Heard of BYOD, or "bring your own device", to work before? More and more companies are letting or even asking their employees to bring their phones or laptops to work. There are obvious benefits, but also dangers that may not be as obvious. Read on to find out what they are.

You may have noticed more and more of your employees or colleagues bringing their own computing devices to work—be it their mobile phone, tablet, or laptop. Or perhaps in your company or in other companies you may have seen, they have let people decide which device they prefer because they are used to it at home. You may not realize it, but this is all part of a large trend called the "consumerization" of IT, in which the influence of consumer technology is being increasingly felt in the workplace. With the wide availability of cheap but powerful mobile devices and online services, a growing number of people are being exposed to the latest technology at home first—adopting them at a rate faster than most businesses are able to manage. This flips on its head the old paradigm in which traditionally new technologies would be rolled out to businesses first, before they would find their way to consumers.

This trend, plus the increasing sophistication of young workers today and their frustration with the tools available to them at the office, is pushing some companies to adopt a "bring your own device" or BYOD policy at work. They are not alone. According to research by technology analyst group Gartner, end users, not the IT department, will soon be responsible for 50 percent of business IT procurement decisions—ultimately bringing and running their own systems on company networks. Meanwhile, according to management consultants Accenture, around one-third of today's younger generation of workers (a group called "millenials") not only wants to use the computer of their choice at work, but also wants control of the applications they use too.

The benefits companies cite to adopting a BYOD policy are many, among them:

• Savings on capital expenses and training costs in using company equipment—compensating employees instead via other means such as flexible work hours, subsidized purchases, insurance, and other benefits.
• Less management headache—effectively letting employees decide what to use releases the company from some overhead and management responsibilities.
• Improved employee satisfaction—by giving employees the freedom to use devices and applications that they prefer.

However, before you consider letting employees bring their own personal technology to the work place, be aware that there are also disadvantages, and sometimes very real dangers in doing so. These include:

• Non-standardization of hardware, operating systems, and applications. If your business operations require that some equipment is integrated with others, then BYOD can in the long run actually increase IT management costs and decrease efficiency.
• Exposing your network to malware or security vulnerabilities and breaches. When your employees bring their own devices to work, you lose important control over their security. Consumer devices often don't employ comparable bullet-proof security technologies mandated by businesses.
• Leakage of confidential or proprietary information. Employees will naturally do what they want with the data on their devices, even if it doesn't belong to them, or it's against company policies. Employees can also lose precious company data when they misplace or damage their personal devices.
• Lower economies of scale in procurement. Essentially because everyone is buying devices on their own, you miss out on the chance to consolidate purchases and lower purchase costs for everybody.

Have you adopted a BYOD policy at work? Thinking about it? Worried about this trend? If you need to understand BYOD better so you can define a policy for your staff, contact us and see how we can help.

In the world of IT, technology and software are non-constants. New trends and developments are always being discovered, each of which have their own impact on the way businesses operate. Cloud computing is one of these trends, and for many small companies, it is changing the way they do business.

As the IT industry continues to evolve, the latest transformation is the move to cloud computing. The emergence of cloud computing has definitely changed the way many organizations manage their operations – especially for small businesses, who are currently the leading adopters of the cloud.

Focus on Main Business When companies move their business management systems to the cloud, the cloud provider takes care of managing the infrastructure. Managers can focus on the needs of the customers and the business instead of being sidetracked by IT issues. IT staff can focus their time on new ways to build revenue generation instead of costing the company money.

Save Capital Expenditures With cloud computing, the company doesn't need to invest in servers to run new versions of the applications needed to run the business. Desktops and laptops can be used for a longer period of time when business management applications are accessed via the web. With most cloud applications, the business only pays for the services and software they need, adjusting user counts as the business grows.

If you are interested to know more about cloud computing and how it would impact your business, please feel free to contact us. We will be happy to sit down with you to talk about the solutions that work best for your company.

While there are a lot of free tools, applications, and software available on the Internet, it can be a chore sorting out the good from the bad. To make things easier for you, here are a few handy tools you can use to boost productivity while saving on costs.

It is a constant challenge for small businesses to meet ever-changing and ever-evolving IT requirements while balancing a budget and keeping costs reasonable. And with software applications being one of the major factors that contribute to IT maintenance costs, it is always welcome news to come across free tools that work well and efficiently despite the lack of a price tag.

ThinkFree Online Office One of these applications is ThinkFree Online Office, which is a cloud application that enables you to create and edit documents in common formats. It also comes with free 1GB of storage and allows you to work from anywhere, since the documents are stored online. And with its own app for Android users, ThinkFree is particularly advantageous to people who need to work on the go.

ReqMan Another free cloud-based application that can prove useful is ReqMan, an online project management tool. You can use this to manage and track your different projects using various templates the service provides. And since it's in the cloud, mobile personnel and staff who are given access to your ReqMan account can work even when they're out of the office.

Gliffy Gliffy is a free tool that you can use to create all sorts of technical illustrations – diagrams, floor plans, flowcharts, and more. The basic plan is free, but you also have the option to subscribe to their more fully featured plans for a minimal fee.

ScheduleOnce For managing schedules, calendars, and the like, ScheduleOnce allows you to keep better track of all your appointments, meetings, and deadlines through a single tool. It integrates with your calendar on Google, and then allows other people to see your open times when they can schedule a meeting with you. Think of it as a one-stop-shop for your scheduling needs.

If you want to know more about these tools and how you can best utilize them, please feel free to contact us. We’ll be happy to guide you and help you make the most out of these types of applications to improve your efficiency and bottom line.

Wondering what the most-discussed health care IT topics were in 2011—and what they'll likely be in 2012? ID Experts compiled expert opinions and found them to be much the same: mobile devices, patient privacy rights, and data breaches. Below are several of the items from ID Experts’ top 10 list, and additional items and details are available here.

• Mobile devices could create problems due to data breach risks—because while 81 percent of health care providers use mobile devices to collect, store, and transmit secure information, only 49 percent secure the devices.
• Class-action lawsuits will rise as patients sue health care providers for failing to secure their personal information, creating significant risks and increasing costs for organizations affected by these lawsuits.
• As more health care providers use social media, the exposure of personal information will increase, forcing health care providers to develop social media plans to prevent employees exposing patient information through personal social networking sites.
• Economic realities will force health care providers to outsource many functions including billing to third parties and business associates, and that will create weak links in data privacy and security.
• The use of mobile devices—tablets and smartphones—will continue to grow in the industry, meaning health care providers will need to balance usability with security.

Data breaches and patient privacy rights were some of the most popular health-care IT topics in 2011, and that's unlikely to change in 2012. Below we review some related topics to help ensure that you stay clear of potential hurdles in the coming year.

Medical identity theft resulting from data breaches are causing patients much distress, emotionally and financially—and this often results in patients switching providers. That can hurt health care providers financially, since the average lifetime value of one patient is more than $113,000, according to a study by Ponemon.

Additionally, security and privacy breaches can lead to class-action lawsuits, which will increase in 2012, according to Kirk Nahra, a partner at the law firm Wiley Rein LLP. This was certainly the case in 2011, and shouldn't change in 2012. The result will inevitably be increased costs for affected health care providers.

That will likely lead to two major changes in the industry. First, security and privacy training will become paramount. Although many health care providers already have related procedures in place, in many cases their staff members ignore them. Since most breaches are caused by human error, training will likely become more common.

Additionally, health care providers will likely utilize cyber liability insurance. Cyber Data Risk Managers has said this will be particularly true as health care providers continue to implement their electronic medical records (EMRs), as breaches can be both costly and damaging to the organization’s reputation, as noted above.

All you need is a stable internet connection, and you can access updated data, software, and other IT services through something called Cloud Computing, a trend that has been changing the way many companies do business – in a good way.

As the economy rebounds, businesses need to be ready to stay competitive while keeping costs under control. Small and medium-sized businesses must maximize the productivity of resources without compromising the end product or service. Cloud computing is helping more and more small and medium-sized businesses balance costs and resources.

Lower Costs The cloud is generally more cost effective, and spreads payment out over time. Monthly payment for subscriptions for applications allows businesses to pay only for services used each month. Updates and maintenance costs are usually included in the subscription cost. Companies save on dedicated IT support – as well as the cost of the electricity, space, and hardware that run the applications that manage your business operations.

Ensure Availability Another plus for the cloud is that it is more reliable and dependable. Few companies can afford to frequently update their hardware and software, so when problems arise, they have nowhere to turn. With the cloud, the application provider pays for the specialized staff to keep hardware and software running smoothly.

Secure Data Speaking of dependability, the cloud is also a better place to store your data. Depending on your subscription, you can arrange for regular backups of data to secure servers in case of any sort of incident – hardware failure, natural disasters, and more. With data backup through the cloud, you are better assured that you can always access your data no matter what happens.

If you are interested in knowing more about how cloud computing can help your business function more efficiently, please feel free to contact us so we can sit down with you and develop a custom solution based on your specific needs.

Desktop Virtualization is starting to gain the attention of more and more businesses with its promise of simplifying IT management, strengthening IT security, and ultimately gaining new efficiencies and cost savings in the business. Read on to find out how.

There is growing interest in Desktop Virtualization with its promise of improved manageability, security and efficiency for the business. Simply put, Desktop Virtualization is new technology that separates the system software such as the operating system and applications from the underlying hardware.

Desktop virtualization allows the hardware, like a laptop or a server, to run multiple operating systems. Imagine having your Mac running Microsoft Windows and Office, or your Dell running OS X and GarageBand for example. To stretch the concept even further, operating systems and applications can be housed on remote machines – such as a server farm in Texas – which you access via the web. The applications are not resident on your computer at all.

Desktop virtualization shifts the burden of managing the system software from you or your in-house IT teams to someone else—people who can do a better job managing and updating your Windows and Office software than you can. If you have a fairly large organization managing a large number of machines, centralizing support allows the organization to gain from economies of scale—ie less people to manage more machines at less cost. Leveraging the computing power of server farms with faster machines also allows employees to get more value out of aging desktops and laptops.

Enabling anytime, anywhere access to applications and data, Desktop Virtualization connects your employees to the tools they need no matter where they are. As organizations support more and more remote employees, using desktop virtualization technology gives them access to their Windows desktop anywhere in the world, at any time, on any device.

Are you supporting remote workers or is your hardware slowing down your employees? Let's talk about Desktop Virtualization and how you can try it for your organization today.

The big difference between Android and the iOS is the fact that, on an Android device, you can play Flash videos. There are times however when this seeming advantage can be a disadvantage as Flash (such as Flash ads) can slow down your browsing experience or even crash your browser. There is a solution.

You can turn off Flash if you choose to. Simply go to your Browser's Settings by pressing on the Menu/Options button, then go to Advanced and change 'Enable plug-ins' setting from "Always on" to "On demand." Flash applications will now appear as an arrow that you must touch to start.

There are times when you may want to capture what is currently being shown on your iPad's screen. That’s easy to do on an iPad.

Simply press the Home button and then the Sleep/Wake button simultaneously. When you hear a click, the screenshot has been taken. You can then go to the photos gallery to see all of your captured screenshots.

Thanks to cloud technology, businesses can now access their software and services via the internet, instead of managing everything on their own hardware. The cost savings and ability to respond to new opportunities can transform the business.

With cloud computing, businesses can tap into software and services as they need them, using an Internet connection and a web browser. Cloud services can help you manage growth and connect with your staff across town or the world.

Manage Growth

One of the toughest aspects of running a small business is predicting what resources are needed to support future demand. If the company grows quickly, more people and equipment need to be added to fulfill the work. Too much investment for the future is risky.

Cloud computing allows companies to quickly access the applications needed to increase capacity, support growth and handle busy periods. If a customer or project demands increase, software in the cloud scales without a big outlay of cash. The flexibility of the organization increases with cloud computing because it is easy to adjust and scale.

Improve Collaboration

Companies with remote employees can particularly benefit from cloud computing. More and more small and medium-sized businesses support home workers and employees that aren’t in the main office every day.

No matter where they’re located, employees can use cloud applications to have meetings, talk to one another, share files, and collaborate on materials in real time. With cloud computing, you can build a team that works together seamlessly, and improved productivity and better communication allows businesses to capitalize on new opportunities quickly.

Find out more about the benefits of cloud computing. We’ll help you find the solutions that fit your business and your budget.