The Thurston, Pierce, Lewis, and Mason Counties IT Experts

Why Doesn’t IT Like Me?

If you’ve read this far, chances are that you are what an IT professional would call an “end user,” which is just someone who uses technology to accomplish their goals. Let me ask you something: how many end users would you assume have the same level of technology experience as an IT technician?

Naturally, very few end users have this level of familiarity… otherwise, there wouldn’t be any need for the IT department. As a result, the end user is more susceptible to security issues and threats—the very things that IT is trying to minimize. Looking at it this way, it is understandable that IT might occasionally be frustrated.

While we certainly know better than to try and make you an IT expert over the course of one blog, we can give you some advice to help you avoid such issues and thereby give your IT resource a bit of a break. This is a win-win, because the less time an IT professional spends cleaning up messes, the more time they can spend improving your business processes.

Seeing as it is currently Cybersecurity Month, let’s review a few troublesome tendencies that the average end user slips into that could create issues so that these habits can be broken.

Clicking on Everything

Links are a funny thing. If I were to include a link in this blog, there’s a fair chance that you might automatically click through it out of habit. Even if I expressly told you not to click through it, many end users would click through it anyways.

Let’s test this theory.

The danger here is simple: cybercriminals know how tempting it can be to click on a link, how automatically so many of us tend to do so. This is why the use of misleading links is such a major part of a phishing strategy—basically, the “made you look” of cybercrime. Rather than bringing you to the page you anticipated, a phishing attack might install malware, or create a fraudulent lookalike page to steal whatever data you input.

One of your users falling for a phishing attack is all it could take for a cybercriminal to bypass your network security, so it is important that your team knows why clicking links is more dangerous than they would expect. Make sure that, before clicking, your team members hover their cursors over any links to confirm where they will go, and when in doubt, to not click.

Installing Unapproved Software

Similarly, the “Install” button can be very tempting for an end user. The problem? That helpful-looking online application or browser add-on could easily subject your network to compatibility issues and security threats.

Considering this, you should insist that—unless a program is sourced from an operating system’s official marketplace, or your IT department has already vetted it—a user should never install anything. Ideally, they wouldn’t install it anyways, relying on IT to properly supply and configure the solutions needed for the job.

Poor Password Hygiene

Few other best practices are as frustrating for an IT technician to repeat as the guidelines for proper password creation and management. As the current standard in identity authentication, it is beyond important for you and your users to comply with assorted password rules and requirements, such as:

• Using a different one for each account
• Avoiding common password combinations and conventions
• Keeping them private, instead of sharing their passwords
• Memorizing them, instead of writing them down

If these practices are not followed, your business is essentially inviting in security issues, which IT then must deal with.

You may consider making IT’s job somewhat simpler by implementing a password management solution. This piece of software saves all a user’s passwords in an encrypted vault that is only accessible by using a single master password. This ensures that the user always has access to their necessary passwords when they need them, while also reducing the number they need to remember to one.

That way, there’s no longer any excuse for slacking in their password hygiene, and your business’ security benefits as a result.

A cyberattack is leveraged against a business just about once every 39 seconds, so you can’t afford to have your users short-change the defenses you have in place. IT has enough to worry about without this contribution. PC Technologies can help you out with our managed IT services, taking over some of their responsibilities and helping them to accomplish their goals.

To find out more about the managed services we offer and their operational benefits, reach out to us at 360-491-2227.

Examining this report, Salesforce included businesses ranging from two employees to two hundred from a variety of industries, in a variety of countries. Crucially, these businesses were differentiated based on whether they had experienced an increase in revenue over one percent (signifying growth) or of less than one percent/a decline in revenue (signifying stagnation or decline).

Let’s take a close look at some of the conclusions that Salesforce came to based on their data collection and aggregation.

Small and Medium-Sized Businesses Can Grow by Making Operations More Flexible

The more flexible a business is in how it can serve its customers, the more they are able to accomplish—despite the limitations that they face today. Therefore, it makes sense to pay attention to how well a business can adapt to the requirements and restrictions that COVID-19 has imparted.

Based on the data Salesforce has collected, many businesses have shown themselves to be quite flexible in their operations. For instance, an average 64 percent of surveyed businesses (61 percent small, 69 percent medium) were focused on implementing the proper safety and sanitation policies, while 59 percent of each had focused on compliance to their area’s masking requirements. Others have implemented contactless services and otherwise promoted social distancing by rearranging workplaces. Naturally, the medium-sized businesses have been in a better position to make these changes, but small businesses haven’t been far behind.

Successful Businesses are the Ones Shifting Their Safety and Interactions

Based on its research, Salesforce has also shown that the businesses most likely to embrace the changes necessary to keep their customers safe are the businesses who are growing—although the other businesses aren’t all that far behind. Communications have become more transparent and accessible through more avenues, like social media, at an increasing rate.

Identifying the Right Technology Isn’t Always the Issue

In fact, it isn’t even in the top three reasons that businesses are finding their operations constrained. To be fair, it is number four, but more prevalent are business concerns over their access to capital, their ability to meet their clients’ expectations, and how to hire the right talent. It also doesn’t help that revenue and demand has all reduced in the face of the pandemic. Far more businesses also identify the limitations placed in the interest of the public health and compliance to public health as detrimental to their businesses.

In Fact, Technology Helps Businesses Succeed

The report also provides various examples of how technology has benefited operations for SMBs during this time—particularly the “S” part. Taking the average:

• 51 percent claimed that technology drove their customer interactions
• 46 percent credited it with enabling their business to remain open
• 42 percent said that technology helped generate the growth of their customer base
•  40 percent saw improved productivity
•  32 percent saw it benefitting collaboration

So, while the coronavirus pandemic certainly hasn’t done any favors for businesses, it has at least provided some evidence that businesses can benefit from implementing IT solutions. To find out more about how your business could directly benefit from these kinds of solutions, reach out to our team! We can help you evaluate your current IT implementation and suggest improvements to improve your operations. Give us a call at 360-491-2227.

The Internet as a Self-Serve Education Resource

While small business owners undoubtedly have some business acumen, there’s a good chance that their IT skills aren’t quite at the same level. Software is a common business tool in 2020, so many entrepreneurs have embraced the opportunity to remedy that disparity. Many have learned more about how to properly use their software’s features to better manage their businesses, and how they can teach these skills to their team when business resumes.

YouTube is a popular resource for many as they improve a litany of skills. From cooking, mechanics, business tips and other tricks, video has long been shown to be a great learning tool. In an online study that examined autodidactism (a fancy word for self-teaching, and what you’re doing by reading this blog), it was shown that nearly 60 percent of people preferred YouTube, but resources also included free as well as paid online courses, blogs and other online articles, and podcasts in their list of preferred educational online tools.

How Improving IT Skills is a Business Win

Think about it: with improved technical skills and a better understanding of the technology, entrepreneurs are in a better place to come up with methodologies that can make them more organized, save money, improve productivity, and otherwise make their business more efficient. Considering that there’s currently a pandemic interfering with business operations for many, efficiency is a highly desirable quality right now.

An employee that takes advantage of this time to improve their skills for the company also stands to benefit. Such employees are often promoted more quickly, are paid better, and rise to become team leaders. These are the people you want working for you when productivity is more crucial than ever.

Software Mastery is a Desirable Skill

Software is generally useful. However, once someone gets to be familiar with all a software title’s capabilities, this usefulness is thrown into overdrive. Most employees never quite reach this level. They tend to peak about where they understand how to best do the job they most use the software for.

However, some employees are now going beyond that to learn what their tools can do, learning more about the management software and operational applications their company uses and raising the bar in management’s eyes. This opens the opportunity for the whole team to generate more revenue or reduce greater costs with the features of their line of business software, and therefore, benefit the entire organization.

In the business world, the old saying “knowledge is power” certainly holds water. Take advantage of our knowledge by returning to our blog for more information about the IT your business relies upon, or by calling PC Technologies at 360-491-2227 for assistance.