31478 Industrial Road Suite 200, Livonia, Michigan 48150 sales@xfer.com

XFER Blog

XFER Blog

XFER has been serving the Livonia area since 1994, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support, and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

It Pays to Outsource Your IT

It Pays to Outsource Your IT

Technology can be fickle at times. When it’s not working properly, it can hold your business back from reaching its maximum potential. Therefore, in order to maximize your bottom line, it becomes common sense to ensure that your technology is in proper working order at all times. The problem lies in the fact that you may not necessarily specialize in technology management, and don’t have the time or budget to perform maintenance yourself. What’s the SMB to do?

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Tip of the Week: 4 Easy Ways to Make Working Remotely Work for You

Tip of the Week: 4 Easy Ways to Make Working Remotely Work for You

Working remotely is made much easier thanks to today’s modern technology solutions. Many organizations have at least part of their workforce working remotely, but without the proper support, remote work wouldn’t be possible. With the latest technology and a couple of best practices, the remote worker can be just as productive, if not more so, than the in-house worker.

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How NOT to Maintain a Backup

How NOT to Maintain a Backup

A data loss incident is considered a major disaster scenario, especially for small and medium-sized businesses. All it takes is one moment to lose your business’s entire data infrastructure. We’ll walk you through a story that should serve as a cautionary tale, one that hopefully teaches you to adhere to data backup and disaster recovery best practices.

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What You Need to Know About Upgrading to Windows 10

What You Need to Know About Upgrading to Windows 10

It’s been over two years since Microsoft stopped providing Windows XP with security updates and patches. The Windows operating system was known as one of the most popular Windows operating systems ever. Both businesses and consumers were affected by this major update, being forced to migrate to more recent operating systems in order to stay secure. Thankfully, an upgrade to Windows 10 isn’t nearly as difficult as one from XP to Windows 7, largely because of the hardware costs involved.

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Taking a Vacation From Your Technology While On Vacation Can Actually Make Things Worse

Taking a Vacation From Your Technology While On Vacation Can Actually Make Things Worse

Everyone loves a good vacation, especially if you have the good fortune of having a reliable staff on-hand that can handle the administration of your office while you’re away. Although, it might be tempting to just cut yourself off from technology and enjoy your time off, doing so might cause problems down the line that could easily be prevented by simply checking your email or calling home-base once in a while.

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Prepare for a Future of More Jobs Being Automated

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Eliminating unnecessary costs is a natural part of doing business. By “trimming the fat,” so to speak, organizations can optimize operations and profits. Automation technology is instrumental to this plight, but as these systems grow more advanced and capable, even professional employees are finding themselves at risk of losing their jobs to cheaper, more efficient automated systems.

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4 Steps to Better, Faster Connectivity

 

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 One of the most frustrating technologies for most small to medium-size businesses  is cloud  connectivity.

 Connectivity is getting faster and faster every day. As speeds increase, prices are decreasing,  resulting in a virtual race to zero dollars in the marketplace. Of course, prices will never reach the  zero level but they are decreasing on a rapid basis. This means that more bandwidth is available at lower cost for all companies in the market. The problem is that faster Internet speeds do not necessarily translate into better performance for the end-user. This typically occurs because the local area network (LAN) is not properly configured to the usage patterns of the company. It also can occur if your provider is not delivering the speed the contracted for, and numerous other reasons that are not so easy to identify.

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Some Microsoft Users are Getting Windows 10 Upgrades Against Their Will

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Windows 10 might be the latest operating system from Microsoft, but despite its great new business-friendly features, many are still hesitant to upgrade. For those who don’t want Windows 10, there are reports of unwanted (and unexpected) Windows 10 updates. Now, here’s the big question: would you want your business’s software upgraded without your consent?

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Tip of the Week: You Need to Manage Your Company’s Online Reputation--Here’s How to Get Started!

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Two things are true today: 1) having a good reputation is critical to the success of any organization, and 2) the Internet is a vast network where seemingly anything goes. How then can you make sure that what’s said online about your organization isn’t hurting your reputation? By taking some basic online reputation management actions, you can stay one step ahead of the virtual haters and keep your reputation intact.

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What’s the Best Way to Store Your Company’s Data? Find Out!

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March 31st is World Backup Day! This occasion begs the question, “How much thought have you put into where your data is stored?” If you haven’t thought through your data storage options, then your files may be located in several different places. This could make accessing your data difficult, as well as jeopardize your network’s security. To get you started, let’s take a look at these four data storage options.

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Tip of the Week: 3 Ways to Be Productive When Your Internet Connection Fails

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Modern businesses are reliant on certain parts of their infrastructure to keep operations functioning. For example, if your building’s electricity were to go down, what would you do? What about if you lost Internet access? Would your business be able to keep your employees busy, or would the downtime experienced be enough to cause panic?

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Drugs, Assassins For Hire, Weapon Sales, and More: All Conveniently Found On the Web

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The Internet is a fascinating and wonderful place full of great, informative resources and websites, but it’s also home to online markets for illegal and unethical practices. These hotbeds of criminal activity are a danger not only to your business, but to everyone who uses the Internet.

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736 Million Records Were Exposed to Data Theft in 2015

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2015 saw a significant increase in high-profile hacking attacks in organizations of all disciplines: healthcare, government, and even large entertainment companies all fell victim to data breaches. In light of these attacks, valuable lessons can be learned through analyzing the types of records that were stolen. In 2015, over half of all records exposed to hackers were passwords and email addresses.

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The Strict Security Measures of Nuclear Power Plants Can Benefit Your Business Too

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Technology, while a great asset that can be leveraged for your benefit, can also frighten businesses due to how unpredictable it can be at times. The constant threat of data loss, identity theft, and hardware failure can cripple your business’s ability to retain operations. Specifically, businesses can learn about risk management by analyzing the processes used by an industry where risk management is absolutely critical: nuclear power plants.

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3 Technologies That Will Give Your Remote Workers the Edge

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More businesses than ever before are finding value in allowing their workers to work from the comfort of their own homes, rather than have them drive all the way to the office to do a job that can be done from anywhere with an Internet connection. More importantly, it’s much more cost effective for businesses to allow for remote workers. How can you make it as easy as possible for remote workers to get their jobs done?

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3 Billion Users May Have Good Reason to Avoid Upgrading Their Old PCs

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Any user of technology knows the frustration of periodically replacing it with better and more recent technology. In fact, the latest gadgets seem to be outdated just months after they’re released. Many people believe that this unprecedented growth in the technology industry could lead to a decrease in PC sales, but it also means that devices are growing more reliable.

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Business Continuity: Prepare For the Worst and Hope For the Best

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There are few things more important than the continuity of your business. Your livelihood, and that of your employees, depends on the continued functionality of your organization. Therefore, it becomes necessary to do all that you can to ensure your business is protected from an unexpected downfall, due to data loss, natural disasters, and other means.

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You Might Be Surprised At the Ways Your Employees Put Your Data At Risk

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October is Cyber Security Month and we want to use this time to bring awareness to the different aspects of cyber security. One often overlooked element of cyber security is employee risk management. What level of risk does your staff pose to your network’s security? You can easily find this out by taking an online test.

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3 Benefits of Outsourced IT That Let You Do More For Less

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Cost drives business, this much cannot be denied. When the technology your business relies on fails, you have to get it repaired or replaced quickly in order to keep the resulting downtime from damaging your business. The traditional method of computer repair is much like when your car is in disrepair. When your technology isn’t working properly, your organization reacts to the problem by calling your friendly neighborhood computer repair guy.

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3 Ways to Make Innovation a Priority For Your Company

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How difficult is it for your organization to innovate and come up with new ideas? Sometimes it might seem impossible when it feels like all the good ideas are already taken. Normally, advancements in technology are a primary fuel for innovation within a company. If you aren’t feeling inspired, there are several new ways you can approach innovation. Here are three ideas.

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