The ACCENT Learning Hub

In the demand of a technologically driven market, a small business’s networks and systems are the crown jewel of a company's operations — they store all of your greatest assets and are vital to maintaining business success.

The signs that IT is holding your business back can be blatant or subtle. On the blatant side, you could actually see your people struggling. They’re slowed down by technology tools that crawl instead of hum. Operations stop with unexpected downtime. Then there’s the subtle side, where you might just be looking at your numbers and wondering why your business isn’t as profitable as you think it could be.

Social media can be a wonderful tool for some job roles and a major distraction for others. One of the things we regularly hear from executives is, “how do I give my people access to the websites they need without it being a drain on productivity?”

I spend most of my time with business owners and executives discussing where they want to go and how they are supposed to get there. I relate easily to these conversations, and I like to challenge the executives with ideas that will help them reach the goals they have outlined. From a quick chat and a few details, I can step right into their shoes and we are off running toward a plan.

It can be hard to know if you have the right people working on IT for your company because IT problems look like… well... IT problems. You might have issues that aren’t getting solved; disappointing results from technology investments; or complaints from employees that their technology tools are slowing them down.

Unless you stop to think about it, you probably won’t recognize all the ways that you’re interacting with artificial intelligence (AI) in your everyday life. AI is what personalizes your social media feeds and search results. AI makes your virtual assistant seem like “she” really knows you. AI reads your messages and emails giving you suggestions on what to reply based on the content of the message you received. While AI makes us faster, more accurate or seemingly smarter, the bad actors in the cyber crime ecosystem are also maximizing on this evolving technology, making it increasingly necessary to fight fire with fire.

If you ask Cheryl Carlson’s co-workers to describe how she goes about her work, you’re going to hear words like – focused, thorough, accurate, and fast, all wrapped up in a can-do attitude. And if you ask Cheryl why she takes such pride in what she does, and why she is driven to do her best for clients and teammates, you’ll find out that what’s on the outside is totally guided by what’s on the inside. 

When you think about getting a better handle on data management for your manufacturing, distribution or logistics company, your train of thought might take you immediately to getting new software. While this is a step in the process, putting it at the front-end is the wrong place because data management isn’t about the software. It’s about changing the way that your employees and your business operates on a day to day basis.

As you look at your numbers, do you feel like there’s a disconnect with how much business you’re doing and how profitable your company is? It might not occur to you to point your finger at data management when you’re trying to figure out why your bottom line isn’t responding as it should be. If you aren’t capturing the right data, or if you have to grab data from disparate locations, there could be important questions that you can’t answer, or that you aren’t answering accurately, and this could obstruct your success.

The Cloud is awesome, right? I love what the Cloud has to offer. We all use it even if we don’t realize it – Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Amazon, to name a few. Even the technology that many of us now have in our homes is made possible because of cloud computing – smart thermostats and home automation, video doorbells and security systems.