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.

Hate your IT? It’s More Common Than You Think

Hate your IT? It’s More Common Than You Think

Ever feel so frustrated by your IT that you just want to get rid of every computer in your office altogether? I have to tell you, as much as I love technology and what it can do, even I can feel that way sometimes. If you feel like your technology has let you down, I have a story for you.

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Tip of the Week: How to Use Instant Messaging Professionally

Tip of the Week: How to Use Instant Messaging Professionally

Communication is paramount in any business environment, which makes it crucial that your business is equipped with the tools that allow this communication to take place. In light of this, many businesses have embraced instant messaging applications in the workplace. For this week’s tip, we’ll go over how to most productively and professionally utilize instant messaging.

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Tip of the Week: Are Workplace Wellness Programs Effective? It Depends

Tip of the Week: Are Workplace Wellness Programs Effective? It Depends

Workplace wellness programs, despite being an $8 billion industry, are a bit of a quandary for employers - as the jury is still out over whether or not these kinds of programs are effective. For this week’s tip, we’ll examine if a wellness program might be a good fit for you.

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Tip of the Week: Company Culture Can Be a Huge Business Strength

Tip of the Week: Company Culture Can Be a Huge Business Strength

When considering a business’ strengths, there is a tendency to focus on its more quantifiable aspects - it generates x dollars in revenue, or leverages advanced solutions a, b, and c. While these kinds of competitive advantages are valuable to have, it is also important to recognize how critical one of your more qualifiable strengths can be: your company culture.

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What Does Internet Rights Advocacy Mean?

What Does Internet Rights Advocacy Mean?

The Internet is a vast and amazing place. Some have even argued that it is one of people’s best-ever inventions. Some would push it further by actively attempting to outline what rights an Internet user has. Advocacy groups have been popping up, and while it has had a marked effect on public policy in more progressive nations, some nations look on these groups with disdain. Today we will take you through human rights advocacy on the Internet, and what to expect going forward.

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How to Mitigate Unhappy Online Opinions

How to Mitigate Unhappy Online Opinions

As nice as it would be to always please everybody with your business services, it just isn’t going to happen. Sooner or later, you’re going to encounter someone who isn’t pleased, and they’re going to have the capability to do some damage to your reputation. Fortunately, there is a way you can mitigate this damage.

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Tip of the Week: How to Encourage a Good Team Dynamic

Tip of the Week: How to Encourage a Good Team Dynamic

Collaboration is an invaluable part of any modern business’ success, which means that teamwork is an essential skill for your staff to have. Unfortunately, teamwork isn’t always the easiest thing to achieve in the office. There are, however, ways that you can promote it among your workforce. For this week’s tip, we’ll discuss a few ways how.

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A Healthy Intranet = Strong Marketing

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Marketing is not done in a bubble. Instead, it requires input from outside resources. When it comes to effective marketing, communication is key. Having a computer network that acts as a communications hub for every department is one the best ways to help your marketing team.

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Fleksy Cures the Woes of Typing with Fat Fingers

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You can do almost anything with a smartphone, except type a quick and accurate text message on a four inch screen. Even the best typist struggles with hitting the correct keys on a digital keyboard, and it doesn't help if you have a little extra mass on your fingers. A new app called Fleksy promises to cure the woes of smartphone typing.

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Hot Off The Press: The Remember Ring

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Are you the type of person that sets reminders in your phone for your anniversary, and then when the alarm goes off, read it and shut it off? Sure it reminds you when it goes off, but then you caught up in the day's activities and completely forget. What if there was a way to set a reminder for this but no way to turn it off?

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Organize Your Network with Active Directory

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The whole purpose of having a network infrastructure is to allow different users to access and share needed files and applications. With your data centralized to a server, you will need to have a system in place that allows certain people up-to-date permissions to access needed files from every computer. This is where Active Directory comes in.

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Make $ and Save $ with Webinars

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In business, the more ways that you can find to communicate your message to your customers, the further your reach will be, which will ultimately increase your bottom line. This reach-to-profit formula works even better when your communication tools are affordable and can save you operating expenses. A webinar is a great communications tool that will both save you money and make you money.

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QikPad: Collaborative Workspace Review

QikPad is an online collaboration resource that enables users to produce, sustain and customize data in a collaborative atmosphere. Making use of author color codes, users can readily determine the root of modifications by identifying the particular color assigned to a specific employee. Best of all, the application is free and does not require any sort of sign up.

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Collaborate and Share Notes with Microsoft OneNote

If you use Microsoft OneNote for jotting down quick meeting notes, phone calls, and personal memos, you've probably had information you needed to share with other co-workers in your OneNote Notebook. This quick walk-through will show you how to set up a Shared Notebook that others can access and modify.

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Health for the Office

Do you work in an office and sit in front of a desk all day? Chances are, you have experienced back pain or tight shoulders. Maybe you get headaches from staring at the computer all day. Well today we will discuss some tips on how to reduce the negative effects that office work can have on your body. Working these tips into your day can have a dramatic effect on your mental and physical health and you will feel all the better for it.

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The BYOD Revolution

Today, your employees are more and more technologically empowered. With the consumer electronics market teaming with amazing gadgets and high-end devices, cool tech is no longer reserved for fancy geek toys. With employees bringing in their own smartphones and tablets, mobile security becomes a big concern for small businesses.

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Your Company Social Media Policy Part 1

Social media has revolutionized the way people communicate online. Social media is where discussions are had and information is shared. Over the past few years, the world has seen a remarkable shift in the way people socialize and it is not going away.

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Take Back your Bandwidth

"Almost 40% of enterprise network bandwidth is being consumed by recreational or non-business applications [facebook, linkedin, youtube]"
~Blue Coat Systems Survey

More companies are blocking video streaming sites such as YouTube and Netflix to improve productivity at work..

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Do Employees Work Better from Home?

Technology today makes it easy for businesses to let employees work from home. Offering secure remote access gives employees the flexibility to work on the road, at events, or from home as if they were at their desks in the office. Is this good for small businesses?

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Leave IT to the Professionals

For small and medium businesses, attempting to fix your own computer issues can do more harm than good. It may seem like having to pay for IT services is an unnecessary expense, especially when you have a somewhat tech savvy employee who seems to know what they are doing. It may be an expense now, but it will save you thousands of dollars in time and money in the long run.

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