Zinc Blog

A backup is a critical consideration for any business, in more ways than one. We have a tendency to immediately jump to “business-ending disaster” whenever we mention a backup. However, we’ve realized that this may have the unfortunate side effect of lulling you into a false sense of complacency - after all, what are the chances of being struck by a “business-ending disaster?”

Wouldn’t it be great if your business could get the support it needs without having to ask a provider to travel to your office? With remote monitoring and management tools, we can help your business stay focused on the task at hand, improving productivity and efficiency without disrupting your operations with an on-site visit.

I think we’ve made it pretty clear that your organization needs to back up its data. We’re continuously explaining that if you don’t back up your data, and have a plan to get it back quickly, you are really testing the foundations of your business. After all, in today’s business climate, data is a very big deal.

Did you know that switching from the keyboard to the mouse can eat up a full 8 work days worth of time per year?

Wi-Fi is one of the things that the average office worker tends to take for granted. It’s normal when it exists as it’s supposed to, but it’s annoying when it’s not working as intended, making it either hit or miss on whether it’s a boon or a bane to your productivity. If your Wi-Fi signal is spotty at best, there are certain methods you can use to fix the issue and get back to being productive with your wireless signal.

Data backup is an integral part of any business continuity strategy, but there are so many different parts to it that it’s not surprising some slip through the cracks if left unchecked. If you’re not taking measures to keep disasters from derailing operations, you could lose everything you’ve worked so hard to achieve. We’ll discuss the critical parts of a data backup and disaster recovery system, including how and why you should test your backups periodically.

Many businesses rely on technology in order to function, which once meant that technology-related expenses could easily eat up much of its budget. Now, a sizable number of companies are adopting a different approach: Bring Your Own Device, or BYOD. While this approach does have a few of its own downsides, there are definite benefits to BYOD that you could potentially enjoy.

An IT provider can do a lot for your business, but it can exceed your organization’s expectations in more ways than one. A growing business, however, often runs into issues that need to be addressed regarding its technology. We’ll outline some of the major benefits that technology management from an IT provider can offer for a growing business.

As a business owner, it is a great feeling when your business is firing on all cylinders. As revenue grows, the business is forced to take on more employees, and all of a sudden your once-small company is up for contracts/orders that you would never have imagined being possible only a short time ago. With this influx of success, you may find yourself looking at the innovative new technology that once wouldn’t have been practical, but now is both in your price range, and increasingly necessary.

There are quite a few factors that can lead to boosted productivity, but unfortunately, the opposite is also true. Your business’ productivity can be hampered by a variety of issues. Below, we’ll review some sources of productivity deficits, and how these deficits can be eliminated.

Computers are important for just about everything nowadays, but they can be difficult to deal with when they start to act up. If hardware doesn’t connect to a network, or if you have software that fails to respond when you click on it, you’ll likely need assistance to figure out what the cause is. On occasion, however, the issue might be something that a simple troubleshooting procedure can help you resolve. We’ll help you determine whether or not a situation is dire enough to involve professionals, as well as when it’s tame enough that you can resolve it on your own.

The basics are called “the basics” because they are the information you need to know first before you can get a genuine understanding of any concept. In many ways, the basics of network security are extremely important and cannot be ignored. Here are five basic ways you can keep your devices as secure as possible.

One of the best things about computers is that there is always a new way to make something easier: automation decreases a workload, their processors can calculate much faster than the human brain can, collaboration with coworkers becomes almost effortless, and your web browser can even remember your passwords! However, you have to ask yourself: is the ability to save your passwords in your browser really a great idea?

Billboards have been around in one form or another for millennia, starting with the humble handbill in 1450, or under a looser definition, with carved inscriptions on ancient Egyptian monuments. Today, technology allows us to leverage billboards and other forms of signage in new ways. Below, we’ll examine how these technological changes can benefit the small-to-medium-sized business’ use of this marketing medium.

Microsoft has consistently turned out collaboration software of all kinds, but some are more effective than others. We’ll try to single out some of the best and brightest solutions for collaboration in the business world.

With smartphones being so well suited to productivity and on-the-go organization, it’s little wonder that they have become a great tool for note-taking. One application in particular, Evernote, was designed with many features focused toward this very task. For this week’s tip, we’ll review some of the reasons that Evernote is a stand-out note-taking tool.

It’s a scene familiar from many science fiction movies: a simulation pulled up on a screen, the effects of some proposed action being predicted and demonstrated, telling the heroes that their plan just might work. As it happens, this kind of process is no longer relegated to the sci-fi genre, and is used practically in many industries. Here, we’ll discuss the phenomenon of the digital twin.

If you need to make something very clear about a document, adding a watermark to it is an excellent route to take. Microsoft Word 2016 (if you have Office 365, this applies too) makes it especially easy to do so. For this week’s tip, we’ll review the process of adding a watermark to your Word documents.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure. Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. File Transfer Protocol. Internet Message Access Protocol. Post Office Protocol. While it may not be outwardly apparent, we certainly rely on quite a few protocols in order to use our computers and more directly, the Internet, as we do. Today, we’ll introduce you to what a protocol actually is.

What’s the point of doing business if you aren’t making money? Processing payments is one of the most critical parts of running a business. To make this easier and more efficient for your company, we recommend working with more effective invoices. This week, we’ll discuss how you can make your invoices more valuable.