Data Net Blog

The idea of a four-day workweek—where the common 40-hour week is shortened to 32 with no reduction of benefits or take-home pay—is becoming increasingly popular, boasting improved efficiency and heightened levels of employee satisfaction.

Naturally, as an IT provider, we’re intrigued by the idea of using technology to get the most out of this abbreviated time in the office.

You would be hard-pressed to find anything more important to a company’s success than information technology. Today, we want to cover five of the most important tools modern businesses can use to improve operations and engage in commonly known and standardized best practices.

Your business will not remain the same throughout its lifecycle, and as such, you need the services you utilize to be capable of changing with it. This is where it helps to have the flexibility and scalability of a managed IT provider on your side. Let’s go over why flexible technology is the path forward for SMBs like yourself and how you can take full advantage of the range of services an MSP can offer.

When it comes to network security, there are many common suggestions from IT professionals, like utilizing robust firewalls and antivirus measures. However, it’s easy to overlook some of these practices, especially if you are not necessarily a trained IT technician. We’re here to provide a short guide to three of the most common security pitfalls organizations like yours will likely face during normal everyday operations.

What’s the difference between a power strip and a surge protector? It turns out, quite a lot, and the difference is much more than just the number of plugs on it. Let’s discuss some of the biggest ways that these two important pieces of power supply technology differ and how you should determine which one best suits your needs.

Of all the aspects that play a part in your business’ success, its company culture can often be overlooked as nothing more than a perk… something nice to offer the team, but ultimately unimportant. This is very much a misconception.

Let’s discuss how valuable a positive company culture is, and how to develop one in your business. Don’t worry, we’ll get into the technology of it all, too.

2023 was quite the year, especially where AI is concerned. The technology became the center of attention in the business world and in the public. What does this mean for AI, and how has this technology changed the way we do business, for better or worse? Let’s dive in.

Against all odds, remote work has been gradually accepted, but regardless of how your organization does it, it would be imprudent to overlook the obvious cybersecurity risks presented by remote work. Let’s take a look at the essence of zero-trust security and explore why it has evolved into the standard that organizations of all sizes should adhere to.

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a few years since circumstances… “encouraged”... so many businesses to suddenly adopt work from home policies. As these circumstances have gradually normalized, many businesses have elected to keep these policies in place, either maintaining fully remote operations or shifting to hybrid operations.

However, some notable businesses have taken efforts to roll back remote work capabilities, if not discontinuing them entirely.

“If a craftsman wants to do good work, he must first sharpen his tools.” Like so many of the other quotes attributed to Confucious, this phrase is no less true today, even in the realm of business technology. It should come as no surprise that implementing the right technology for your particular business needs will produce greater results.

The real question is how to identify the technology that will contribute to the overall success of your organization.

How much technology does your business use day in and day out? More likely than not, it’s a lot, and we’d bet good money on the fact that you could be doing more to manage it. That said, it’s not always clear how to go about doing it, especially if you don’t have any in-house IT talent to handle this considerable responsibility. With managed services, you can overcome this challenge. Let’s go over what these are and how they work.

Cybersecurity is a complicated beast. Not only do you have to be sure that you’re protected from threats coming from outside your business, there are also a few very real threats that can originate from inside your business, too. Both are critical to prevent, which can be quite effectively accomplished via a zero trust approach to your security.

The modern worker has a lot of challenges and one of them is a laundry list of tasks to accomplish. For this reason, it’s best to have a plan for tackling your to-do list. One of the most effective ways to prioritize tasks is through what is called the Eisenhower Matrix. Inspired by a speech given by the former President of the United States and the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in World War II, the Eisenhower Matrix simplifies complex task lists to make getting through them more effective. Let’s take a look at how it works.

Oh, the afternoon meeting, the woe of many office workers around the world. Sometimes they are fine, but other times, it’s very clear that they are not always an effective use of your time. Despite this, there is still a heavy emphasis on meetings in the workplace, to the point where some employees feel that their time is being wasted and misused as a result—a premise that is supported by surveys and research.

One thing that will always be useful in business and in life is the ability to think critically. You might find that it’s even more helpful when considering decisions related to your IT infrastructure, too. Let’s go over how you can foster these skills within yourself and your employees.

Since it was—somewhat by necessity—implemented by many businesses a few years ago, many of these same businesses have been quick to abandon remote and hybrid approaches to work. If you are considering this return, we implore you to reconsider—in fact, we’d urge you to lean into further expanding the capabilities of remote and hybrid workers.

Wasting money is a major problem regardless of the kind of business you run. Technology can do a lot to stretch your dollars, but it can also be the cause of waste. This week, we thought we’d identify three ways that your business could be wasting significant money on your IT. 

There are many proponents of the four-day workweek, so many to the point where it is actively being implemented to determine if it is as successful of a strategy as it is in theory. You might be surprised to hear that it is, in fact, a successful business model, and there are studies to back it up.

Both in-house and remote operations have their places in the work environment, and many companies have opted to combine the two to create a hybrid workplace. While this too has made a world of difference for all kinds of businesses, others have found that it lacks the inclusivity that a modern workplace demands. Let’s take a look at the cause of this.

As businesses have witnessed how both in-person operations and remote work practices can offer unique value to their processes and procedures, hybrid work has become a more popular approach. This has in turn led to many businesses reconsidering how their business’ space is utilized…and even how much they need.