comfortable employee is a productive employee, after all; and employees immediately thought, “What’s more comfortable than being at home?”

This resulted in the hybrid compromise. Workers felt like they were much more productive working from home, but employers pointed out that their productivity isn’t as sustained as it is in the office. If somehow a business can leverage both strategies, they could get back on track. This is the hybrid approach. Effectively, employees are asked to come into the office a couple of days a week and work from home the others. Now it is quickly becoming standard operating procedure for businesses all over the world. 

The Hybrid Approach

If you are looking for a way to get the most out of your workers, going to a hybrid workplace is a great way to do it. It not only gives you (and your staff) the face time needed to promote a dedicated company culture, it also gives your staff the flexibility they need to not have to grind through every workday. 

Unfortunately, there are some considerations that have to be made to make this strategy work. Firstly, you have to understand that some of the biggest achievers you have in your business aren’t going to want to spend hours in your office in virtual meetings. This will just serve to push them away, so if you choose to implement this hybrid approach, consider these two factors:

Maintain Flexibility

You’ve spent a lot of time and effort on your company’s policy and procedure generation and a change to a hybrid workplace makes these obsolete. You need to pay attention to how your individual employees operate and manage them accordingly. After all, it is much easier to be more attentive to someone you trust’s needs than to find someone new. 

Make Sure People are Connected

One of the biggest problems with remote-only work is the tendency for people to get left behind. In order to make a hybrid system work you need to give your team the communications and collaboration tools they need to make your business a success. By making efforts to keep people connected, you can build relationships that will do nothing but benefit your business. 

The hybrid workplace also relies on technology and the experts at Coleman Technologies can help. If you would like to learn more about how to get a hybrid workplace up and running, give us a call today at (604) 513-9428.

While it’s true that technology has become essential for businesses, organizations still often grapple with various technology issues that can impact how they do business. Many times organizations get turned around and it can cause some aspect of their IT to be problematic for them. Today, we look at five common technology issues that businesses frequently face.

Not Actively Confronting Cybersecurity Threats

Businesses must contend with the constant threat of cyberattacks. They are everywhere, and are a massive threat to any business. Malware, ransomware, phishing, and other forms of cyber threats keep businesses on their toes. Protecting sensitive data and ensuring the security of digital assets is a critical concern.

Keeping Data Private and Meeting Compliance

As regulations governing data privacy become stronger and more specific, businesses need to ensure that they remain compliant. Managing and securing customer data in accordance with legal requirements is a significant challenge.

Managing Legacy Systems and Integration

Many businesses operate with legacy systems that may be outdated and incompatible with newer technologies. This presents a problem, but it’s manageable by integrating these systems with modern solutions, or simply upgrading to new platforms. This can be expensive, and can lead to challenges in achieving seamless workflow and data integration if not handled properly.

Digital Transformation Challenges

Adopting new technologies and undergoing digital transformation can be disruptive. Companies may face resistance from employees, encounter skill gaps, and deal with the need to restructure processes. Managing this transformation effectively is crucial to being able to improve your customer’s experience.

Scaling and Agility

As businesses grow, their IT infrastructure needs to scale accordingly. Scalability challenges may arise when outdated or inadequate systems cannot handle increased workloads, leading to significant performance issues. Using cloud-based solutions do quite a bit to address scalability concerns that pop up, specifically those that tend to rear their head during short-term projects. 

Addressing these technology issues requires a proactive approach, strategic planning, and ongoing investment in both cybersecurity measures and employee training. It's important for businesses to stay on top of technological developments, and we can help. Our team of IT professionals have a lot of experience getting businesses the technology that works for them. Give us a call today at (604) 513-9428 to learn more.

All successful businesses want to grow and better themselves, as growth is a direct indicator that you are doing something right, from providing better services to your customers or servicing more customers. If you’re not ready to adapt to this growth, you’re in for a difficult time. Here are three ways you can keep your business operating even when you’re experiencing unprecedented growth.

Prioritize Flexibility

If things progress too quickly with your business’ growth, then you’ll want to be prepared to adjust your strategy accordingly. Therefore, if you are expecting to experience growth, you’ll need to have the flexibility to adapt your practices in real time. You’ll also need to acquire additional resources, should the need arise, to scale services and allocate funds. For technology, the cloud can help you be particularly flexible, especially for controlling costs and resource access.

Keep Spending Under Control

It’s always stressful not knowing if your current level of growth is sustainable with your current staff, especially if you’re unsure if your budget can handle onboarding new employees. Payroll can be challenging, and if you aren’t careful, you could over-anticipate your staffing needs and break your budget. You can use technology to help control costs. For example, a CRM can be used to track customer interactions and collect valuable metrics from which you can make educated decisions.

Make Security Your Priority

With all of the exciting things going on with your business, it’s easy to put your blinders on and forget that the more your business grows, the more opportunities there are for security discrepancies to cause trouble for your company. Cybercriminals will generally pick easy targets, i.e. those that don’t properly protect themselves, so the more difficult it is for a hacker to infiltrate your systems, the less likely they will be to follow through on the plethora of tactics they could employ. Don’t put your business at risk by allowing it to grow so big you cannot protect it. Plan for growth and adjust your security measures in accordance to that growth.

Coleman Technologies can help your business implement technology solutions designed to scale and grow alongside your business, no matter what your work might be. If you’re ready to start the conversation about your business’ technology infrastructure, then we’d be happy to help you learn more. To get started, contact us at (604) 513-9428 today.

We tend to focus a lot of our time on this blog talking about the technologies that businesses can (and usually should) use as a part of their operations. However, without clients or customers coming in, there’s only so much good that these technologies can do. That’s why we wanted to briefly touch on a few technologies that can help you attract more people to your business so that all the other IT solutions we recommend can live up to their potential.

What Tools Can Benefit My Business’ Marketing Efforts?

The real key to your marketing success, regardless of your industry, is data. Data is critical if you want to accurately and efficiently answer some of the most important questions that will help guide your business’ marketing efforts. These questions include things like:

• What challenges or problems does my business solve for my clientele?
• Who should my marketing efforts be targeting, or in other words, who am I talking to?
• How can I most effectively communicate the reasons my business is the best choice for my prospective clients to choose—what is it that they find important?
• Where can I most effectively reach the people I should be talking to?

Fortunately, there are IT tools available today to help you organize your data and better answer these questions.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Platforms Help You Understand and Meet Your Customers’ Expectations

With a CRM platform at your disposal, you’re able to much more efficiently track various data points about your clientele that can be used to generate valuable conclusions about all sorts of things, helping you attract, onboard, and retain loyal customers over time. From helping associate common purchases to identifying spikes in certain customer behaviors to providing insight into far too many correlating factors to list here, your CRM effectively takes your data and identifies ways that you can optimize your marketing to suit your customers’ needs and priorities.

Various Platforms Help You Automate Your Marketing Efforts

Have you ever been browsing a website for some product, and suddenly you find yourself receiving emails offering you deals on similar or related goods? This is made possible through the combined use of a CRM and an email marketing tool. By taking the insights compiled by your CRM, you can use the data generated and apply it to your marketing efforts through email. Let’s say you wanted to sell more doodads… by taking a list of interested prospects from your CRM, you could use email marketing software to create an automated campaign to help push these doodads to a list of interested contacts, with other lists created to help you sell widgets, thingamajigs, and whatever else you wish.

In addition to helping you with your more targeted efforts, other platforms simply make your marketing less time-consuming. Options exist that allow you to schedule social media posts in advance, saving you from having to commit time each and every day to coming up with and posting new content on your various social channels. Many of these platforms also offer features that give you (what else?) additional data points to help you make these efforts more effective over time, as well.

Analytics Platforms Add to the Data at Your Disposal

Finally, if you want to market your business as effectively as possible, it will be important to go back and reexamine how effective your assorted efforts were. Different analytics platforms exist to help you in this regard, condensing the data into a digestible form to better communicate your ultimate return on investment. From there, you can take advantage of this data to make improvements and try it all again.

Of Course, Your Operations Need to Live Up to Your Marketing Promises

That’s where we really come in. We’ll be there to ensure that your business’ essential technology is firing on all cylinders and you’re functionally capable of delivering on the promises your marketing makes. Give us a call at (604) 513-9428 to learn more about our managed IT services.

While extremely useful, there are plenty of potential frustrations when using technology for your business. From extended downtime from broken technology to hackers trying to steal your data to tools that don’t really fit the specific needs of your business: managing a lot of technology can be difficult. In this blog, we are set to discuss three things you should focus on to get out in front of potential technology problems.

Choose the Right Tools

This can extend to hardware, but let’s focus on software for the time being. There are quite literally dozens of different applications to choose from for all different parts of your business. This can make it a little difficult to know exactly what to look for in the applications you ultimately will roll out for your employees. It is crucial that you choose the right software, and the right type of deployment, for your business’ specific needs. 

The thing that makes choosing software difficult is that there is no clear pathway to a rapid ROI based on the marketing materials put forth by the developers. Every piece of software developed for business use will claim to make your business more efficient, effective, and extensively better. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case and a business can waste a lot of money on software that doesn’t do what it needs it to do. 

The key to finding the right software (and the right deployment method) for your business is to look at what needs to be done. What are your pain points? Can you find organizations that have similar pain points? This will help you identify whether or not the software you plan on rolling out will actually set you up for a solid return, or just months of headaches before you spend more money moving off of that platform. 

Patch and Update Systems

I don’t know how many times in our initial assessment with a prospective client that we’ve found blatant vulnerabilities in their computing systems because their software is not patched and updated. Remember, these systems run your business and with so much data being pushed through them, they need to have the proper security patches and updates in place so as to not become a major problem.

Nowadays, zero-day threats are pretty commonplace. That’s scary enough. By utilizing software that hasn’t been updated regularly you are just opening up your business to attack. A data breach is a complete nightmare for any organization, but if you are an SMB, it could be a situation that you can’t rebound from. Besides, a lot of times you may get some useful new features by updating away from old versions of software. Keeping software updated is a win-win.

Get Knowledge from Professionals

IT can be confusing. It is not only difficult to completely manage, but it can also be a giant headache if it isn’t deployed correctly. That’s why it is essential to get the proper perspective when looking to set up new technology, or just get the right technology for your business’ needs. Unfortunately, many SMBs simply don’t have the resources to have the in-house expertise needed to properly deploy the technology, maintain it, and manage all the things that go into keeping it running effectively. 

At Coleman Technologies, our knowledgeable technicians have years of expertise, training, and experience integrating new technology into a business, effectively managing it, and keeping it maintained. If you would like to pick our experts’ brains about your business’ technology, give us a call at (604) 513-9428.

There are rules for doing business that most people understand. That status quo has been around for a long, long time, but as technology advances, it does more than connect parts that weren’t connected before; it can break down some of the old notions about the ways businesses are run and give people who think outside the box a leg up going forward. Let’s look at three ways business leaders are innovating how they do business.

Cloud-Based Collaboration Tools

Many small businesses have started to leverage cloud-based collaboration tools to enhance communication and productivity. These apps provide a centralized space for teams to collaborate in real-time, regardless of where they work. This streamlines communication and allows for efficient project management and file sharing.

E-commerce and Mobile Apps

Due to customer demand, small businesses have increasingly adopted e-commerce platforms and developed mobile apps. This strategy enables them to tap into online markets that grow each year. These apps facilitate features such as online ordering and digital payments while providing personalized customer experiences. 

Data Analytics for Informed Decision-Making

For years, enterprises have used data analytics tools to gain valuable insights into customer behavior, market trends, and operational efficiency. Today, small businesses are just beginning to utilize these technologies. By collecting and analyzing data—usually with the help of AI-fueled systems—companies can make informed decisions, optimize processes, and tailor their products or services to meet customer needs more effectively. 

Technology is not just changing the way that we live, it is also changing the way the world operates. The IT experts at Coleman Technologies can help you determine what technology is right for your business and get you in a position where you don’t have to deal with adverse situations such as data loss and downtime. Give us a call today at (604) 513-9428 to learn more.

The entire purpose of modern IT is to improve the processes that work requires us to do. Today, we wanted to address a few business priorities—productivity, cybersecurity, and accessibility—that the right tech can help you accomplish, explicitly exploring how different tools can contribute to your success.

Technology Can Kickstart Productivity

Of all business metrics, productivity is arguably the most focused on nowadays. Fortunately, implementing modern tools can significantly improve your chances of running a productive business. For instance…

Automation

How many tasks must be completed but consistently take considerable time without offering your business much practical value? The fact that such tasks interfere with your profit-generating activities puts them in direct opposition to your productivity. However, implementing automation and allowing these labor-intensive but straightforward tasks to run independently in the background can give your team members a lot of time to commit to profit-generating or business-advancing efforts.

Collaboration

There’s a reason that people say “let’s put our heads together” or that “many hands make light work.” Collaborating on any goal can very easily reduce the time it takes, and many modern technology platforms are designed with this in mind. Microsoft and Google each offer entire suites of software built with collaboration as a priority, which means embracing these capabilities is simpler and more accessible than ever.

Data Management and Analytics

Collecting and analyzing the data your business generates throughout its operations empowers you to make better and wiser decisions for your company. Modern IT tools can collect and process this immense amount of information, identifying promising patterns and highlighting what you can accomplish much more quickly than you could otherwise.

Cybersecurity is Simpler with Modern Protections

Security, as the past few decades of near-constant cyberthreats and data breaches should have taught us all, is critical for businesses of all sizes to get right. While this is far from an inclusive list, the following are vital elements of proper cybersecurity preparedness.

Advanced Threat Protection

As a blanket term encompassing various security tools, advanced threat protection requires a business to adopt safeguards like antivirus, firewalls, and threat-detection systems. Doing so will help eliminate a vast majority of the threats that you would otherwise face, significantly lowering the likelihood of your team encountering an issue nearly as often.

Data Encryption

With data being so readily targeted by threats, the safe option is to take precautions to mitigate the damage that stolen data can cause. Encryption is one such precaution.

By scrambling the data to anyone that doesn’t have the proper credentials to access it, encryption helps preserve the privacy of any data that might be breached and limits the damage done. While the breach is still not acceptable and needs to be addressed, encryption allows you to focus your energy on resolving the problem.

Employee Training and Awareness

One of the most persistent cybersecurity threats comes from inside the house in the form of your employees because they can very easily serve as a vulnerability. This makes it crucial that your team is aware of the threats they’ll face and are ready to spot them, which investing in employee training will help. Be sure you also run simulated attacks to evaluate how well this training works and to catch potential weaknesses in your defenses.

Today’s Tools Offer Enhanced Accessibility

While the workplace was once firmly defined as the office where business took place, modern technologies allow work to be done effectively anywhere someone can access the Internet. The following technologies are instrumental for this to happen productively and securely.

Cloud

The cloud can support a wide range of business needs, from storage space to software delivery and many others, simply because it’s just borrowed (or, more accurately, rented) computing hardware that someone else maintains on your behalf. That, paired with the relative affordability and accessibility the cloud provides, makes it a no-brainer for businesses to use the cloud, especially to support remote work.

Virtual Private Networks

When considering remote work, however, you need to take security even more seriously. It’s one thing for your team to access sensitive data from within your protected and secured network, and it’s quite another for them to do so from some airport, coffee shop, or even home network with a password like “locationnameWificode.”

One way you can work around this is by implementing a tool called a virtual private network, or VPN. You may have heard of them in ads or YouTube sponsorships as a means of accessing geo-protected streaming content from the comfort of your home. In the business world, their utility is far greater. Business-grade VPNs allow remote workers to securely access data you have stored on-site, as the VPN creates an encrypted bridge between their device and your storage hardware.

Remote Troubleshooting

We must also address the ever-present fact that IT issues happen constantly, regardless of whether someone works in an office or outside its walls. This makes it essential for modern businesses to have some form of remote support available to perform remote monitoring and maintenance on their IT infrastructure and help employees efficiently address any issues they encounter. Today’s technology makes this kind of support-from-a-distance possible, whether it is performed by an in-house IT department or an outsourced provider.

We Can Be the Outsourced Provider to Assist With All of This…

…and, frankly, a lot more. Reach out to us at (604) 513-9428 to inquire about any or all of the above and learn more about what we can do for your business.

Running a business may never be totally smooth sailing, but it doesn’t have to be a complete grind all the time either. Managing complexities with your business’ technology is a good way to ensure that things move ahead with some efficiency. Today, we look at four ways to effectively handle complexities in the realm of business technology.

Strategic Planning and Alignment

The first thing that has to happen is that you need to assess your business’ goals then work to align technology initiatives with these goals to ensure that any IT investments contribute directly to the success of the business. You’ll want to create a comprehensive technology roadmap that outlines how different systems and technologies will evolve over time. This roadmap should account for strategic changes inside of a business and allow for the integration of emerging technologies that can bring better efficiency.

Integration and Interoperability

If possible, you’ll want to select technology that is scalable and can grow with the business. Scalable systems are better equipped to handle increased complexity and the quickly growing data volumes that businesses have today. Another thing that has to be considered is how to improve data flow. One of the best ways to do this is through integration, as it ensures that data flows efficiently across the organization, reducing the complexity of structuring data. 

Cybersecurity and Risk Management

Cybersecurity is one of the most pressing issues any organization has. One of the best ways to thwart risk is to monitor your systems. By implementing a robust cybersecurity framework and regularly monitoring endpoints for potential vulnerabilities, you can better detect and respond to security threats in real-time, minimizing the risk of data breaches and other cyberattacks.

You’ll also want to educate employees on cybersecurity best practices. Establish clear policies and procedures for data protection and ensure that employees are well-informed and trained to follow them.

Agile Project Management

The last point is about building business agility. You’ll need to embrace agile project management methodologies to increase flexibility and be able to respond to your changing needs. Additionally, your business can become more agile with a comprehensive cross-platform training program. The more people that know how to do a job, the more apt that you’ll be able to complete a project efficiently and effectively. 

By adopting these strategies, organizations can navigate the complexities of technology and position themselves inside their market. It’s best to regularly reassess and refine your business’ approach to stay ahead of emerging challenges and opportunities. If you need help getting started, give IT experts at Coleman Technologies a call today at (604) 513-9428.

Which seems a little ridiculous to me, if I’m being honest. Your staff is one of your biggest investments. On top of that, it is important to remember that, since your employees are human beings, pushing them to do more might actually result in them accomplishing less.

In my experience, the best way to help an employee accomplish their best is to track their performance and evaluate their next steps. Is this always foolproof? No - but as I said, in my experience, it is the best way.

Understanding Employees

Before we go any further, it is important that I make something clear: we are proceeding with the understanding and acceptance that your employees are like any others: flawed human beings, capable of a lot and likewise distracted by a lot. Either way, holding them to the same standards as we would some automated alternative is unfair, as I am sure you would agree.

However, and somewhat unfortunately, this often isn’t the impression that employees get from management. Some common complaints from employees are:

• Their workplace lacks communication.
• They have no job security.
• They aren’t paid what they’re worth.
• Credit isn’t given for their hard work.
• Favoritism is alive and well in the workplace.
• Management constantly has them under a microscope.
• They have to deal with managers who are incompetent.
• There’s just too much work to do.

Now, put in a list like this, these don’t look too great, and you may want to shrug them off and assume that they aren’t happening in your company… they almost certainly are.

Having said that, I want you to think back to when you once worked for someone else. How did you feel going in every day? Now look at that list again - some of those line items may have helped motivate you to go into business for yourself.

Let’s face it - entrepreneurship isn’t something that people are really “born to do”...it is a decision that people make, usually after paying their dues and working for other people and seeing ways that they would do things differently (or in their minds, better). Some staff members love working for certain people, and other staff members don’t, occasionally acting on it.

The point of all this: people are people, and as such, there is no single equation for dealing with employees well.

This means that, no matter what you do and what style of management you use, not all employees are going to be a good fit at your company. This means that, along the line, someone was going to feel displeased about their work situation.

Remember, while you should still be doing everything you can to make the work environment as amiable as possible for your employees, some just aren’t going to be a good fit, and may need to be addressed in other ways.

Is It Ethical to Monitor Your Employees? Or... Legal?

At the end of the day, it is important that you realize while payroll can be your greatest investment, it can also be your worst. This means that you need to keep track of how your employees are performing and spending their time in the office, which leads you to the prospect of actually tracking your employees in the workplace.

This opens up a few more questions, starting with the data you are actually collecting. What is it that you are trying to track? Should you keep it simple, monitoring attendance or the number of hours an employee actually spends in the office? Are there different performance indicators that you like to keep updated metrics concerning? Do you want to monitor keystrokes, making sure that they are working diligently throughout the day, or their browsing histories to make sure they aren’t putting your company in jeopardy by visiting sites they shouldn’t be?

This is where things can get a little murky as far as business ethics are concerned. How much do you really need to know, and how much will you collect as collateral data?

As it stands today, employee monitoring software is in high demand, the market growing as more businesses decide to protect themselves against theft by an employee. The consensus seems to be swaying toward the opinion that you can’t trust your employees not to take advantage of you, either by stealing data and other resources, or dishonestly reporting their time.

There is also a lot of license given to businesses in terms of what can legally be done to protect their own assets, especially where an employee’s privacy is concerned. Courts have ruled in some cases that a company can track an employee’s behavior after they have left the confines of the office. Consider the permissions that a user needs to agree to in order to access work-related files on a personal device. There is little to stop the employer from also going through private messages with that access.

So yes, it is currently legal to monitor your employees, which means the decision really falls to you and your conscience. Of course, this may change, or it could just as likely stay the same. Privacy is a contentious subject these days, with no clear indication of how things will turn out when (and if) it is ever settled.

Mindfully Monitoring Employees

One of the hallmarks of employee monitoring is the fact that the monitoring itself is kept about as hidden as the behaviors it is meant to catch. Whether you’re keeping an eye on your surveillance footage, web activity, internal correspondence, or keystrokes, the person being monitored traditionally would only find out if they were told… which isn’t something that companies have traditionally done, either.

I would urge you to actually break from tradition here.

Ethics aside for a moment, it just makes more practical sense to inform your users how their activity is to be monitored. Not only will this transparency help you build and maintain trust amongst your users, but it can also help keep issues from developing in the first place. Think about it - what happens when people realize there’s a patrol car on the highway? They immediately check the speedometer and correct their speed. Transparency has a great way of acting as a deterrent in that way.

You also want to consider the kind of metrics you’re actually collecting before you evaluate your employees based on them. Do the metrics line up with how the employee provides value to the business, and/or the actual value they deliver? Look at it this way - when you’re looking to buy an appliance, like a toaster, you won’t find out how well the toast is browned by measuring the length of the power supply cord. Metrics can be useful tools, but only where they practically apply.

Finally, don’t give up on your employees too quickly. If your monitoring picks up on one of your staff members having a tough time, try addressing the situation as your first option. Sudden downturns in employee productivity are usually caused by something, and that something might be fixable. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t terminate an employee if you need to, just to consider alternatives before diving into the hiring process again and losing what may still be a valuable resource.

What are your feelings on employee monitoring, and using these kinds of solutions? Share your thoughts in the comments section, and check back in with our blog to learn more about optimizing and securing your business’ technology.

Let’s go over some of the ways that an MSP can help reduce your support costs, while still providing better support than the alternative.

Where Support Costs Build Up

Take a moment and consider why technology costs tend to rise so rapidly once an issue is discovered.

• The technology itself could be expensive to repair or replace.
• The repair fee will likely include fees and travel costs in addition to the cost of the service itself.
• The repair is likely only focused on fixing the immediate problem, without considering if it will recur or if the fix itself will cause further problems down the road, leading to repeat visits.
• If an issue does happen, you have to call in the technician for them to come and actually fix the problem. This all takes a lot of time, before the repair even takes place, which itself can take a large amount of billable time as well. So, in addition to paying for the travel time for the tech to get there and the time they spend solving the issue, you are also incurring costs through missed productivity.
• It is next to impossible to predict these kinds of expenses when trying to budget out your year, as you can never know when you may be surprised. If you set aside too little, you could drain your budget long before you planned.

Of course, this is assuming that you would call a regular tech support company and that you didn’t have a managed service agreement with an MSP. Most of the above issues can be resolved much more efficiently (and cost-efficiently) through a managed approach, as we’ll demonstrate:

How MSPs Ease These Budgetary Challenges

Let’s go through the reasons we went through before, that would typically lead to swelling costs and exceeded budgets. This time, however, we’ll assume that you’re leaning on an MSP for your IT assistance and support.

• While the technology could be expensive for others to procure, the MSP likely has developed a relationship with vendors who can provide them with more affordable solutions.
• Many problems can actually be resolved remotely, as the MSP takes full advantage of. This means that travel costs are usually unnecessary, and anything that falls within the agreement with the MSP is covered by a consistent monthly fee.
• In addition to fixing the problem at hand, the MSP uses their access and vantage point to identify the root cause of the issue. This means that the issue itself is resolved, preventing future intervention from becoming necessary.
• Your MSP will also monitor your technology for these kinds of issues, using special tools that alert them of inconsistencies and errors. Since they use remote access to do so, they can even find potential problems and proactively fix them. Even if an on-site visit is required, it may be included in the agreement, as well. As a result, your team can return to work--and therefore productivity--that much quicker.
• With a recurring and inclusive fee for these services, budgeting for a managed service provider is a relative breeze. Any changes you need to make (like if you add more employees to further boost your productivity) can easily be incorporated into your monthly fee, keeping costs in check.

Interested in finding out more? Reach out to our team and ask about what other benefits working with us can bring! Call (604) 513-9428 today.

For all the benefits that remote work offers, it does come with some challenges. Fortunately, there are different strategies that can be applied to help overcome them. Let’s break down something called structured problem solving, and how equipping your team members appropriately can help you with it.

What is Structured Problem-Solving?

Many business problems can seem large and unassailable—but I know I don’t need to tell you this. However, when something becomes so nebulous that it doesn’t seem to be approachable, it can be paralyzing. Again, you quite probably already know this.

Structured problem-solving is a technique that can help you address these issues. Basically, by dividing the massive problem into its core parts, it makes a complex conundrum far simpler to handle in a sustainable way.

One widely-implemented method to help improve existing processes is known as DMAIC—short for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. This is a solid approach to take when problems are, as we’ve said, complex.

How Does DMAIC Work?

• Define which process it is that you are experiencing issues with, where your opportunities for improvement lie, and what goals you want to reach.
• Measure how well your process is performing.
• Analyze the process to identify where the shortcomings are.
• Improve upon the shortcomings by resolving what causes them.
• Control the newly devised process to ensure performance is maintained.

That’s pretty much it—and by applying this process to each variable, structured problem-solving can more or less be used to optimize any business process that you carry out.

One of Remote Work’s Biggest Problems: Communication

It’s not a secret that there’s a divide, both literal and figurative, between your in-house employees and those that are working remotely. When in the office, communications are almost laughably easy. Businesses will have multiple communication tools available, sure, but there’s also the fact that if two people in the office really needed to communicate, they could also just step aside and have a conversation.

Your remote employees don’t have that luxury. This creates an issue. So, following DMARC in this case, we can define the problem as the lack of communication that is shared between your employees. Likewise, we can define our goal as improving communication practices between employees in different locations. From there, we can measure how frequently your employees are communicating amongst the office as compared to in-house and remote.

Next, we should analyze where exactly this process—in this case, workplace communication—is failing. Are your employees up to speed on the tools available to them? Have you expressed the importance of maintaining communication between all coworkers, not just the ones in the office?

Once we’ve compiled this information, we come up with how to solve our challenges and put efforts in place to do so. Let’s say that we elect to hold training sessions to better introduce the team to the tools at their disposal, so there’s no longer ignorance to blame for a lack of communication. Our job is not done, however, as we then need to maintain some control over this revised process. Perhaps we then implement regular refresher training sessions to reinforce these behaviors over time…and that may or may not be enough to solve the communication issues. If so, great, and if not, the process repeats.

We Can Help Solve Problems on Your Behalf

There are bound to be enough issues in your business—in any business—for you to solve that removing any from your purview is sure to be beneficial. Working with us will remove your IT from the list of things you need to worry about, whether or not your team is working in-house, remotely, or a blend of the two. Give us a call at (604) 513-9428 to learn more about what we can do to simplify your daily processes through improved IT.

IT Management Matters More Than Ever

From a certain point of view, businesses now find themselves in a unique position to restructure their operations. For instance, the COVID-19 pandemic has provided an inconvenient case study of sorts that shows a promising outlook on remote productivity.

It has also helped to shine the light on how impactful waste can be in poorly managed IT strategies. Without any engaged oversight, the heightened use of cloud services can lead to a few considerable issues, including

• Unused accounts and services
• Duplicate accounts for services
• Services still earmarked for a former employee
• Misconfigured services

These issues can ultimately account for 30 percent of an organization’s IT investment spend and can be resolved with remarkably little effort. The problem is that someone has to know to catch it—and if these things were set up by somebody who has since left, or worked for a break-fix provider, that person may not be available.

So, it only makes sense that businesses would want to take account of these costs, and shore them in.

Of course, we have to talk about the economy. With the economy in the state that it is in, businesses are going to have to batten down the hatches. In addition to consolidating budgets and managing them better, businesses need to know that they have the solutions necessary to survive going forward.

This will require modern solutions that allow for remote productivity and collaboration to take place. A modern IT provider, like Coleman Technologies, can provide for all these needs.

How Our Services Can Help

As a managed service provider, we work in the background of your organization, remotely keeping an eye on the technology your team is relying on to do their jobs. In doing so, we can spot potential wastes of time and money—including the ones listed above, by the way—and resolve them before you ever find out about it. This way, your workday can carry on without the added stress that technology issues bring.

To learn more about our services, give us a call at (604) 513-9428.

As necessary as technology is in modern business operations, a variety of common IT-related obstacles must be overcome for your efforts to succeed. Fortunately, partnering with a managed service provider (MSP) can make these obstacles less “mountain” and more “molehill.” Let’s examine some of the most often seen business technology challenges and discuss how a relationship with an MSP helps alleviate them.

Your Users Aren’t Properly Trained

It’s one thing to have the right tools at your business’ disposal… it’s another entirely for your workforce to understand how to use them fully. As with any business process, your team must be familiar with the tools they are expected to use to do so effectively.

Partnering with an MSP like Coleman Technologies, however, gives you access to subject matter experts who will help you lead your team along the right path and teach them the best practices for being as productive as possible while upholding the stringent security standards modern operations require. Investing the time to focus on your employees’ skills and expertise—while also giving them a resource to turn to—will provide you with some significant benefits in the long term. 

For That Matter, Your Users Aren’t Properly Supported

On a related note, your workforce will need somewhere to turn if (and when) they encounter a problem with their tech. While you may have an internal IT team for this exact purpose, that shouldn’t be their only concern. Every moment this team spends dealing with an IT issue is one less to invest in your organization’s future IT, and vice versa. If you don’t have an internal team (as many small businesses don’t), this exacerbates the problem, as many external providers charge exorbitant fees per call.

This is not the case when working with us. We’ll be there for your staff to contact if they ever have a question about their technology or need assistance with some aspect of their IT. Alternatively, we could work in the background to plan your business’ future technology implementations on your behalf.

Your Business IT Doesn’t Meet Necessary Compliance

Governing bodies and industry groups have been known to set standards that businesses must meet, benefiting their clients and society in general. Failure to meet these standards is often met with some consequence, often in the form of lost privileges or fines.

These consequences are often severe and should be avoided, as they could significantly impact your business’ capabilities in the long term.

Working with us means that you are working with a resource that is likely very familiar with the regulatory standards your business must meet (after all, they’ve likely dealt with it before) and can work on your behalf to ensure that all the “t”s are crossed and all the “i”s are dotted in terms of your compliance. We will be there to keep your business secure and productive and do so in a way that keeps those governing bodies and industry groups happy.

Your Business Isn’t Properly Secured

Security is not something that any business can—or should—take for granted. There is an obscene volume of cyberthreats, most of them gunning for easy targets.

Unfortunately, there’s only so much you can do to protect yourself and your business from the threats that are so prevalent today—largely through no fault of your own. After all, you have a business to run, a commitment that almost certainly takes most of your energy and attention. That said, you might not have that business to run without the protections necessary to protect your operations from today’s threats.

We can help you manage and maintain these protections, providing monitoring services to help catch issues of all kinds (including cybersecurity incidents) and respond to them with the appropriate measures. Furthermore, we will help advise and guide you in protecting your business correctly, recommending different tools and measures to ensure your business' defense.

You Have No Plan for Your Technology’s Future

Finally, every small business should strive for growth, whether that growth is in size, scale, or capability. This goal will require some form of business development, which means that the organization’s IT needs will also change.

We can be there from the very start to help businesses design a strategy to help sustainably guide these changes, ensuring that the technology an organization relies on is prepared to scale as it does in a way that the business can support. Consider what you want your own business to look like in a year, five years, or ten years from now. Working with an MSP sets you up to reach that, in terms of your technology’s role.

We Can Be Your MSP

Reach out to Coleman Technologies today to get started. Give us a call at (604) 513-9428.

For businesses, one of the scariest threats out there is that of compliance fines for not holding up your end of the bargain with your customers’ data. But what goes into compliance, and what does it look like? We won’t be digging into the nitty-gritty of what these specific regulations require; rather, we’re performing a broad analysis of what businesses should be doing to ensure compliance, regardless of the protocol or the industry.

Some Common Core Principles

Even though there are plenty of industry-specific standards and regulations you need to comply with, these regulations usually have several core principles in common:

• Transparency - Your customers have a right to know what data you collect, how you use it, and who you share it with.
• Consent - Never collect data from customers (or worse, sell it) without their consent. This is especially the case with personal data or sensitive information.
• Data minimization - While having a lot of data on your customers can be a good thing for sales, marketing, and so on, only collect and retain data that you need, and only do so if you have a specific, legitimate purpose for holding on to it.
• Data security - This is honestly a no-brainer; if people are going to trust your business with their data, it’s your obligation to ensure it’s protected to the best of your ability. This means protecting data from unauthorized access, like a data breach.
• Individual Rights - Remember, you’re collecting the data of customers—people who have trusted your business—so the least you can do is respect their rights to collect, delete, and restrict what you do with their personal data.

Again, the requirements vary by industry, but most businesses (if not all) should anticipate adhering to regulations that do the above, at a bare minimum.

What You Can Do to Ensure Compliance

While the above might paint a broad picture of compliance, we assure you it’s much better to be safe than sorry.

We recommend that you take inventory of all the data your business collects, as well as what it’s used for and how it’s stored. Once you’ve done that, be sure to implement any security measures you’re lacking, whether they’re strong passwords, encryption, unified threat management, and endpoint protection. All employees should also be well-versed in your business’ data privacy policies and security expectations, so implement a training schedule that’s reinforced with regular reviews.

Taking data privacy seriously isn’t easy, but we have a solution that makes it a lot easier.

We Can Help You Protect Your Data

IT plays a significant role in compliance, specifically when it comes to data security.

All businesses collect personal information in some regard, whether it’s the personal information of their employees, the payment credentials of their customers, or the health insurance documentation employees need to receive care. You need to keep this data safe. Thankfully, you can do it with ease thanks to our security solutions.

To get started taking compliance seriously (and you should), give Coleman Technologies a call at (604) 513-9428 today.

Effective teamwork is indispensable for business success. Collaboration stands out as an extremely important consideration, yet devising a strategy that expedites project completion and enhances service delivery poses challenges. This week, we get into modern collaboration practices and how technology can help you improve collaboration.

Cohesive Dynamics

Collaboration remains a critical concern for organizations due to its pivotal role in productivity. Many initiatives to improve teamwork often fall short of building the collaborative spirit among team members. Without a coordinated strategy for facilitating collaboration, instances of redundancy run rampant. 

Technology's Contribution to Collaboration

Technology serves as a catalyst in creating collaborative relationships and propelling business initiatives forward. The evolution of productivity suites, equipped with applications enabling simultaneous work on shared files allows your employees a cache of tools that can really push the needle in regards to productivity. 

Key Technological Components

Communication Tools

An important aspect of any robust collaboration platform is effective communication. Technologies such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), video conferencing, text and instant messaging, and email collectively constitute a comprehensive communication framework for every business. Unifying all these tools provides businesses with a lot of flexibility.

Collaboration Apps

Recognizing the growing reliance on collaborative strategies for maintaining productivity and efficiency, businesses are now looking harder at collaborative tools. These apps consolidate various tools into one application, enabling project managers to assign tasks efficiently while providing team members with the requisite tools for optimal performance. Features like instant messaging, video meetings, and file sharing streamline workflows, facilitating quicker project completion and bolstering overall productivity.

Effective collaboration emerges as a linchpin for success in an era where businesses seek to optimize resource utilization and enhance customer experiences. Leveraging technological advancements in communication and collaboration tools empowers organizations to overcome challenges and foster a culture of collaboration. Should your business require assistance bolstering its collaboration efforts, our expert technicians can provide tailored solutions. Contact us today at (604) 513-9428 to embark on the journey towards enhanced teamwork and productivity.

Efficiency is extremely important for any business to maintain consistent revenue generation. Technology is a big part of that. Today, we’ll discuss two ways that technology can help build a more efficient business. 

Outdated Software and Hardware

Many small businesses rely on old or outdated technology, either due to budget constraints or a lack of awareness of more efficient alternatives. These legacy systems may seem functional but often lead to slow performance, frequent crashes, and an inability to keep up with modern software or customer expectations.

Older hardware is prone to breaking down or running slower, which can frustrate employees and significantly reduce productivity, and can complicate things if it were to break down. Outdated software is another major problem. Older software sometimes can’t be updated or patched meaning these systems have to operate offline or become a major source of expense trying to secure them. Antiquated systems also don’t integrate well with newer tools, making it difficult to build efficient processes because people have to work around your technology instead of with it. 

In order to keep this technology-based inefficiency from affecting your organization, you will need to keep all of your systems updated with patches and updates. This reduces the chances that vulnerabilities from unpatched software will be exploited. You will also need to make a decision about old or poorly-functioning hardware. The more proactive you are about making sure your technology doesn’t fail, the less likely you will have to deal with large swaths of downtime. 

One other solution is to look into cloud-based tools where you can. The cloud now has reliable and secure solutions available for any business and can bring a load of benefits. You gain financial flexibility since you only have to pay for the technology your business needs, you also can scale pretty quickly to meet increased or decreased demands your business has. Options in the cloud also have the benefit to be available from anywhere with an Internet connection, significantly reducing any access-related downtime you would be subject to.

A Lack of Automation

Employee-driven processes remain a significant burden for many small businesses. Some are simple, but some are more complex and can be costly and inefficient if you rely solely on humans to do them. Automating some tasks of your business can be a real game changer. There are things like invoicing, payroll, inventory tracking, and more that can be automated, removing the increased chance of human error.

Some business owners stick to the “that’s how we’ve always done it” method that has worked in the past. The problem is that the world has changed and doing things that take more time can really put a business behind. Think about simple data entry: what a human can do in a normal 8 hour shift, software with AI can do in seconds. All that saved time saves money. What’s more, human operators make more mistakes with any data entry than do automation platforms. Finally, the slower your business is to make connections, the more revenue you miss out on. Automation can give you answers about your business in real time that can make a huge difference on the bottom line. 

To combat this lack of automation, we suggest first finding a robust Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution. Many options will also integrate with accounting and invoicing tools, payroll tools, and more. CRMs can help even the smallest business get the added automation and data analytics to improve efficiency across the board. Implementing a  comprehensive project management solution is also a good plan as it gives your team a robust system in which to run projects through. By focusing on automation when you are considering your next technology investment, you can significantly build better organizational efficiency.

At Coleman Technologies, our team of IT professionals specialize on helping businesses build the type of operational efficiency that is both functional and sustainable. If you would like to have a conversation about it, give us a call today at (604) 513-9428.

Manufacturers have long been at the forefront of technology. Today, this trend continues, but with new, innovative tools that are designed to make business more efficient and workers more productive. This technology has helped much of the manufacturing sector despite costs continually rising, supply chain interruptions, and other variables. Let’s take a look at some of the major technology changes that have fueled manufacturers during the past few years. 

Enhanced Digitalization

Manufacturers typically take materials and turn them into consumer goods or components for other manufacturers to use in their process. Many manufacturers have begun the process of digitization; meaning that they now are using digital systems to manage their business, interact with customers, and handle all the automation that has been tabbed to make their process more efficient. Most manufacturers have been using digital technology for quite some time, but some of the shifts that make these changes innovative include the leveraging of robots to do collaborative tasks.

Cobots

Artificial intelligence fuels this trend by using machines that are colloquially called “cobots”. Over 40% of manufacturers use robots and with smarter software the “cobots” can work alongside human workers rather than outright replacing them. This means these robots are much more affordable than traditional robots that typically replace human workers.

IoT

Another digital evolution for manufacturers comes from the Internet of Things. These sensors may not be built specifically for manufacturers, but they hold considerable value for them. The biggest benefit comes in the manner of predictive maintenance. Sensors can keep track of components and maintenance schedules, which can cut down on maintenance costs by a whopping 25 percent. If you consider that downtime can cost tens of thousands of dollars an hour, the more you can do to keep systems functioning as intended the better your business will be. 

Machine Vision

Another use of AI in manufacturing is called machine vision. It lets companies automate their quality control processes on each end of their business. Basically, it allows a manufacturer to run their operations faster than they would if they relied on humans to run point over their quality control. With machine vision detection, manufacturers can increase production and maintain a level of quality they expect from their process, a win-win for any manufacturer. 

Technology can help any type of business, but if you’re a manufacturer that could benefit from innovative new digital tools, reach out to the IT experts at Coleman Technologies at (604) 513-9428 today.