The ACCENT Learning Hub

You probably know of an organization that has been the victim of a cyber attack because according to the 2020 Verizon Data Breach Report, 28% of all data breaches involved small businesses.

Remote employees are only growing in popularity in the business world. Working from home gives companies the opportunity to hire people outside of their immediate area. It’s really a win-win for business and employees alike. Having greater access to talent means better business overall. And working from home is a SUPER perk for employees.

You’ve probably heard the term “managed services.” You might have wondered what it meant and if it had anything to do with your small business. You’ve also probably heard the term outsourcing. Those words are often used interchangeably. In a nutshell, outsourcing or managed services, means that a third-party acts as your IT department, or in some cases, supplements your current in-house IT department. Do you have an IT department? Is your in-house IT team limited on time, resources, or ability?  It might be time to check out what outsourcing can do for you.

I have a son with a birthday coming up, and we were discussing getting him a new remote-controlled car. Thankfully, someone remembered the batteries.  I can still remember being a kid on Christmas morning. I had finally gotten that remote-controlled car I’d been waiting for. I happily opened all the packaging and got ready for the beautiful day awaiting me, only to find...

An article published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2010 estimated the average teenager consumed nearly 11 hours of media per-day, with one and a half hours spent on social media.  A follow-up article by online marketing firm Mediakix showed social media usage had jumped in 2016 to 1 hour and 56 minutes after studying statistics gathered from YouTube, Facebook and industry analyst. 

True story: My friend came to me a while back, and she was somewhere between horribly sad and somewhat terrified. She looked like she was absolutely broken. It turned out that her laptop hard drive had died, and all of her first child's pictures were gone along with it.  She had downloaded the pictures from her camera to her laptop, and then erased the memory card on her camera… to make room for more photos of course. She never expected for the hard drive to fail. But really, most of us aren't planning these types of events. And, of course, they always seem to happen at the worst time. 

Ever asked yourself this question: “What are people doing on my Wifi?” I think about this at home with my kids all the time, but have you asked it about your business environment? Do you have a good idea of what's going on with your network, including wireless activities?   I imagine you’re like me and Pinocchio – We all dream of being free of the things that bind us, and this definitely includes the wires keeping us at our desks. 

If you read the title of this article and thought, “wait – aren’t those all the same thing,” you’re not alone. Confusing as it is, Microsoft has created 4 different product lines with extremely similar names. Each software is good for its own scenarios, but figuring out which is best for your business can be a challenge. And to cloud the situation even further, each product also has different bundles, features, and services. Let’s take a closer look at how each option compares to the other.

Water districts play a huge role in everyone’s life. Thanks to them, we have clean water in our homes, offices, and schools. But when you think “water districts,” you don’t think of information technology (IT). Like any other office building or company, they still need phone systems, workstations, and Internet service. Plus, don’t forget security is a must no matter what industry you are in.

You have probably heard the phrase “the network” a lot of times. And the phrase that usually follows it is “network support.”  But what is the network, and why does it need support? It can be super overwhelming because there are so many kinds of support – software support, server support, hardware support – and they all sound the same. We get it.