There has been a lot made about the Internet of Things (IoT) recently. The IoT is basically technology that connects to the Internet or your network and offers some sort of specialized task. Think smart light bulbs, mobile devices, monitoring tools, and other appliances that traditionally aren’t connected to the Internet. For today’s businesses this can bring several pros and cons to the table. This month, we thought we would take a brief look at some of the pros and cons of deploying IoT technology in the workplace. 

In business, experience is always useful. Nowhere is that more apparent than when managing your organization’s IT infrastructure. The problem is that acquiring the expertise to do just that can be quite confusing for most business owners. Today, we’ll talk about how technology management experience can produce better business from one end to the other. 

Financial Benefits 

Looking outside your own business to get work done can be intimidating. Can you trust outsourced talent? Will I lose control over my business? Is it really a value? These questions and many more are reasonable to ask, but if there is one sure thing about outsourcing is that there are clear financial benefits. 

The decreased cost of outsourcing is the most well-known feature of the strategy. Obviously, it is extraordinarily expensive to onboard new help, purchase the resources that new hire needs to do the job you need him/her to do, and expand your benefits package (if you offer one) to another person. When you outsource, you may still pay a comparable rate in pay, but you will get someone that has the specific skills you need them for, and you’ll likely save a lot of capital by eliminating the associated costs.

Operational Benefits 

Your organization may see some major operational benefits from choosing to outsource. They include:

Internal Focus

Outsourcing can present a business’ leadership the ability to be more aggressive with their resources. There is a lot to do at the average business, giving regular employees access to trained and reliable resources can free them up to focus on operational issues while speeding up business significantly. 

Access to Skills

Typically, outsourcers come onboard with very specific skills and no long-term employment contract. This gives the organization the flexibility to find the gig-worker that fits the immediate needs of the company rather than committing to one employee over large swaths of time. 

Minimized Risks

In the course of doing business, decision makers are confronted with variable risks. Outsourcing allows many of the risks to be disregarded, although it creates some others. Overall, however, outsourcing will often present a net-positive situation for any business. 

Coleman Technologies offers high-value outsourced IT services and support for British Columbia businesses. If you would like to learn more, call us today at (604) 513-9428.

Today, we’ll be discussing some of the best IT solutions for professional services.

Software as a Service
The cloud has brought about a revolution in the way professional service firms think about and manage their software applications. Software as a Service, or SaaS for short, is the delivery of software through the cloud for a monthly fee. SaaS is usually billed per user, and it includes solutions such as Office 365 and G Suite. Software developers have created solutions that can be deployed through the cloud, providing many industries with cloud-based software that is built specifically for their needs.

Mobile Solutions
Mobility can open up a lot of doors for any business. For a professional services firm, there is more to consider, though. Many of these professional service providers need to consider federal, state, and industry requirements that demand additional layers of security for sending and receiving data. Therefore, the benefit of adding mobility to an infrastructure needs to be approached with considerable caution, as data security must be prioritized.

One of the best solutions to this dilemma is a virtual private network, or VPN. A VPN provides a layer of encryption around your communications between mobile devices and the central network infrastructure for your organization. This added security protects data while it’s in transit. It’s also a great solution for a business that wants to limit its use of paper records in favor of a more digital solution.

Document Management
Having access to information gives professionals the ability to stay connected to clients and other resources as needed, whether they are in the office or not. A document management system is the ideal way to digitally store and access files in a database; and trust us when we say it is much easier to find a document in a database compared to digging it out of a filing cabinet.

Professional technicians can scan an organization’s paper files through the use of a special software to deposit them inside a database in the form of PDF files. This database and a Relational database management system give an end user the ability to search the DMS for keywords found in the documents. All of this is accessible to users through an Internet connection, making it both accessible and convenient.

Through combining DMS with a VPN and SaaS offerings, professional services companies can achieve unprecedented security and data access. To learn more about how your organization can take advantage of these tools, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.

When your employees are engaged, they are more likely to invest in the future of your company, as well as their own future within your company. Research doesn’t see this situation as likely as you might think, though. The numbers from a 2015 poll from Gallup place the number of engaged employees at about 30%, while 50% claim they aren’t engaged with their work, and an additional 20% claim that they are actively disengaged by their workplace. So… where does your business fall?

There are several ways to improve employee engagement, but we’ll focus on just three of them: digital signage, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), and cloud-based communication solutions.

Digital Signage
Some offices have monitors placed around the office that give statistics, reminders, and directions to those wandering around the office. These monitors can be used to give workers an idea of how they are doing, as well as display important information that they all might need to do in order to get their jobs done in a more efficient manner. Examples include deadlines, key performance indicators, and who has closed the most deals (or another important factor for your business) to spur on a little friendly competition. You can even use it to offer incentives to employees who perform above and beyond.

Bring Your Own Device
Some employees would rather work using their own devices rather than the ones you provide them with. This is because they are more familiar with their own devices than the ones your business gives them to get their work done. Maybe their own devices are simply better than the ones provided, too. Either way, a Bring Your Own Device policy solves several issues that your organization might face, such as the revenue used to purchase these devices… as long as the policy is handled correctly to address the potential security issues caused by this.

Cloud-Based Communications
Employees are more productive when they feel their feedback is valued. To this end, collaboration is critical, as everyone who puts forth ideas and information will feel like they are at least being listened to--even if their ideas don’t make it into the finished product. This can also create a sense of camaraderie between your employees and improve teamwork on a fundamental level.

Coleman Technologies can help your business break boundaries and improve employee engagement through the use of technology. To learn more, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.