MSPNetworks Blog

Have you ever booted up your computer at the start of the workday only to find it slow and sluggish? Sometimes this has to do with how many startup processes are occurring when your computer is just starting to wake up. You might be able to give it a little morning jumpstart by disabling certain startup processes or programs.

Before You Enable or Disable Processes...

First, a quick note about certain startup processes in Windows 10. If you don’t know what a startup process does, you absolutely should not mess with them. Furthermore, there is a solid chance that your IT department or provider has implemented specific startup programs or processes for your organization’s computers. When in doubt, always ask your trusted IT resource before disabling or enabling any startup processes.

Start Up Your Task Manager

The key to disabling startup processes is actually quite simple, and it’s a tool that you may already use every so often: the Task Manager. In retrospect, the name speaks for itself, doesn’t it? Open the Task Manager by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Esc. You can also find it by using good old Ctrl + Alt + Delete and selecting it from the list of options that appears.

The task manager won’t initially show you much, so go ahead and click on the More details arrow at the bottom of the manager. The window will then expand to show off all of the processes that are currently going on with your device. You can see at a glance that open processes are consuming a lot of your computer’s resources, like its CPU and memory.

If all of this goes a little over your head, don’t worry—the option we are looking for is in the top menu. When you click on Startup, you should see a list of programs that launch on startup. These programs are designated as Enabled or Disabled in the third column next to the program’s name and publisher. You might see programs like your antivirus solution, various Microsoft or Google products, your web browser, and other applications that you use on the regular here.

Enable or Disable Processes

To enable or disable any particular startup program or application, simply right-click on the option in the Status column and click Enable or Disable. It’s that easy. The next time you boot up your computer, you should notice a change in which applications run on startup. You might even notice a marked increase in how quickly the device boots up as a whole.

On the other hand, you might want to enable certain apps to run on startup to save you a little bit of time in the morning. We urge you to use caution with this, however, as you certainly don’t want to overburden your PC on startup.

Again, we want to emphasize that you should not mess with settings like these without getting the go-ahead from your trusted IT resource. If you just want Chrome or Skype to stop running on startup, on the other hand, you can most certainly do that yourself without incident. Just remember to ask first!

What are some other tips that you want to see us cover in the future? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss them.

Businesses use technology to varying degrees, but even small businesses have a lot of technology that must be tracked on a daily basis. With so many devices floating around the office, how are you making sure that you know who has which device, when it was issued, and how it’s being used? We suppose the question is not “how” you are keeping track of it all, but “if.” For this task, we recommend implementing an inventory tracking system for your business’ technological assets.

Do I Really Need One?

In short, yes, and for a number of reasons. Even small businesses have a ton of technology that is constantly being assigned, reassigned, and taken out of the office. Take, for example, the average employee. They might have a work desktop that stays at the office, a company-issued laptop for working remotely, and maybe even a company-issued smartphone to stay in touch while out and about. It makes sense to track who is in possession of which device from both a logistics and security perspective.

That said, your tracking system will be made up of two different components: the tracking method itself and the records you keep. You could, of course, keep a paper leger of technology, complete with manual sign-in and sign-out, but this system is just begging to be replaced by technology. Paper records are much less secure and prone to user error, so we encourage you to use one of the following methods for tracking your business tech.

Tracking (Barcodes, RFID)

There are two ways that your business can track inventory coming into or out of your organization. The first is through the use of a barcode scanner system. In this case, you assign each piece of technology, be it a laptop or smartphone, a barcode. When the device is assigned to someone, you simply scan the barcode. This records in the system that the device is “checked out,” so to speak, along with all other necessary details (which we will get to in a moment).

The other notable method of tracking your technology is to use what’s called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. The difference between the two is that unlike barcodes, which are just pieces of paper with a pattern printed on them, RFID uses microchips attached to the device. There are two types of RFID technology that can be used: passive and active. In an active system, the microchip is tagged when the device moves through a reader (kind of like a scanner in the aforementioned system). In a passive system, the microchip is tagged when it enters or leaves a specific radius.

Electronic Record Keeping

Whichever method you decide to go with, it should be hooked up to automatically populate information into an electronic record keeping system. As for what information should be included in said system, you will want to know who is taking the device, what the device is, what the device will be used for, contact information for the employee taking the device, and any other information that you might find pertinent. Essentially, what you should be aiming for is enough information to be able to track down the employee should you need to retrieve any assigned devices.

Need Help Getting Started?

As you might have guessed, this kind of tracking system can be used for much more than just technology. MSPNetworks can help your business get set up with an inventory tracking system that will help you reduce waste, increase your bottom line, and improve redundancy. 

When we work with a business, we track every device we implement or touch. That way, we can track the overall history of support over the lifespan of the device. We’re big on documenting and linking all of our documentation to the device and user, because it helps us streamline and provide the best support possible.

To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

As a business owner, we are sure that you have your fair share of day-to-day stressors. Oftentimes, these stressors can lead to the development of bad habits. When this happens, you might get the urge to correct the bad behavior and replace it with good, productive habits. That said, it’s easier said than done to build good habits, especially when you have so much else on your plate.

Still, building good habits can be paramount to developing yourself on both a personal and professional level, so it’s worth a shot to give it a try. Here are three tips for developing good habits that will actually stick with you for years to come.

Create a Schedule (and Stick to It)

If you don’t give yourself time to work on your new habit, it naturally will not become one. Schedule a little bit of time each and every day to work toward your new habit. We are sure you can carve out five minutes to floss or half an hour to read a book. You can also plug this into your calendar to give yourself notifications, if you are having trouble remembering.

You can start by easing your way into the goal by making it achievable. Even a little bit of progress is progress… in the beginning, at least. If you find that you are consistently hitting your deadlines/goals for this habit in the first week or so, you can try to expand it a little bit to offer more of a challenge. For example, if you want to write a little bit every day, maybe you start with 200 words, then gradually increase that amount over time. You can also get an accountability partner, or someone who can check in on your progress periodically. After all, it would be a shame to let them down, right?

Eliminate Resistance (or Add It)

Things that are easy to do are just that--easier to do. This means that, if you are trying to build a habit, doing so will be much easier if you make it easy to stick to. Let’s use someone who is trying to lose weight as an example. Keeping the freezer stocked with frozen vegetables will make healthy eating much easier than if it were stocked with pizza rolls or ice cream. For a more business-oriented example, let’s say you want to read more often. Keep an interesting book on your desk at work or your coffee table at home. Just having it out in the open will make you more likely to pick it up and read a bit.

On the other side of the coin, there is adding resistance, or making bad habits harder to stick to. To use the same example as above, you might simply keep sweets or other unhealthy foods out of the house; or, if you would like to keep some around, put them at the back of the cupboard where they are difficult to get to. For the reading example, you want to cut out other time-wasting activities. Put the television remote in a drawer or, if you are particularly bad about this, take the batteries out of it. This will make it much more difficult to actually participate in the bad behavior.

Reward Yourself for Sticking To It

While sticking to a habit that is good for you should be reward enough, let’s face it; some habits are not as attractive as others, despite being good for you. Going to the gym three times a week can be made more attractive if you give yourself a small reward for doing so. Reading a certain number of pages a week will be easier if you know that, after you are done, you can do something you enjoy afterward.

There is a fine line to walk here, though. You don’t want the rewards to turn into bad habits themselves. If you make the rewards too enticing, you might just skip the habit being built altogether and jump straight to the reward, which can be counterproductive to your goal of building a habit.

Bonus Tip: Try a 30 Day Challenge

If you aren’t confident in your ability to develop a habit in the long term, try committing to something more in the short-term. Try to stick to a habit for a minimum of 30 days and see how you do. Who knows? Maybe using the above tips, you will find that it’s not as hard as you think.

The important thing to remember is that true change takes time, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t see immediate results from your efforts. What are some good habits that you want to build? Let us know in the comments below.

Not everyone has a living situation that is conducive to working from home. That’s why many people have some problems as they are forced to work remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the problems with not having a dedicated space or the right type of situation to get work done from home is that your physical health starts to suffer. Today, we thought we would go through a couple of ergonomic suggestions that can help any remote worker feel better when working long hours from home.

Your Seat

You will want to find a comfortable seat, but you’ll probably want to avoid your bed or a couch as the primary seating arrangement when working from home. A hard chair doesn’t give enough support to the lower back or legs. If you can, get a chair with some type of built-in lumbar support, but if you can’t do that you can easily use a pillow or rolled-up throw blanket for this purpose. Ideally, it should have arms so you can rest comfortably, but if it doesn’t you can still use the tabletop/desk to rest your arms without crouching over. 

Additionally, if you don’t have a station that allows your feet to plant firmly on the floor, you will want to acquire a footrest. You can use reams of paper or a step stool. The aim is to have a workstation that allows your knees and hips to be at a right angle and have your feet planted firmly on a solid surface. 

Table/Desk

You will want a proper tabletop to do work on. If you don’t have a desk, a countertop or table will work as long as you can comfortably sit/stand without much strain. Most people work from seven-to-nine hours a day, ensuring that you have the space you need to do your work without having to contort is important. 

Accessories

If you use a laptop there are solutions out there that can allow you to broadcast your screen onto your TV or another monitor. This can work to give you more workspace or simply a larger display to complete work on. 

Another popular accessory is noise-canceling headphones. At home, there are often more things that can distract you than there are in the office. Get a good set of noise-canceling headphones—preferably ones with a built-in microphone—and you’ll be able to tune out of “home” and into “work”.

All the other peripherals should fit into a system that keeps your body well-positioned while you are working. That includes the chair, desk, computer, mouse, keyboard, and any other work-required equipment. 

If you would like to talk to one of our IT consultants about getting your staff the technology and resources they need to be their best in these difficult times, give us a call at (516) 403-9001.

Windows has no shortage of capabilities to offer its users, with many of these tools coming with an associated Windows shortcut. Since keeping track of all of them can be a challenge, we wanted to assemble a list of most of them for you. This blog will serve as that list, so make sure you add it to your browser’s favorites for quick reference!

Let’s get into it.

The ABCs of Windows Shortcuts

Naturally, almost every letter of the alphabet on the keyboard has a shortcut assigned to it:

• WinKey + A opens your Action Center.
• WinKey + B highlights your notification area.
• WinKey + C launches Cortana in listening mode.
• WinKey + D toggles Show Desktop and the previous state.
• WinKey + E launches File Explorer in the Quick Access tab.
• WinKey + F opens the Microsoft Feedback hub.
• WinKey + G opens the Game Bar tools, if that’s how you spend your time at home.
• WinKey + H opens the Dictation toolbar.
• WinKey + I opens your Settings.
• WinKey + K opens the Connect pane to connect to wireless displays and devices.
• WinKey + L locks the device.
• WinKey + M minimizes all open windows.
• WinKey + O locks the device’s orientation on tablets and mobile devices.
• WinKey + P opens the Project pane.
• WinKey + Q opens Search.
• WinKey + R displays the run dialog box.
• WinKey + S launches Cortana in typing mode.
• WinKey + T cycles through the apps on the taskbar.
• WinKey + U launches the Ease of Access/Display Center to manage your screens.
• WinKey + V opens your clipboard app to view things you have copied to your clipboard with Ctrl + C.
• WinKey + X opens the advanced, Secret Start menu.

Adjusting Your Open Windows

Some of Windows’ shortcuts are designed to help the user arrange their display to the appearance that best suits their needs. For instance:

• WinKey + Left/Right Arrow will take the active window and adjust it to fill the left or right side of the monitor it is displayed in. 
• WinKey + Shift + Left/Right Arrow will move the active window over to another display.
• WinKey + Up Arrow will maximize the active window. 
• WinKey + Down Arrow will minimize the active window.

There are, of course, many more Windows shortcuts to take advantage of, as well as plenty of other tips to help make your workday more efficient. We often share them in this blog, so make sure you come back often to check in!

Like any email platform, Microsoft Outlook can easily become overwhelmed with messages and conversations—effectively making it counterproductive rather than an asset to you and your team. Let’s take a few moments to go over a simple way that you can use Outlook’s internal tools to make your messages easier to deal with.

Examining the Email Issue

We’ve all been there: staring down an inbox filled to bursting with messages. Mixed with the important ones are promotional messages, internal messages that you don’t need to know about right now, and all the ones that you’ve kept for future reference. This can make it very difficult to keep track of where to find these messages and the like.

Fortunately, Outlook has a feature that enables a user to automatically highlight certain messages based on certain conditions. That way, when scanning your inbox messages, they’ll stand out and be easier to find.

How to Highlight Messages

So, you have a message that you need to pay attention to. For the sake of our example, we’ll say it’s from your direct manager, the person you regularly report to.

• In Outlook, locate the View menu at the top of the window. Doing so will give you access to your View Settings. Click into them.
  
  
• From there, click into the Conditional Formatting option. You’ll see a list of preloaded options included with Outlook, along with buttons that say Add, Delete…, Move Up, and Move Down. Click Add.
  
  
• You’ll see a new rule added to the list of options called Untitled. Rename it to whatever works for your purposes.
  
  For this example, we’ll call it Manager.
  
  
• Click the button that says Condition… to establish when this rule comes into play. This can be based on a variety of options: whether a word or phrase is included in specific parts of the message, who it is from, the time it was sent, and even whether the message was directed to you specifically or to a larger group of recipients. Some of these can be disabled by unchecking the appropriate box or leaving the field blank.
  
  Let’s stick to simply specifying that these messages are ones sent directly to you, from your manager.
  
  
• You’ll be brought back to your list of rules in Conditional Formatting. With your Manager rule still selected, click the Font button.
  
  
• There, you can adjust the way messages that meet your conditions will appear in your inbox. You can change the font, the font style, its size, add strikeout or underline effects, and even change its color. In this example, we’ll simply say that the messages should be highlighted in red.
  
  
• Click OK once you’re satisfied, continuing to do so until all the dialogue boxes are resolved.

You should then see your changes reflected in your inbox. In our case, any messages coming from your manager should appear red in your inbox list, making them much easier to see. Rinse and repeat for any other messages you want to be able to pick out quickly from the group, and your emails should be far more manageable.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our blog for a reminder whenever we’ve posted something new, and for any more assistance with your business’ IT, reach out to MSPNetworks at (516) 403-9001!

The laptop is one of the great productivity tools in modern business. Their portability gives them immense value. There are some cons to using a laptop, however. One is the trackpad. While they have improved over the years, they are still not ideal, which is why you see many people who use a laptop for productivity bring along a wireless mouse. One of the biggest problems people run into is that they have a hard time with the click-and-drag feature on the trackpad and this makes working in certain programs maddening. Today, we have a tip to make this process much simpler. 

Disclaimer: You will have to change your settings for this tip, so if you don’t feel comfortable changing things inside your Windows OS, let your IT provider know and they will assist you.

ClickLock is a Great Tool for the Laptop User

ClickLock is a feature offered inside Windows that eliminates the frustration of the click-and-drag problems you have on your laptop, as it allows you to start and stop your drag option by simply pressing your left button a little longer.

It works like this:

• Hover your cursor over the window or item you are trying to move and press and hold the (left) touchpad button for a few seconds. This activates ClickLock.
• Once ClickLock is active, simply release the mouse button and move the cursor freely to where you want your window or item to go.
• Once it is positioned, press the (left) touchpad once again to confirm your drag selection.

You will immediately see the improvement. Like many options that don’t come by default, you have to activate it in your settings.

Activating ClickLock

To use ClickLock, you need to first navigate to your Control Panel, from your Start Menu:

• In the Control Panel, navigate to Hardware and Sound.
• There, find the Devices and Printers section and click the link to the Mouse section.
• In the Buttons tab, check the box labeled Turn on ClickLock, click Apply, and then Ok.

We hope this will help you be more productive and reduce your frustration when working on your laptop. For more great tips and tricks return to our blog soon.

Considering what the past year has been like, the idea that workplace burnout has been a hot topic isn’t all that surprising—even though less time has been spent in many offices than almost any other time to date. Regardless, burnout simply isn’t an office issue, meaning that remote workers are still susceptible to its ill effects.

This isn’t something that you want to encourage, so let’s go over what constitutes burnout and how to identify and address it for the benefit and betterment of your team.

What is Burnout?

Let’s face facts—most people that read this blog will have likely felt burnout for themselves at some time or another. Having said that, many likely underestimate the full experience that burnout can bring.

Most probably understand the all-encompassing tiredness that burnout is commonly associated with, both mentally and physically, but this state can also have additional impacts. Burnout also tends to make people feel apathetic and cynical, and it can lead to impaired motivation, lessened self-confidence, and other negative attributes.

When these outcomes come together, it can encourage the development of toxic workplace conditions that—if not avoided entirely—need to be addressed and resolved. To do that, you need to be able to spot burnout as it happens.

Spotting Burnout Amongst Your Team

If you hope to have any chance of catching burnout, you need to have a good awareness of your team members’ (and your own) mental state. Dedicating a few moments to brief self-evaluation to help identify the triggers that dictate how you are engaged (and likewise disengaged) in your work can make a huge difference over time.

With so many people currently feeling a loss of control over many aspects of their life, such stresses need to be kept under control in the office environment. One way to accomplish this is to establish some consistent and predictable routines to be followed in the office, emphasizing control, and decreasing the potency of employee burnout.

Resolving Burnout

Finally, one of the biggest key points to preventing the ill effects of burnout is the importance of taking a step away from it all—particularly when you don’t seem to have any time to waste.

While the human brain is a shockingly complex and capable construct, it does have its limits. Like anything else, it just isn’t built to support 100 percent efficiency, and forcing it will work out about as well as it sounds like it would. Giving yourself some respite in the form of some time off—even a few moments of it during the workday—can help prevent burnout from taking hold. 

On an organizational level, incentivized collaboration and other support incorporated into the workday can help prevent burnout even further.

MSPNetworks can help you where this comes into play. By giving your team the tools necessary to cultivate a cohesive and collaborative environment, we can help reduce the factors that contribute to burnout in general. Find out more by giving us a call at (516) 403-9001 today.

Okay, so first off: when it comes to taking a screenshot, today’s user has a lot of options baked into Windows. Of course, there’s the Print Screen key on most keyboards—but that only allows the user to literally take a screenshot of their entire display and edit it down in some other program.

This simply isn’t a convenient enough option for today’s productivity-focused workflows. Instead, let’s go over how to use Windows’ integrated Snip & Sketch tool, which gives you greater functionality at comparable ease.

Using Snip & Sketch

Snip & Sketch is a utility that offers four options for you to use in terms of your screenshots and can be easily called up by pressing Windows Key+Shift+S. There, you’ll have access to four different screenshot format options at the top of your screen:

1. A basic box selection, where you click and drag to encompass your selection
2. A freeform selection that allows you to draw out your boundary
3. Window snip, which allows you to select an active monitor to screenshot
4. Fullscreen snip, which takes the place of the Print Screen key and allows you to take a picture of all your monitors simultaneously

Any of these can be useful in the right situation, and these situations are only too common in the workplace.

Hopefully, this will help you communicate more clearly in the office, using images to help get the message across. For more handy tips and other useful IT information, make sure you check back here every so often—and don’t forget to give our team a call at (516) 403-9001 for more direct assistance from us!

The productivity suite is one of the most utilized software combos going. Usually it comes with a word processor, a spreadsheet program, a note taking program, and a presentation creator. There are other pieces of software included in some of today’s most dynamic options, but for our purposes we are going to limit it to these. 

It’s not a surprise that most businesses choose tools they can both afford and work for their needs. This typically has more to do with integrations it has with other pieces of software the organization uses. Let’s look at some of the variables that businesses have to consider when determining what productivity software is right for them. 

Cost

For businesses, it’s no secret that cost really matters. Most organizations, when comparing productivity suites, will find little differences between the actual software itself. Sure, one particular word processor is better than another, one spreadsheet program works best with your existing tools, and so on...but as a suite, the cheapest option is probably going to give you the ability to do what you need to do. That said, this software is going to be used for storing (and sharing) presumably sensitive company data. For that reason it has to be a reliable option. 

Compatibility

Your staff has a way of functioning that is different from another set of people. As a result, your productivity software has to be compatible with as many platforms as possible. If you have a team that uses ChromeOS-fueled laptops, but your productivity suite only supports Windows 10, it’s not going to do them any good. Make sure that the apps can be available on most or all of the major computing platforms. 

Mobility

The ability to access files on a mobile device has to be considered essential for today’s business. Today, many of the top productivity suites are available as a cloud-hosted service. This provides much of the mobility that users who access business data on the go would need.

Security

This kind of goes hand-in-hand with reliability, but it’s always important to prioritize security when you are picking software for your business. Two of the most-utilized productivity suites, Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace, come as cloud-hosted solutions. This means that Microsoft and Google, respectively, will host your files and data as well as the software.

Communications

Today, communications that happen over the Internet are extremely important to any business with remote workers. Most of the top productivity suites also come with hosted email and the ability to at least integrate a video conferencing solution. This ensures that your team will have options in which to communicate and collaborate in innovative ways.

Regardless of which appset you choose, you should know that MSPNetworks can help your organization design a computing infrastructure and deploy all the tools your staff needs to keep your company productive. Call our expert technicians at (516) 403-9001.

When looking to present an idea, the first two options people think of are often to use a video, or to use a slideshow (typically, citing Microsoft PowerPoint). Our question is, why pick? Let’s go over how simple it is to embed a YouTube video right into your next PowerPoint presentation whether you’re using PowerPoint 365 or PowerPoint 2016.

In PowerPoint 2016

Here is the process you’ll need to follow to embed a video into your presentation:

1. Navigate to YouTube and find the video you want to include in your presentation. Find the Share option and select Embed from the menu that appears when you click into it.
2. You’ll see a preview of your chosen video’s thumbnail, along with a series of code and some other options that allow you to control the point from which the video starts, whether your embedded video will provide viewers with controls, and the ability to enable a privacy-enhanced mode (which pertains more to videos that are posted on a website). Copy the code in its entirety.
3. Back in PowerPoint, click into the Insert tab and select Video. Select Online Video from the provided drop-down.
4. A box will appear. Paste the code you copied into the From a Video Embed Code field. Alternatively, you could attempt searching for the video you wanted to use using the YouTube search field.

In PowerPoint 365

PowerPoint 365 requires a similar process:

1. Find the video you wish to embed on YouTube and copy its URL from the address bar.
2. In PowerPoint, click into the Insert tab and select Video, then Online video…
3. Paste the URL into the Online Video dialog box.
4. You can also add various effects to the video preview (not the video that plays) via the buttons in the Video Format tab.

Whichever version you use, Microsoft PowerPoint has historically been an excellent tool, provided you know how to use it properly. The same can be said of most business applications available today.

MSPNetworks can help you acquire these solutions, along with the rest of the business technology management services we offer. To learn more about what we can do for you and your operations, give us a call at (516) 403-9001.

Whether you are sharing them online, emailing them to a colleague, or putting them on your own website, it’s important to understand a few basics when it comes to image files and sizes. This guide will hopefully save you a lot of hassle when trying to email large images, update your website, and use social media, whether it be for your own personal use or for your business.

Why Does Image Size Matter?

There are a lot of reasons why you may need to reduce the size of an image. First and foremost is file size. If you are sharing images via email, or putting them on your website, you’ll want the image to not take up a lot of space. Most email services limit attachments to 10MB, which these days, isn’t a lot. Some modern email clients, like Gmail for example, give you 25MB, but that’s still small potatoes when it comes to sending and receiving a lot of images.

Your website is even more important. Large files take longer for users to download and view, and can slow down the speed of your website. Plus, if your visitors are on capped data plans, you are forcing them to chew through their data just to download images that are unnecessarily large.

The First Rule of Digital Images and Photos: Keep Your Original!

We’re about to talk about resizing images to make them smaller files, but it’s important to remember that you should always keep a copy of the original image—once you scale down an image, you can’t easily go back. If you purchase a stock photo, or take an image off of a digital camera, save a master version in case you need to backtrack. 

Once you make it small, there’s no going back at all.

This brings us to the next rule:

The Second Rule of Digital Images and Photos: You Can Only Scale Down!

This is super important to remember. If you have a photo, it’s generally pretty easy to reduce the size. It’s much more difficult, and even fair to say nearly impossible, to blow an image up. 

If you have a photo (or any image—for the sake of this guide, we’re mostly going to use the term photo and image interchangeably), making it larger won’t add more detail to the image. Instead, it will make your image look blurry.

Here’s an example. Let’s say we’re starting with a small image of a cafe:

It’s a nice photo, but let’s assume this is the only version we have, and we want to use it as our Facebook cover image, or a large banner on our website. We want people to be able to see the menu items and the text on the sign next to the cash register!

If we make any attempt to increase the size of the image, we don’t gain any of that detail:

Our image looked good at the small size, but it’s really hard on the eyes once we make it larger.

This was a pretty extreme case—you can sometimes get by increasing the size of an image a little bit but as a general rule, you shouldn’t. Just like whittling, you should start big, and work your way down.

Sure, there are some tricks to get a little more detail out of a blurry image, but at that point, you are paying a graphics person to attempt that kind of work for you. I once had someone explain it to me like this—digital imagery isn’t like film. With film, the tiny negative on the film holds all of the details, and as long as you have the original film, you can blow the image up.

In actuality, it is still very similar to how old film cameras work. If you have the original image that was taken with the digital camera, you likely have a massive, fully-detailed image. If the version of the file you have was already resized, however, you can’t scale it back up.

Make sense? 

In short, try to hold on to the largest version of an image, since that’s almost certainly going to have the most detail and give you the most flexibility. For some photographers, this would be called the RAW format—a format that most high-end digital cameras use. RAW images are massive, and usually not used on the web or for sharing—you can sort of think of this format as the original film version of a photo.

You probably won’t run into RAW files very often unless you dabble in digital photography, but we figured it was worth mentioning, and it segues nicely into our next topic.

“Working Image” Formats

Remember how we said that you should always keep your original file? That also includes the “Working” formats.

What do we mean by working formats? 

If you are building a graphic in Photoshop with multiple layers, you may decide you want to go back and edit your work at a later time. If you only save your image as a JPEG or PNG file, you’ll lose the ability to edit the separate layers. This flattens the image. You won’t notice a change visually, but when opening the file back up in Photoshop your work will all be on a single layer and much more difficult to edit.

Most graphic designers have this hammered into their heads pretty early on, but it’s always worth mentioning. If you are working in Photoshop, save your work as a PSD before you worry about saving any other image format.

What Image Format Should I Use?

We’re going to get deeper into image resizing in a moment, but it helps to understand what image formats work best depending on the situation. There are quite a few formats, but there are really only three that you’ll run into the most.

JPEG - Also seen as .jpg, this is the most common type of image file. It’s short for Joint Photographic Experts Group, and was developed to be a small, portable file size while still preserving overall image quality. A JPEG file can hold massively large images—they max out at about 218 square inches at print resolutions. JPEG files tend to have a small file size compared to most other formats, and most image editing software gives you the ability to determine the tradeoff of image detail and quality over file size. More likely than not, you’ll be working with JPEGs.

PNG - This image format is often used for graphics and illustrations, as opposed to photographs. PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics. They can have a fairly conservative file size, but they don’t lose much data or details when you save and compress them. This means their file size tends to be a little larger. One big advantage of a PNG is that it has the ability to have transparency. This is important for logos and other graphics that you might put over a background. PNGs are also really good for high-end illustration, if you are willing to sacrifice a smaller file size for quality and sharpness.

GIF - You might pronounce it like the first three letters of the word “gift,” or like the popular peanut butter brand that choosy moms choose. Either way, the GIF format is designed to be one of the smallest file sizes, but it has some major limitations, and an infamous feature. GIFs are perfect for low-quality, small images. They base their file size on the number of colors in the image—a simple illustration with only a small handful of colors is ideal. GIFs are most effective when you are working with small icons and illustrations, but they aren’t efficient for photos. They support transparency, but not as well as PNG. GIFs really shine because they can be animated. They don’t tend to look as good as an actual video file, and they can’t provide audio, but this feature is pretty unique to the GIF. Unless you are sharing an animated GIF, however, you probably won’t use this format very often.

Image Transparency

What do we mean by transparency? Here’s an example of a simple graphic. If we save it as a JPEG and put it over a tan background, it puts a white box around the image.

If we save it as a PNG, that white box goes away and it lays the graphic over the background color. This works if your original image has a transparent background. Often when you purchase graphics from stock photo sites, this can be the case. A graphic artist could also edit an image to make the background transparent for you. Here’s what our image looks like as a PNG:

This does mean we have to be cognizant of the color and brightness of the background—if our graphic is light grey and we are putting it on a white background, it will be hard to see. Here’s an example:

If we’re putting the same light grey image over a high contrast background (for example, maybe the area on our website we want to place the graphic is dark green), it’s going to look pretty good.

The same sort of thing has to be considered if you are placing the graphic over top of another image - will it be legible? In this case, you’ll want to make sure your background isn’t too busy.

This leaves you with a lot to consider—it never hurts to consult with a graphic designer once you start diving into this sort of thing.

In short, most of the time, you’ll use a JPEG, which does NOT support transparency, and when you need transparency, you’ll use a PNG.

There are newer formats out there, too. The WEBP image format has great potential, but as of writing this, it isn’t widely supported by all web browsers, so it’s a little early to start using it a lot. A new competitor to the PNG is the SVG, which is a scaling image for simple graphics and icons. It’s possible that in a few years, we’ll be seeing more use cases for these formats, but right now, your best bet for 99 percent of your image work will be JPEG, followed by PNG.

In our next blog post, we’re going to go through all of the steps to properly take a large image and resize it and optimize it for the web.

Privacy is a sensitive subject nowadays, especially online. Regardless of the browser you have elected to use, properly using it will have a large impact. Let’s review a few ways that you and your team can help secure your business and its resources and go over these settings.

Promoting Privacy Via Your Browser Settings

Here, we’ve assembled a few best practices that you should keep in mind to help reinforce your browser’s security.

Revise Default Permissions, as Necessary

Before a website is able to access some of your data and peripherals, like your location, your camera, and pop-up windows, it needs to ask you for permission to do so. Too many people set these permissions to on—carte blanche—by default, potentially opening themselves to various attacks and threats.

For instance, by accessing the camera and microphone without informing the user, a cybercriminal could invite themselves to a peek into your personal life, listening and watching for personal moments and data to exploit. Pop-up windows could themselves host threats, and automated downloads could install nasty pieces of malware.

Instead, you should make sure that these permissions are set to Ask before allowing them, while also simply turning these permissions Off when you have no reason to enable them.

Block Third-Party Cookies and Trackers

While websites will often use their own cookies to keep track of users to improve their functionality, there are a lot of other cookies present from third parties that are tracking you as well. By blocking cookies that don’t come from the site you’re browsing and leaving the native ones to operate, you can minimize threats against your business from these sources.

As for trackers, you should be able to switch them off entirely. Trackers have begun to replace cookies as a means of, well, tracking a user’s online behaviors. As a plus, blocking a tracker has a decreased probability of breaking a website, as blocking cookies can at times do. If you cannot block trackers via your browser, you may want to reconsider which browser you are using.

Use Smarter Tools and Utilities to Minimize Your Risks

While different browsers offer different security features, there are certain choices that can help you make the most out of any situation. For instance, you should not sign into any of your accounts on more than one browser. If you’ve decided on Firefox for your Facebook use, only sign into Facebook from Firefox and not from Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. While you may have disparate Google accounts attached to these services (a company one for work and a personal one for your own use), Google understands that they are all you and will take it upon themselves to merge your activities into their own reference files. You should also avoid using your accounts from Google or Facebook as a form of sign-in, as this will give those companies access to your behaviors on those sites as well.

There are, however, some browser extensions and alternative websites that can help you take back some of your privacy. Some add-ons help to shield your activities from this kind of tracking, while some online services are anonymized and therefore more secure. Identifying the most secure options and committing to them will be crucial to your continued success.

The Internet can be a wonderful resource, but it can also be considerably risky to work with if not prepared. Trust MSPNetworks and our team to help keep you out of trouble. Give us a call at (516) 403-9001 to learn about our many services, including those that can improve your security.

Your business’ security largely depends on how secure the passwords are that keep your resources from being accessed without authorization. Despite this, many users—perhaps even you—frequently sacrifice sufficient security measures in favor of the simple and convenient route, cutting corners when coming up with their passwords. Let’s try and remedy this by reviewing a few practices that can help make a password more effective.

What Threats are There to Passwords?

A password can be undermined in one of two different ways, generally speaking:

Digging into your online life or resorting to trickery, a “bad actor” (as they are sometimes called) figures out your password or how they can fool you into handing it over. Alternatively, the bad actor might phish you or infect your computer to crack the password.

As a result, you need to figure out how to make your passwords effectively guess-proof, while still being able to recall them as you need them. These principles should ultimately pertain to any passwords associated with your business—including the ones your staff members rely on.

The Balance Between a Strong Password and a Memorable Password

Whether you’re designing a password policy for your company members to follow, or simply creating a new account of your own, there are two important considerations to keep in mind.

• If a hacker can’t guess/crack a password, they will likely resort to a brute force method—simply trying every combination possible until they eventually get a hit.
• The security of a password and its resilience against brute force attacks aren’t the same.

It is important that both of these aspects are taken into serious account as you come up with your passwords.

How to Optimize Your Password Security

There are a few widely accepted best practices when it comes to what makes a good password:

• It is sufficiently long, ideally stretching over 16 characters
• These characters include non-consecutive numbers, letters, and symbols
• The password contains no common words or numbers, private information, or any publicly accessible details

It is also important that your considerations involve the aforementioned tools that cybercriminals use to break password protections. This is where we must account for the complexity of your passwords.

Did you know that about 40 percent of passwords only contain lowercase letters? Well, cybercriminals certainly know, and will certainly try to save time by only trying lowercase letters in their initial brute force attacks. Even one extra variable can significantly increase the password’s security, making it harder and more time-consuming for the hacker, and possibly convincing them that the effort isn’t worth it.

However, you also need a password that is memorable enough for you to be able to use it. The most secure password in the world is no good to you if you can’t commit it to memory, to the letter (or number or symbol).

This has recently led to the idea that a password composed of a few random words, randomized further with alphanumeric substitution and capitalization, padded with repeating symbols on either side, is the most secure option.

Think about it—like we said, each variable makes the hacker’s job that much more challenging and can help slow down any automated attempts long enough for the hacker to abandon them.

With all this in mind, it makes sense to create passwords that ultimately look something like this:

====p33k,,,@ss0c!@t3d,,,p0ck3t====

Not only is this password effectively impossible to guess, but it also has plenty of characters and—while designed to be somewhat simple to memorize, is still plenty resistant to brute force methods. Just make sure you come up with your own, instead of copying this one.

Remembering These Passwords

Admittedly, a password like this is a lot to remember on its own, so the thought of remembering a different one for each account (in keeping with best practices) can be daunting for most. Fortunately, a password manager can simplify this considerably.

A password manager is basically just a piece of software that safely and securely stores your passwords away for you, accessible to you behind a single master password. That way, your passwords could be totally secure and unique without forcing you to remember them all.

From your passwords and access management to every other aspect of your business’ IT security and productivity, MSPNetworks is here to help. Learn more about what we can offer by calling (516) 403-9001 today.

Unfortunately, the more people lean on technology, the more data breaches there are. The correlation makes sense, but with so much innovation in data security and data systems, it’s a shame more can’t be done to keep businesses and individuals from losing data to opportunists and scammers. That’s why knowing how to circumvent these forces is essential to keep your data safe. Let’s take a look at how the people that are best at it keep their data secure. 

Best Practices Keep It Simple

To avoid negative data situations like this you will want to ensure that your best practices are being followed. In this particular case, they aren’t very complex. They include:

• Keeping data (particularly sensitive data) organized in secure locations
• Keeping data on a need-to-know basis via access controls

That’s the list. It’s not a lot to consider on the surface, but let’s unpack them a bit. By keeping data in a secure location, it makes it easier for the professionals that manage your data and infrastructure to respond to a breach; and, by controlling who can access what, they can easily identify where the problem comes from and work to remedy it. 

Detecting When You’ve Been Breached

Obviously, to remedy against data breaches, you actually have to know that you’ve been breached. Unfortunately, attackers are using more sophisticated methods than ever to hack into your network, making evasion a priority. This means that the speed in which you identify a data breach is taking place is one of the most important factors. 

Businesses today are using smart technology to consistently monitor and automate a response. A Netwrix 2020 Data Breach and Security report suggests that organizations using automation were better able to detect data breaches in minutes rather than hours or days. Comparatively, most of those without (56 percent) measured their detection time in days.

Respond Confidently

It can be quite off putting to consider that people are trying to break into your network. This is why you have all those procedures in place, after all. For those that haven’t gotten around to concocting a cyber threat response strategy for their team, it’s important that it is standardized and consistent; it makes it easier to follow should you have to deal with it. 

Your business will definitely have to train its staff on what to do if they are confronted with a cyber threat. Training your staff on phishing, password hygiene, and more will put your workforce in a position to help you sustain a record of security, not hinder it. On top of testing, you should consider evaluating each worker individually to better understand who needs more training and who is competent to effectively respond against these threats.

Staying On Your Toes

Having the tools to recover from a data breach is almost as important as thwarting one. Your business may be on solid footing today, but one scam, hack, or situation brought on by outside forces can floor your business. Not only do you need to have the infrastructure and the support team in place to deal with a potential data breach, you have to know that your business can recover from one. This is why you need a business continuity plan with a full data backup and recovery strategy in place. Additionally, the exploit you have dealt with could have come from a vulnerability on your network (not a human). You will need to ensure that your team’s access credentials are updated and all software patched to their most current versions.

This is not a situation you have to handle alone. Call the IT professionals at MSPNetworks today at (516) 403-9001 to learn about how we can help you protect your business against cyber threats, and provide you with the tools and support to handle any situation that comes your way.

With how business is conducted today, the capability of your workforce to stay connected while mobile is important. However, it can be equally important that this connectivity doesn’t come at the cost of their manners. Let’s go over a few ways to be more polite as you work remotely using a mobile device.

Sometimes, Your Calls Can Wait

We’ve all been there: in the middle of a commute, a work-related call comes in. While many might be tempted to take the call then and there, it is often best to delegate it to voicemail and promptly return it once you reach your destination. Why?

Simple, to do otherwise could potentially distract you, creating a safety risk for yourself and others. In addition, you might make a wrong turn or miss your stop and further inconvenience those you are working with as a result. As important as diligence and productivity are, safety should always be prioritized.

Be Aware of Your Surroundings

One undeniable aspect of mobile communications is that people inherently assume that you are always available to have a conversation with them. If you are, this isn’t so much of a problem, but there is always the chance that taking a phone call would be rude to those you are around. If you must answer a call, do your best to step away from those you are around so you can devote your full attention to your caller, and keep the call as short as politeness allows.

On That Note, Don’t Text When Inappropriate

While one might assume that you would know this, based on simple politeness, the pressure of work might push people to try and hold multiple conversations at once. Keep your manners in mind and resist this temptation, devoting your attention to the person addressing you directly.

Establish a Good Connection

Noth…can…rupt...a nversati…ke a poor c…ection.

Let’s try that again. As was just demonstrated, nothing can interrupt a conversation like a poor connection. If your calls are being dropped or your messages aren’t going through, reconsider where you are and correct it if possible. If you cannot, let everyone else on the call know about it and offer them the chance to postpone the call until your connection is better.

Return Calls Promptly

Don’t let any missed calls sit without any interaction for too long, whether it’s with a quick response or even an outgoing voicemail message outlining your availability followed by a timely call back. Make sure you keep this voicemail message up to date, as well.

Of course, your mobile device is just one part of your communication infrastructure. Lean on MSPNetworks for assistance in handling the entire thing. Learn more about how our managed services can benefit your professional communications by calling (516) 403-9001.

Nobody intends to lose their smartphone. For some of us, our mobile device is glued to our hands for a good portion of the day—it’s hard to imagine simply leaving it somewhere, right?

Mistakes happen. It doesn’t take more than a few minutes to set your smartphone up so you can track it down easily if you lose it. 

The steps are going to be a little different depending on if you have Android or an iPhone.

Prevent Your iPhone from Being Lost Forever with Apple’s Find My iPhone

Enable Apple’s Find My iPhone.

Apple has a built-in service that is a part of iCloud that will allow you to track the location of your lost iPhone in case you accidentally lose it. This is ideal for when it slips out of your pocket in a taxi or you accidentally leave it in the booth at a restaurant. Technically, it could be useful if your iPhone was stolen, but it’s advised that you report a stolen iPhone to the police instead of trying to steal it back yourself.

Another great feature that Find My iPhone has is the ability to delete all of the data on the device so nobody can use it to steal your identity, break into your online accounts, or otherwise do what they want with your data.

Usually these features aren’t enabled by default—it’s something you need to turn on.

On your iPhone (it also works on iPads):

Open the Settings app.

Tap on iCloud

Set the Find My iPhone (or Find My iPad) slider to On.

If you haven’t already set up an iCloud account on that particular device, you’ll be walked through the steps to do so. Make sure you use a strong, secure password that you aren’t using anywhere else for your iCloud account, or else someone could potentially lock or wipe your device on you, and track your location.

You’ll then be able to log into the iCloud website and track the location of your iPhone, provided that your iPhone is on and not in Airplane mode.

Beyond that, you’ll also want to set up Touch ID or Face ID, and make sure you are always using strong passwords. Touch ID and Face ID options are presented to you when you first set up your new iPhone, but you can also find them in the Settings app. Just look for Touch ID & Passcode.

Track Down Your Lost Android Phone with Google’s Find My Device App

Android phones have a feature that is similar to Apple’s Find My iPhone. It’s called Google Find My Device. Just like Apple, it’s not typically set up by default.

To get started, open the Google Play Store and search for Google Find My Device. Install the application (you can also use this link to get there). 

Once installed, open the Google Find My Device application.

The app will ask you what account you want to log in as, typically you’ll want to use the same Google account you use for everything else on your phone. Make sure your Google account password is strong and unique.

Be sure to Allow Find My Device to access this device’s location when you are prompted.

As long as your phone is on, and its Wi-Fi and GPS is enabled, Find My Device will be able to track your phone for you.

You can sign into Google’s Find My Device site to manage and track your devices.

Of course, make sure your password for your Google account is strong, secure, and unique. Otherwise, anyone could gain access and track your location or wipe your devices.

We hope you never have to use this feature, but it never hurts to have it set up. Most smartphones are pretty expensive, and the amount of data on them and access to all of your personal information makes them practically priceless. 

For more information pertaining to your device security and other IT best practices, make sure you return to our blog!

If you’ve lost or misplaced your smartphone (or tablet), it’s critical that you act quickly. Every second counts, especially if you suspect that your device was stolen. Here are the steps you need to follow immediately, even if you think you simply left it at a restaurant or in the backseat of a taxi.

The steps are pretty similar whether you have an iPhone or Android device, but we’ll note some differences.

Step 1 - Assume the Worst

I know, this sounds bleak. While it’s possible that you are going to get your phone back, it helps to go into this assuming you will need a new one, and that the following steps you are taking are to preserve your identity (and your dignity). Getting your phone back will be a huge bonus, but right now, you need to act to protect yourself.

It sounds terrible, reading that out loud, but hear us out. Your phone has access to your email (and tons of other accounts), right? If someone gets access to your email, they can reset any password they want and log into any account tied to that email. That includes your bank account, your social media, your web hosting accounts, and literally anything else. If someone owns access to your email, they own you, figuratively speaking.

Step 2 - Remotely Lock and Wipe Your Phone

If you’ve set up Apple’s Find My iPhone setting for your iPhone or iPad, or you’ve set up Google’s Find My Device app, you can track the location of your phone, assuming it is on and the GPS/Wireless data is turned on.

For iPhones, log into your iCloud account in order to do this. For Android, go to Google’s Find My Device page. From either platform, you can usually get the exact location of your device. If it’s somewhere you recognize (at the restaurant you were just at, or at the office, for example), lock the device and call the location and have it located before someone else finds it. If you don’t recognize where the device is or it’s on the move, lock the device and wipe it if possible. 

If you didn’t set up Find My iPhone or Find My Device, you might be able to find and manage your device from your carrier or the phone’s manufacturer. Here are a few links to use as a reference:

• Apple - Find My iPhone Activation Lock: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201365  
• Verizon - Lock My Device: https://www.verizon.com/support/suspend-service-faqs/#lost-stolen
• Samsung - Find My Mobile: https://findmymobile.samsung.com
• T-Mobile - Lookout Mobile Security: https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-4257

Step 3 - Report It Immediately

Tuck away your pride here, you’ll need to report that you lost your phone. If you control your phone plan (as opposed to your phone being given to you from your workplace), contact your carrier and let them know. They can stop your phone from using their network which might slow someone down for stealing your information.

Here are some of the larger U.S. carriers, as a reference:

• AT&T: 1-800-331-0500 or www.att.com/suspend
• Sprint: 1-888-211-4727 or https://www.sprint.com/en/support/solutions/device/report-that-your-device-is-lost-or-stolen.html  
• T-Mobile: 1-877-746-0909 or https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-1211  
• Verizon: 1-800-922-0204 or https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/suspend-service-faqs/#lost-stolen

If your phone is provided to you from where you work, you’ll want to contact them immediately too, so they can take proper action. If you use your phone for your job in any way (checking emails, getting messages, etc.) you’ll need to tell them. At this point, it’s a liability and not only is your data at risk, but some level of company data is at risk too. Most businesses should have the ability to revoke access to company data and email remotely, or they may even be able to remotely wipe the device or the work profile on the device.

Step 4 - Change Your Passwords

Here are the big three accounts to change IMMEDIATELY:

• Apple
• Google
• Microsoft

Log into these three accounts (if you have them) and update your passwords.

Remember, all of your passwords need to be unique, strong, and secure. Don’t EVER use the same password twice. Ever. We cannot stress this enough.

Next up, change out your passwords in this order:

• Email accounts (if you have others besides your main Apple/Google/Microsoft accounts)
• Banking/financial accounts (bank accounts, credit cards, Paypal, merchant accounts, etc.)
• Cloud storage accounts (e.g. Dropbox, Amazon, Box, iCloud, Google Drive, Onedrive, etc.)
• Hosting/Domain-related accounts (e.g. GoDaddy, Network Solutions, Cloudflare, etc.)
• Social media (e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• eCommerce stores (e.g. Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, ebay, etc.)
• Services/utilities (e.g. Netflix, Hulu, your electric company, insurance companies, etc.)

Expect to spend a lot of time doing this, and be sure to take your time. You’ll want to be extremely thorough and ensure that every password is unique, and carefully document everything you do.

If You Suspect Your Phone Has Been Stolen, Report It to Authorities

We’ve saved this for the last step, but it’s probably a good idea to do this once you’ve changed your most important passwords. That being said, this step tends to not offer much as far as getting your stolen phone back.

Here’s the thing—if you track your phone and it is where you left it (for example, at a restaurant you were just at), then go ahead and call the restaurant and have someone find it and keep it somewhere safe for you. If your phone was stolen, or appears to be on the move, or it is somewhere that you couldn’t have left it, don’t try to retrieve it. 

If someone stole your phone, they are probably aware that you can track it. Don’t risk it.

Call the police and report it. There is no guarantee that they will be able to retrieve your phone (there’s no guarantee that they will even try, even if you provide the location), but it’s still a good idea to report it. It is a crime, after all.

Maybe, just maybe, someone picked up your phone and plans on being a good Samaritan and is taking it home to try to figure out how to get it back to its owner. You can’t really depend on that though—locking it and wiping the data is still a good practice. You could try calling your phone to see who is on the other side, but be extremely cautious. Again, if someone intentionally stole your phone from you, assume it is gone.

If You Find a Lost Phone

If you find a stray phone in a public place, the most helpful thing you can do is to give it to the staff at that place. For example, if you find a phone at a store, report it to customer service. Most people will instinctively backtrack and trace their steps to try to recover it. Help them out by leaving the phone at a location they would have lost it. Don’t try to take it somewhere else to help solve the mystery, you are only adding extra complexity, even if your intentions are good.

We hope you never lose your phone, but if you have, we hope this guide helps.

If your business is like most, you and your team likely rely on a schedule to keep your processes moving along efficiently… while also ensuring that everyone has something to work on at any time. However, this is often easier said than done, which is why there are now cloud-based software options that make your scheduling efforts a little smarter.

Let’s take a few moments to discuss what smart scheduling is, and how you and your team can make the most of it.

What is Smart Scheduling?

Technically speaking, smart scheduling is a specific kind of software intended for use within industries that serve consumers with fluctuating demands and that are strongly influenced by different events that may line up with their operations. For instance, ice cream parlors do FAR better in the warmer months, and anyone who has worked in retail can appreciate how much different the holiday season is from the rest of the year. Smart scheduling solutions help to automate the process of scheduling a team to best fit the business’ need, taking these fluctuations into account.

However, if we look to smart scheduling as a process, rather than as a technology, it suddenly becomes far more applicable to all industries. After all, every industry—and individual business—has those external factors that can and do impact their operations.

Smart scheduling is simply the consideration of anticipated demand and adjusting employee hours and responsibilities to match. It’s knowing that the factory next door is going on lunch break in a moment, and ensuring that there’s an employee at each station of the fast food franchise so that the sudden influx of orders can be filled as quickly as possible.

It’s predicting the most likely scenarios and preparing your business appropriately.

How to Smarten Up Your Scheduling Process

Whether or not you’re using a smart scheduling solution, there are some basic tenets that you can follow to ensure that your business (including the employees that work there) is operating at a sustainable maximum output.

1. Define Your Schedule

Take all of the data that you have, concerning your schedule, and bring it all together. This will make it much easier to balance availability to the workload at any given point. For example: if a large project is coming up, but a holiday is as well, it may make sense to take any employees currently assigned to smaller, less-critical projects and delegate them to tasks on the larger one so it can get done. This makes everyone’s goals clear, which can help motivate your team to accomplish them.

2. Be Open to Communication

Regardless of your industry, communication is an indispensable part of your operations each day. Make sure that your schedule clearly (emphasis on the word clearly) defines where people are supposed to be, when, and what they are to accomplish in that given time. This includes those employees who have indicated that they are not available for a period. Failing to apply that information into your schedule will only cause complications and potentially leave you understaffed for what you planned to do. On the other hand, incorporating these considerations into your scheduling will lead to your staff feeling empowered, while reducing the number of unforeseen absences and tardiness.

3. Implement a Scheduling Platform

Many different software titles now exist that make scheduling your employees a lot easier, whether that means defining the hours they are to come in or assigning the tasks they are expected to tackle throughout the workday. Finding one that fits your needs and implementing it will make the entire process much easier for you and your team alike.

MSPNetworks can help you out with this aspect, as well as any other of your IT needs. To learn more about the solutions we have to offer, reach out to us by calling (516) 403-9001.

If you’re trying to productively work from home, what you use and how you use it are equally important considerations. To assist you, we felt it would be helpful to share a few best practices for each variable, so that you might be able to boost your remote productivity.

Technology Tips

Make sure you have the technology you’ll need. To work from home as effectively as you could in the office, you’ll need to have the tools that allow you to do so—and the same goes for everyone on your team. While it may not be critical that everyone’s remote setup is identical to their in-office one, their capabilities should be somewhat consistent. Your team shouldn’t have to rely exclusively on a cell phone, for instance.

Provide software and data access with cloud solutions. Having the right tools is good, but it doesn’t help if your team doesn’t have access to the work they are supposed to be doing with these tools. Using the cloud to host data and solutions can make these resources accessible to your remote workforce.

Make sure your team uses a VPN. If your team needs to instead connect to your in-house infrastructure while working remotely, instruct them to always use a virtual private network. While it isn’t a solution for all your security needs, it will help sensitive data from being intercepted or compromised as it traverses the Internet between your office and your team members.

Productivity Tips

Stick to your typical work schedule. While working longer hours is much easier when working remotely, thanks to the 100 percent decrease in travel time, do your best to discourage your team from doing so. Otherwise, they could subject themselves to faster burnout, especially if it becomes a regular habit.

Designate “office” space. It should come as no surprise that the home has much more tempting distractions than the office would, with minimal supervision to ensure that the team is being diligent. Your team’s best bet is to minimize the distractions that are around them by establishing a set place to work while working remotely. This helps boost productivity and focus alike.

Keep in touch with your team. When working in the office, clearly communicating with those that work with you is a much simpler prospect than when working remotely. To compensate for this discrepancy, you should strongly encourage your team to overcommunicate with their coworkers. Make sure you lead by example as you do so as well, to make it clear what level of communication is expected.

What has your experience with remote work been like? Share your thoughts in the comments, as well as any tips we may have missed, and be sure to subscribe to our blog!