Coleman Technologies Blog

Almost every industry has some form of office setup. Manufacturers, retail, and service delivery all need their offices to handle the procedural aspects of the business. Some people work from a home office that’s just a laptop computer, while others have multiple floors of a high-rise dedicated to office workers. It’s not an overstatement to say that the office is where a majority of western workers work. The office is where productivity happens. 

This is all made possible through the use of technology. The modern office features all types of technology. From servers to workstations to networking equipment, peripherals, security and signage, and much, much more. With the deployment of all this technology, there needs to be some coordination with the way it is integrated, and with the way a company’s human resources utilize it. 

This is especially true now that:

1. Margins are lower due to rising costs.
2. Data is fueling organizational decision making.
3. Threats to data security continue to rise.

In these three variables, you can find a lot about how organizations are utilizing IT. 

Shrinking Margins

Things cost more today, that can’t be denied. For the business, this creates some tough situations. One way that a business can keep these shrinking profit margins from ruining their business is by leveraging customized IT solutions designed to transfer cost. Some examples of these technologies include:

• Cloud computing - Small business use of cloud computing is up substantially and for good reason. With the cloud, your business can get infrastructure, utilities, and storage through service providers. This means that you only pay for the computing your organization needs, with a built-in benefit of being able to access the data, applications, and virtualized hardware anywhere you have an Internet connection. The scalability provides financial and operational flexibility. 
• Remote Monitoring and Management - As a core part of our managed IT services platform, remote monitoring and management provides several ways that your business can save money. Firstly, you transfer your costs. Hiring an internal IT staff is extraordinarily expensive. With managed IT services, you outsource your management to the managed service provider. This shift provides thorough around-the-clock monitoring and regular maintenance of your entire network and infrastructure. Another way it saves money is by being proactive. Since the managed services provider is constantly managing and maintaining your network and infrastructure, you will experience fewer critical errors and much less downtime, saving thousands of dollars over the course of your agreement. 

Influential Data

Every action your business makes and every interaction it has with vendors, customers, and prospects can be tracked. This data can be used to help businesses see what works and which of those actions are more cost effective for the business to implement as process. In order to integrate this kind of analysis for your business, you first need to understand what data you need to use in order to get the information and what technologies you may need to make your data analytics efforts work effectively. 

• Data Warehousing - Chances are, the way your company’s IT network is currently structured won’t provide you with the type of full-business analysis needed to analyze data properly. If you have parts of your functional business’ data that isn’t included in your analysis tools it severely limits the effectiveness of your results. In order to get the results that represent your entire business, you will need to set up a repository for your data that allows for comprehensive analysis. A data warehouse structures data in a way where each process is represented, yet structured in a way that makes business analytics and business intelligence programs possible and effective. 
• Microsoft Office 365 - If you go through the effort to ensure that all the data you need to completely analyze your business is in one space, you will want to ensure that your data analysis tools will do the job. There are several business analysis tools on the market, but one that you should consider is Microsoft Excel. Excel actually has a lot of good decision-making tools that can be used to analyze your data effectively. Excel is obviously a part of the Microsoft Office 365 cloud-hosted productivity suite, a title Coleman Technologies is proud to offer. 

Security Threats

The threats that the modern business has to deal with from outside their computing network puts strain on the users inside their computer network. An organization’s IT administrator typically sets the tone by developing a plan for the business to maintain data and network security, but those efforts can be undermined at any time if the business’ staff isn’t trained in how to confront situations that are coming from outside the network designed to undermine the security platforms that have been deployed. Here are two tools that Coleman Technologies can offer to help you thwart threats:

• Patch Management - Every business utilizes a fair amount of software. If that software isn’t patched regularly, it may not have the most updated features, or it may have vulnerabilities that puts your whole computing network in jeopardy. Coleman Technologies has a patch management service that ensures that all of your business' software is updated regularly.
• Cybersecurity Training - These days, the encryption used in many of your network security tools is so strong that hackers have absolutely no chance to get into your network...unless someone lets them in. In a response to the huge uptick in social engineering attacks aimed at getting individuals to provide unauthorized access, companies are now starting to provide cybersecurity awareness training to their staff. The more people who are aware of the threats and the methods in which hackers are now attempting to gain access to credentials, the more secure your business’ network is. 

The modern office has a lot of places that technology potentially fits. If your business can use any of these solutions to improve the look of your bottom line, call Coleman Technologies today at (604) 513-9428.  

Explaining Azure (and the Cloud in General)

Azure is like other cloud computing platforms in that you can host applications and data in an online environment. This has several advantages over hosting on-premises hardware, such as lower chances of downtime, less equipment maintenance, and extremely low odds of device theft. In fact, many organizations that can’t afford to hire in-house IT workers can leverage the expertise of cloud providers to take advantage of the same services as organizations that have much bigger budgets, effectively giving the little guy more competing power.

Another big benefit of using cloud solutions like Azure is that they are scalable to suit the needs of your business. Let’s say you hire ten new employees who all need to be connected to your infrastructure; this might be a daunting task, but if all of the resources are available in the cloud, it instead becomes a convenience. You don’t need to waste time running cables and hooking up workstations to your server infrastructure. All you need to do is create accounts for them.

Before implementing any sort of cloud solution, you want to first assess your options. If you’re new to this type of solution, or you want to have your options explained to you by a professional, we always suggest working with a managed IT provider, who can consult your business on the best cloud-based solutions for your organization. Of course, depending on the needs, you might find that a different type of cloud solution will better suit your organization.

Coleman Technologies can help you determine the best path forward for cloud-based services at your organization. To learn more, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.

What’s the Difference?

The biggest difference between the two services is how they are delivered. Microsoft Office 2019 is the productivity suite in its traditional sense. You download the software solutions, like Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, which you can then access on your desktop. Since the programs are stored locally on your computer, you don’t need an Internet connection to access them.

On the other hand, you have Microsoft Office 365, which is the cloud-based variant that Microsoft is pushing these days. Office 365 has all of the software solutions that you expect from a productivity suite, but the primary difference comes from how they’re accessed. Office 365 can be delivered through the Internet rather than being found locally on the computer, meaning that it requires a solid Internet connection in order to work as intended. Furthermore, since the solution is found in the cloud, it can be accessed on any device through a web browser, meaning that it’s more accessible than it’s ever been.

What’s Best for You?

As we mentioned before, the solution you’ll want to invest in will vary depending on various factors. If your Internet connection isn’t reliable, for example, your capacity to get work done might be limited with Microsoft Office 365. For a full list of what you should consider when planning out your productivity suite infrastructure, be sure to contact professional IT technicians who can run you through scenarios that you might not even foresee initially.

Coleman Technologies can provide your organization with a free consultation to determine which Microsoft Office solution works best for your specific needs. To learn more, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.

Well, no matter what your budget is, we know that there is one solution for your business that is extremely valuable, that being remote monitoring and management. This solution manages to skirt the issues related to acquiring IT assistance by utilizing remote support. In general, managed IT can bypass the issues that most small businesses experience with budgeting for technology maintenance and support. If you move in the direction of a remote monitoring, maintenance, and management solution, you might find that your business can save money and make great strides toward increasing your bottom line.

Remote Monitoring

Businesses need someone to monitor their networks for signs of problems associated with bottlenecking and other inefficiencies, as well as security threats that need to be addressed. Remote monitoring gives your service provider the ability to do this without an on-site visit, meaning that they aren’t in your office to distract your workers or pull them away from work. They can simply perform their tasks quietly and behind the scenes. Proper use of remote monitoring can give your employees the ability to address issues before they become major problems.

Remote Maintenance

Waiting for technicians to arrive and resolve issues is a waste of time and resources, as, while you’re waiting for them to make their way to your office, you’re experiencing wasteful and expensive downtime that could be prevented with remote assistance. Remote maintenance provides a more dynamic, responsive, and cost-effective way to get the help you need, as needed.

Remote Management

Configuring systems can be challenging, and while certain aspects of it might require the occasional on-site visit, many solutions these days can be configured remotely. With the right settings and technology solutions in your office, our technicians can remote into your infrastructure and make adjustments as needed, all without waiting for someone to arrive at your doorstep (and paying them for the travel costs).

Coleman Technologies can be your go-to provider for remote assistance, support, management, maintenance, you name it. To learn more, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.

The IoT is growing rapidly. So rapidly in fact, it is becoming difficult to get a read on the accepted number of Internet-connected devices. In fact, companies more frequently print forecasts rather than reality, because there is no way to know how many actual devices there are connected to the Internet, but by most tallies the number is in the ballpark of 20 billion and growing rapidly. What does this mean for us? So much. Today, we’re going to take a look at the IoT and try and forecast how it will change the way we do things by 2025.

First Considerations

The first thing you should know is that this massive IoT rollout is not going to make the Internet any less important. Despite its renouncement as a utility (in merely a political move), the Internet can be thought of very much like electricity was toward the beginning of the 20th century when the technology had been established and its use was just beginning to fuel a market of goods designed to use electricity. The Internet today is still coming online in places all around the world, but there remain large chunks of land where it is not yet available (in some of these places electricity isn’t). As the ubiquity of high-speed Internet comes to fruition, the world will be confronted with a new reality, where technology is altering humanity in ways you wouldn’t even imagine. 

Of course, this won’t happen in six years, but it needs to be said that the exponential growth of IoT from a few million devices in 2006 to more than 20 billion two decades later is going to affect the way people live. It’s not just a matter of the technology being there, it is the function of that tech that changes things. In this case, many of the products that people have been using for decades (and in some cases centuries) are being manufactured with the capability of connecting to wireless networks. Most of them have corresponding software that provides a new cache of functions. As time goes on, and devices get smarter, whole parts of a person’s routine will be automated. Like I said, IoT is altering humanity.

Explaining “Things”

When people think of the Internet of Things, they inevitably think about the gadgets that have limited functions or their wearable technology (smartwatches). They may not consider that “things” include almost anything. There are literally Internet-connected things that help humans control their gardens, their car, their livestock, and even their health. It’s getting to the point where anything that could be connected to the Internet, is. There are those calling this a “mega trend”, but don’t be surprised if it’s simply just the new normal. 

With so many things connected to networks, the networks need to be bigger, stronger, and more resilient. As a result, more consideration needs to be taken to the makeup of the networks and the underlying hardware. This can become a major issue for the rapidly expanding business, so taking heed about the growth of IoT devices that are currently and potentially going to be on your business’ network going forward is a good strategy. 

By the Numbers

With this seemingly inevitable IoT boom happening as we speak, there are some seriously impressive statistical growth being projected. Some of the most staggering projections of the IoT market in the next few years include:

• There will be over 21 billion IoT devices connected to the Internet
• IoT devices will generate nearly 80 zettabytes of data
• IoT will become an even bigger draw for cybercriminals
• Driverless transportation of people and goods will increase rapidly
• Whole cities will be “smart”
• Router technology will improve to feature new tools to boost network security
• 5G Networks will exponentially increase IoT growth
• IoT ubiquity will create new privacy/security concerns
• Governments will build and pass more regulations concerning privacy/security of data
• Industrial IoT market will grow to a whopping $920 billion per year
• Total IoT markets to grow past $1.5 trillion per year

If these numbers are any indication, the IoT looks to be one of the biggest vertical markets in the world before long. This will have major effects on business in the coming years. Some of the most marked ways this shift will be seen are in:

Productivity

With increased knowledge provided by IoT tracking every part of the business, making processes more efficient is much simpler. In fact, some estimates say that businesses stand to gain upwards of 20 percent from the integration of IoT into their processes. What may be surprising is that most of this number is found on the consumer end of things. Better understanding of the people that purchase goods and services from a company, can help that organization market themselves more effectively, potentially saving a load of capital.

Remote Workforce

The growth in IoT will have a massive amount of value for businesses that want to expand their workforces outside the confines of a brick and mortar building. Since the IoT allows employees to connect to work remotely, workers are more apt to be happier and more productive.

Data Sharing

The exchange of data has been a growing part of doing business for some time, but with more IoT your business’ data sharing capabilities get smarter over time. Smarter devices mean that customers, employees, vendors, and management are able to access relevant information quickly without having to sort through other data, improving most of the business’ ability to provide value.

Significant Improvement to a Supply Chain;

For manufacturers and distributors who largely can’t support a remote workforce, it creates efficiency by improving the supply chain management. As every part of the process is reported by IoT devices, the central software will give employees a view of a business they’ve never seen before, making production and distribution more efficient, and ultimately, more effective.

It’s not an overstatement to say that the IoT will change the world over the next six years. Is your business implementing any IoT devices or systems to help you be more efficient, control costs, or simply be more effective? Reach out to our IT professionals to talk about IoT fits into your business today at (604) 513-9428.