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How to make Office 365 work for youOffice 365 can boost your company’s productivity in many ways, but a lot of people don’t know how to utilize this service fully. Here are the things you can do to be more productive and make the most of Office 365. Get the staff aboard To maximize your company’s productivity with Office 365, make sure […]

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How to make Office 365 work for you

Office 365 can boost your company’s productivity in many ways, but a lot of people don’t know how to utilize this service fully. Here are the things you can do to be more productive and make the most of Office 365.

Get the staff aboard

To maximize your company’s productivity with Office 365, make sure that every employee with a computer uses it. While this may be easier said than done, you can easily promote the service by encouraging the officers of your company to use it first. When your executives, managers, and top employees use Office 365, others will be persuaded to do the same.  

Train employees

If your employees don’t know how to use Office 365, they won’t be productive, and the cloud service becomes a wasted investment. This is why training is vital. Teach your staff the ins and outs of the platform so they can take full advantage of it. 

One way to train your staff is to make or assemble short training videos. These are easy to digest and will be remembered by employees. They can be viewed over and over again and used anytime. This saves management the trouble of training people. 

Utilize core tools

When you first used Office 365, what did you like about it? You were probably sold on the idea that it increases staff productivity since it allows employees to work and collaborate anywhere. If you’re not utilizing this service for that purpose, now is the perfect time to do so. 

Some of the tools that increase productivity are OneDrive for Business (OD4B), SharePoint, and Skype for Business. OD4B and SharePoint allow employees to upload and save documents to a virtual drive, share that document with another group or user, and edit it at the same time. This gives everyone the ability to access that document and work wherever they want. 

Because it is a flexible communication channel, Skype for Business also enhances productivity since employees, colleagues, and customers can communicate easily. From online meetings to conference calls, video calls to instant messaging, you have a wealth of options for instant communication. 

Be more secure

Not only can a security breach cost you money, it can also destroy your business. While Office 365 already has built-in security with Azure Active Directory, it’s always wise to be cautious of the files you add and share on the service. If you upload files with sensitive company information to the platform, make sure you control them.   

These four productivity tips can help your business grow. If you’d like to learn more, or need additional training on Office 365, give us a call. We are happy to help you!

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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Social media tools for businessesSocial media has proven to be a powerful promotional tool in its most basic form — and even more so if deployed strategically and with enhancement tools. Read on to learn more about apps and other tools that can boost your social media strategy. Having great content on your site is the magnet that attracts […]

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Social media tools for businesses

Social media has proven to be a powerful promotional tool in its most basic form — and even more so if deployed strategically and with enhancement tools. Read on to learn more about apps and other tools that can boost your social media strategy.

Having great content on your site is the magnet that attracts visitors. However, when there is too much competition on the most popular platforms, it can be difficult to drive results based on social media reputation alone. To reap rewards from social media marketing, you need to devise new methods and augment your strategy with social media tools to stand out from the crowd.

Meetup

Meetup is a great site to plan face-to-face meetings with people with similar interests. Does your company sell hiking, camping, and backpacking products? Organize a meetup for the people in your community to go on a hike. You really can’t get a better customer interaction than engaging with them through the activities they love.

Eventbrite

Eventbrite is a formal events planning platform that helps you organize, plan, and market your event, along with an added bonus: recruitment potential. You can easily market yourself as an expert in an industry to either attract freelancers or educate potential customers about the problems you aim to solve for them.

Answer Forums

Popular answer forums such as Yahoo! Answers, Quora, and even certain Reddit sub-channels such as /r/askmeanything or /r/whatisthisthing let netizens crowdsource information about certain industries or products. Many companies use these to promote their brand by answering questions, most especially those that are within their expertise. This helps establish credibility and organic connection with prospective clients.

Disqus

Disqus is a great way to facilitate dialogue while protecting privacy and upholding etiquette and other standards. You can embed Disqus onto your online content such as videos or blog articles so that people can voice out their concerns or opinions but in a way that helps prevent flaming (the act of deliberately insulting or provoking other people online). Disqus lets moderators monitor and regulate responses closely so that the conversation remains civil and productive.

Slack

Most people who use the messaging app Slack see it as a way to communicate with friends and coworkers. However, with a little creativity, you can join conversations from all over the world to boost your online presence. There are countless channels devoted to industries, categories, hobbies and more. All you have to do is insert yourself and your company into the conversation to get people talking about your business!

It’s hard to deny that technology has made our lives more complicated. It can feel a little overwhelming at times. Thankfully, the answer is simple: partner with a managed technology provider. For a never-ending source of information on reputation and social media management, get in touch with us today.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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Tips to boost the speed of your WordPress siteDecades ago, five seconds was a completely acceptable time to wait for a page to load. But today,  internet speeds have become faster, and most users expect a page to load as soon as they open it. If your website doesn’t load in a second or two, visitors will simply close it. So how can […]

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Tips to boost the speed of your WordPress site

Decades ago, five seconds was a completely acceptable time to wait for a page to load. But today,  internet speeds have become faster, and most users expect a page to load as soon as they open it. If your website doesn’t load in a second or two, visitors will simply close it. So how can you maximize the speed of your WordPress website to ensure users don’t click away? Here are several ideas to make your website faster.

Keep WordPress and plugins up to date

While you may already know that updating WordPress and plugins will keep your website secure, you may not know that doing this also increases your site’s speed. So if you want a fast site, install those updates as soon as they become available.

Choose a host wisely

Your host can make or break your website, so before you select your host, do some research on the various options out there, particularly on their website speed and uptime.

Also, while your first impulse may be to choose shared hosting because of its low cost, be aware that it’s also going to be your slowest option in terms of speed because many websites are simultaneously relying on the same server for bandwidth.

If it’s not an option for small- or medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to use a dedicated server because of cost restrictions, their best alternative in the middle price and performance range is a virtual private server (VPS). This acts like a dedicated server in terms of functionality, but still technically uses a shared server. Regardless, using a VPS will give you a boost in speed over typical shared hosting.

Keep your site lean

The leaner your site is, the faster its speed will be. To create a lean site, be mindful of these four aspects:

  1. Theme – While the promise of a versatile theme can spark the imagination, actually implementing one can set you back in terms of speed. When a theme has a ton of features, the amount of code to produce those features can bog down your site. To avoid this scenario, test the theme demos to see how long it takes for them to load. If it’s more than a few seconds, look for a lighter theme that loads faster.
  2. Design – Similar to theme, design elements have the ability to dramatically slow down the speed of your site. Simple sites are faster, so think carefully about what ads, images, and extras you’re going to use.
  3. Plugins – Not all plugins are created equal; some run fast and others slow. To tell one from the other, you can use special plugins that show the impact a plugin has on your site’s load time. Another rule to follow is that fewer plugins equals more speed. So think twice before your next plugin installation spree.
  4. Images – Bulky images can also slow down your site. And while many raw images are around 3,000 to 4,000 pixels wide, most featured images are only 600–800 pixels wide. To reduce image weight and gain a faster site, resize them to the exact size they’ll appear on your screen.

Mind your plugins

You should stick to only the essential plugins to speed up your site. Cache plugins like W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache can provide more speed by caching every aspect of your site and reducing its download times. Another helpful plugin is Lazy Load. It speeds up your site by loading the elements at the top of the website first, where viewers are looking when they first visit your site. Before installing the Lazy Load plugin, check your Theme Options to see if you already have it.

Create redirects sparingly

If a page on your site needs to be redirected to another page, it can really slow down your site so it’s best to use them as little as possible. And to ensure you aren’t using any unnecessary links without knowing it, use the Redirect mapper tool or similar alternatives that help you find redirects you don’t need.

If you implement some or all of the speed tips above, you’re sure to see a noticeable difference in the speed of your site. Do you need more tips to optimize your website? Do you need help with web or IT matters? We’re just a phone call away.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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Choosing the right business dashboardDashboards have become extremely useful tools for companies to make the most of their raw data. With proper implementation, a dashboard can display essential information in an easy-to-understand format, allowing business owners to easily make informed decisions. But a dashboard can say a lot of things depending on its setup, and it’s important to choose […]

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Choosing the right business dashboard

Dashboards have become extremely useful tools for companies to make the most of their raw data. With proper implementation, a dashboard can display essential information in an easy-to-understand format, allowing business owners to easily make informed decisions. But a dashboard can say a lot of things depending on its setup, and it’s important to choose one that can best serve your purpose. Here are three types of business dashboards to consider.

Strategic dashboards

Ideal for senior managers and executives, strategic dashboards are designed to help identify potential opportunities for business expansion and improvement. This type of dashboard gives a bird’s-eye view of your business and track performance metrics against enterprise-wide strategic goals.

They summarize performance over set time frames: past month, quarter, or year. They can contain anything from overall sales numbers to sales and revenue comparisons to inventory levels, making it easy for executives to understand the overall health of the organization and monitor the long-term company strategy.

Operational dashboards

Business owners use operational dashboards to monitor and measure in real time the effectiveness and efficiency of their employees’ progress in relation to their targets. Since these dashboards focus on tracking operational processes, they are often more detailed than strategic dashboards and are usually viewed by junior levels of management multiple times throughout the day.

They are also commonly found in departments that need to respond to critical information quickly, such as marketing and operations. They help departments stay proactive and ahead of problems. For example, marketing teams can use this type of dashboard to monitor their campaign’s metrics such as cost per acquisition, total number of clicks, total acquisitions gained, and the total amount spent. Any significant changes would immediately alert the team. The operations team of manufacturing firms, on the other hand, may use this to track products manufactured, number of defects, complaints, and returns. They are then alerted right away when performance falls below targets.

Analytical dashboards

When it comes to creating and implementing strong business strategies, understanding the trends and events in your data is crucial. Analytical dashboards use volumes of data collected over time so you could compare current against historic data, enjoy in-depth analysis, identify patterns and opportunities, and determine why processes are working in certain departments. These dashboards present complex data, utilizing complex models and what-if statements, so they are commonly just used by staff with advanced training such as business analysts.

How do I know which dashboard to choose?

To help you choose which dashboard best suits your needs, you can ask yourself the following questions:

#1. What business problems are we trying to solve?

  • Strategic dashboards – Top-line organizational KPIs
  • Operational dashboards – Data awareness and time-sensitive data
  • Analytical dashboards – Trends or deeper insights

#2. Who will be using the dashboards?

  • Strategic dashboards – Executives, directors
  • Operational dashboards – Business managers
  • Analytical dashboards – Business analysts, data analysts

#3. What are our goals?

  • Strategic dashboards – Strategic goals, such as achieving KPI targets
  • Operational dashboards – Employee awareness and tracking against goals
  • Analytical dashboards – Analytic goals, such as visibility into key processes

Dashboards concentrate all data, metrics, and parameters in one place, bringing a totally new dimension to business intelligence. Your company can significantly benefit from the right dashboard. If you’re looking to implement dashboards for the first time or to enhance the functionality of your current dashboard, get in touch with us today.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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