Databranch Monthly Tech Talk
IT Solutions for the Workplace
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Introducing Our New Rock-IT VoIP Website!
Databranch is excited to announce the launch of our brand new Hosted VoIP site, Rock-IT VoIP!
For over 30 years, Databranch has been serving local, national, and international businesses for their IT consulting,outsourcing, and technology service needs.
Earlier this year, Databranch launched our new Hosted VoIP solution, Rock-IT VoIP, and we look forward to helping you and your organization transition over to the next generation of phone systems!
At rockitvoip.com you can review our three simple plan choices, download additional information, contact us, or if you are already a hosted VoIP client, be directed right to your Rock-IT VoIP Manager Portal.
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Do You Have a Business IT Strategy?
As a business owner you already know the importance of strategy and planning.
Without it, you have no aim, no goals, and really, no direction.
While you probably spend a lot of time working on your strategy every month, quarter, or year, how much of that time is spent on your business’s IT strategy?
If the answer is “not very much”, it’s time to change that.
Your business’s IT is one of your most powerful, crucial tools in growing your business, keeping your team productive, and giving your customers a great impression of you.
It makes sense that you have a plan for how it will work for you now and in the future, how you will need it to grow with your business, and how it can help take your business to the next level, faster.
If you’ve never created an IT strategy before, or it’s been a while, here are a few of the key elements you need to include:
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1 - Your Business Goals
Your IT infrastructure is there to work seamlessly alongside your business. It should complement everything you do, or plan to do, and make reaching your business goals a little easier.
Will you need additional tools to help your sales pipeline? Will it accommodate any future partnerships or acquisitions you plan to make? What about the different departments within your business; do their needs differ?
2 - People and Time Considerations
Who in your business is responsible for delivering your IT strategy? Will it be created and driven in-house, or will you outsource it to external experts? Internally, who needs to be involved, whether that’s liaising with external experts, or overseeing elements of your plan?
And how long do you want to take to make these changes? As with any business plan, you need to take both long and short term goals into account. Do your plans rely on reaching a new level of turnover, or will they be based on your people adapting to the changes?
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3 - Your Current Infrastructure
How is it working for you right now? What would you change? What can’t you manage without?
It’s a great idea to speak to people in different departments about this, because what works for one team may be entirely unhelpful for another. You can tailor your infrastructure to work well for everyone and keep all of your department feeling happy and motivated.
4 - A Technology Roadmap
This step may be a little more difficult that the others, but it is really worthwhile.
Think about your whole IT architecture here. Your hardware, software, and any other tools that you’ll want to utilize. If you need assistance here, a good IT support partner will be able to make recommendations on the best of everything to fit your needs.
Break your roadmap down into departments and include everything that each will need. This will allow you to see how everything fits together.
5 - New Metrics
While your infrastructure needs to be functional, it also has to be cost effective. What’s the point in making all of these changes if it’s not bringing a financial benefit to you?
Look at your current KPIs and forecast how these should improve with the changes you’re making. Make sure they’re realistic - change won’t happen immediately. Allow some time for your people to adapt to the new tools. You can not only measure performance, but your KPIs should also help you to identify issues before your end users are affected.
It may sound like a lot of work, but with a robust business IT strategy in place, you will soon start to wonder how you managed for so long without one. Click here to get started or give us a call at 716-373-4467 x 15 to learn more!
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Are You At Risk of Being Smished?
It’s safe to say we’ve all heard about phishing scams by now - if you haven’t, you’re not doing enough to protect your business from data theft.
But as with anything tech-related, things move on quickly.
Cyber-criminals will always try new and more powerful ways to trick you into giving away your data. And now they’re targeting our phones.
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Ever received an SMS that you weren’t expecting, possibly from a well-known company? Maybe you received a notification that a courier attempted to deliver a package
These kind of messages contain a link for you to click and rearrange delivery.
But when you click the link, you’re taken to a spoof page which steals your information as soon as you enter it.
This allows the scammer behind it to use those details to access your online accounts. Or gives them access to your device.
This is called smishing. The cell phone equivalent of phishing. You and your employees need to be aware and ultra-vigilant.
What’s lead to this surge in smishing attempts? How successful it is.
98% of SMS messages are opened, and 45% are replied to. This is a much higher open rate than emails (which have an open rate of around 20%). So, it means a statistically higher success rate for the scammers behind the messages.
Beware of any unexpected SMS messages asking you to take an action by clicking a link or calling a number. If you’re unsure if it’s a genuine message, contact the company direct using the details on their website or any paperwork you have from them.
Make sure your whole team knows about this form of attack, too. If they’re using their smart phones to access work files then a smishing attempt to their personal device is also putting your business data at risk.
Databranch offers a set of tools that can help prevent and protect your organization from phishing attacks. Give us a call at 716-373-4467 x 15 or email info@databranch.com for more information!
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WE LOVE REFERRALS
The greatest gift anyone can give us is a referral to your friends. Referrals help us keep costs down so we can pass the savings to our clients.
If your friend ends up becoming a client - we’ll gift them a free first month of service (for being a friend of yours) AND we’ll gift you a $100 Amazon Gift Voucher.
Simply introduce me via email (dprince@databranch.com) and I’ll take it from there. I personally promise we’ll look after your friend’s business with a high level of care and attention (just like we do with all our clients).
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Technology Trivia
What is the origin of the word "spam" in the context of email spam?
The first person to email us at info@databranch.com and give a correct answer gets a $25 Visa Gift Card
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NEED A LAUGH?
Whoever said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results… has obviously never had to reboot a computer.
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Databranch | www.databranch.com
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