Best Security Practices for Good Password Protection

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Best security practices: Computer security is crucial. Depending on your business, you may have security measures that are required by law for the protection of personally identifiable information, but you need to ensure your information’s protection regardless of the surrounding statutes. Get antivirus programs, secure your building physically, and have good password management. Here’s how to securely take care of the latter:

Train your employees on good password strategies.

Most people know not to use Password123, but after that, there’s not a lot of education about best practices. Require a full range of alphanumerical and special characters, and make sure the characters are randomized instead of individual words. A general strategy is to pick three random words from a book or article that have no significant meaning: the words are linked together in the user’s mind to make them easier to remember but make no sense to potential hackers. Even then, it can be difficult to remember these passwords, so have your employees combine them with two-step logins or a secure keylogger.

Set a mandated schedule for updated passwords.

Even employees with the best of intentions won’t stay up-to-date on a self-regulated schedule for replacing passwords. Instead, link the profiles together and require password changes every 30-90 days. This works even better if you add a setting to prevent recycled passwords.

If your network has mobile access or a two-step sign-on involves using a phone, use software that makes employees password-protect their phones.

Most people already have passwords on their phones, especially since they have credit card information. But make it a requirement so no one can steal an employee’s phone and get access to your system.

Passwords are the most universal form of security in business but they can also be the weakest. Make sure your employees use strong passwords and choose new ones regularly. For more computer tips and IT support, go to Bluwater Technologies here.

Does Your Small Business Need IT Support?

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Sometimes a small business can downplay the importance of IT support. Many businesses see IT as something that is not really a necessity to their business. However, when the first issue occurs, like customers calling you to tell you your servers are down, you will realize you are in need of support.

If you do run across various issues, you may think you can get one of your managers to resolve the issue for you. You may also try reaching out to the help desk service so you can have the issue resolved as soon as possible. While using these services will certainly be better than nothing, you are going to need to have a team of professionals on your side. If you have a small or a big issue, you are going to need IT experts who will be able to get you right back on track so you will not have to worry about missing out on important sales.

When you have the appropriate IT support, all of your employees will be able to continue doing what you hired them to do. Your employees will not have to worry about trying to repair an issue with a software or service, especially when they have work-related things to do. When your employees are trying to resolve the problems of your business, this can negatively impact your productivity levels. When you have a professional team of experts on your side, your computers will run exactly the way they are supposed to.

As a small business, it is important that you invest in the appropriate IT support services so your business can thrive and reach new heights. Contact us today if you are in need of IT support for your small business.

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Small Business Budgeting Advice To Effectively Manage Your Company

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As a newcomer in the industry, especially for someone who owns a small business, it can often be difficult to get started. Not only might you lack the resources that larger businesses have, but no doubt will you be on a tighter budget as well. In fact, that’s one of the main differences between a small/medium-sized business, and one of a larger size. With that said, what’s the best way to effectively manage your company’s budget? Here is some small business budgeting advice to take into consideration.

Small Business Budgeting Advice

When owning a business, it can be tempting to buy flashy products, especially if you think it’ll make the workplace stand out. However, this is where style over substance comes into play. As a small business owner, you should only be purchasing what you need and not necessarily what you want. While buying these items, also ask yourself if they bring any value to the company, and if they’ll help to meet your business needs. If the answer is no, you can do without them.

As a small business, you should also be seeking advice from a financial advisor. Even if you think you know all the financial ropes of your business, the coach/advisor may show you that your business is in more trouble than you think. In fact, some financial advisors may even give you budget advice. Even the most experienced business owners could take to heart. Also, have you considered making a budget list for the company? It’s a great way to keep yourself organized. This way you and others know how much can and can’t be spent. In the long run, your money can be used much more effectively.

For more helpful business advice, including the benefits of our IT support, feel free to contact us today at Bluwater Technologies. We look forward to hearing from you.

it support small business

How Can IT Support for Your Small Businesses Help Improve Customer Service?

Customer service is critical for your company’s success. Recent data reported at Small Business Trends shows that some form of poor customer service is responsible for over half the negative complaints small businesses receive.

One function of strong IT support for small businesses is to enhance customer service in a number of ways, including the following:

Minimizing Downtime for the Business Website

Customers need consistent access to the site, for example to contact the business, buy products, leave comments and reviews, sign into their accounts, download forms, and look up important information.

Gathering and Analyzing Information About Customers

Businesses can better serve their customers and respond effectively to concerns and complaints by having a clearer picture of who their customers are. They need to understand the customers both as individuals and as members of a larger group. IT support professionals can help your business implement powerful solutions for managing customer relationships and gathering, organizing, and analyzing data from customers. They can help you maintain databases of critical customer information.

Establishing Reliable Ways to Deliver Customer Service

For example, IT support professionals can help you establish and maintain a reliable business email service and Voice over IP (VoIP) solutions.

When your business enjoys strong IT support, customers also benefit. Your employees are able to work more productively and efficiently. Both customer and employee data are more secure and, thanks to reliable backup and recovery measures, are less vulnerable to permanent loss.

Don’t hesitate to contact us to further discuss how we can help you improve your customer service performance, along with strengthening your business operations in many other respects.

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Choosing the Right SMB IT Support

Having good small business it support and solutions is important if you want to ensure that your company’s information technology needs are satisfactorily met. But with all the SMB IT support providers out there, picking the one for the job can sometimes be difficult.

So how do you choose a solutions provider for your business operations?

Understand What Your Business Really Needs

One important matter to note of when choosing an IT solutions provider is that small businesses have different needs compared to larger companies. For instance, a small online store might not need to use a dedicated server to handle transactions. Hosting services, such as Google Drive, are often enough to keep tabs on the transactions coming through the store. This in turn, can cut down greatly on the amount of IT solutions needed.

However, as this PR Web article says, you need to think broadly when looking into your business’ particular information technology needs. Ask yourself what kind of tasks have to be accomplished for business operations. Determine which tasks need IT support and which ones can be managed even without it. You also need to determine whether your business operations might be at risk with your current IT setup. From there, you will be able to map out a comprehensive IT support plan.

Looking For an IT Support Provider

Price is often one of the first considerations made by companies when looking for small business IT support and solutions provider. After all, these companies often don’t have a lot of money to spend. However, one mistake to avoid here is going with a provider simply because they have the lowest offer. Remember that you are putting your business’ IT capability on the line here. Go over the IT plan you have prepared and see which provider is able to give everything you need for a fairly reasonable price.

Sufficient tech support is also an important consideration when choosing an IT solutions provider. Blue Derkin gives a rundown of important questions to ask when checking a provider’s tech support capability:

“When my site, for some unknown reason, goes down, can I call up and get a real, live person on the phone? And, more than that, can they find out what’s wrong and fix it, or at least tell me what I need to do to get my site back online? Before going with a host look into their reputation for customer support. See what kinds of different ways you can contact them when you need support – email, toll-free phone, chat, and so on. Are they staffed 24/7? Do they outsource support?”

Working with a SMB IT Support Provider

When working with your chosen IT provider, keep in mind that they still have their limitations. For instance, the tech they provide might not be able to meet demands higher than what has initially agreed upon. Take this into consideration when making an assessment of the provider’s performance. It would also be a good idea for you to discuss scalability options early with them, so that these can be implemented when needed.