Zinc Blog

When you consider technology management for your business, what comes to mind? Do you replace technology as it breaks, or do you take steps to prevent it from breaking in the first place? The traditional model of break-fix IT could be costing your organization an arm and a leg. We want you to know that there are better solutions out there than break-fix IT.

There are a few different types of stress that may be present in your business right now, either or both of which could be causing no small amount of distress to your team members and disruption to your processes. Let’s explore the sources of these stresses—digital/workplace friction and interpersonal friction—and what can be done to help resolve them.

The past few years have seen major shifts in the workforce, and not the kind that employers ever want to see. More people than any other time have willingly left their places of work, with social media hashtags like “#quittingmyjob” and “#quitmyjob” getting hundreds of millions of views. Let’s consider why this is, and what you can do to keep your employees engaged  

Getting the right technology for your business can be confusing and downright frustrating if you don’t know what you are looking for. After all, technology is supposed to make life easier and keep your business more efficient and organized. With so many rapidly evolving technologies now available, it can be hard to choose which to deploy inside your business. Today, we’ll go through three tips that can help you identify and deploy the technology that will work for you.

People on average spend nearly 3-to-5 hours of their day on their phones. Today’s smartphones are not only one of the coolest pieces of technology ever invented, it legitimately could be one of the most useful devices any person could use for business; if they are willing to use it that way. Today, we will establish what smartphones are mostly used for and how to readjust your smartphone usage to be your most productive. 

You might have encountered the term MSP while navigating our website, but what does it mean to be a managed service provider? Today we want to get into the nitty-gritty of what we do for our clients and how you can benefit from our services. It’s our goal to show just why managed services have completely changed the landscape of business as we know it today.

If the pandemic has proven anything, it’s that companies need to be flexible in their operations, perhaps more so now than ever before. However, this flexibility has also led many to reconsider what the office of the future looks like. Companies are starting to ask how much space is truly necessary and whether or not they actually need an office to remain operational.

We talk a lot about the individual ways that managed IT services can help your organization save time and money, but today we thought we’d take a look at some of the baseline numbers associated with partnering with a capable managed IT service provider.

Sometimes a business model or way of managing something complex comes along that changes the game for countless businesses, industries, and organizations. One such model is managed IT services, and it can effectively replace the way you used to manage your technology with a better, more efficient method. It can impact your budget, increase your bottom line, and save you countless hours throughout the workday.

Even when everything is going well, running a business can be challenging—all of that is to say that things are especially difficult when everything starts to go wrong, particularly in the realm of business continuity. While nobody likes to imagine the worst-case scenario, we always like to say that imaging the worst-case scenario can help you prepare for it, and it can take the sting away from dealing with it.

You may have seen us use the term “redundant” on this blog often, and if you are not necessarily familiar with how it might be used in the context of business technology, we understand how you could misconstrue the word in a negative light. However, redundancy is one of the most important concepts to understand in business technology, and it’s key to your business’ continued success.

Sometimes you might experience computer trouble and wonder when it’s time to call in the experts. After all, you don’t know how much you might break your budget, right? Depending on the issue, you might be able to resolve it yourself. We’ve put together three of the most common computer repair scenarios that you might encounter and how they should be handled.

Look, we get it; technology management is not easy, especially for small business owners who already wear a lot of hats. The last thing you want to do is add even more to your plate when you already have so much going on. That’s why we offer managed IT services to SMBs in the area. But what if we told you that managed IT services aren’t just for small businesses, but for all types of companies and organizations? Let’s discuss why this is the case.

As a business owner, you have relationships with your vendors that must be cultivated and maintained in some way on the off chance you need them for support. However, working with vendors can be stressful and downright frustrating at times. Let’s examine a specific situation that demonstrates these challenges and what you can do about it.

Your business might find itself in a position where it needs new hardware. You must make educated decisions about which hardware to acquire and when, but unless you are a tech guru, you probably need a hand figuring out how to get the most value. 

That’s where we come in.

You may have heard of the RICE prioritization framework for developing new products, but we believe that it can be applied to not just products, but also to services and even project implementation practices. What is this framework, and how can you use it when developing new ideas for your business?

Now that many of us have been working remotely for the past 18 months, what are your thoughts on the concept of a remote or hybrid office? Have your opinions changed at all, or are you still clinging to your previously conceived notions of what it would be like? It does not help that some major companies, like Microsoft, are sending out mixed signals on their own experiences with remote work. What can we learn from these experiences?

One of the most important solutions for a small business to implement is a data backup and disaster recovery system. It is a crucial element of any business continuity plan, yet many organizations fail to implement one in an appropriate manner. Let’s discuss three of the best reasons you must consider data backup and disaster recovery now before it’s too late.

The traditional 40-hour workweek feels like a staple in the business world, where employees work 8 hour shifts and then head home for the day. This was not always the case, however, and there can be a case made that even the 40-hour workweek should be adjusted to at least some degree. Let’s take a look at the modern workplace, how it has changed, and how it can still be changed to better employees of all levels—including you.

Many businesses simply do not have the resources or budget to hire technicians to perform regular maintenance on their systems, let alone someone who is managing the technicians behind the scenes. The chief information officer, or CIO, is the one who would normally make these calls, but businesses that cannot hire an in-house CIO for whatever reason have the option of hiring a virtual CIO.