If Any Of Your Staff Works Remotely, You Need to Be On Top Of This

Remote and hybrid working is now the norm for a lot of people.

But a recent survey has found that, despite it being more than two years since many of us were forced to work from home, too many businesses still don’t have the right cybersecurity measures in place for those away from the office.

The survey was originally intended to learn about spending plans from now into next year. However, the results highlighted just how few businesses have the right cybersecurity protections.

And it’s a worry.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, cybersecurity incidents – like malware, ransomware, and data breaches – have risen sharply. Cybercriminals began by taking advantage of the panic, and have since developed increasingly sophisticated tactics.

It’s costing businesses around the world billions, plus causing excessive downtime.

While the survey did show that around two-thirds of businesses have good web security measures in place, like malware filters, some results were more disappointing.

Just 50% of companies have cloud-based cybersecurity systems in place right now (although 15% are exploring their options).

Cloud security gives businesses multiple layers of protection across their network and infrastructure that helps to keep data better protected against breaches or attacks.

Not only is it a good defense, but it also identifies threats before they become an issue.

The survey also highlighted that 10% of businesses plan to implement access management, which ensures only the right people can access the right systems.

A further 9% intend to prioritize VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) to allow secure network access for remote workers.

They’re also looking at zero-trust solutions where your network assumes every device or connection is a threat until proven otherwise.

Of course, our advice is that you should already have these security solutions in place – especially if you have remote or hybrid workers.

If not, this is something to take action on quickly. All you need to do is pick up the phone or email us. We can help.

VoIP Softphones Or Hardphones: Which Is Better?

Are you thinking about installing a new business phone system or upgrading your existing one? If you are, you have the choice between VoIP softphones and hardphones. But which one is better? This article will tackle the differences between the two types of VoIP phones and which one your business should get.

VoIP Softphones

Softphones are apps or programs that let you send and receive phone calls and text messages using a computer, tablet, or smartphone connected to the internet. Using softphones come with the following benefits:

1. Cost savings
Softphones can be installed directly on your computer or mobile device. This eliminates the costs of additional telephony hardware, setup, support, and maintenance that’s often included in hardphones.

2. Mobility
Unlike hardphones, softphones don’t need to be connected to cables. You can send and receive calls and text messages in areas with good internet connectivity. This is the perfect solution for workers who are always on the go.

3. Easy to upgrade
Softphones are packed with features such as voicemail, one-touch dialing, personalized greetings, and more. You can easily access newer features through software updates. With hardphones, on the other hand, you’ll need to purchase newer models to access the latest features.

VoIP Hardphones

VoIP hardphones resemble traditional desk phones, but instead of using analog phone lines, they rely on the internet to make and receive calls. VoIP hardphones also come with various features not found on traditional telephones, such as call monitoring, auto attendants, and video calls, to name a few. Here are the benefits of using VoIP hardphones.

1. Easy to use
Because they look and function like traditional phones, VoIP hardphones are generally easy to use. Softphones are software-based, so some training may be required for users to become familiar with a softphone’s features.

2. Better call quality
Unlike softphones, hardphones don’t have to compete with other programs for computing resources. This can reduce a softphone’s performance and negatively affect call quality.

3. Better uptime and stability
Hardphones won’t run into too many issues as long as your internet connection is stable. Since softphones run on your computer or mobile devices, if you encounter problems operating them, you won’t be able to use your softphone. Also, if your laptop or mobile device runs out of battery, calls on the softphone will also be cut.

Both VoIP softphones and hardphones offer a variety of benefits, so choosing which is best for your business comes down to your needs and preferences. If you want to learn more about VoIP phones, get in touch with Net Activity’s experts now.

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Safeguard Your Social Media: 4 Ways To Keep Your Personal Information Protected

It’s no secret that social media is a huge target for hackers. Every day, millions of people share their personal information on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. This makes it easy for cybercriminals to steal identities and access sensitive data. It’s therefore important that you know how to effectively protect your social media accounts from hackers. The following tips can help you do just that.

Lock your screen

Always lock all your devices as soon as you stop using them. This way, you are safe from the simplest hack of all: someone opening a social media site on your device while your account is still signed in.

Locking your phone is easy enough, but in case you didn’t know, here’s how to lock your computer:

On a Mac:

• Press Ctrl+Command+Q.
• Click the Apple logo on the top left corner of the screen, and select Lock screen.

On a Windows device:

• Press Windows key+L.
• If there are multiple users using the device, click the Start button on the bottom left corner of the screen, then select User > Lock.

Use strong passwords

One of the easiest ways for hackers to gain access to your account is by launching brute force attacks to guess a weak or easily guessed password. Be sure to use a strong password that is at least eight characters long and includes a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. It’s also a good idea to change your password regularly to further reduce the risk of someone gaining access to your account.

It is best to use a password manager like 1Password, LastPass, or Dashlane, as these allow you to generate, save, and retrieve complex passwords.

You can also enable multifactor authentication, which requires users to fulfill at least one more identity verification step after entering their username and password. The extra step or steps can involve scanning your fingerprint or entering a one-time passcode on an authentication app. Even if hackers have your password, they won’t be able to log in to your account without the additional authentication requirements.

Enable social media security features

Facebook can help you monitor who’s accessing your account and from where. On any web browser, log in to Facebook and click on Your profile, which is the icon located at the upper-right corner of the page. Select Settings & privacy, then click Settings > Accounts Center. From the Accounts Center, choose Password and security to get more information.

Under the “Where you’re logged in” section, you’ll see a list of the places and devices you’re logged into. If you don’t recognize a particular location or device, that means someone else has logged in as you and is likely using your account for fraudulent or malicious purposes. Log them out by clicking the checkbox on the row indicating the malicious login and selecting Log out, and then report the incident immediately.

Unfortunately, as of this writing, Twitter doesn’t have the same option of checking unrecognized logins. This makes implementing two-factor authentication even more necessary.

Hackers can also take over your Facebook and Twitter accounts through third-party services to which you’ve given access to your profiles, so make sure to double-check what you have approved. Here’s how to do it:

• Facebook: Go to Settings > Accounts Center > Password and security > Apps and websites to view and manage third-party services that use Facebook to log you into the accounts you have with them.
• Twitter: Go to Settings and privacy > Security and account access > Apps and sessions to check and edit the list of third-party apps linked to your account.

Lastly, check the permissions Facebook and Twitter have on your smartphone or tablet.

• Android: Go to Settings > Apps > App permissions.
• iOS: Go to Settings and find Facebook and Twitter under the app list to manage which parts or features of your phone (such as the camera and speaker) they have access to.

Post less personal information online

As much as we all love to share our lives with others on social media, it’s important to remember that not everything needs to be shared online. Hackers can use information like your birthdate, home address, and phone number to gain access to your accounts or even steal your identity. So, limit the amount of personal information you share on social media and think twice before posting anything that could be used against you.

By following these tips, you can significantly prevent Facebook and Twitter hacking.

Cybersecurity is a sprawling issue — and social media privacy is but one of the many things you need to stay on top of. For support, call our team of experts today.

There is a Strategy to Making Smart Technology Investments

A lot of companies are making large technology investments, in fact, if you are here now, you are probably thinking about making such an investment for your own business. One problem that growing companies have is identifying and investing in the right technology. Today, we thought we would give you a couple of tips on how to go about making technology investment decisions that will be the most advantageous for your business.

Why Invest in Technology?

Before we get into some tips that can help you make the best technology investment decisions, we want to talk about why companies are investing in technology. In the small business world, most business owners feel as if they are constantly falling behind if they don’t continuously improve their technology. In fact, according to a poll conducted in 2021, over half of respondents to the small business poll thought they were spending too little on their technology, while only about 20 percent felt that they were spending too much. Obviously, these are just opinions, but it can give you a look into the game of catch-up that a lot of small business owners are constantly playing. Some of the reasons small businesses invest in technology include:

• Integration of new systems/applications to advance efficiency
• Cybersecurity
• Managing and analyzing data
• Upgrading systems
• Upgrade for younger workforce
• Expanding reach/commerce to Internet
• Managing building IT complexities

There are many others, but if you are like the over half of small business owners that feel like stagnation in your tech is stagnation in your business, finding the right technology to invest in is imperative to not wasting capital. Let’s take a look at three strategies that work to identify the technology your business needs.

Look Inward

The first thing you should do before making any technology-procurement decisions is assess what problems your business has that could possibly be fixed by adding new technology. Do you pay a lot of money for a certain part of your business that a new tech investment could reduce over time? Are you lacking efficiency in one part of your business? You will want to identify the pain points of your business and then take some time to see what type of investment works best for you. Do you need to see a rapid ROI? Technology can be a solution to your problem, but it can just as easily become another problem if you don’t plan ahead.

Look to Deliver More Value

Your company is unique, and if you consider it, it has a unique offering. Identifying what unique value your business presents to your customers is a great place to start when looking to implement technology to help your business. You will want to explore how new technology could help you differentiate your product and service delivery and then make decisions on those investments to improve your value proposition to customers. After all, if your customers won’t pay more after a massive innovation project, other than market sustainability, why would you want to put that kind of stress on your business?

Get Creative

You are in the business of creating great outcomes for your customers so that they continue to buy your products and services. Why then would you try to develop and integrate technology that could end up costing you a lot of money? Nowadays, there are many technologically-based organizations that your business can partner with to ensure that you are able to move operations forward. Whether that be organizations that specialize in virtualized hardware, managed software, or simply getting your team the coffee they need, there are technology-based solutions to nearly every business problem.

That’s where the IT professionals at Net Activity come in, we handle all manners of technology-related issues that you can have with your business. Give us a call today at 216-503-5150 to have a conversation about how to get your technology working for you.

Some Employees Won’t Stop Using Apps That Could Be A Security Risk

It’s likely a lot of the applications and software tools you’re using now are different from the ones your business used before the pandemic.

That’s because we’ve all had to make big adjustments to the way we communicate and collaborate.

And to begin with, it may have been hit and miss. It’s possible in the first few weeks and months that your employees had to use whatever tools they had available to them.

Now that we’ve settled into permanent new ways of working, we can pick the software tools that best suit our businesses.

Unfortunately, your employees might not like your choice of which apps should be used within the company. And some of them may continue to use the ones they prefer, despite the security risk that comes with that.

A recent survey found a massive 92% of employees want more control over the software, collaboration tools, and applications they use. And 51% continue to use apps that have been banned by IT departments.

It’s putting business owners in a difficult position.

Blocking apps and software may lead to employees feeling untrusted. This can lead to frustration and lack of motivation. It can really have a negative impact on your business.

But ignoring the issue can be just as bad. Unvetted apps can be a big security risk, leaving your data open to theft and your systems vulnerable to malware.

So what’s the answer?

We’d always suggest having open conversations with your people. It’s a good idea to invite feedback on the software you want to use. After all, your people are the ones using it day-in, day-out.

Take their suggestions on alternatives if the consensus is you’re using the wrong solutions and commit to looking into their viability.

It’s also a very good idea to make sure your people fully understand the risks that come with using unapproved apps, and the impact that can have on a business.

Even in cases where your team are all sticking to approved tools, keeping them educated on the latest cyber security initiatives is a smart move.

Can we help you find the most suitable communication and productivity tools for your business? We’ve helped lots of business owners do this. Net Activity is here to help.

Why You Need to Invest in Your Remote Collaboration Capabilities

With businesses handling operations in different ways, their employees must adapt to the circumstances handed to them. Some companies have begun to experiment with the status quo and are for the first time realizing the value that can come from allowing staff to work remotely. We’d like to discuss some of the ways your team might rely on technology to make remote collaboration effective and how you can optimize your experience with these collaborative platforms.

The Role Technology Plays in Remote Collaboration

You’d be hard-pressed to find a business that doesn’t use IT in some way to facilitate a large portion of its day-to-day tasks. Even if it’s just one part of your operations, like managing payroll or keeping track of inventory, IT can help your business by providing value in how it streamlines these tasks. Similarly, collaboration solutions allow your business to glean value from technology by making communication more effective, especially for remote workers.

Doing the same thing day-in and day-out can be monotonous at best, and it’s likely that your team would agree. If you can take some of this burden off your employees and instead leverage technology to assist with some of the more repetitive workday tasks, you could see some benefit there. Since remote workers tend to want to get right to the task at hand, you can effectively use technology to make this goal more feasible.

What a Business Needs to Do to Get Collaborative Results from Remote Workers

There are various things your business can do to help remote workers meet their designated goals. Here are some of them:

• Provide equipment: If you want to make sure your remote workers have access to the tools they need to be successful, you can make it much easier by providing them with the equipment they need. Plus, since the equipment belongs to the company, you can install whatever you need to on it, and managing the devices becomes much easier.
• Improve communication: Communication can be aided when you build out your collaboration platforms with the remote worker in mind. If you implement tools that are specifically designed for this purpose, like VoIP and other collaborative tools, you’ll have a much easier time adjusting to the remote conditions when needed.
• Be involved: It’s extremely important for business owners and leaders to embrace the technology in use by your organization. Employees will be that much more likely to adopt the same mindset if they see their leaders doing the same.

If your organization uses remote workers, it’s critical that you find a balance between micromanagement and a more hands-off approach. Be sure that you aren’t overloading your employees with even more work in your attempts to make their daily tasks more manageable.

A Two-Step Process You Can Use to Improve Remote Team Collaboration

There might be plenty of tools out there that facilitate collaboration, but there is a difference between implementing a solution that you think might be beneficial to your team and implementing one that your team thinks might be beneficial for themselves. Due to the unique circumstances surrounding remote workers, we recommend that you involve them in the decision process early before you implement something that does the exact opposite of what you expect. To make this happen, we recommend following a two-step process:

Collaborative Vision for Product or Service Delivery

It all boils down to communication and feedback. You should work to get ideas from your employees who are actively working for your organization so you can best address issues that arise with their workflows. Ask your staff the following questions:

1. How would you describe what we are trying to accomplish?
2. What are some of the problems you see with the project as it currently stands?
3. How would your approach differ from the one laid out?

When you involve workers in the project before it starts, it gives them the confidence that their opinions matter and that you are taking them into consideration. While you will ultimately have to do what is best for the company rather than your employees, you might be surprised by how often these two initiatives align.

To get the best feedback possible, you can split your team into groups and ask them to collaborate on individual adjustments they would like to make. This makes the process of collecting feedback less time-consuming and gives your team the ability to promote perspectives that they might not necessarily consider otherwise. Identifying common issues in this way means that you can address them according to how frequently they occur.

Focus on the Problems

Armed with a list of group answers, you can go about the process of identifying problems that you need to address. You can then collaborate on how to resolve them. Remote teams might require that you use technology of some sort to bridge the gaps, like instant messaging applications or other end-to-end collaboration tools. Other integrations you might find helpful include video conferencing, file sharing, and so on.

We know it can be intimidating to implement a new technology solution, so we want you to know that we’ve got your back. Net Activity can help with each stage of the implementation process, from conception to maintenance. To learn more, reach out to us at 215-503-5150.

How Automation Can Transform Your Marketing Processes

It can be challenging for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with limited resources to get their marketing efforts off the ground. Fortunately, with marketing automation, SMBs can streamline repetitive processes and establish more cost-effective marketing campaigns. By implementing marketing automation, your company stands to gain the following benefits.

1. Automatic follow-ups

Keeping in touch over the phone can be tough if both parties are always busy, which is why email is often the medium of choice for marketing campaigns. With an automated system, your company can log the time and date of contact with leads, and set follow-up reminders for you and your team. You can even automate follow-up emails with prospects. This way, no potential customer will ever slip through the cracks.

2. Comprehensive contact histories

With each call and email you make and networking event you attend, you may obtain new contacts and leads. In the past, keeping track of these leads meant manually storing thick stacks of business cards and notes in your Rolodex. But today, cutting-edge marketing tools have made it possible to automatically capture contact information from any correspondence and record it directly onto customer relationship management databases.

Previous calls, scanned business cards, and received emails all get organized into a single database without a single minute wasted on tedious data entry. Automated systems can also track specific information on new leads, such as product preferences, contact times, and demographic information. All this information can then be used to create more personalized sales pitches that increase the likelihood of conversion.

3. Instant responses to email requests

Whenever prospective customers contact you via an email or web form, they usually expect an immediate response. Take too long to respond, and these customers can quickly lose interest in your company, ultimately costing you potential business. But if you have a marketing automation solution, you can customize automated emails to respond to these leads as soon as an email is received. These emails may include answers to frequently asked questions about your services or a simple acknowledgment that you will get back to them with an answer shortly.

4. Inbound lead assignment

Keeping track of which customer service representatives (CSRs) are handling which clients can be tricky, especially as you acquire more leads. Marketing automation software fixes this issue by automatically assigning inbound leads to the most appropriate CSRs. It could assign clients to representatives based on availability, prior experience, and specialties. This way, you can improve customer experiences by having the right people talk to the right clients.

5. Streamlined content distribution

Getting someone’s contact information is key to acquiring more leads and building relationships. The best way to achieve this is to offer relevant and valuable content that prospects actually want. For instance, you can offer webinars, how-to tutorials from your niche, or special product promotions in exchange for filling out a simple web form. When clients submit the web form with their contact information, you can then use marketing automation to deliver the content directly to their inbox.

Not only does this save you time from having to manually send out each piece of content, but it also allows you to track which pieces of content are most popular and generate the most leads. This can inform future marketing campaigns and help you focus on what’s most important to your target audience.

Wise business owners know that marketing automation is the key to saving time and unlocking their company’s competitive edge, helping them easily acquire and convert more leads. Contact us now if you want to elevate your marketing with cutting-edge automation tools.

Businesses Are Spending More On IT This Year

As a business owner or manager, you know how important good IT is. Your business couldn’t function without it.

Your IT isn’t just about computers and data. It’s everything from your phone system to your printers, to where you access your documents.

And that’s without going into the measures you must take to keep your data and infrastructure safe and secure from cybercriminals.

So, we weren’t surprised by a new forecast from IT research and consultancy firm, Gartner, which predicts businesses will spend more on technology this year.

In fact, the global IT spend could reach an enormous $4.4 trillion. That’s despite rising inflation, the Russian invasion, and shortages in both chips and IT talent.

We believe there’s been a fundamental shift in the way businesses view their technology.

Two years ago, at the beginning of the pandemic, companies were forced to take unexpected urgent action to help employees work from home. In many cases that meant a large investment in devices, rapid changes to systems, and the adoption of new technology.

And it’s worked out well for most. Businesses have adapted quickly, and many have embraced the changes on a more permanent basis.

But it’s also made business leaders realize they need to be better prepared to respond to future potential disruption.

This is the difference between a flexible and agile business… and one that stumbles at the first hurdle.

Many businesses no longer see IT as a cost. They embrace it as an investment. They can see the direct correlation between creating robust, safe, and flexible systems – and their teams’ abilities to achieve more.

Owners and managers are also placing more value on excellent, proactive technology support from a trusted partner.

To not only plan and execute big development projects. But also, to help reduce downtime and ensure systems are secure and running as they should be.

If you’re reviewing your spend on technology and support, we can help. Get in touch.