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Month: June 2017

Email, phone or IM? Which one works for your communication?

Posted on by ARRC Technology

Email tends to be the default when it comes to communicating in an office setting. In fact, the average adult receives 122 business emails per day. While they’re great for updates, recaps, and other informational exchanges, there are many situations where email is not the most efficient form of communication. Sometimes it can slow things down or muddle an important message.

So in what situations should you resort to another form of communication?

First, ask yourself these two questions:

What is the nature of the subject? Is it informational and specific? The best route may be an IM (instant message). If there are complexities and certain particular details, then a phone call or a brief face-to-face meeting may work out significantly better. If your task requires input from multiple parties, then you may want to plan a conference call or in-person meeting.

What type of response do you need? It’s best practice to make it easy for people to respond to your message by choosing the most convenient route. Is your request urgent? An IM would be your ideal option. Do you need a detailed response? Then it might be more helpful to hop on a quick call to iron out the details.

Once you answer these questions, you’ll have a clearer understanding of the route you need to take to get the response you want. But just because you choose the right avenue of communication, doesn’t mean that you’ll be sending the right message. Consider these next tips to ensure you’re communicating efficiently.

Set the scene: Just because something is top of mind for you doesn’t mean that it’s top of mind for everyone else. You want to be sure to provide enough information to get the person you’re talking to up to speed and properly invested in the task at hand.

Be concise: Brevity is key here, folks. No one wants to read a novel (regardless if it’s sent over IM or email), so get to your point and get to it quickly. It’s best to stick to two or three questions over IM or email. If you need more clarification, pick up the phone and just call.

Manage your recipients: In today’s digital world, it’s easy to get caught up in an email chain that you really had no part in. Or maybe you did at one point but your duties for that task ended a while ago, and yet you’re still in that dreaded email thread. So to save everyone involved a headache, be sure to only keep the appropriate people in the loop. If someone needs to know certain information but doesn’t need to take any action or respond, just CC (carbon copy) them.

Your Biggest Security Threat are Your Employees

Posted on by ARRC Technology

It’s not a secret that businesses require some form of management to operate effectively and efficiently. From defining key roles and responsibilities for each employee to interacting with clients, managers hold a lot of responsibilities—especially when it comes to information security.

There’s a huge misconception that risks and security incidents should be handled on a case-by-case basis, often after the breach has occurred. This belief is entirely misguided and something that your business cannot afford to believe. Recent studies show that sixty percent of hackers can breach an organization’s safeguards within just a few minutes. It’s painfully apparent that data security should be a major concern for your business.

Now it’s time to address the elephant in the room regarding your data safety—your employees.

No matter what application, program, or unified threat management system that you use to protect your data, it’s only effective if your employees know how to use it. According to David Anderson of Clifton Larson Allen, “This is the social aspect, targeting the end-user. This is the #1 way to attack an organization.”

Training your employees to have strong passwords and securely share information is critical. But you can’t expect for your employees to be compliant with your security demands if you don’t define their specific security roles and responsibilities.

Plan how you’re going to approach your data security by ensuring that you have the appropriate managers and overseers in place. Once this is done, assess the potential risks and create hierarchical solutions that can be repeated. When you’re ready to move forward, be sure to assign the following roles:

  • Security Committee: Those on this board will review your organization’s security management policies and will provide leadership, guidance and oversight to security problems.
  • Management: In small organizations, this could also be the security committee. Once the security plan has been approved, the group will communicate the process to all parties and employees.
  • IT Management Firm: Your IT solutions provider would be responsible for data processing and your overall business network. They will also interact with the security committee to create a security policy and is responsible for implementation. When it comes to Managed Services, just make sure to communicate the security solution properly to your clients and management.
  • Data Owners: These members classify the information within their jurisdiction by reviewing its value and sensitivity. They discover the implications that losing their data means. They also determine the type of access that each employee will receive.

Users: In this case, these are the staff members that have to comply with your security policy. Ensure that they don’t disclose or share their login credentials and passwords with anyone, including other employees.

Father’s Day Tech Gifts Under $100

Posted on by ARRC Technology

With Father’s Day right around the corner, what better way to show your appreciation than some of the latest and greatest tech toys—that also don’t break the bank. Read on for some of our favorites here at ARRC.

UE Wonderboom – $99

Welcome to the latest wireless speaker from Ultimate Ears. It looks cool, sounds great and it even floats! Is Dad a fan of hanging by the pool during the summer? Get him a Wonderboom immediately.

Sony MDR-7506 – $100

If these 1990s-era headphones don’t give Dad some nostalgic feels, then we don’t know what will. The Sony MDR-7506 may be the best-sounding headphones you can get for under $100. Pick ‘em up and wrap ‘em up.

Kindle Paperwhite – $119 (but often discounted to $99)

Is Dad one of those “I-like-real-books” type of people? Well, Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite e-reader is as close to the real deal as you can get, with its fancy e-ink technology and sturdy frame. It’s a good choice if Dad is a bookworm who’ll be on the next episode of Hoarders if he buys anymore paper books.

Fitbit Flex 2 – $90

Nudging Dad into a healthier lifestyle without offending his sensitive soul is easy when you gift him the sleek Fitbit Flex 2. Having a fitness tracker helps keep Dad accountable, and you can even challenge him through the Fitbit app to make sure he’s staying on track.

Mophie PowerStation Plus – $60

For those Dads always on the go, the Mophie PowerStation Plus is an excellent idea. It’s an external battery charger with an integrated Lightning cable and a micro USB adapter so good ol’ Dad can charge a variety of devices on the fly and not have to worry about anything dying.

Air Hogs Ultimate Millennium Falcon Quad Drone – $80

Star Wars is always a safe choice if you don’t know what Dad may be interested in, right? He can channel his inner Han Solo with this Millennium Falcon drone and the family will appreciate its crash-friendly foam body. Just make sure to give it to him on a weekend so he can play with it all day and not miss work.

Skullcandy Grind Wireless – $65

The skull logo on these wireless headphones means Dad has to be semi-cool to pull them off, but they’re a steal at $65 and Skullcandy has always been a reputable brand. As long as Dad doesn’t headbang too hard to Metallica, these should survive for quite some time.

Plantronics BackBeat Fit – $80

Is Dad a runner? Or more accurately, does he want to look like a runner? The sporty BackBeat Fit wireless headphones may be just the ticket. With bright colors and the ability to leave them hanging around your neck when not using them, Dad can put on his gym clothes and run errands and fool everyone into thinking he just crushed a workout.

4 Reasons to Try Facebook Live

Posted on by ARRC Technology

We all remember the commercials on TV (or in my case, Hulu) for Facebook Live. Share with friends! Be in the moment! Never miss a thing! They preyed hard on the fear of missing out most of us social creatures suffer from, and they succeeded pretty well. Here are the top 4 reasons why you should try Facebook Live for your personal enjoyment.

  1. Fosters personal connection

It may sound a little counterintuitive to say using a social media application fosters personal connections, but in the grand scheme of things, Facebook Live is the closest we’ll get to being in every spot around the world we want to be in with the people we want to be with. Want to see the World Cup with your dad but couldn’t get off work? Check out his live stream on Facebook, along with the official FIFA live steam. You may even see some things your good ol’ dad missed! Did your best friend go on vacation to Montana? Watch her video of the snowy mountaintops live and feel like you flew there with her. Now when she talks about the sun on the snow and how it sparkled, you’ll remember that moment she shared over Facebook Live. It’s not entirely as personal as a one-on-one video chat, of course, but it allows friends and family to share moments with everyone without having to call down the list individually. Which bring us to…

  1. Private chat about public live videos

With new updates came new features to Facebook Live. One of the new items is the ability to private chat with a group of your friends about a Facebook Live stream while it plays above the thread. So let’s say you and your buddies have a favorite sports team, and they’re streaming a game live on Facebook. Gather your friends in the private chat and go ham on the opposing team or share inside jokes without the rest of the Facebook universe there to interrupt or argue. It’s like a welcome shield from the vast amount of faceless Facebookers.

  1. Joint live broadcast!

Sometimes doing a Facebook Live video all by yourself can be… well, kind of lame. But now you can have a friend in a separate location on the screen with you. It’s basically like letting others watch your Skype or Facetime conversation with your BFF. Think podcast with your favorite person but live, on video. Don’t have anything interesting to say? No problem! Let your friend hold the conversation while you think of the next punch line.

  1. Reminisce on live moments

Maybe a little contradictory here as well, but think about it. You capture a birthday party or a surprise homecoming on Facebook Live, and when you look back on the moment, it’s real and in the present, not rehearsed or staged in any way. It adds that sprinkle of genuine to the occasion, and it’ll make reminiscing that much more special. Plus, you get to see all the comments and likes streaming in real time, so you can laugh with your kids in ten years at the reactions to the Facebook Live video of their gender-reveal parties.