ATECH MSP Blog

With vaccines for COVID-19 now being distributed around the whole world, small businesses who switched to remote work have a decision to make: should they continue allowing employees to operate remotely if they so choose? Let’s discuss the concept of a hybrid work environment and how businesses manage the still-changing situation.

From an employee’s perspective, one of the most frustrating issues that could be present in the workplace is leadership that proves to be inconsistent. This lack of managerial consistency can wind up causing some serious problems and is often demonstrated through a variety of repeated behaviors.

For most businesses, technology is a complete necessity these days. It’s been proven that, by integrating some technology strategically, businesses can solve major operational problems that many smaller businesses and startups can’t. Today, we will ask three questions about business tech that any technology-savvy individual should know, and explain why you should know them. 

For all its benefits, remote work can introduce plenty of complications. These complications can easily make employees question a lot of things about their careers, including whether or not they should continue working for the same company they have been. This has been particularly the case amongst workers with children also in the home.

Generally speaking, we all get way too much screen time nowadays, between the workstations we all spend our days in front of to the televisions we watch in the evening to the mobile devices that are never far out of reach. While plenty of people have weighed in on the subject, some of the most interesting insights come from scholarly research: the more notifications a person gets, the more their productivity suffers.

The Windows operating system comes with more than its fair share of capabilities, many of which are accessible through the appropriate keyboard shortcut. Because remembering so many would be a challenge for some (and impossible for most) we’ve put together a list of those associated with the letters found on the keyboard, with a few extras tacked on for good measure. Make sure to take note of any you may find the most useful.

Per our role as cybersecurity professionals, part of our responsibility is to put the developing threats out there in the world into perspective for the clientele that we serve. After all, with so many modern threats seeming to border on science fiction, it is only natural for smaller organizations to assume that their size will protect them from such attacks through simple lack of interest—or even that such threats will never be used practically at any significant scale. Unfortunately, these assumptions are too often mistaken.

While we would never suggest that remote work is a bad thing, it wouldn’t be right for us to pretend that it is a perfect solution. It just isn’t. For a few glaring examples, let’s turn to the complicated impact that remote work can have on the environment. While we’ll still acknowledge the benefits of remote solutions, this kind of reflection may just help you to determine how to shape your business’ future: namely, how much of that future will be based on remote operations.

Working from home has made it clear to many that they weren’t prepared to do so—not by a long shot. In addition to the many other stresses that came with these challenging times, the lack of a sufficient and proper workspace has proved to have its impacts on the human body. To perhaps help remedy this, we wanted to offer a few considerations that might help a remote worker benefit ergonomically.

Working from home adds quite a few additional wrinkles into the workday, including a few that pertain to your team’s communicative capabilities. With many different people operating at their best through different forms of communication, establishing which of these forms best suits your needs is crucial. Let us consider some of the options you have, whether you’re fully investing in a future of remote operations, or simply planning a more hybrid approach as time passes.

Many small and medium-sized businesses don’t consider making physical security investments if they already have some type of workable solution in place. The problem is that there have been a lot of innovative moves made that would make those investments strategically smart at the time. So, while a physical security upgrade may not be a priority for your business, we thought we’d go through some of the tools used, and how they have improved. 

Have you ever been using your computer and you realize the operational indicator light next to your webcam is activated, only to realize that you never closed the video conference you were just on? Well, what would happen if you noticed it and you didn’t have that software up and running? If you are not an exhibitionist, it would likely freak you out to know that someone might be looking at you as you use your computer. Today, we will get into what to do to ensure that you aren’t being spied on through your webcam.

Your business’ network is so important that if something were to infiltrate it that doesn’t belong there, it could wreak havoc on your whole company. One way that businesses can get their cybersecurity to a reliable place is through what is called penetration testing. This month, we thought we would briefly describe what exactly penetration testing is and how it can help your business. 

We’re all familiar with the idea that pop culture has cultivated in our minds about computer hackers, but as it happens, this impression is just one of the many shapes that the modern hacker can take. This kind of closed-off view is dangerously shortsighted, so let’s take a few moments to dig into the kinds of hackers there are, in ascending order of the threat they pose to your business.

Businesses spent a lot of time and money in 2020 adjusting to the COVID-19 pandemic. One could argue that many of them didn’t have a plan until it was to the point where either they made one, or their business collapsed. Some collapsed anyway. It has been a difficult year with businesses that have made it through doing the right things and using a set of new tools that allowed their operations to remain effective. Many of these tools will be phased out when the time comes, but one is absolutely here to stay: video conferencing.

Contemporary movies are filled with high-stakes cybercrime, where a lovable criminal syndicate breaks into a company’s systems to help wreak havoc on the true villains of the film, all the while exposing the company’s dirty laundry. Naturally, this idea can be frightening for any business, whether or not they have any dirty laundry to air out—after all, nobody wants a ruined reputation—and is unfortunately less and less of a fantasy all the time.

Managed Services provide endless benefits to any business, no matter the size. Having a “Fix it when it breaks” attitude is an unrealistic way to run your business in an era that is so heavily technology-dependent. Today we dive into the many reasons a Managed Service Provider (MSP) can maximize your investment. 

For the Windows user seeking to take a screenshot, there is no lack of options. Most notably, many keyboards today offer a Print Screen key that allows the user to capture an image of their entire display. Having said this, there are better options, such as the platform’s integrated Snip & Sketch tool, with its greater functionality and greater ease of use.

Businesses go about their human resources in all different ways, but in today’s small and medium-sized business, it may not be looked on as crucially as it once was. The HR department may have a lot of responsibilities, but today there are tools that are available that can keep organizations from investing large amounts of capital into HR. Let’s take a look at the way HR is being approached today.

More businesses rely on their mobile strategies than ever before. For the most part, this uptick in mobility has helped sustain some business at a time when many would be expected to fail, but relying more on mobile definitely comes with some risks. This month we thought we would take a long look at mobility and how it can be a risky proposition for the modern small business.