The ACCENT Learning Hub

Toshiba phone systems are on an end-of-life path that ends on October 31st, 2021 when support comes to a complete halt. You may be thinking, "We’ve got still got some time - nothing to worry about yet." But that looming deadline is coming up fast. Phone system transitions can easily take 30-90 days (or longer) depending on equipment availability and support resources, so planning ahead is imperative.

2020 was a challenging year and if you’re like a lot of business leaders, you’re happy to turn the calendar to 2021. Whatever your business goals look like for the new year, you need to make sure that you support them with a solid business technology plan.

Technology is a vital aspect of society and involved in nearly every type of industry and business today. It's hard for most people to go for an hour, let alone a day, without looking at their cellphones. Although the digital explosion has been great for connecting anytime, anywhere, there are inherent security risks involved with technology.

Technology tools have never been more important than during these past few months of the COVID-19 pandemic. With so many people working from remote locations, and businesses increasing their reliance on digital methods to do business, technology has made it possible for businesses to survive, and even thrive. For many organizations, the way that they managed voice communications had a big impact on their experience.

Most companies didn't have employees take the computer from their office desk home when the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders went into effect, but some didn't have a choice. Buying and deploying company laptops for every employee at a moment’s notice wasn’t feasible, and that’s okay. You had to keep operations running and avoid downtime, so employees took their desk computers home in a hurry to stay productive.

More and more businesses are moving parts or all of their IT operations to the cloud. According to one estimate, in 2019 about 60% of business workloads were being hosted in the cloud. And that figure can only be expected to increase. For many businesses, the advantages the cloud offers, such as reduced costs, increased flexibility, higher scalability, and easier disaster recovery, are too compelling to forego.

The Memorial Day holiday is behind us, signaling the start of summer. I hope you were able to enjoy some family time along with your favorite foods over the three-day weekend. I am so thankful to everyone in all branches of the United States Armed Forces who currently protect our freedoms as Americans. I pay homage to those who have given their lives for us. As we move into June, I wonder how you spent the month of May. For me, this past month was used to get the planning and financial juices flowing. Here at Accent, we spend quite a bit of time with business planning and this includes thinking about the business of business, and the role that Information Technology plays in shaping the workplace.

The month of April has been filled with web meetings and uncertainty.  While we've been advancing our video skills more than we ever thought possible, we’ve also been figuring out how to maneuver through our new circumstances. Like many of you, I have been working hard on getting paperwork together and submitting applications for the Payroll Protection Program. 

I don’t even know where to start. If you’d have told me two months ago that we’d be debating over which businesses are “essential” and that millions of Americans would be sent home to work overnight, I would’ve told you you’re crazy. But here we are.

Operating a business is expensive. Between payroll, materials, taxes, equipment, legal services, etc., it’s no surprise that every business owner would like to lower their costs to improve their margins. It seems like almost every day, a business executive tells me that they want lower IT costs without sacrificing service. There are four key areas I tell business leaders to check first to ensure they are maximizing the results from their IT investment.