Moving to the cloud can save you a considerable amount of money, which explains its rise in popularity over the years. What many business owners fail to realize is that some cloud services come with hidden costs. And while they might seem insignificant at first, they can add up to a staggering amount if left unchecked. Minimize your cloud expenditures with these five tips:

No standalones

Cloud services come in various shapes and sizes, many of which are standalone platforms with rates that increase over time. Opt for a service provider that offers a suite of products that all work together. They are often less expensive than a group of standalone products. Another benefit of working with a cloud provider is that you receive a single point of contact to resolve your issues quickly and effectively.

Experience matters

If you plan on integrating a standalone cloud service into your system, make sure you hire an experienced integration consultant to facilitate a smooth transition. Integration mishaps can cause serious downtime and cost a lot of money.

Backups are important

Unnecessary or inefficient backups will waste cloud storage space. Examine your cloud storage data by asking the following questions:

• How many versions of this data do I need to store long-term? The more versions you store, the more it costs.
• What regulatory demands do I need to meet? Some data may need to be accessible for up to three years, whereas other data can be deleted after 30 days.
• How quickly do I need to access my backups? If it can wait for a day or two, archive that data to a less expensive service or offline at the provider’s data center.

Remove users

Many cloud service providers charge by the number of users in your system. By neglecting to manage the list of users, you could end up paying for people who no longer work for you. Implement processes that remove users when they are terminated and consider scheduling a regular audit. Ideally, this should be once every six months to a year, to ensure your cloud user list is up-to-date.

Monitor proactively

Ask your cloud provider whether they can proactively monitor your account and notify you of potential issues before they cause problems. This is especially important if you have a pay-as-you-go license that charges based on resource or storage consumption.

Utilizing the right technology resources is vital to your business’s success, and so is knowing how to prevent them from racking up an overwhelming monthly bill. If you wish to enjoy all the benefits of cloud computing without breaking the bank, give us a call and we’ll be happy to help.

The post Simple tips to increase cloud affordability appeared first on Parallel Edge, Inc.

Source: Pronto

Office 365 is already packed with the latest productivity features, but for premium perks, opt for the Office Insider program. This gives Office subscribers a heads up on upcoming Microsoft releases and updates before other companies do. Here’s why Office Insider is perfect for business owners.

Early Access

Subscribing to Office Insider gives you access to new innovations, security updates, and bug fixes months before they are released to the public. This insider feature is available in two levels: the fast ring where updates are rolled out more frequently, but come with a few bugs, and the slow ring where updates are released slower, but come with little to no software bugs.

What’s new for Office Insiders?

1. 1. Ideas in Excel
      Ideas is a bolt-shaped icon at the top right corner of the screen that helps you understand your data through high-level summaries, trends, and patterns. It will analyze your data and create attractive visuals about it in the task pane.
   2. Animated 3D graphics
      Animated 3D graphics like beating hearts, orbiting planets, and rampaging T-rex are now available on Powerpoint. You can insert 3D models from the internet and animate them with the Runner badge to spice up your PowerPoint slides.
   3. New proofreading tools
      Editor can now mark issues on spelling, grammar, and style with red, blue, and gold underlines. It provides suggestions to improve your writing in the Editor pane, which even explains the suggestions to better help you pick the best one.
   4. New look for the ribbon icons
      Ribbon icons now have crisp, clean lines, are visually optimized for all devices, and automatically updated.
   5. Coming Soon
      Outlook occasionally releases dramatic new features and for some people, it can be a little bit overwhelming. The Coming Soon feature allows you to have a window of time to try out new features before they become permanent.

Competitive Advantage

By being an Office 365 Insider, you can test the waters and get acquainted with the features way ahead of your competition.

Reserving a meeting room can be a lot easier now through Outlook. Misspelled search terms are now automatically managed by Outlook. Also, with the new supercharged VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, and MATCH functions, you can easily find answers to your queries.

Feedback

Subscribing to the Insider program also allows you to give your feedback directly to the Microsoft product team. It will help you to accustom yourself with the features earlier, and you’ll contribute to making Office 365 better for other users worldwide. You’ll be a part of the ongoing process of Office improvement.

Office Insider can open up your company to a wide variety of productivity-boosting features. The only question you have to ask yourself now is: Do I want to be at the cutting edge of tech innovations?

Contact us today to find out how you can get on the inside and know the latest Office updates.

The post The perks of being an Office Insider appeared first on Parallel Edge, Inc.

Source: Pronto

In today’s business world, computers are an essential investment. Considering the tight budgets of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB), one can’t afford to invest in the wrong hardware. Which is the smartest investment, especially for startups? Laptops or Desktops?

Portability

Laptops allow you to keep working when you don’t have an electrical outlet. However, this ability to take your work anywhere can be counterproductive by creating more stress on employees who think they must work all the time.

Memory/Speed

Desktop computers used to have more memory and faster processors than laptops. And although high-powered laptops have caught up, they are more expensive. If work is limited to word processing and emailing, affordable less-powerful laptops should be enough. Anything more will probably require a desktop machine.

Security

Data security is necessary not only against data leaks but as protection from litigation, reputation damage, and loss of business. With a network security system and IT staff, vulnerabilities are easier to address for desktop computers within office premises. They’re also less likely to be stolen.

For laptops, however, mobility makes them more vulnerable. Data loss is a real risk as laptops may be connected to unsecured networks and hotspots or be lost or stolen. Protecting your laptops require special safeguards, and consequently more time and money.

Price

Laptops and desktops come in varying prices according to preferences. On the cheaper end of the price range spectrum, there are notebook-style laptops that are limited to word processing and web browsing capabilities. Desktops have affordable equivalents as well. The deciding factor when it comes to price is your IT service provider or hardware supplier. With the right partner, you should be able to get a good bulk deal on powerful but affordable desktops or laptops.

Longevity

Laptop computers may provide the convenience of mobility, but it’s much harder to upgrade their components as they get older. Laptops are also easier to drop or damage and more expensive to replace or repair. Being in a fixed location, desktops are less prone to this. And unlike laptops, many desktops are not always pre-assembled. Many desktops can be custom built with parts that are easily removed, replaced, or upgraded.

Final Recommendation

A growing company really needs a combination of both types of computers. However, a desktop computer will be generally more reliable for the fledgling company owner. Laptops should be added as budget permits to provide that extra portability and convenience, especially for managers who work remotely.

If you have other questions regarding enterprise hardware, give us a call. We’d be happy to recommend the best solution according to your company’s business needs and objectives.

The post Best for SMBs: Laptop or desktop? appeared first on Parallel Edge, Inc.

Source: Pronto

Every marketing channel has best practices. For websites, it comes down to being user-friendly. Without this, even a terrific-looking website may discourage visitors from signing up for a free e-book or consultation. Be sure your website follows these 5 rules that make it easier to attract visitors and convert them.

Make it mobile-friendly

More people are now surfing the web on the go – via smartphones, tablets, and laptops. If you want a piece of this traffic, you need to make your website’s design responsive to all mobile devices.

To give your visitors an enjoyable mobile experience, make sure your website design fits the screen of any device. Additionally, all elements of your website – pages, resources, actions, and so on – should be easily accessible. If not, visitors will get frustrated and click away to a competitor. And who can blame them? You’d probably do the same.

Make it easy for customers to contact you

This means displaying your phone number in the upper-right corner of every page and providing a simple, easy-to-find contact form. While some people prefer not to give up their email address for fear it will be picked off by spambots, it can serve as another contact option for those who hate web forms. Ideally, you will provide more than one way for your customers to contact you. Give your visitors a choice, make it easy, and they will come.

Keep it simple

Have you started to notice a theme here? Proper web design can be summed up in one word: easy. People are always busy. They don’t have time to navigate a complicated website, dig through dozens of pages to find a contact number, or try and figure out what it is that you’re selling because your mobile site doesn’t display content properly.

So when it comes to design, simplicity makes sense. When producing a simple website, every page, word, and image you create must have a singular purpose: to get visitors to contact you. Don’t waste time distracting them with excessive information, silly games, or flashy animations. Instead, have a nice clean layout so they can understand what you’re offering quickly and can contact you with a click.

Include personal photos whenever possible

Say you have to choose between two different websites. They both sell the same thing and look virtually the same. The key difference is that one uses real photos of the owner and his or her staff, while the other uses generic stock images of business people. Assuming images from both sites are of the same quality, which one will you more likely choose? Undoubtedly, the one that looks the most authentic.

So next time you have to choose between stock images and shooting photos of you and your staff, invest some time and money in quality pictures taken at a studio – it’ll be worth every penny.

Move social media icons to the bottom of the page

Everyone loves throwing social media icons on their websites, and it’s not a bad idea to show your credibility. However, if you put these at the top of the page, your visitor is more likely to click on them immediately. Sounds cool, right? Wrong. When this happens, you just created an exit for them to leave your site and never return – and we all know how easy it is to get distracted on social media.

Instead, place your social media icons at the bottom of the page or in the footer area. Remember the goal of your website is to convert. If your visitors leave before they get a chance to explore your services, content, and offerings, you’ve lost them before you even had them.

Need a website or another solution to enhance your digital presence? Give us a call and leverage our IT expertise for your business.

The post Web conversion made easy with 5 tips appeared first on Parallel Edge, Inc.

Source: Pronto

Storing files in the cloud is common nowadays, making things convenient for business owners who want to manage their data on the go. But the number of ways to do this can be daunting, especially to the uninitiated. Don’t get lost in the sea of options. This handy guide will tell you whether SharePoint or OneDrive is right for you.

Both SharePoint and OneDrive help business owners manage and share data. But selecting the best platform can be difficult and give anyone a big headache. For instant relief, here’s a quick reference to help you choose wisely.

Office 365 comes with different storage and sharing options to make business owners more productive. Two of these are OneDrive and SharePoint, both of which have a long list of features and benefits. Which option is best for you? Keep reading for the answer.

Looking for a secure platform to manage your files? Where do you go for help? Should you choose SharePoint or settle for OneDrive instead? If any of those terms sound Greek to you, don’t worry. You don’t need a degree in computer science to figure it out. This article will give you the lowdown on what to expect from these services.

Both SharePoint and OneDrive are cloud-based services from Microsoft that allow you to store, share, and sync files across different devices. SharePoint was released in 2001 and reportedly has over 190 million users. OneDrive, on the other hand, was launched in 2007 and has more than 250 million users.

SharePoint is marketed mainly as a document management and storage system, but it can be configured to do much more than that. OneDrive, which was previously known as SkyDrive and Windows Live Folders, is part of the Office suite of online services.

What the two have in common
For starters, both platforms make use of Office 365 to help companies organize information and share this with others. To keep things secure, documents go to a cloud drive, so employees can easily track changes in a single file that is stored in one central location. One of the main reasons these platforms are so popular is because users can add comments and notes using real-time collaboration. Since data can be synchronized and is readily available, everyone sees the most up-to-date information regardless of how they view the document.

With OneDrive, it’s personal
OneDrive makes use of a SharePoint backdrop to work. This connects the two programs. The difference is that OneDrive is made for an individual, and the user remains in control even if the file is shared to different people. This means multiple teams can collaborate simultaneously as long as the original owner shares the document via a secure link. That person determines who can edit and view the file.

There’s more to SharePoint
With SharePoint, employees throughout the company can view and edit the stored file. Changes are tracked and higher-ups will know who is working on the document. This is ideal for human resource surveys or updates that need the attention of other team members.

With SharePoint and OneDrive, businesses can improve the way they work. If you want to learn how online document sharing programs can improve your company’s visibility and productivity, get in touch with us now. We’re here for you.

The post SharePoint or OneDrive: What’s best for SMBs? appeared first on Parallel Edge, Inc.

Source: Pronto