Directive Blogs

If you truly want to run your business effectively, it all starts with understanding how its costs break down. If you are armed with this knowledge, you can make better decisions about solution procurement and operations management. Let’s examine how you can cut costs without harming your business in the process.

You’ve no doubt noticed that innovation is motoring ahead and a lot of businesses are now implementing technology to help build efficient, reliable processes to improve business operations and customer satisfaction. Unfortunately, many companies hang on to outdated methods for evaluating and implementing technology and it results in substantial lost value. Today, we will go through a few ways you can get the value your business needs from its technology decisions. 

With smartphones becoming more expensive every year, the top offerings from major manufacturers price some out of the market. This provides an opportunity for these companies to offer budget smartphones to a growing market of people who don’t want to drop a $1,000 on a new phone. Today, we discuss options from Samsung, Google, and Apple that can be had for a fraction of the cost of today’s flagship smartphones. 

We’ve looked at the best phones (flagships), we’ve looked at some of the most innovative devices, but what happens if you don’t have $1,000+ to buy a smartphone? Many of the main manufacturers spend a lot of their marketing budgets highlighting their most expensive devices, so a lot of people don’t know that there are some very capable smartphones that don’t come with four-figure price tags. Let’s take a look at some phones that people can get that won’t empty their wallets.

Accountants are asked a lot of questions. You’d expect as much as they manage a lot of organizational money, and can give small business owners and executives straight-forward advice about whether or not investments make sense for a company. With the recent increase in technology use for small businesses, accountants have been fielding more than financial queries, they’ve been directly asked about whether a business should implement technology. Today, we are going to explain why, regardless of the answer, your accountant is the wrong person to ask.

As you company grows, you will need to invest a good deal of the revenue that you take in to keep operations from falling into complacency. In order to get a good idea what investments would be most advantageous, doing a proactive ROI analysis of project you plan to undertake can put your business in a position to be able to properly anticipate every aspect of a successful project. Let’s take a look at the variables of an ROI analysis.

Even though no one will admit to it themselves, everyone knows that person that, for some reason or another, has dropped his/her smartphone in the toilet, or into the sink, or into a puddle. Needless to say that dropping electronics into any bit of water isn’t typically recommended, but today we will talk about what to do if this happens to you.

When looking to cut costs in the workplace, one of the best places to start looking is at your printing costs. While paper documents were once incredibly important for businesses (they still serve a function), no one can deny that they take up a considerable amount of space in the workplace, as well as take up precious assets that could be better spent elsewhere. What’s the best way to minimize the resources you spend on printing?

Cloud computing has taken the business world by storm, fulfilling so many needs and simplifying as many processes. If you’ve been on the fence about incorporating the cloud into your IT infrastructure, you should know a few of these benefits to help you make your choice.

By now, business owners are well aware of the many ways cloud computing can benefit their organization, such as providing increased mobility and flexibility. Despite the tantalizing list of benefits the cloud presents, some business owners may still be hesitant to switch to the cloud due to one major factor: the perceived lack of cost savings. Well, thanks to a recent study by John Burke, analyst and CIO of Nemertes Research, there’s new evidence showing how hosting workloads in the cloud is more cost-effective than the alternative, hosting operations on-premise.

The business community has embraced Voice over Internet Protocol as the accepted standard for exceptional communications. While there are countless benefits to using VoIP as your chosen communications tool, you might be surprised at how much can be done with them. In fact, you might even overlook some of the best features about VoIP!

Is there any good reason to use desktops in your office? While many businesses still utilize workstations, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the advantages afforded by mobile technology should make desktops obsolete, especially in light of a recent study.

Cloud computing offers businesses an economical way to obtain the software and services they need. Yet, there comes a point when having too much of a good thing becomes wasteful, no matter how affordable the service may be. If a business owner isn’t careful about how they utilize the cloud, then they can unknowingly find themselves experiencing “cloud waste.”

Mobile technology is allowing businesses to make great strides in the way that they conduct their operations, but one of the key reasons why it has been so helpful is that it decreases their costs considerably. Thanks to developments in the way that mobile technology works, it can be fit into pretty much any business model, all the while improving your return on investment for your expensive technology solutions.

Businesses have always relied on telephone communication systems to stay in touch with external and internal contacts. However, the traditional method of telecommunication has fallen behind the times, giving way to more flexible solutions that are designed to save businesses money and improve efficiency. In particular, Voice over Internet Protocol can be a valuable asset for small businesses that are experiencing growth.

Rather than using telephone lines to transfer and receive calls, VoIP uses the Internet to send your voice to the recipient. Considering how most businesses need an Internet connection in the first place, using VoIP is simply utilizing a technology that’s necessary in order to eliminate an unnecessary expense.

Differences Between VoIP and Traditional Phone Systems
Does your business utilize VoIP? If not, you should consider doing so as soon as possible. It’s a great way to cut down on your operational costs and improve workflow. Here are some of the main differences and advantages that your organization can experience from using VoIP as a part of your communications infrastructure.

• Additional features: While your traditional phone system might support services like caller ID, user blocking, call forwarding, conference calling, etc, VoIP offers all of these services, plus some. Unlike the traditional phone system, which you need to be close to the receiver to use, VoIP works right from your desktop PC, laptop, or smartphone. As long as you have an Internet connection, you can use your work number from anywhere, allowing for flexibility that the traditional phone system envies. Plus, VoIP offers several other features, including video conferencing, which can be very helpful for bridging the gap between employees while working remotely.
• Decreased costs: If you’re paying for both a landline and an Internet connection for your office, you’re essentially paying for one too many services. Considering that landlines are often bundled with other services that you may not necessarily want, it’s more affordable and efficient to simply use VoIP as your preferred communications solution. Add in the fact that you can say goodbye to long distance, and you have a convenient and cost-effective package.
• Flexibility: Traditional phone systems require an immense amount of work to add new lines to an infrastructure. Depending on your office’s setup, new phone lines need to be installed, and you might even need to remodel your office. Both can be expensive, but with VoIP, you don’t need to waste time or money on improving your infrastructure. As long as your Internet connection and internal network can sustain the traffic and strain, VoIP will work as intended.

If your organization is ready to implement a solid new communications infrastructure, a VoIP solution can go a long way towards improving operations. To learn more, give us a call at 607.433.2200.

Every business wants to be like Google and provide employees with a dynamic place to work, filled with amenities. It would probably be a dream come true for your organization to sit next to Google on Glassdoor’s annual list of “50 Best Places to Work.” Reality check: you’re not Google, as you’re reminded of this every time you attempt to balance your company’s budget.

Technology is getting more powerful, but have you considered where all of that power comes from? Not many people actually take the time to understand how much energy their PC or workstation is using, but this could potentially be increasing your operating costs higher than they need to. Try taking the time to calculate your PC’s energy usage to get a feel for what your workstation is costing your business and the environment.

As we near the end of 2014, the topic of IT budgeting is on everyone’s minds. How much are you willing to spend, and on what? In order to provide optimal figures for the new year, you need to take some time to plan out what you think you need to spend, versus how much you’re willing to spend, on IT. Thankfully, you don’t have to do this alone.

Putting together an IT budget is an exceptionally tricky procedure. Every year presents unique technical challenges that need to be addressed, but the slightest miscalculation can be detrimental to an IT budget. Here are five tips to give your organization some breathing room when it comes to planning out next year’s IT expenses.

Your business thrives when your technology is running smoothly, but when it fails to function as intended, it can have unforeseen consequences that reach deep into your IT budget. One of the best ways that your organization can optimize your IT is by taking advantage of outsourced services, but you don’t want to approach these “as a service” offerings uninformed.