Author: Stuart Crawford

An efficient and secure running IT system is essential for any organization, and especially so for today’s law practices. Your work relies on secure and ready access to your data when you’re in the office, courtroom or when on the road. You need the ability to interface your Line of Business applications with other IT solutions you and your staff depend on each day. In order to remain competitive, you must use the most advanced legal technology solutions available and use them to your best advantage. And, any form of downtime is totally unacceptable because can cost you your clients. For all this, you need a Technology Solutions Provider who can build an IT infrastructure from the ground up to meet your high-security, high-availability, high-efficiency requirements.

The Seven IT Headaches All Lawyers Face Today (And Their Remedies)

Technology challenges can lead to significant IT headaches, especially for small and medium-sized firms that manage their own infrastructure. They often “tag” the one employee who knows the most about technology. But today, it’s impossible for a non-professional to provide the 24/7 IT support, expertise and defense-in-depth protection required today.

Even law firms with a professional IT employee struggle with their changing and increasing technology demands and the need for 24/7 IT remote management. IT headaches in the legal industry vary. But the common factor is that they are pervasive and never-ending unless they are prevented by qualified Legal IT experts.

Headache #1 – Cybersecurity

Client confidentiality is a priority for every law firm. And without the proper IT management, your data can be at great risk.

Many lawyers aren’t aware that their critical data is at risk. The chance that data is breached has increased as attorneys, and their employees use mobile devices and email outside the office. They don’t realize that at a moment’s notice their IT system could be hacked, and confidential information stolen.

Cybercriminals have discovered new, creative ways to steal data. Hackers are increasingly targeting law firms to steal clients’ confidential data. Additionally, unethical competitors engage in illegal eDiscovery to harm a competing law firm, or to win a lawsuit.

Many say, “This only happens to larger legal organizations, not small ones like mine, right? Wrong–Small and mid-sized law firms are a more attractive target for hackers because they typically don’t have the right security solutions in place, nor do they train their employees to recognize phishing and ransomware threats like their larger counterparts do.

Building a cybersecurity infrastructure today can be a daunting task with all the attack vectors in play. The most important challenge comes from the requirement to protect clients’ private information. Client confidentiality is at the top of every attorney’s mind, and without the right IT management, this confidentiality can be breached. Cybersecurity should be the primary concern for litigation attorneys who handle confidential electronically stored information.

“To maintain the required level of competence, a lawyer should develop and maintain a facility with technology relevant to the nature and area of the lawyer’s practice and responsibilities. A lawyer should understand the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology, recognizing the lawyer’s duty to protect confidential information.”

Law firms must prevent:

• Unauthorized access to both their wired and wireless networks.
• Malware from corrupting their network.
• Their employees from clicking on malicious links or unknowingly revealing confidential information to a hacker.
• The disclosure of electronically transmitted communications.
• Data loss from both manmade attempts or natural disasters.

Law firms must ensure:

• Data is encrypted and safeguarded.
• Compliance with legal, regulatory and confidentiality requirements when using technology.
• Files are properly backed up both onsite and offsite, and that they are easily recoverable.
• A secure email-archiving and retention strategy for both data at rest and in transit.
• Cybersecurity is confirmed with regular Vulnerability and Risk Assessments.

The situation demands a defense-in-depth security plan that employs multiple security measures to protect confidential data. Defense-in-depth security was originally conceived by the NSA to provide a comprehensive approach for cybersecurity.

By using multiple layers of automated and remote security solutions, where the outer layers provide a first line of defense, and deeper more concentrated layers stop anything that gets through, lawyers can stop worrying about cyber threats and concentrate on their work at hand. And, as each law firm is unique, this protection requires an IT professional with the knowledge and expertise to find the right combination of security techniques and solutions.

The Remedy: The answer is to rely on a Technology Solutions Provider who will avert security risks and compliance issues that can cost you in legal liabilities, regulatory penalties, and your good reputation.

Headache #2 – Downtime

Every hour lost to downtime means lost billable hours. Time is money when it comes to law practices. Downtime due to power failures, ransomware, natural disasters and more mean your firm is paralyzed and unable to operate.

The increasing digitization of information over the last 20 years has increased productivity for law firms. When IT runs as it should, it helps you save time, and work more efficiently. However, this also means that when it doesn’t, and you’re faced with downtime that your clients, who are used to your efficiency, don’t understand and become angered when their cases come to a standstill.

This causes headaches for you, your employees and your clients. It’s critical that you recover as quickly as possible. When your IT goes down, even for a few hours during a workday, you lose billable hours, lose the ability to send and receive emails, and risk damaging your firm’s reputation.

It doesn’t matter how long downtime persists. It’s unacceptable in any case because it’s preventable. You can mitigate the risk of downtime by having the right technology in place.

The Remedy: Preventive IT measures are key to protecting your confidential data. With the right enterprise cloud backup and recovery system, and the services and support from a Technology Solutions Provider, your firm will benefit from complete system monitoring, secured servers, safeguarded data and upwards of a 99% guaranteed uptime.

Headache #3 – Inefficient IT Performance

In today’s digital world, a slow-performing IT system is like a wound that can drain the life’s blood out of your law firm. You can’t afford to wait this out and hope that things will improve. Time is money, and inefficient IT solutions are not only frustrating, but they can also impede your ability to meet your clients’ demands.

Increased IT performance is one of the biggest benefits of outsourcing your IT service and support. Often, an in-house technical staff creates new problems by overcomplicating basic configurations, because they lack the skill and experience required.

The Remedy: A Technology Solutions Provider offers a higher level of expertise and establishes a highly performing IT system to keep your law firm up and running.

Plus:

• You’ll save money. Unlike with in-house staff, you won’t have to provide benefits like healthcare coverage, sick and vacation days and workman’s compensation.
• You’ll have 24/7 Live Help Desk Support, to ensure your issues are resolved quickly, and your IT systems stay up and running at all times.
• You’ll save time with the resources to start new IT solutions quickly as opposed to waiting for in-house techs who will need to be trained.

Headache #4 – Poor Integration of Line of Business Solutions

You need your Line of Business (LOB) applications to complete your responsibilities each day for Practice Management, Document Management, Time & Billing, and Legal Document Generation.

Applications like:

• PCLaw
• Prolaw
• Juris
• Clio
• Timeslips
• Amicus
• Abacus
• Tabs3 / Practice Master
• Timeslips
• ProDocs

You also need these applications to integrate with popular software programs like Microsoft Office. And when they don’t run as expected, this can cause major headaches.

The Remedy: This requires assistance from a Technology Solution Provider with expertise in legal IT programs.

Headache # 5 How to Maintain Client Confidentiality While Using the Cloud.

Attorneys are using the Cloud in their law practices. However, this can present significant challenges when it comes to their ethical and legal obligations to maintain client confidentiality.

Your law firm can benefit immensely from cloud computing services. However, it’s important to fulfill all of your legal and ethical duties to your clients.

As an attorney, you are subject to ethical rules that make it difficult to use certain types of cloud services. But how do you know what ethical rules apply to your law firm when it comes to using the Cloud? Plus, these ethical rules vary from one jurisdiction to another. If you have firms in multiple locations, how do you manage this?

The more questions you have about cloud solutions, the greater the potential for more headaches:

Confidentiality & Integrity?

Does cloud computing threaten the confidentiality or integrity of your data? Most ethical rules contain a duty of confidentiality and competence.

Third Party Providers?

If you’re assigning responsibilities to the third-party cloud provider, you must make a reasonable effort to ensure that their conduct is compatible with your legal and ethical obligations. Most ethical rules maintain that you must supervise third parties.

Communicating with Clients about Cloud Services?

Must you ask each of your clients if you can store their data in a third party’s cloud? Most ethical rules contain a duty to seek consent for decisions regarding clients’ data.

Safeguarding of Data?

How do you know that your cloud provider can ensure the proper safeguarding of your clients’ files and documents? Are you liable if they don’t? After all, it’s your responsibility to safeguard your clients’ property.

But, cloud computing provides many benefits for the small law practice. You don’t want to miss out on these:

Low Cost

Most enterprise cloud-based services can be obtained at a very reasonable cost. Law firms typically find that it’s less expensive to use these services than running and maintaining their own servers. With cloud computing, you don’t have to pay for your additional servers and hardware.

Less Maintenance

Enterprise cloud services often include maintenance in their offerings. As an attorney, your workday is too busy to worry about updating programs and patching software. The right cloud provider will automatically install all updates for you.

Greater Accessibility

With cloud computing, you and your authorized employees can access your data from any computer, in any location where you have internet access. If you need to work long hours outside the office, you can still access the IT resources you need remotely.

More Flexibility

Cloud computing services are often sold on a subscription and month-to-month basis. They are based on the number of users who access the solution. If your workload increases, you can up the number of subscriptions. If it declines, you can reduce them. on demand.

Security

Most cloud providers employ sophisticated security measures, so you don’t need to worry about client confidentiality. Also, their staff is trained and experienced in the implementation of security measures that align with current security risks.

Cloud computing offers many benefits for your law firm. Don’t let the potential risks stop you from experiencing those benefits. But you must mitigate your risks.

Review the ethical rules that apply to your jurisdiction and determine what type of cloud services would be best for your law firm.

• Make sure you’re clear about the particular service you’re planning to purchase.
• Where are the servers located?
• How will the servers be used to process your data?
• Make sure the service is reliable and secure.

If you’re ready to purchase cloud computing services be sure to review the proposed contract carefully.

Pay attention to the disclaimers of liability, intellectual property, confidentiality, and security provisions. Also, does the service provider have a robust disaster recovery plan in place? It’s critical to ensure that the cloud service provides alternative access to data in the event of a service outage.

The top two important risks to consider include:

Security Breaches

Does the cloud provider protect your data from unauthorized access or modification? Make sure you’re informed about any security breaches that affect your data. Discuss compensation in case a security breach is caused by the cloud provider.

Data Ownership

Read the contract and look for clauses that might give the cloud provider ownership of data stored in the Cloud. Make sure the contract acknowledges that your data is owned by your law firm.

The Cloud provider may offer recommendations for security measures. Your staff must understand these security measures and sign a written agreement to comply with them, such as the prohibition of shared passwords.

The Remedy: Ask Technology Solutions Provider to address these concerns and help you choose the right cloud solutions for your law firm.  

Law firms that want to compete in today’s technology-driven environment must depend on reliable, up-to-date hardware and software solutions. But, with the complexities and rapid changes in IT today, they’re realizing the need to also outsource IT services to experts like Technology Solution Providers, so they can focus on their core competencies, and benefit from increased security, innovation, cost savings, efficiency, and productivity.

Headache # 6– How to Keep Up with Ever-Changing Legal Technology Solutions

The digitization of legal documents and the use of use of electronic word processing, databases, and research software has gone mainstream today. Most law practices now manage case files by electronic means and rely on software programs to search, edit, track, archive and distribute documents.

From legal technology in the courtroom, in corporate environments, for paralegals, for electronic discovery, to BYOD solutions, and even for Artificial Intelligence, all of these enable you and your employees to do your job more efficiently.

But these technologies are ever-changing and evolving. How are you supposed to know which ones to use, which will provide the most benefits, and how to find the time to train your employees to use them properly and securely? How can you keep up?

The Remedy: Choose a Technology Solutions Provider who is adept at keeping up with today’s legal technology solutions and can help you select which are best for your unique requirements.

Technology helps today’s lawyer carry out essential tasks, exercise professional judgment, engage with and represent clients, provide advice and settle key commercial dealings. Those who view technology as an opportunity—rather than a threat—will prosper, and more easily reap the rewards from their efforts. Those who don’t will fall behind the competition.

Headache # 7– Lack of IT Talent

Even if you wanted to hire a full-time IT staff, the talent pool is quickly shrinking if you run a small practice. Even your larger competitors are having difficulty finding the IT talent they need to compete.

Most techs in the workplace lack the breadth and depth of knowledge and experience to stay up to date on today’s ever-changing technology resources. Plus, your law firm has very specific requirements when it comes to IT.

You need the expertise of an IT professional who understands your needs, work processes, regulations, the applications you use, and your unique technology challenges. One who knows the complexities you face and can help you improve the way you use technology by:

• Automating routine legal transactions,
• Assuring you can share and store documents securely,
• Optimizing your work processes,
• Deploying mobility solutions that keep data secure, and
• Helping you capitalize on tools like electronic data discovery.

The Remedy: The only way to get this kind of IT talent is with a Service Level Agreement from a Technology Solutions Provider who specializes in Legal IT Services.

In Conclusion

Today’s law firms are moving to a Managed Services Model where their Technology Solutions Providers have the expertise and credentials to provide the proactive support they require to keep their IT systems secure and running at peak performance. When they do, they no longer suffer from the IT headaches that can put them at a competitive disadvantage.

Technology Solution Providers are helping law firms use technology efficiently and safely. The result? – Increased value from your technology assets, and no IT headaches for both you and your clients.

Orbitz has disclosed that a recent data breach could have exposed extensive information of up to 880,000 of their customers.

It’s so often these days that hacks hit big-name companies that consumers are becoming numb to it. The latest to get hacked? Orbitz.

The travel booking company recently announced that they may have been hacked, possibly compromising the personal information of approximately 880,000 users. The breach could have included their date of birth, gender, and credit card info, exposing those using the platform between January and June of 2016, and October and December of 2017.

“We determined on March 1, 2018, that there was evidence suggesting that an attacker may have accessed personal information stored on this consumer and business partner platform,” said Orbitz in a statement. “We took immediate steps to investigate the incident and enhance security and monitoring of the affected platform. To date, we do not have direct evidence that this personal information was actually taken from the platform. We deeply regret the incident, and we are committed to doing everything we can to maintain the trust of our customers and partners.”

Whereas Orbitz is big enough to handle the damage control for an incident like this, what about you and your business? Cybercriminals are often just as likely to target small organizations as they are large ones, particularly because of the lack of cybersecurity measures.

Are you prepared to defend your business? If you’re not sure, keep these tips in mind:

Stay informed about phishing and spoofing techniques. Regular security awareness training should be a top priority for your organization.

Stop and think before you click a link. Don’t click on links from random emails or text messages. Hover your mouse arrow over a link to see who sent it. Most phishing emails begin with “Dear Customer”, so watch out for these. Verify the website’s phone number before placing any calls. Remember, a secure website always starts with “https”.

Never divulge personal information requested by email. Phishing attempts try to send you to a webpage to enter your financial or personal information. If you suspect this, give the company a call. Never send sensitive information in an email to anyone.

Be skeptical of messages that contain an urgent call to action:

• With an immediate need to address a problem that requires you to verify information.
• That urgently asks for your help.
• Asking you to donate to a charitable cause.
• Indicating you are a “Winner” in a lottery or other contest, or that you’ve inherited money from a deceased relative.

Consider installing an anti-phishing toolbar and security tools. Some Internet browsers offer free, anti-phishing toolbars that can run quick checks on the sites you visit. If a malicious site shows up, the toolbar will alert you.

Never download files from suspicious emails or websites. Double check the website URL for legitimacy by typing the actual address into your Web browser. Check the site’s security certificate. Also, beware of pop-ups as they may be phishing attempts.

Block pop-ups via your browser settings. You can allow them on a case-by-case basis if you decide to.

Most importantly? Be sure you’re working with a trusted, reliable cybersecurity service provider. We have the industry experience and expertise needed to keep you and your business secure against today’s cyber threats.

Many cities and countries around the world are having problems with distracted driving accidents. During 2016, Great Britain recorded 1,445 fatal crashes where one or more people were killed. One study completed in the town of St. Albans found that one in six drivers were engaged in some type of activity that took their focus away from driving.

In the United States, approximately nine people are killed on average each day due to distracted drivers. Another 1,000 people are injured with millions of dollars in property damage. In Toronto, there were about 7,500 distracted driving accidents during 2016. Of those, there were eight fatalities and 2,642 injuries with thousands of dollars in property damage.

In spite of public awareness campaigns, drivers continue to ignore these statistics. People tend to think that bad things only happen to others, so they go ahead and text or talk while driving. This has become such a problem that cities around the world have changed their distracted driving laws, increasing penalties and fines. Ontario is one those areas that have recently increased the penalties and fines for those caught.

What is Considered Distracted Driving?

Many people connect distracted driving with texting while driving. In fact, distracted driving covers any activity that causes the driver to divert their attention away from the roads and traffic. Studies have found that younger drivers are more likely to ignore laws and put everyone on the road at risk. Distracted driving includes:

• Eating while driving
• Changing the radio
• Watching any type of media
• Talking or texting while driving
• Reading
• Looking at a map
• Smoking
• Any activity that diverts the driver’s attention

Most cities are seeing a big rise in the number of tickets issued for distracted driving each year. Lawmakers feel that these penalties and fines will eventually cause drivers to realize that times have changed. Drivers must give their full attention to the road and avoid losing focus. Lives are at stake.

A Major Factor

One of the major factors that make distracted driving so deadly is speed. A car traveling at 60mph moves at 88 feet per second. Using simple math, we can see that if you turn your attention away from the road for only three seconds, your car will have traveled 264 feet. A football field measures 360 feet so you will have traveled approximately three-fourths the length of a football field, just to put things in perspective. That’s a great distance when you consider that there are autos moving at similar speeds all around you and on both sides of the road. If each driver looked away from their driving for three seconds, there would be dozens of crashes with multiple fatalities.

The truth is that each driver feels that they’re probably the only one on the road who is looking away for a few seconds. Surely with all the other drivers paying attention, there’s no need to worry – they’ll see you and take action in time to avoid an accident. This can be a deadly assumption.

An average vehicle weighs around 3,500 pounds, making it a very dangerous weapon in the wrong hands. Though more experienced drivers are less likely to be guilty of distracted driving, the truth is that everyone occasionally feels that a text message or phone call is important enough to take the risk.

This type of thinking has become an epidemic in Ontario, England, America and many other countries. For these reasons, legislatures and lawmakers have been forced to increase the penalties for these crimes.

Changes in Ontario’s Laws

New laws have recently taken effect in Ontario that increases the fines and penalties for failing to give your undivided attention to the road. Fines for a first offense can be as much as $490 with three demerit points on your license. If you decide to fight the ticket and lose, you could pay up to $1,000 in fines. If you’re a new driver with very little driving experience, you could lose your license for 30 days. With each conviction, novice drivers will have their license suspended for longer periods of time, up to 90 days. After that, a novice driver’s license could be revoked completely.

When is it Safe to Use the Phone?

Many drivers have had questions about these new laws. In Ontario, it’s not uncommon to see drivers pull off to the shoulder in order to take an important phone call. But is this legal? Or it is dangerous as well? Each city has its own unique laws when it comes to these types of issues. In Ontario, the law states that a driver may pull off the road to a safe location and take a phone call.

In some cases, moving to the shoulder of the road is not deemed safe. There may be workers there making road repairs. The shoulder of the road often has gravel, which can fly up and crack a windshield. Since each case is a bit different, it’s up to the driver to ensure that they are pulling off and re-entering the highway in a safe fashion. If a traffic officer feels that a driver has not pulled off the road in a safe manner, the driver may receive a traffic citation for this. At the end of the day, the traffic officer’s job is to make sure that all drivers are protected. Everyone wants to get home safely to their family each day and it simply is not worth it to put anyone in danger over a text message or phone call.

Tips for Avoiding Fines

We all want to get to our destination safely so what is the standard these days for using a phone while driving? According to the new laws in Ontario, drivers can use hands-free devices (Bluetooth) to talk on the phone while driving. However, you cannot pause to dial a number or answer a call unless you can do so using voice commands.

Most experts recommend turning your phone off while driving. That way, you will not be tempted to answer a call or text message. If you are leaving on a long trip, then email all your friends and tell them that you will be driving and will not be able to return calls until you stop for service or food.

Safe Driving Tips

Always be mindful if on the road with cyclists, emergency vehicles or buses. Pay special attention to the road, your driving and other drivers. Remember that although you may not be breaking the law, there are others on the road who are. There may be a teenager who wants to talk to his girlfriend while driving to school. These drivers present a special danger due to their limited experience behind the wheel.

There may be drivers who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. This condition has been shown to slow a driver’s reflexes. Sometimes drivers are worried about being late, so they try to speed, take shortcuts or make erratic movements. When you put all these different drivers on the road at the same time, it can be dangerous.  It’s a good idea to bear these things in mind before getting behind the wheel.

Here’s Some Up-to-Date Info That Should Be of “Interest”!

Accounting software is much-needed tool today. Gone are the days of manually writing down copious amounts of figures in heavy, dusty logbooks, or using calculators to add up debits and credits. Our computers do this for us now. Accounting software makes the process of bookkeeping more efficient and accurate.

What else is different than in years past? Today’s newest accounting solutions are now cloud-based, and they provide many advantages.

No more shelling out a large amount of cash to purchase expensive business accounting software. Instead, you can pay for a web-based accounting service via a convenient subscription.

Online accounting services are used via the Internet rather than being installed on your organization’s computers. They allow you to access the information you need through an Internet browser like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome or Safari. You can access the service from anywhere you have an internet connection, and it will always look like the same wherever you use it.

Plus, you won’t have to worry about technology requirements, if you have the right operating system, backing up your accounting data, installing updates or dealing with maintenance issues. You get all this and more handled for you–And all for a convenient monthly or annual fee.

Just like any accounting software, cloud-based accounting services allow you to perform all the accounting tasks your business needs, and they include features you’re familiar with like an online general ledger, invoicing and accounts receivable capabilities, purchase histories, business inventories and much more.

And, because upgrades and data backup are managed by the accounting service vendor, cloud-based accounting services are an attractive option for small businesses.

Although these new solutions are cloud-based, you can still buy desktop accounting software if you wish. But due to their popularity, most small businesses are now using online accounting services. Because of their anywhere availability via the Internet, crunching numbers is now much easier than ever before.

What Do Online the Different Accounting Services Have in Common?

Each solution is different, but they all have the following features in common.

They are available via a subscription. Accounting software has always been expensive and needs to be updated every year. With the online version, you pay for only as many users as you need, and you can pay on a monthly or annual basis. Many offer a free trial that converts when you sign up for a service. They cost anywhere from $5 to $70 a month depending on what you require. You won’t be locked into a contract, and all the upgrades are provided. Another plus is that your data will automatically be backed up to a secure cloud.

They’re easy to navigate. Online accounting services try to make your job less taxing with intuitive, easy-to-navigate platforms where you can easily find the features you want. Toolbars, drop-down lists, fill-in-the-blank fields, buttons and icons, all help you enter the numbers for whatever calculations and financial forms you require.

They use language that you’re familiar with. Although we still refer to terms like credits, debits, and chart of accounts, online accounting solutions only use arcane financial language when absolutely needed. The developers are trying to use every-day language whenever possible. However, although centuries old, double-entry accounting is a process we all need to use, and it’s here to stay, the developers let the “wizards” handle the complex processes behind the scenes.

They provide mobile versions. If you’re on the road, traveling for business meetings, or even need to do a little work when you’re on vacation, you can access your web-based accounting services securely from your mobile devices.

You have the choice of different levels of service. Some of the best cloud-based accounting solutions provide more than one level of service at different prices. This way you can purchase just what you need and nothing more. If you need to switch to a different level, most allow you to do this easily.

You can integrate them with other solutions. As your business grows, you may find that you need to use a variety of cloud-based financial management solutions. In this case, many of the best cloud-based accounting solutions allow you to connect to other services that you may already be using.

Dashboards. Interactive home pages or dashboards will help you keep track of your finances by flagging tasks that need attention and providing visuals like graphs and charts to give you a high-level view of where you stand. They summarize data like income, expenses and cash flow in easy-to-read images, so you and your team can more easily comprehend data and can make decisions about what to do.

Which Solution is the Best for Your Business?

So, how do you decide which online accounting solution is best for your small business? You might not be able to find a perfect match, but because they are flexible and provided on a monthly basis, you can find the best one for you and tweak it along the way.

As mentioned, many offer a free trial, so you can “road test” them. Give them a try and consider the following questions when you do:

• Can you import your existing data?
• Are the tasks you perform most often supported? (recordkeeping, billing, purchasing, etc.)
• Do you like the interface? Is it easy to navigate?
• Will it support the number of users you need?
• Are there any restrictions on actions you’ll need to take?
• Is it customizable?
• Is it scalable?
• What is the quality of the mobile application?
• Are add-ons supported?
• Do they provide a help desk or support solutions?
• Is the subscription fee something that your budget will allow?

While you’re at it, we did some homework for you. Below are some of the top online accounting services for small businesses.

Consider these and take advantage of the free trials they offer. Don’t worry if these might not work for you five years from now. Assess them based on your needs for the upcoming year.

Remember, you aren’t purchasing the product. Instead, you’re signing up for a subscription that you can change or upgrade/downgrade as you need. In other words, you aren’t stuck with these like you are with regular accounting software programs.

• Freshbooks
• Zoho
• Intuit
• Xero
• GoDaddy
• Wave
• QuickBooks
• Oneup
• Kashoo
• Sage
• MYOB
• Alignbooks
• Kashflow
• CloudbusinessLLC
• Panhandle

No matter which online accounting solution you choose, you’ll have peace of mind because you won’t have to worry about security. Online accounting services have stringent security requirements to ensure that your data is safely protected from hackers and any kind of loss. Even if your physical office is destroyed, or an employee accidentally deletes information, your online accounting service will be able to retrieve your data for you.

In this age of information, it’s challenging to maintain compliance with so much data stored on many different devices. Most companies these days have remote workers, employees in various departments, third-party vendors, management, employees working in other countries, and more. These people have laptops at home and at work, smartphones, and tablet computers. All this information must be structured in a way that it can be stored or accessed successfully whenever needed. This is a massive task that seems impossible, yet with enterprise content management programs, it’s suddenly doable.

Information Overload

Americans are now overwhelmed with the massive amounts of data that exist in their world. But it’s not enough to have a world full of information available; you must know how to use it to achieve your business goals while adhering to compliance regulations. Though there are many ways to handle these tasks, the key is creating a system that’s user-friendly but safe from hackers. Compliance is all about protecting everyone’s data from the world’s cyber thieves.

Losing Control of Compliance

With so many different methods of storing and maintaining data, it’s easy to lose control of compliance issues. This is a problem for every business owner, large and small. Enterprise organizations are easily the most vulnerable simply for the sheer volume of data they must maintain. Our age of information can loom out of control with the simple act of one employee losing a computer. Suddenly, hundreds of records are at risk and the company is struggling to find out what information has been lost. These types of events occur much more often than most CEOs want to admit.

How ECMs Help

Enterprise content management systems can create a safe method of handling and control all this important data. A few of the solutions include:

• Optimizing workflows using multifunction devices to reduce the number of machines and interfaces
• Improving the security of all documentation
• Ensuring ongoing compliance with industry requirements
• Ensuring the best performance of hardware and software
• Minimizing downtime to cut overall costs
• Implementing green strategies with rules-based printing and cartridge recycling

The latest ECMs utilize additional resources to better manage conference rooms, mail rooms, help desks, procurement and many other areas where productivity can be radically affected. There’s much more to managing content than meets the eye.

Controlling the Data Flow

If you’re running a large business with hundreds or even thousands of employees, these types of issues can be extremely hard to control. Every company needs to achieve an optimal level of productivity. However, a healthy level of compliance has become an important factor in this mix. There’s just too much at stake these days if the personal information of millions of consumers is compromised.

In addition to your company’s internal rules and requirements, you may be forced to observe regulations from:

• The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
• The Affordable Care Act (ACA)
• The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)
• The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)

Audits Can Be Stressful and Expensive

Imagine the IRS showing up at your door and demanding your documentation to prove compliance in some or all of these areas. Where do you even begin? Your employees might have to sort through several data systems, search file cabinets, and reign in multiple records from dozens of computers and other devices. This scenario can be a nightmare that no one wants to endure. Missing paperwork and costly errors are just the beginning.

That’s why so many large companies are moving over to enterprise content management systems. These systems provide an efficient method of storing, tracking and managing large volumes of data. Everything is located in a single repository. This makes it far easier to locate important documents that prove compliance. Plus, important documents are protected from intrusion.

Easing the burden of complying with today’s wide range of regulations can give your company leaders peace of mind. It’s a real confidence boost for the stockholders as well. Using advanced robust technology, your organization can move forward more efficiently with a higher level of security.

Easy Search & Collaboration

The best enterprise content management systems are cost-effective, secure and easy for everyone to use. They support all common platforms and databases. Information should be easy to search with programs that seamlessly send a document to the scanner or printer. Most teams need to be able to collaborate in real and virtual meeting rooms. It can be very helpful to be able to find a document, then edit it live together with other teams. This helps everyone stay informed and up-to-date. Transparency in document editing is also important, especially in the event of an audit.

Maintenance & Certification

Another important element, various filters can determine when regular maintenance on the equipment or data is necessary. Alerts are sent out to the correct employees when they need new certifications. These seemingly small tasks keep things flowing and people on track. Once new certifications are obtained, copies are stored with their expiration dates. These documents are fairly easy for auditors to check and this makes everyone’s life a little simpler.

Greater Security

In the past few years, everyone has been shaken by the enormous number of identities stolen in various data breaches. Security is paramount on everyone’s mind. Rules-based settings can be employed to allow access only to those with proper authorization. When you’re dealing with financial data and health records, you simply can’t be too careful. This data should be available whenever needed but safe from hackers. Many enterprise customers are moving to ECMs simply to improve their security. This has rapidly become an important part of doing business.

Proper Archival Procedures

The government requires certain tax forms to be on file for specific lengths of time. However, most documents will eventually need to be archived. The Department of Labor and IRS have many such requirements. Employees can become confused about the requirements resulting in significant fines. A good enterprise content management system eliminates these worries with automatic purge and archive features. Settings can be altered to meet any specific or preferred criteria.

Growing for the Future

With all these things in mind, search for an enterprise content management system that will grow with your company. In the future, compliance may become even more critical. Companies will certainly continue to expand all over the globe, making compliance even more difficult. If your company incorporates a good ECM from the beginning, these issues can be dealt with as you go along, avoiding any abrupt changes to your daily operations.

Microsoft Outlook is a professional email and calendar program that’s been used by businesses for over 15 years. It’s had many iterations over the years, but with 2016, and its integration with Office 365, Microsoft has taken Outlook to the next level. Today, small and medium-sized businesses that couldn’t afford the enterprise-level application can now benefit from Outlook 2016.

The following are 3 ways to help you use Outlook 2016 more efficiently.

1. Keyboard Shortcuts

Using keyboard shortcuts in Outlook on Windows will help you work more efficiently. It’s also handy for those who have mobility or vision disabilities because using keyboard shortcuts can often be easier than using a touchscreen or mouse. Here are some popular keyboard shortcuts you should try.

And there are more. Here are popular keyboard shortcuts for NAVIGATION:

When searching, try these handy keyboard shortcuts:

 

To create an item or a file keep these shortcuts in mind.

Shortcuts in Mail.

To see more Outlook 2016 Shortcuts go here.

2. Use Quick Steps

Right-click any email, choose Quick Steps and choose from the list.

We’re going to choose Team Email. The first time we use this, Outlook asks you to name your team and enter their email addresses.

Then create a Keyboard Shortcut for this. So, the next time you hit Control Shift 1, an email to your entire team can be composed.

You can also create new Quick Step. Simply choose Create New Quick Step.

Here are some other Quick Steps to try: ¹

• Move to Folder: This is essentially the same as Move To.
• Categorize & Move: This moves the selected message to a specific folder, marks the message as read, and assigns a category color and name to the message.
• Flag & Move: This moves the selected message to a specific folder, marks the message as read, and assigns a flag to the message.
• New Email To: This opens a New Message form with the To field already filled out with a particular recipient.
• Forward To: This is essentially the same as To Manager.
• New Meeting: If you often send meeting invites to the same group of people, use this Quick Step to open a New Meeting form with the To field already filled in with the invitees.
• Custom: This opens the Edit Quick Step dialog box so that you can create your own custom Quick Step.

3. Use Conditional Formatting

This is used to change the look of a particular email. You do this in the View Menu.

Here, we just click on Conditional Formatting and create an email called Microsoft.

Next, we choose a condition, where the word Microsoft appears anywhere in an email.

Then, we ask it to appear in a bold red font.

Now, any new email we receive with the word Microsoft in it will show up in red. This is a great way for us to recognize the importance of an email. You may want to do this for any email with your boss’s name in it!

And, there are more ways you can get the most from Outlook 2016. Here are a few ideas:

EMAIL

• Change the color and contrast of Outlook: You can also use a picture or color as the background, add a text watermark to your emails.
• Customize emails with the fonts you prefer: Change the default font for various email messages you send, or a particular font for messages that you forward or reply to.
• Create signatures for your different email accounts: Create personalized signatures for your email messages: include text, images, your electronic business card, a logo, or even an image of your handwritten signature. Signatures can be added automatically to all outgoing messages, or you can choose which messages should use a particular signature.
• Setup sound alerts when new emails come in: A sound can play when a new email message arrives. The default sound is a short .wav audio file, but you can change it to any .wav file of your choice.
• Establish tracking options with delivery receipts: A delivery receipt confirms delivery of your email message to the recipient’s mailbox.
• Use Outlook’s templates for your messages or create your own: Use email templates to send messages that include information that rarely changes from message to message. You can also insert icons, photos, and tables into your messages.
• Embed voting buttons in your email to survey your recipients about a particular topic (such as, “When’s the best date and time for a meeting?”): Voting buttons are an excellent way to poll people, especially when communicating with large groups.
• Use Quickparts to insert a standard set of words you often use: Use the Quick Parts Gallery to create, store, and locate content, including AutoText, document properties such as title and author, and fields.
• Clutter: This is where you can place low priority emails you want to read later. Clutter helps you filter these low-priority emails saving time for your most important messages. Office 2016 remembers “Clutter” emails if you want.  If Clutter isn’t for you, you can TURN IT OFF.
• Create folders and subfolders: You can base these on topics, senders, organizations, projects, etc.—Whatever works for you and organize your emails under the subjects you choose. Use folders in Outlook to move email messages, add a folder to your Favorites, and set a rule to move specific emails out of your inbox.

CALENDAR

Outlook 2016 calendars have all the tools and functionality you’ve relied on in the past, with improved features to help you manage your time. 

• Set up multiple calendars (e.g., personal, business, health, etc.).
• Create appointments quickly and share them with your contacts.
• Scheduling assistant lets you access others’ calendars that you’re authorized to view (and vice versa).
• Set reminders, reoccurring appointments/meetings, alerts, and more.
• View your calendar by day, week, month, and year.

CONTACTS

• You can also import contacts to Outlook from other email providers using the Outlook Import/Export wizard. Import a CSV file, Excel spreadsheet, or vCard.
• Your contacts are linked to your email accounts, so you can simply key a name in the “To” field, and your contact’s email address will appear.
• Set permission for a particular contact (delegate) to view your emails while you’re on vacation. Plus, you can give this person access to your calendar, tasks, and so on, as appropriate. One delegate can take care of your email, another your tasks, etc.

TOOLS

• Always know how much space is left in your account.
• Notify those emailing you that you aren’t available during a particular period with Out of Office. You set up a special message you want others to see.
• Even set up different messages for people inside or outside your organization. (Outlook will remind you that the “Out of Office” message is turned on, so you don’t forget when you return.)
• As mentioned above, similar to having an assistant help you manage your incoming paper mail, you can use Microsoft Outlook to allow a delegate, to receive and respond to e-mail messages and meeting requests and responses on your behalf.
• You can also grant additional permissions that allow your delegate to read, create, or have more control over items in your Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox—And, set more than one delegate and permissions for various tasks.

TASKS

Outlook 2016’s task management helps you accomplish to-dos faster and easier.

• Categorize your tasks with color codes.
• Ping reminders for tasks.
• Check-off tasks when complete.
• Create tasks for others as well. Outlook integrates tasks with your emails so that you can assign a task to a recipient.  The task will show up on their task list.

To learn more about how you can get the most from Outlook 2016 contact us.

If You Want to Be First on Google Searches, Be Sure to Employ Best Practices for Mobile-First Indexing

On March 26th, 2018, Google announced that after over 18 months of testing they will now begin migrating sites that follow best practices for their mobile-first indexing. This means that Google will now use the mobile version of content to index and rank all websites. Before now, they used the desktop version of a webpage’s content to evaluate how relevant it is to users’ Google searches.

NOTE: You won’t have to change anything if you have a responsive site or a dynamic serving site where the main content and markup is the same in both. However, if your site configurations are different on your mobile and desktop site, you should make some changes to your site. You can check the structured markup across your desktop and mobile versions by typing their URLs into the Structured Data Testing Tool and comparing them.

We’ve been getting a lot of questions about this, so we’re providing some answers for you below.

Why is Google doing this?

Today, most of us search on Google using our mobile devices. Yet, their ranking system is still based on the desktop versions of websites. This creates issues if the mobile pages contain less data than the desktop pages. In this case, the Google algorithms can’t properly evaluate the actual page that’s seen by the mobile device user.

So, to make their results more accurate, Google started experimenting with their index mobile first initiative. And now that it’s been launched, it will be the primary way Google will search for content, show snippets and rank pages.

How does this work?

Google’s Googlebots (or crawlers) search and index web pages. Crawlers are robots or spiders that automatically locate and read websites by “crawling” from one link to another.

Last summer (June 2017) Google advised website owners to switch their m-dot domains to “responsive” before the Mobile-First Indexing launch. If you didn’t do this, then Google will fully index your m-dot content and URLs. This means that the migration for your site will take longer than it should because Google will have to update the content on your pages.

If you have separate desktop and mobile content for your website, this means that you have a dynamic-serving or separate m-dot site specifically designed for mobile devices.

It’s good to have an m-dot site because you can use it to enhance the mobile experience on your site without compromising your desktop or mobile experience.

Ensure you follow Google’s best practices if you want your sites to rank well now with their mobile-first indexing.

Should our mobile content be different than our desktop content? No. It should be the same. And don’t limit it either. This could cause your ranking to decline. If your mobile site contains less content than your desktop site, it’s time to update it. Plus, be sure you include all of your photos, images, and videos in their original indexable and crawlable formats.

What about the structured data? Should we include it on both of our mobile and desktop versions? Yes. The URLs in the structured data on the mobile versions should be updated to the mobile URLs. If you use Data Highlighter for this be sure to check your dashboard regularly for any extraction errors.

How about the metadata? Do we need it on both versions? Definitely. Make sure that titles and meta descriptions are identical across both versions of your site.

Things that you should verify to meet Google’s new Mobile-First Indexing:

• Verify both your mobile and desktop sites in Google’s Search Console. Now that Google has switched over to mobile-first indexing your sites may have experienced a data shift.
• Make sure your mobile site’s hreflang points to the mobile URL and the desktop hreflang points to the desktop URL.
• Make sure your website server has enough capacity for the potential increased crawl rate on your mobile version.
• Use the robots.txt testing tool to be sure that the Googlebot can access your mobile version.
• Be sure that your robots.txt directives work properly on both your mobile and desktop sites.
• Ensure that you have the correct rel=canonical and rel=link elements between your mobile and desktop versions. However, Google says that you shouldn’t have to make changes to your canonical links because they will continue to use them as guides for users who search on either on desktop or mobile sites.
• If you add structured data to your mobile site, don’t add a lot of markups that aren’t relevant to the information.

The Finer Details

• To allow or block Google’s crawlers from accessing any of your content, be sure to specify Googlebot as the user-agent.
• To block pages from Google, blocking the user-agent Googlebot will also block all Google’s other user-agents.
• You can also get more fine-grained control, like having all of your pages show up in Google Search, but not the images in your personal directory. You can use robots.txt to disallow the user-agent Googlebot-image from crawling the files in your personal directory (while allowing Googlebot to crawl all files). Go here for more details on how to do this and for other examples.

Three important points to remember:

1. If you only verified your desktop site in Search Console, you must do so for your mobile version as well.
2.  If you only have a desktop site, Google will continue to index your desktop site but use the mobile agent to do so. This should be fine.
3. If you are still in the process of constructing your mobile version, it’s better to keep using the functional desktop site rather than trusting an incomplete mobile version of the site until it’s ready to launch.

To Summarize:

Google’s ranking, indexing and crawling systems used to use desktop versions of a page’s content. Now, because this may cause problems for mobile searchers they’ll be using the mobile version of a page instead. Google will be showing the mobile version of pages in their Search results and Google cached pages. You should also expect to see increased crawl rates from the Smartphone Googlebot.

You don’t have to worry too much because Google will always present the URL that is most appropriate no matter if it’s a mobile or desktop URL. While their index will be built from mobile documents, they say they will continue to build a great search experience for all users, whether they come from mobile or desktop devices.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. Or you can always contact Google via their Webmaster Forum.

The wildly popular subscription-based Microsoft Office 365 offers an ever-expanding application gallery. The latest additions to the line-up are sure to excite professional users.

The professional landscape today appears quite different from photos of workspaces and desktops 30 years ago. For one, shoulder pads are no longer as common! At one point, smoking and the occasional cocktail were quite acceptable in the workplace. Naps, too! But seriously, aside from the differences in the grainy photos – and the interesting hairstyles and wardrobe choices – you’ll notice major differences in staff count, communication style, office environment, and most importantly, technology.

The giant boxes that used to adorn desktops with the black screens and the giant white cursors that resembled a game of Pong. The ornately-framed diplomas and certificates on the walls of each office. Maybe a set of golf clubs in the corner? None of these are commonplace today. Why? First, let’s address the “office”. Gone are the days when a new college graduate receives an offer of employment and is escorted down a hallway to their own office on the first day – not since the explosive use of cubicles (we don’t mean that literally). Wall space in an office is nil because offices tend to be reserved for senior management in more modern set-ups. Pre-fab cubicles are the trend, being more flexible in design and layout, more economical in cost than construction of walls, and still offering the general guise of privacy in a professional workspace.

This type of environment is far from conducive to productivity – for some. Individuals have no control over noise level since there is no door that can be shut to block sound. While the cubicle was intended to also promote a more collaborative setting, the result is often disruptive. With the pressure on to maintain or increase productivity, professionals often resort to wearing headphones in an attempt to customize their environment to their needs – or just work remotely. In fact, a reliable Internet connection is all that is needed for a completely personalized work environment. Crank loud music or have silent surroundings, whichever is more helpful. Dim the lights or open every window, depending on the lighting that works best. It’s never too hot or too cold, and there’s never a wait for the bathroom. Lunches are never stolen out of the breakroom fridge if the fridge isn’t shared by a dozen other people!

Some organizations even maintain an entirely remote – or, distributed – workforce, where all employees work remotely. Staff may be in the same city and meet for the occasional coffee or brainstorming session, or be across the globe and only see each other via video conference. The number of distributed organizations in the United States continues to grow, including organizations like Automattic. The 400-strong staff are spread across more than 40 nations and are able to collaborate effectively, considering the company is valued at over $1 billion. The current count of companies with distributed workforces varies, but it’s estimated that as many as 200 U.S.-based brands are run entirely remotely. That means someone is potentially promoting a brand while wearing pajamas!

The professional landscape has evolved due to the modern technology. Boy, that’s an understatement! Thinking back to that giant boxy desktop computer in that grainy photo and comparing it to the sleek laptop or tablet today is a clear indicator of just how far we’ve come. We won’t lose our Internet connection when someone picks up the telephone, nor do we have to pay by the hour for dial-up service – in fact, high-speed connectivity is the standard in metropolitan areas. With high-speed Internet, remote staff have the connectivity to send or access shared files, send emails or instant messages, or have audio or video conferencing sessions with clients, customers, or colleagues.

The availability of productivity apps is astounding. Basic word processors that were the desktop staple haven’t been replaced, but have evolved from requiring installation from a CD-ROM to not even requiring a downloaded program file anymore! Yes, Microsoft Word, the workplace word processing darling, is accessible online through subscription-based Microsoft Office 365, which has a multitude of integrated apps designed for the flexible workforce. Create documents in Microsoft Word or spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel and save them to SharePoint or OneDrive, send emails through Microsoft Outlook, design innovative and edge presentations with PowerPoint, and the list goes on.

The list of apps that integrate with Office 365 expands every day! Considering Microsoft Office 365 now includes Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Flow, the possibilities are incredible. If you’ve not yet experienced either of these apps, you’re truly missing out.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft was rumored to be interested in acquiring the techie-favorite collaborative platform Slack in 2016, but instead, release Microsoft Teams in 2017 as an updated and improved alternative to its Skype for Business. Microsoft viewed its Teams release as everything users loved about Slack and a “fix” to those areas where Slack wasn’t sufficient. Was Slack for sale? Probably not. But it didn’t matter – Microsoft decided to invest in a proprietary solution rather than re-do someone else’s established product. The even better news with this decision? Complete compatibility with the full family of Microsoft products is guaranteed, and integration with productivity apps!

Microsoft Flow

Do you love rules in Microsoft Outlook? If a new email comes in, is from a specific sender, includes a group of words in the subject line, or is from a specified domain, then treat the email with a certain process – the same way, every time. Whether this is forwarding to someone else, deleting the email, or moving to a folder to organize messages, the process will remain the same until the user changes the rule. Microsoft Outlook users love rules. Well, Microsoft Outlook users will love Microsoft Flow. Microsoft Flow is basically one big “if, then, then” rule app – but don’t let us oversimplify this for you – it’s so much better! Why? Glad you asked! It’s much better because these rules aren’t restricted to Outlook. Microsoft Flow is one giant automation machine. Rules in Microsoft Outlook are essentially automated processes the user defines, and Microsoft Flow helps users turn repetitive tasks into specific step-by-step workflows – hence the name – and automate these multistep workflows into templated processes to increase productivity and efficiency. Plus, don’t you get tired of doing the same things over and over again? Users can set up a plethora of cool processes – Flows:

• If an email from your biggest customer comes in, get a push notification on your smartphone
• Save any attachments that come in through an email in Microsoft Outlook to Microsoft OneDrive or SharePoint.
• Track items like working hours or social media posts or responses in an Excel spreadsheet

Microsoft Project

If your Microsoft Office 365 subscription is an Enterprise, Government, or Academic account, Microsoft Project is available to use. Microsoft Project is a fantastic project management solution, facilitating in keeping projects, teams, and resources on track and centralized in one organized location. As with other Microsoft Office 365 products, Microsoft Project is easily integrated with Microsoft productivity apps.

There you have it! Microsoft Office 365 just keeps adding to its arsenal of productivity apps for professionals, and we love it. Whether you work remotely or not, Microsoft caters to the needs of busy professionals with modern apps – no shoulder pads required!

Keep hackers from turning you and your business into a victim with these cybersecurity best practices.

Cyberattacks come in many forms, and no part of your business seems to be safe from them. You work for months to prepare your website. You go into painstaking detail over each section and prepare for your go-live date. You are so proud to show your corporate baby to the world. Then a few months later, you go to log into your website to find it has been hacked. Not only does this affect your business data and reputation, but also your position in Search engines. How do you keep this hypothetical from becoming your reality?

What type of website you have can determine what kind of attacker targets you – for example, WordPress website customers are targeted by hackers using one of three options: a single bot, a person, or botnets. A single bot is an automated program that is used to search for vulnerabilities; once it finds vulnerabilities, it exploits them. A person will be manually searching for weaknesses. While this seems old-fashioned or slow, it is usually the method of choice for high-value websites. Lastly, Botnets are groups of machines that run numerous programs that collaborate. Similar to how a single bot works, botnets work as a high functioning team to carry out a vast number of attacks simultaneously. With so many different types of attackers, how does one protect themselves and their website?

 Stay Up-to-date With Cyberattack News

The best offense is a good defense. To prepare for, respond to, and recover from an attack, you need to know what you are up against. You can prepare for Cyberattack by keeping up to date on current cyber threats to your company. Over 2 million new malware attacks are launched every day, with recent examples including the Meltdown and Spectre bugs. Both Spectre and Meltdown could allow potential attackers to access to data, but these aren’t your only threats. You need to also prepare for other Cyberattacks such as Ransomware, crypto, and malware attacks. Forbes magazine reports these are the top cybersecurity threats to look out for in 2018.

Update Security On Your Login Page

Similarly to your email password, you should take great care in protecting your website admin access. You should use strong passwords so they can’t be easily guessed or forged. Secondly, you should memorize your website passwords, rather than write them down, as this poses another security risk. Thirdly, remember to change the password frequently – it is recommended that you do so every two months.

 Update Software

Updates always seem to come when we are at our busiest.  Whenever there’s an opportunity to update, it’s essential to do so. Updating is like having a secret security group continually working to keep your business safe. Updates provide protective patches that safeguard your data from the latest cyber attacks, such as Meltdown or Spectre. Plus, they keep your computers and systems running optimally.

Security Plugins

Security plugins offer your website features that range from protection against malware attacks to an added firewall and database security. Each plugin comes with own cost and features – for example, one of the highest-ranking WordPress plugins is WordFence. This plugin continually scans your folders and files on your website for signs of malware infection. Once it finds an infection, it can rapidly notify you as it blocks the malware. Another WordPress plugin that packs a lot of features into a small package is Sucuri Security. Through this plugin, you can have security activity auditing, file integrity monitoring, malware scanning, blacklist monitoring, as well as a website firewall.

 HTTPS Instead Of HTTP

How much difference can one letter make? Between an HTTPS and HTTP, surprisingly it makes a massive difference for security. Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure is the version of HTTP which transfers data from your browser and your website. The difference is that one letter “S” – secure. This means that any and all communication between your browser and your site is protected with encryption.

 Secure Webhosting

Another way to strengthen the security of your website is by using a secure web hosting company. There are lots of big and small names to choose from when deciding on a web hosting provider. This is where it is essential to use your list of non-negotiable features that you want from your host to narrow down your choices. For example, you could look for a host that offers a Virtual Private Server, which conceals the identity of your service and improves privacy. Another important feature to look for when deciding is how many users it can support.

 Lock Files/Folders

One of the simplest ways to improve the security of your website is by locking or hiding files. You can place passwords on files or folder, that way they cannot be opened without your key. Additionally, you can also encrypt them so that they are unreadable without your password. You can do this by using a password-protection system or using file permissions that are already in place. Check to see what features your web host offers.

With all the ways that a hacker can gain access to your business’s data, it is crucial to stay one step ahead. Remember the importance of securing your website as well. Something as simple as a secure password for your admin page or locking specific files can make a huge difference for you and your business.

 

Technology has made it possible for you to get more done in less time. Are efficiency and productivity always a good thing?

Technology and telecommute: Two fabulous words that start with the same letter, and one is very much dependent on the other. The “tele” in “telecommute” certainly isn’t short for “telepathy” – though imagine how telepathy would impact professional relationships! On second thought, don’t.

The professional world changes and evolves, of that, there is no question. No longer is physical presence a requirement for staff, as more organizations migrate to a distributed workforce. What has become clear in the last decade is the location is no longer as important as the output. The focus on productivity is essentially a focus on the individual and catering to the needs of the one for the benefit of the whole. This individual-centric mentality seems counterproductive, but it’s quite the opposite. It would be impossible to cater one office building or workplace to the needs of many individuals for whom environmental factors differ. One requires silence for concentration, while another works better with loud music playing. Does one wear headphones? This is one option, but if this method stifles even one professional, the sacrifice may not justify the means.

One practice that more Americans are embracing is freelancing: individuals contract themselves with a person or organization to offer their time, skills and expertise in exchange for money. The person remains an independent contractor, and the organization is released from any legal obligations, like payroll taxes or insurance benefits. This is a cost-effective way for a business to meet their needs without taking on the full responsibility of onboarding.

There are estimates that more than a third of Americans participate in independent contract agreements. In fact, according to the Internal Revenue Service, over 10 million Americans rely on freelancing for more than half of their total income stream. That translates into more than 10 million Americans essentially being their own brand, running their own organization, and being a one-person operation while managing all sales, marketing, and accounting tasks. By the way, “accounting” also means handling their own payroll and other practices a business would otherwise task a Human Resources department to oversee. These freelancers operate like sole proprietors and CEOs of a business and take on great responsibilities to manage their time efficiently.

In juggling these processes, are freelancers losing time due to inefficiency? Lost time directly results in lost earnings. The best thing a freelancer can do to protect their time is finding the right combination of technology to help maximize productivity and minimize downtime. The great news is, with the incredible technological advancements in recent years, there is a huge variety of productivity apps available for this exact purpose.

Running your own business can be time-consuming, and you don’t have time to waste! Here are apps to help.

Apps to Get Paid

You have a multitude of options for processing payments now. From to to to, small business owners have a variety of apps catering to simplified payment processes, whether the purpose is sending or accepting a payment.

• Due is a free problem solver when it comes to the need to process payments online. With a simple user interface, Due boasts encryption for secure data and transactions.
• You’ve seen Square, the little white square box that plugs into a tablet or smartphone and uses a data connection to process a transaction. Square is limited to the transaction process, but they also offer Square Register for a point-of-sale system.
• Start a Wave! Wave is like an all-in-one solution for tracking sales and expenses, processing payments, keeping track of payroll and customer invoices, you name it. The app is free to download, but like with any other transaction-based solution, there are fees for credit card processing.
• FreshBooks has a name much like its well-known competitor but approaches payment processing with a “Fresh” outlook. Freshbooks acts much like a basic accounting platform with built-in functionality for transactions, but the invoicing and customizable reporting are a nice feature, too.

Apps to Get Organized

If only one app could do it all for you: email, scheduling meetings, maintaining files, the list goes on. Actually, the way you need to look at an app isn’t if the app can do it all for you, but if it can do it well! Sometimes, all you need is a little integration – and more apps are recognizing this need.

• Basecamp has long been an industry darling for businesses: Collaborating, setting up projects, connecting team members, and offering a centralized location to chat about the projects but also a one-on-one privatized chat option for less public matters. Email communication and built-in customizable notifications are a great feature, too!
• Slack is a far more economical option than Basecamp, but keep in mind that you get what you pay for. High on communication and organization, Slack is what most newer platforms were designed after. Slack is idolized by techies and creatives alike, but for freelancers and small business owners that have another focus, Slack may not be the best solution.
• Asana is right there with Slack, offering the lower entry price point for a collaborative option, and even integrates with Slack if there is ever the need for both.

Apps for Communication

We already mentioned Basecamp and Slack, which offer exemplary communication tools in a collaborative workspace, but there are other apps to increase productivity with a focus on communication for freelancers and small business owners.

• For small teams or large groups, Fuze offers real-time communications with voice, messaging, and perhaps its strongest offering, high-definition video conferencing.
• The famous G Suite: The go-to suite of apps for productivity for professionals everywhere. From email to document storage, from calendars to shared documents, and integrated with Hangouts, the video conferencing solution, Google’s G Suite has earned its reputation. With the lowest entry price point around, seamless integration with Microsoft’s Office 365, and the simple user interface everyone has already been using for years now, what else is there to say?

Apps for Automation

Find ways to automate processes and require less of your hands-on attention.

• If you use Gmail or Outlook for email and scheduling meetings, to is a fantastic free solution for arranging meetings in a single email. No more back-and-forth emails on what times work on which days – install the extension and grant access to your calendar!
• Microsoft Flow is an amazing automation tool that lets a user automate processes using connectors for integrated apps. Establish your parameters, and voila!
• Zapier is a simplified Microsoft Flow and has a cult following that sings its praises. Zapier follows much of the same practices as Microsoft Flow, so check both out and see which works better for your needs.

Who doesn’t love a little extra help? There’s always room for more when you’re running the show on your own. While the ideal answer is to clone yourself, the reality is there’s only one you. Try a few of the apps here to give yourself a hand. Spend less time on the workflow and more time on the work you’re getting paid for – in billable hours!