The IT Services & Support Learning Hub

    Most small business executives agree that cyber security threats are real. From malware to phishing scams, many have gone through the pain of losing data, money, productivity, or all of the above. If you haven’t suffered a loss yet, you should count yourself among the lucky. You know that your company data should be secured as much as possible, but cyber security is an expansive topic with many areas to cover, so where do you start?

  Employees have a wide range of skill sets, and the ability to use technology effectively isn’t always one of them. Business owners and managers frequently ask about the best ways to train employees on technology. Most of the time, they’re asking for basic Microsoft Office training. The good news is, there are a ton of free and low-cost training resources available.

To get some insights into what we can expect in 2018, I reached out to a few Southern California executives in varying fields and asked them what their predictions were for the year. Once I gathered the data, a few themes emerged. Not surprisingly, many of them had to do with technology, or the impact technology is having on other areas of business. Here are a few of the trends we can expect this year:

If you’ve been following the news, you may have heard about two new security threats, called Meltdown and Spectre. Your technology security is critical to us and we’ve been monitoring the situation closely since the news broke on Wednesday, January 3rd. Details are still unfolding, so we’ll keep you posted. Here’s what we know now.

    Working remotely is the new normal for many business people today. But with everyone spread apart, how do you keep everyone on the same page? And how do you create a cohesive team when some of the team members don’t get to interact with each other on a regular basis? It's a common challenge; one that I face too.

You’ve had an IT manager for the last 15 years, and he’s (or she's) just told you that he’s retiring. He knows your business and your systems intimately – he might have even built them! So, how will you fill his shoes? How will you get what you need once when he’s gone?

Collaboration and connectivity are increasingly important in today’s world. It seems like every day there is a new tool or system for taking, sharing, and collaborating on notes. Each of these promises to make everything we have documented accessible any time, anywhere – and for the most part, that’s possible.

Information technology (IT) exists to help us be more productive and to make life easier. Software tools are critical for businesses to stay ahead – or at least on pace – with their competition. The challenge is that many still see IT as an obstacle; a necessary evil that all-too-often finds itself in the wrong column of the company balance sheet.

“I just don’t feel like we’re moving forward,” is a phrase I hear from business executives a lot. When they’re talking about their company’s information technology (IT), that’s a bad sign. They know that it’s important to their future success, but they feel stuck – like there isn’t a lot of progress happening. Management of your IT department might be unintentionally holding your company back. Here’s why.

Our country may be going through some interesting times, but the economy is doing well. And when the economy is strong, businesses seem to be more open to hiring. That can put a company like ours in an interesting position. You see, Accent Computer Solutions is a provider of outsourced IT services. If a strong economy means companies are hiring again, you’d think that outsourcers would be in trouble. Luckily, that’s not the case. Not only are we seeing job growth in our business, our clients are expanding as well.