Business Solutions & Software Group Blog

There are theoretically countless ways that artificial intelligence can have practical applications. One that you may not have initially considered: as a content filter for Internet comments. With trolling, spamming, and other misuse of these platforms getting far out of hand, let’s consider how some platforms are using AI to fight back.

So, you’ve decided to seek out external assistance with your critical business technology and its upkeep, and now you’re wondering how to tell which of your support options is going to give you the best value for your investment. While we may be biased, we still feel justified in our belief that—when compared side-by-side—a managed service provider will always be the better choice.

It wasn’t too long ago that the idea of paying over $1,000 for a new phone was laughable, but now it is the standard for many. Of course, not everyone is willing or able to drop that much cash, so some manufacturers also offer smartphones that are a little friendlier on the budget for the many people who are due to replace their devices.

For part two of our yearly look at smartphone technology, we thought we would take a look at some new form factors that have hit the market over the past few years. Devices that fold and swivel highlight new entries into the premium smartphone market. Let’s take a look at four of them now and don’t forget to check back next week when we finish our look at 2020’s best budget smartphones. 

For millions of people their phone is their most important device. In fact, many people do their computing exclusively on their smartphones. Today, the best devices give people the option to do anything they need to do from the palm of their hand. Let’s take a look at some of the best smartphones available to consumers today.

Nintendo has announced to owners of their Switch consoles that, if their devices aren’t charged up at least every six months, battery life could be impacted. Now, bear with us: while we realize that this may not seem to be all that pertinent to businesses, it brings up an important practice for businesses to follow: regularly charging even the devices that are used less often.

With a market share of 87 percent in 2019, Android is obviously a popular operating system and has been for some time. With the years that have passed since it debuted in 2008, it has changed shape quite considerably, with many features and capabilities introduced and phased out. Let’s go over the changes that each version brought with it, to see how Android got to the place it is now.

“Knowledge is power.” This theme has been demonstrated countless times throughout history, from the huge conflicts that spanned the globe, to the meteoric rises that many businesses have seen, down to the conversations held at the dinner table. Knowledge simply makes things go better for you, which is why it is so helpful for businesses to have a knowledge base at their disposal. Today, your IT can give you even more opportunities to use information to your advantage.

The purpose of technology is, in a nutshell, to improve a task to make it less difficult and/or more efficient to complete. This has lately been demonstrated in the information technology that powers the financial services industries. Finance, insurance, and banking have all seen their processes benefitted by “FinTech.” Let’s examine FinTech to gain a better appreciation for it and its capabilities.

Business analytics are quite popular nowadays, as businesses of all shapes and sizes are eager to use data to improve their processes and performance. Let’s consider how your technological strategy could benefit from such analytical considerations.

Over the last few months, many businesses have had to hurriedly adopt remote work as an alternative to in-house operations. While many have done so successfully, it isn’t uncommon for certain elements to trip them up, including remote meetings. As these meetings are likely to continue for the foreseeable future, we wanted to share a few tips to help make the most of them.

Finding ways to save money is something that most entrepreneurs take pride in. Today, as costs of doing business continue to climb, VoIP can present the business owner with the rare solution that actually saves them money. Hosted VoIP, in particular--where your phone system is hosted in the cloud--presents an innovative and straightforward way to reduce your business’ operational costs. Let’s take a look at some ways it goes about doing this.

Windows 10 is five years old now. It didn’t become what it first set out to be, but today it can be found on over a billion devices. Not too shabby. The operating system is still being developed by Microsoft, which based on the company’s history, is kind of surprising. After they suggested that it would be the last version of Windows, some people were confused. Could Microsoft stop making Windows? Let’s take a look. 

Business owners don’t often think about where their documents are stored. They typically have a staff of people who handle that for them. If you want to speed your business up and make it easier to store, search, and retrieve the documents you need, a Document Management System (DMS) might be right for you. Here are five good reasons why moving to document management can surely be a benefit for your business. 

The more businesses have become capable of, the more important their communications and the tools that enable them have become. Given the current global situation and the challenges that arise because of it, these communication technologies can now be considered indispensable to businesses. Let’s discuss why so many businesses have elected to adopt unified communications as a means of fulfilling their operations.

Microsoft has been a driving force in personal and business productivity for over 40 years. Over that time one of their most popular offerings has been Microsoft Office. For the past several years the software giant has been bundling their Office platform with OneDrive and calling it Office 365. Millions of individuals and businesses utilize the tools in the platform, which is now being rebranded to Microsoft 365, and that has started to confuse some people. Today, we’ll clarify what this means for businesses and individuals.

More than ever, data fuels business decision making. To get the best use out of the data your business collects, automated tools can be used. This eliminates the (often impossible) task of manually getting the data together and then analyzing it. Today, we’ll talk about data automation and how rethinking how you look at your data can really help your business improve its operations.

Your business’ data is its lifeblood, which means that one of your internal priorities should be protecting it. While we often discuss the importance of your cybersecurity to defend against data theft and similar issues, it is also important to consider what would happen if the data loss was caused due to damage to the infrastructure it was stored on.

Small business owners have to confront a lot of issues, with more every day. As your business grows, however, there are too many for you to manage on your own. If your business is too big to control, you will need to expand on your strategies. Today, we will take a look at how decision-making shifts when your business grows. 

While it is very, very hard to say that much good has come from the COVID-19 pandemic, much less to make light of it, it is an important exercise for all of us to take. That’s why we wanted to take a few moments to reflect on the advancements—including an objectively silly one—that this time has helped foster.