Coleman Technologies Blog

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.

Hackers have many methods they use to break into your network, steal data or put you in a position where you have to pay them money to get your data back. They use a combination of software and skill to make it happen. Here are three ways hackers and cybercriminals attack your network in an attempt to get what they want.

1. THEY GO THROUGH YOUR EMPLOYEES.

That’s right, they’ll use your own employees against you, and your employees might not even realize what’s happening. Let’s say a hacker gets ahold of your internal e-mail list, like the e-mails you have posted on your website or LinkedIn. All the hacker has to do is send an e-mail to everyone at your company.

The e-mail might be disguised as a message addressed from you asking your employees for a gift card, which is becoming an increasingly common scam. Another e-mail tactic is making a message look like it’s from a fellow employee, asking everyone else to open an attached file, which is likely malware or ransomware. A third e-mail scam is directing people to a phishing website, which is a website that scammers have designed to look like popular websites in order to get login information to hack accounts. All it takes is a single click from any employee to let the bad guys into your business.

2. THEY ATTACK YOUR NETWORK DIRECTLY.

Some hackers aren’t afraid of forced entry. Hackers and cybercriminals have access to black market tools and software that helps them get into networked devices – particularly unprotected networked devices.

For example, if you have a PC that’s connected to the Internet and your network doesn’t use any firewalls, data encryption or other network protection software, a hacker can break in and steal data from that PC and potentially other devices connected to that PC, such as portable hard drives. This method of entry isn’t necessarily easy for hackers, but the effort can be worth it, especially if they can walk away with sensitive financial information.

3. THEY HOLD YOUR DATA HOSTAGE.

Hackers are relying on ransomware more and more to get what they want. Hackers rely on e-mail, executable files and fraudulent web ads (such as banner ads and popups) to attack networks with ransomware. It goes back to the first point. All it takes is someone clicking a bad link or file and the next thing you know, you’re locked out of your network.

This has happened to dozens of businesses and even city governments in the last year alone. The thing is that even if you pay the ransom, there is no guarantee the hacker will restore access. They can take the money and delete everything, leaving your business high and dry! This destroys businesses!

All of these points are why you need to take a hard look at IT security solutions and use them. For instance, if you had all of your data securely backed up to the cloud and a hacker came in and tried to hold your data hostage, you wouldn’t have to worry. They don’t really have your data. You can tell them “no,” then all you’d have to do is work with an IT team to get your network back up and running while scrubbing it of any malware or ransomware.

Then, it would be a simple matter of restoring data from the cloud. Sure, you might be out of commission for a day or two, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s much better than losing your business to these jokers.

Hackers are just looking for easy targets and, sadly, a lot of small businesses fit the bill. Just because you haven’t had any major problems yet doesn’t mean you won’t in the future. The threats are out there and they’re not going to go away. Invest in security, partner with an IT security firm and protect yourself. This is one investment that is truly worth it!

You Don’t Have Enough Bandwidth

When you purchase an Internet package, you get certain speeds. Today, these speeds are faster than ever, but if your business has too much going on, it can wreak havoc with your Internet speeds. There is a situation that happens when too much data is trying to pass through a network connection. This situation is called bottlenecking and it is potentially the reason your speeds are slow. Think about it, if you try to put several gigabytes through a connection that is only rated for a few megabits per second, it’s going to take some time to get all the data through. To check this, audit how many devices are at work. Most of the time you’ll be surprised how much data you are sending and receiving. We can help you with this audit before you make the call to upgrade your Internet package.

Outdated Equipment

Another potential issue is that your networking equipment may simply be old and not be able to use the dual bands that are often necessary to get the most out of your wireless network. If you have enough bandwidth, but your Internet is just slow, chances are upgrading the modem, switches, or routers would be a prudent move and will likely fix any problems you have. 

Misconfigured Equipment and Environmental Factors

Once you’ve made sure that the physical components of your network are working as intended, but your Internet connection isn’t improving, you probably need to reconfigure your software on your devices or move your hardware to avoid interference. Specifically, if your wireless network signal is having problems making it through obstructions, you will want to consider using the 2.4 GHz connection rather than the 5.0 GHz channel. The max speed you’ll see will decrease, but the 2.4 GHz connection makes its way through obstructions better. Unfortunately, however, the 2.4 GHz signal can be a victim of electronic interference more than the 5.0 GHz channel. 

If you need help with your business’ networking, don’t wait and lose more money. Contact the professionals at Coleman Technologies today at (604) 513-9428.

What’s the Difference Between the Shut Down and Restart Processes?

Before Windows 8, there was no difference whatsoever (aside from the obvious fact that Restart would start the device back up). This changed, however, with the introduction of Windows 8, and a new feature: Fast Startup.

Shut Down

Still present in Windows 10, Fast Startup shortens what was once a much longer start process after a user had clicked Shut Down.

While all a user’s files and programs are still shut down, the heart of the operating system is just put into standby mode. Please note that it does power down everything, unlike hibernate and standby. This makes it much easier for Windows to reactivate. However, since not all processes are completely stopped, present issues won’t be affected. Your problem will still be there the next time the workstation is turned on.

Restart

On the other hand, restarting the device actually does put a stop to all processes and resumes operations with a fresh boot on the motherboard level. This is why restarting your computer seems to take so long as compared to manually turning it off and on again.

So, the difference is really in the granularity of the shutdown process. Counterintuitively, “shutting down” a computer leaves more components active than a restart does, which is why restart is the process recommended when troubleshooting an issue.

So, while we may recommend that you “turn your computer off and on again,” or “reboot,” what we really mean is “restart your computer.”

For more assistance in dealing with pesky technology issues, lean on the managed services that Coleman Technologies provides. Learn more about what we offer by calling (604) 513-9428.

Most users that have an Android device use the Messages application to send and receive SMS messages. Companies that use this platform for marketing could have their messages routinely ignored because people don’t trust the content that comes from seemingly random numbers. 

With verified SMS, however, every message that is sent to a prospect or customer is verified to actually come from the company. In fact, the recipient won’t even receive the message until it is verified. The content is transmitted with the business’ name, logo, and confirmed with a verification badge. Google has stated that the content is never revealed to them, meaning that the content is secure and sent privately like any other text message.

How Do You Turn on Verified SMS?

Obviously, you need to have a device that runs a recent version of Android mobile OS. To turn on Verified SMS:

• Open the stock Android Messages app
• In the three-dot menu, access your Settings
• Access Verified SMS
• Switch on Verify business message sender 

Now you don’t have to waste time with unverified marketing or sales content. 

For more great tips, visit our blog regularly.