4 Technology Innovations on Common Devices Found in Most Businesses

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There are thousands of pieces of technology available that accomplish something positive for your business. Whether they are communications tools that help your team collaborate and build a better client-support system, gadgets, and software to help streamline your team’s ability to get work done, or devices to help advance the company’s mobile strategies, considering what you can do with technology innovations is a responsibility of a forward-looking executive or small business owner.

Today, we thought we would introduce you to some remarkable technologies that are being built that could benefit your business in the future.

Hushme

Hushme may look intimidating, but it really could be helpful for businesses that depend on phone calls and don’t have a lot of space. The device wraps around the user’s head and covers their mouth like a muzzle. There are noise-canceling headphones attached. Once the device is on, the user can talk into it, and no one can hear a sound.

It isn’t too difficult to imagine the practical application for a device like this. You get the privacy you’d want, even if you talk in a busy, bustling environment.

Epson Paperlab

If your business uses a lot of paper or handles a lot of sensitive information, the shredder often works overtime. Well, the printing professionals at Epson have developed a machine that is effectively the first in-office paper recycler. Using this technology, a company can not only destroy sensitive information, but it can also take all the waste paper that it has and recycle it in-house.

It works because once wastepaper is put into the machine, it is defiberized, removing traces of all information and color. At this point, the fibers are formed under pressure back into sheets of paper. The machine then cuts the paper to specification, and you have recycled paper.

XGIMI Projectors

Many offices have some projector they use to broadcast information, but a company named XGIMI has begun to take the technology of projectors to the next level. The company has several innovative new devices that do several unique things. Some devices broadcast 4K video, some fit in the palm of your hand, and one even has theater-grade sound built right into the projector unit.

XEBEC Tri-Screen 2

A lot of people prefer their laptop to a bulky desktop computer. The problem is that sometimes there isn’t enough screen real estate while you are on the go to do all the things you need to do as effectively as you need to do them. WIth XEBEC’s Tri-Screen 2, you can add two fully-functional screens to your laptop. All you need to do is hook the device into your computer, and you now have a fully-functional, multi-screen workstation anywhere you go.

 

These technologies are all over the map on cost, but there is no denying that they can have some pretty exciting results for the people willing to invest. What do you think of these technology innovations? Do you know any cool tech that businesses may consider down the road? Leave your comments below and check back regularly for more great technology suggestions.

5 Ways to Improve Your Technology Troubleshooting

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When you suffer from a technical difficulty, it’s your responsibility to ensure that it is handled in a timely fashion, whether reporting the issue to IT or taking care of it yourself. However, the process of troubleshooting can save you from waiting around while IT tinkers with your device’s settings. Let’s examine the five stages of troubleshooting and how you might try them yourself to improve your technology troubleshooting for your business.

Collect Information

First, you need to collect information that you can use to address the problem. What is the issue, and what is the scope? Is it one little thing on your PC, or is it a network-wide issue? If you collect as much information as you can, you’ll have an easier time talking to IT about it. Chances are they will try to replicate the issue, and all of this information will be invaluable towards this end.

Analyze Your Approach

Next, you’ll need to use this information to determine the best path toward resolving your issue. Is there anything relevant in the data you can fix the problem? You may have to adjust your approach based on your response to this question. It would be best to put a plan that is data-informed whenever possible.

Implement Your Solution

With a solid plan in place, you can implement the proposed solution. You’ll want to be extremely careful, though. You should only implement a solution that you know solves the problem at hand. If you are not confident in your technology, you should do more research until satisfied. The wrong answer could put you at a disadvantage.

Assess the Solution

After implementation, you’ll have to assess whether or not the solution worked. Some of the explanations you might implement are little more than stop-gaps that provide temporary fixes for more significant problems, which is fine in its way, so long as that is how you treat the solution. It’s your responsibility to know when to implement something better.

Document the Process

Now that you have a solid solution in place, you’ll want to ensure that your internal documents have recorded the processes for the fix. This helps others within your organization understand the spot for later on, and it can keep others from engaging in a long and challenging (and now unnecessary) troubleshooting process.

AE Technology Group wants to help you improve your technology troubleshooting and many other technology needs for your business. To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 536-5006.

Start Viewing Your Business’ IT Realistically

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When you get excited to implement a new technology solution for your business, it is easy to let the expectation blind you to the actual value you get from it right out of the box. It’s no fault of your own; it’s human to have expectations that exceed reality. In business, though, you must keep these misconceptions in mind, especially when implementing your technology systems.

The Latest is the Greatest

When a new solution is released and big names in your industry start to implement them, it’s easy to hop on the hype train and implement a solution before thinking it over. The hard truth of the matter is that new is most definitely not better. While it is true that more recent technology has certain benefits over older systems, the extent of this truth will vary wildly depending on your specific needs and current situation.

Be sure to look at your existing infrastructure and ask yourself what problems these new technologies can resolve and whether or not they are worth the price point. It helps to take a day or two to think it through and the perspective of a third party like AE Technology Group. There’s a reason why external auditors exist, after all; having that unbiased opinion can be incredibly valuable when making decisions.

My Staff Know How to Use Technology

This next expectation assumes that your staff will know how to use your new technology. The reality is that it takes more than a simple tutorial to train your team on a new system. It can often take months for them to get caught up to speed and use a new solution in a way that facilitates productivity. In particular, employers tend to look to young people as technology experts, but this is not necessarily accurate.

When implementing new solutions, you should assume that all of your employees have minimal knowledge of the system. You can then build a training program around that minimal baseline.

“It can’t happen to me…”

Perhaps the worst expectation you can have in business is that an unfortunate circumstance such as data loss or a hacking attack won’t happen to you. No company is immune to these fatal disasters that threaten the continuity of your business. SMBs, in particular, are guilty of this thought process, as they assume that they are not high-profile enough to suffer from hacking attacks. All businesses need to prepare for such an event with proactive security measures and data backup systems.

Once you can get past unrealistic expectations for your business technology, it becomes much easier to improve productivity. Let AE Technology Group help you manage expectations and implement any new IT solution for your business. To get started, reach out to us at (516) 536-5006.

Break Your Break/Fix Cycle in 2021

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There are generally two approaches to technology maintenance. One of them addresses issues as they appear, and the other involves addressing possible issues before they become operational problems. How does your business go about technology maintenance? If it’s the first, also known as “break-fix” IT, then you are going about things the wrong way and leaving a ton of savings on the table.

One appropriate way of thinking about technology maintenance is like imaging IT as your car. When you purchase a vehicle, you try to take care of it as best you can because it is an investment that will hopefully yield a return on the costs associated with it. You want to keep it on the road so that you can keep getting value out of it over an extended period of time.

But what happens when your car starts to make strange noises and inconsistencies with operations start to appear? If these issues are small enough, you might think you can get away with ignoring them for a little while, as the car still gets you to your destination. If you ignore them long enough, though, you might find yourself stuck on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck to bring it to a garage.

From here, the folks at the garage take a look at the engine and try to diagnose your problems. The mechanics find that something serious is causing a problem within your vehicle that must be addressed, and the vehicle simply cannot function until the repairs have been made. You are left with questions about how much the repair job will cost, how long it will take, and whether or not your budget can handle it.

The same problems occur when small businesses run into technical problems. They might want to address these issues before they become problematic, but they don’t have the budget or the ability to do so. They try to avoid facing the problem until it becomes so bad that it cannot be ignored any longer, a practice that eventually creates more problems later on down the line. It’s better to resolve issues before they become this serious.

Relying on break-fix IT is simply not the best way to approach technology issues, especially when you don’t know what the problem is or how to address it. It’s better to outsource this responsibility to someone who can handle routine maintenance in order to prevent these types of costly breakdowns. That’s where our proactive IT services come into play!

With our knowledge and expertise, we can ensure that your business’ IT systems are monitored and maintained for any signs of wear and tear. We’ll know about weaknesses in your systems long before they impact operations, giving us ample time to address them before they create costly downtime and up-front costs for replacement parts/components. To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 536-5006.

Implementing the Best Technology Solutions for Your Business

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Technology is one of those parts of your operational infrastructure that plays a massive role, even if you don’t realize it. For quite some time, you’ve been using all of the standard fares for business technology, such as computers, server units, and networking components. All technology solutions for your business must eventually be replaced, so your company must have an established approach to make this happen in the most seamless and least stressful way possible.

It all starts by having a solid IT implementation strategy. Let’s take a look at some ideas you should consider when looking at your business technology strategy.

Identifying Your Technology Pain Points

When considering technology, you must think with intention. If you don’t, you might implement a “solution” that is entirely unnecessary and, thus, makes your network more complex or complicated than it needs to be. It is best to keep things simple when possible, as the more technology you implement for your business, the more opportunities there are for things to go wrong. To make sure you implement technology with intention, you must consider what problems the technology will solve.

Ask yourself, “What challenges does my business face today?” Your answer will determine which problems you want to solve.

Creating a Technology Plan and Moving Forward

Next, you want to consider how you proceed and what solution to implement. There are many choices to make, so you shouldn’t leave anything off the table. Consider multiple solutions to the problem and think about which one is appropriate for your specific needs.

Ask yourself, “How does my chosen option solve the specified problem?” If you can answer this question, then you know that you should seriously entertain implementing that option.

Implementing the Right Technology Solutions for Your Business

Now that you have determined which solution is the best forward, you can start the implementation process. This process might include a needs analysis or a cost breakdown, so whoever is in charge of the implementation process should have access to all of this information. Furthermore, you will also want to have a complete understanding of how much the solution will cost your business to implement and the expected timeline for that implementation.

Ask yourself, “Do I have the means to implement this technology?” If the answer is yes, then you can move forward with confidence.

Get Started Today!

AE Technology Group understands the frustrations of implementing new technology solutions for your business, so we make it our goal to provide accessible technology management and implementation services to all businesses, big or small. To learn more about how we can help your business get any technology solution off the ground, reach out to us at (516) 536-5006.