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Of course, there is always the other key question that goes along with asking how? asking when. Judging When You (Really) Need a Break There are a few reliable warning signs that someone needs to step away for a moment. For instance, while someone may be prone to typos, there?s a difference between always making spelling and grammar errors versus specifically starting to make them seven hours into a Wednesday. Alternatively, some workers will grow disinterested in their work and just start going through the motions. In severe cases, they may detach entirely, causing accuracy, morale, and productivity to plummet. If you see yourself start to display these symptoms, do yourself a favor and step away for a few moments. What follows are a few things that often help employees recover more quickly, allowing them to promptly refresh themselves and return to their duties. Read Something (Else) Much of the time, it isn?t so much that we?re doing something, but more of what it is that we are doing. We?ve all been stuck doing something we don?t want to do, so we all know how draining it can feel to do it. If you or your employees find yourself losing focus, take a few minutes and change gears. Reading can help you to get your mind off of what you were just working on, especially if it?s about something totally unrelated to your task. This shift can help your gears recalibrate, enabling you to resume your initial task with aplomb. Escape the Office (Briefly) On the other side of the coin, productivity can often be interrupted by a sense of restlessness–a desire to move around a little, not so much a slip into passivity. Either way, actually separating yourself from your work tools and getting a breath of fresh air can have a significant impact on maintaining productivity. Trying to force yourself to focus can often have a detrimental effect on productivity, which is why skipping breaks and meals is often counterproductive. Instead, try actually leaving the office on your breaks, actually getting something to eat on lunch and going for a brief walk or drive when the opportunity arises. Sometimes, you might just need a literal change of scenery to focus up. Get the Blood Pumping On a related note, taking a walk can contribute to our final way of more productively taking a break: exercise! Taking a few moments to up your heart rate, if only by a little bit, can have a lot of long-term benefits to the work experience. Not only is it a way to improve overall health, it has been shown to boost focus among those who exercise habitually. Plus, being tired isn?t great for focus as a rule, so the improved sleep that exercise can promote can help that way as well. In order to produce their best work, your employees need to be in the position, both mentally and physically, to do so. How do you stay refreshed in the office? Share your strategies in the comments!

#1: Random Failure & Noise Your server is surprisingly resilient. It can go for years without a sign of any problems. Although, a server can give out under extraneous loads, so when it goes down, typically there isn?t much to be worried about. That said, if you are concerned over your servers? viability for the long term, you need to understand some important facts. The average lifespan for any server is about five years. Some last three, some last seven, but if your server is making clicking noises or is randomly shutting down when its loads get high, you may want to think about beginning the process of migrating your programs and data to another server. To ascertain if there is a problem with your server, you?ll want to Look over event logs to see if you can spot an explanation. Physically check the motherboard to ensure components aren?t damaged. Check the server?s disk for errors. Make sure there isn?t any type of malware infection. Check server loads to ensure they aren?t too stressed. #2 Running Hot Servers are heavily utilized, so they put off their fair share of heat. If they get too hot, however, they?ll begin to lose effectiveness fairly quickly. If a human gets a severe fever, it is typically caused by another issue. The server functions the same way. If you see a spike in your server?s temperature, you should immediately check the components to ensure they are all running as intended. Faulty fans, clogged front intake, airflow blockage, or as simple of a thing as slightly repositioning a server could lead to increased temperatures, so if your server is functioning well beyond the normal temperature your vendor recommends, you?ll probably be replacing that server before long. #3 Running Slow As computer technicians, we constantly get tickets with users complaining about the speed of their machines. The problem is that if one computer is moving slow, one person?s productivity is stymied. On the other hand, if an entire server is running slow, many people are affected. Most servers don?t slow enough for the end user to know it, unless that server is being pressed too hard by that set of users. Slow servers mean slow data transfer, which can cause a massive bottleneck, hindering your company?s productivity. At White Mountain IT Services, our technicians can monitor your servers and perform proactive maintenance to ensure they are working optimally. With our monitoring and maintenance platform in place you would know well in advance if any of your hardware is going to fail, saving your business the headache of refreshing hardware on the fly, and from what could be a catastrophic situation. To start battling downtime by keeping your servers in tip-top shape, call us today at (603) 889-0800.

How People Use Payment Cards Some people don?t even keep cash on their person anymore, instead opting to use payment cards for their ease of use. About what percentage of your transactions do you use a card for? In particular, countries in the European Union have a lower percentage of cash usage compared to card usage, while less developed parts of the world rely on cash. In countries that have the technology to take advantage of payment cards, data privacy laws are much more specific and comprehensive. Digital wallets may have seemed like the future, but they are far from a sustainable system, as retailers and other organizations aren?t guaranteed to take these types of payment. Therefore, the de facto payment method, unless you carry around a full wallet, is to use your card. Some businesses will try to incentivize card payments, while using cash in certain situations (think use of an automated teller machine) could cost consumers more in the long run for goods or services. What Data Loss Means for Your Business The more often consumers purchase goods or services with payment cards, the more likely it becomes that those credentials could be put at risk. With the number of hackers out in the wild, there is a considerable price on your business? sensitive data–including card information. While it might be more common in e-commerce sites, you can never be too careful with how your business stores and protects sensitive payment card information. If businesses fail to secure this data, the repercussions could be extreme. While it could mean a loss of consumer confidence, it could also lead to a series of smaller events that gradually erode your organization?s profitability. Either way, whether it?s a series of minor inconveniences or a major disruption, you?re still facing down a disaster. Payment Card Index Digital Security Standard Not all countries are as progressive with individual data security as the nations of the EU, but there are still measures that have been taken to standardize card information security. The Payment Card Index Digital Security Standard, or what is typically called PCI compliance, is the strategy payment card companies have come to. The requirements they expect every business that accepts payment cards to meet include: Monitor and test network. Maintain security network and systems to ensure customer privacy. Protect cardholder data. Maintain system that manages and reduces vulnerabilities. Maintain strong access control. Maintain information security policy. These requirements might seem stringent and difficult to produce, but an easy way to make it happen is to work with White Mountain IT Services. We can help you maintain a secure network for all of your organization?s sensitive information, including card information. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

You Can Identify Better Sales Prospects Your sales team can leverage technology to help them identify new prospects. For example, they can use a Customer Relationship Management software (or CRM) to identify sales opportunities and see how their deal is moving through the sales pipeline. Your team can use the software to gather data and use the insight to learn more about their potential customers and refine the overall sales process. CRM software can also help your company’s business leaders develop accurate plans and future sales forecasts. You Can Follow Up with Potential Leads Faster Sales don’t happen overnight, that’s why it is so important for your company to immediately follow up with leads. Luckily, technology can help automate this process so your team can increase their chances of making a sale and save valuable time at the same time. There are many tools available to keep your salespeople on the right track and either send out emails automatically on their behalf or schedule reminders in their calendar to follow up with leads.   You Can Integrate Different Tools to Improve Overall Efficiency Technology can also integrate different software and applications, ranging from CRM software to accounting programs and other tools that can make your business more efficient. Streamlined systems can make it easier for your sales people to communicate with people, develop relationships and analyze customer data. You Can Use Technology to Elevate Your Brand Regardless if your company focuses on selling to consumers or other businesses, the right tools can elevate your brand and make a great first impression. For example, simple tools like Conference Pad, an app that gives presenters the ability to control multiple iPads at once during a presentation and turn to the next slide, can make a huge impression without much effort. There are many other tools that can help your company gain an advantage during sales pitches or during other public events. In Conclusion Technology can make your brand more appealing, improve the company’s overall efficiency, and allow your sales team to identify and close leads faster. That’s why you should equip your sales team and other staff members with the latest technology. And although it may be tempting, there’s no need to try every single new technology you hear about. Try to focus on using tools that will help streamline your business and increase revenue instead. Remember, technology is important but you should still encourage your sales team not to sit behind their screens and online tools all day long. Your sales people should also still invest some of their time interacting with customers in person whenever possible since relationships are crucial to the sales process.   Hire Us for Your Professional IT Management and Support Services We know adopting new technology can be intimidating at first, especially if you don’t know where to start. That’s why our company provides IT management and IT consulting services you can trust. White Mountain IT Services has been helping businesses around the country with technical support for more than three decades. Our experts can help you identify new technologies and innovative tools that will allow your sales team to be more efficient and close more sales. Please contact us today for more details.

We?ve gone ahead and assembled some helpful workplace habits and policies that will be good for your employees? overall wellness. Healthy Foods in the Office There?s no denying that the presence of snacks in the office is seen as a major workplace benefit in the eyes of many employees. This is advantageous to you, the employer, as you can cultivate a positive feeling in the office just by having something available. However, by choosing one snack over the other, you can influence greater changes that you might not have considered connected before. For instance, it is a general fact that the snacks that are more readily made available aren?t exactly the healthiest ones out there, and the few healthier options that exist tend to be much pricier than the cheap and easy alternatives. However, consider the environment you cultivate in your office by doing so – and how much less frequently healthy people tend to be out of the office, using sick time. While there is no harm in offering a few ?convenience? snacks, try to also encourage your employees to make healthier choices. They?ll feel better, and will therefore be more productive. Promote Water Sipping Dehydration is a much more serious problem than most people realize, to the point that even a mild case (as in, dehydrated by one percent) of it has been recorded as decreasing productivity by a full 12 percent, causing reduced alertness and concentration. Once you reach three-or-four percent, productivity drops by 25 percent. What?s worse, many people are chronically dehydrated. This means that their bodies have just gotten used to it, so they don?t feel as thirsty as they should. Try to encourage that your employees drink plenty of water, however you can. Encourage Movement Whenever Possible While plenty of studies have shown it, did we ever really need scientific support to convince us that sitting on our backsides all day isn?t exactly great for us? Unfortunately, a lot of the work that goes on in the traditional office is done at a desk. However, this doesn?t mean that there aren?t solutions that can expand on those capabilities. Convertible sit-to-stand desks and desktop mounts have grown to be very popular, allowing users to alternate between sitting and standing throughout their workday. It may not seem like much, but it can add up to quite the difference in your user productivity. Try purchasing one to allow a few of your users a chance to try it before committing the expense of outfitting the whole office with them. Get Some Greenery Plants have long been a staple in office decoration, and often can have benefits that greatly outweigh the maintenance that they require. As a matter of fact, certain plants have been shown to have particular properties that make them ideal for offices that face certain limitations or would like to accomplish something greater with their greenery. For example, there are many varieties of the pothos hanging plant that can do quite well in an office environment (as attested to the fact that they are often considered the quintessential office plant). Not only do these plants do their best in the middling light conditions of many offices, they don?t need as much water as you?d imagine, and they have been shown to improve air quality levels. […]