XFER Blog

Having confidence in your ability to run your business is an important thing to have, but it doesn’t matter how much confidence you have if your customers beg to differ. After all, without them, your business wouldn’t be where it is today. This is why it’s important to listen to what your customers say, and if it’s not positive, you need to resolve the problem as quickly as possible.

Running a business can be an exhilarating experience, mainly due to the degree of risk that’s involved. When you’re the one calling the shots, your success is only limited by your ability to lead. Then there’s the chance that things won’t work out and you’ll fail miserably. When your business goes the way of the latter, how do you know when your your company is finished and it’s time to call it quits?

As far as you’re concerned, managing a business is a highly engaging job. However, your staff might feel differently about their jobs. According to a recent study by Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends, only 13 percent of employees are legitimately engaged in their work. A disengaged worker is a serious problem for any workplace.

There seems to be some confusion in the workplace regarding the privacy of digital communications made over a company network. Can an employer read an employee email or record a phone call without employee consent? Is instant messaging a safe place for employees to complain about their jobs? The answer to these questions may surprise workers and business owners alike.

As a business owner, you know how difficult establishing a paid time off policy is. Providing too little can make your business seem unfair, but giving away too much might make you feel like you’re losing money. Therefore, it might come as a shock to even suggest the idea of unlimited PTO. Some business owners, on the other hand, find it completely effective, and that it can even improve the quality of work.

One of the more recent office trends seems to be the open office. While this is more space-efficient and supposedly helps foster productivity and communication, there’s also the possibility that it can do exactly the opposite. According to a 2002 study from Environment and Behavior, the open office can be a hindrance to unlocking the full potential of all employees.

When a print job doesn’t go exactly how you need it to, it’s normal to call your printer some choice words, which may include one of the many colorful synonyms for excrement. Perhaps this stems from a printing network and a toilet having a lot in common. How’s that you ask? Let’s clear the air and find out.

If you’re one of those people who are always checking their inbox, you might be dealing with a lot of unnecessary stress in the workplace. A study has linked constantly checking your email inbox to higher stress levels. While this might not come off as much of a surprise, researchers at the University of British Columbia have managed to put a number to the maximum amount of times you should be checking your email to minimize stress.

Here’s a statistic that’s going to shock business owners. We hope you’re sitting down for this because we were blown away when we first heard it. Did you know that 70 percent of all online porn access happens during business hours? What does this mean for your company?

Mobile devices have become such a popular computing medium that they’ve infiltrated the workplace. While the business owner might feel that these mobile devices can help employees gain more regular access to corporate data for more working hours, these same devices could potentially eat up those work hours with time wasted on mobile gaming or other recreational apps. What’s the truth about BYOD? Let’s find out.

IT professionals will always talk about the importance of data backup, and why shouldn’t we? It is a crucial process each business owner should understand. It really comes down to this: Many of the IT services we provide can present your endeavor with value, but only one of them can perform miracles, the Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) solution. The BDR not only allows for redundant backup of the files you need most, it provides a solution for your business to continue to exist in the face of pure devastation.

Technology keeps getting cooler, but the cost of running the technology remains the same. Do you know just how much energy your computer uses annually? If not, you might want to take some time to calculate your PC’s energy cost, as it could be affecting both your energy bill and the environment.

Have you ever wondered where some of the top talent in the world comes from? Not everyone knows how to find the best vendor for their needs, but with our IT service called vendor management, we find fixes to problems which lie outside our area of expertise. Despite what you might think, you may not be entirely unfamiliar with vendor management. In fact, you use it for several everyday services as it is.

When dealing with a large infrastructure, like that found within your business, it’s important to be clear and concise. This is especially true when it comes to your IT department, as miscommunications can lead to lost work or even fatal issues. If a problem does arise, you want to make sure that they are available to take care of it. In order to keep your issues to a minimum, it’s a good idea to plan out your IT communications systems and stick to them at all times.

Did you know that this holiday season is basically an assault on trees? Each December, thousands of healthy pines are murdered and their remains are proudly put on display. Adding insult to injury, boxes are then piled up around the fallen trees and wrapped in paper. To add some equilibrium to the holidays, consider a digital scanner for those on your shopping list.

As the calendar fast approaches 2015, the topic of IT budgeting for the new year is a hot topic. It’s the time to decide how much you will spend in comparison to how much you should spend. Budgeting can be a difficult decision, especially if you’re a small business owner with a limited budget. Thankfully, you don’t have to take on this important part of business alone.

Last year, a Washington DC restaurant called the Serbian Crown was forced to close its doors to the public. Instead of chowing down on delicacies such as lion, horse, and kangaroo meat, customers can now only sink their teeth into disappointment. The reason? A nasty Google Maps hacker, and lack of brand management to help clean the mess up.

We talk a lot about how downtime experienced from a technology issue like a server outage can destroy your company’s productivity. Yet, we’ve not distinguished between the different types of downtime, with the worst kind being pure and unadulterated downtime. What is pure downtime and how can you dilute it?

Cat Herding: The attempt to control or organize a class of entities which are uncontrollable or chaotic. Implies a task that is extremely difficult or impossible to do, primarily due to chaotic factors (Wikipedia). Does the humorous concept of cat herding sound like your current approach to IT management?

The Internet makes marketing your business much easier, but it's not that way for everyone. A restaurant in California has responded to the standard Internet marketing strategy with an out-of-the-box method of its own. David Cerretini, co-owner of the Italian restaurant Botto Bistro, has told his strategy to USA Today; "I want to be the worst restaurant in the San Francisco area!"