Business Solutions & Software Group Blog

Calls from telemarketers are the worst. These unwelcomed calls are especially annoying if you’re trying to be productive, and you’re interrupted in the middle of the workday by the same number repeatedly. Thankfully, more recent models of Android smartphones have the capabilities to blacklist numbers built right into the device. Here’s how it’s done.

Due to users sometimes encountering useless, or potentially threatening, applications, (many of which might have come preinstalled on the device), all Windows users should know (or at least understand) how to remove unwanted programs and applications from their PCs. Fortunately, Windows 10 gives users plenty of options for uninstalling unwanted apps and programs.

If you’ve been a computer user for some time, there is a distinct possibility that you have more than one email account. At the very least you have your home address, and it’s increasingly likely that your college, your place of employment, your ISP, or some other organization has issued some sort of email address. There is now a way to combine these accounts into a single email address of your choice.

Phishing attacks grow more common every day, particularly because it’s so challenging to know who’s for real and who’s a fake on the Internet. The anonymity of the Internet has fostered an environment where hackers can extort money with little fear of getting caught, under the right circumstances. How can you protect yourself and your business from being targeted by phishing attacks?

For this week’s tip, we’re getting back to the basics by highlighting three PC tips that every user should know. If you aren’t familiar with these common tips, then don’t feel bad. This article is for you and you’ll be a more proficient computer user because of it!

We live in an age where productivity is at its peak, but as you might be aware, this often leads to a stressful work environment where anything less than your best can be considered slacking. You might have several tasks that need to be completed today, but we’re sure you can take the time to read this blog about giving yourself a break once in awhile. You might find that breaks are absolutely crucial to both your creative and physical well being.

How often have you logged into your Google account, only to find that there’s some suspicious activity going on? You might wonder why, where, and how this happened, but in case you weren’t aware, you can access some of this information by simply checking out your Google account’s security settings. Here’s how it’s done.

For a business to prosper, there has to be more than a casual consideration of the expense report. Most businesses do their budget yearly, but some smaller organizations have gone to a three-month (or quarterly) budget to improve their ability to be more agile with their capital. There are times, however, where no matter what you seem to do, expenses outfox profits and your company has to take a hard look at what they are going to do to right the ship.

Wouldn’t it be nice to boost your WiFi signal and access it from anywhere in and around your office? Sometimes the solution is purchasing a new, more powerful router, but you might be able to get more out of your existing device by improving the placement of it.

One nail-biting aspect about email is that you’re never sure if the person you sent your message to has actually opened it and read it. This is especially the case if it’s an important message. When you don’t hear back as quickly as you’d like, you then begin to doubt if the message was ever even received, which could lead to unnecessarily contacting them by different means. This only looks desperate. To calm your nerves, there’s an extension for Chrome that tracks details like this for Gmail.

Who is Cortana? Windows 10 users all over the world are finding this out as they turn to Microsoft’s newest personal assistant with their important questions. One thing we know for sure about Cortana is that she can do a lot more than just search Bing. Here are six useful things you can have Cortana do for you.

One of the greatest parts of the Internet is how easy it is to search for new information on a particular subject you’re unfamiliar with. Usually this is done by utilizing a search engine like Google, but the search giant’s web browser, Google Chrome, makes this way easier by providing built-in search functions into the browser, including a super-simple drag and drop search function.

It turns out that the Internet isn’t as anonymous as it seems. This is a hard lesson learned by more than 37 million users of Ashley Madison, a website dedicated to cheating on one’s spouse. In July, the site was hacked by the hacker group, “The Impact Team,” and they’re currently threatening to expose the cheaters by going public with the database. In this particular case, Ashley Madison users should have known better--on two levels.

The Internet has given modern businesses the ability to grow like never before. On the flip side of the coin, the Internet can quickly bring down a business if a dissatisfied customer chooses to broadcast their negative experience and opinions. Therefore, it’s essential to take customer service seriously.

In last weeks’ tip, we discussed various ways you can prepare for a big presentation, including the content development stage, audience definition, and practice sessions. This week, we’ll be discussing ways in which you can ensure that your presentation goes off without a hitch, so that your audience (and you) can benefit from it as much as possible.

Whether you’re presenting at a trade show, webinar, conference, or giving a sales demonstration, giving a solid presentation is a crucial skill to master and add to your strategies. However, if you are part of the 74 percent of people who suffer from speech anxiety (glossophobia), these opportunities may seem incredibly daunting. With some solid preparation before your presentation and a few tricks to master while giving one, any professional can master the art of public speaking.

The smartphone was an incredibly valuable introduction to the business world, allowing entrepreneurs to exponentially increase productivity both in and out of the workplace. However, they are a double-edged sword, capable of cutting down barriers, or slicing productivity to ribbons with time-wasting apps and texting.

There is so much content on the Internet that finding exactly what you’re looking for can be quite challenging. Search engines like Google and Bing help out immensely by narrowing down your search to one web page, but how do you find what you specifically need on a single page?

With each new generation comes a new group of workers, and attracting good, quality help can be difficult. Even if you can find good help, it can be a challenge to keep. A study at Cornell University has proven that workplace flexibility can greatly improve the odds of finding good employees - and keeping them around.

When you first started your company, you may have had a group of close friends who were your original employees. They started off ambitious, like you, but gradually they grew more and more complacent. Now they are a hazard to your company’s future, and you don’t like that. You feel like you need to replace them with someone who cares about the company’s future, or maybe you just found someone who has more skill than them, but what if you don’t get along as well with the new employee? And how do you fire a friend?