We’ve all been there. The computers you feel like you just bought are suddenly not new anymore. You can feel with each passing day the increased loading times and the lost functionality. But hey, they still get the job done. Right?

My first week at Innovative brought many challenges someone might usually deal with when starting a new job. There were lots of new names and faces to learn, as well as the ins and outs of an entire company. On top of all this, I joined a managed IT services company without any background in technology. Being in such a different environment, everything I encountered was a learning experience. With every meeting and demonstration, I was gaining new information. One of the demonstrations I had the chance to sit in on was for Avaya Cloud Office (ACO). ACO is a hosted phone system that provides communication services to businesses, including Innovative. This made it especially relevant to me because it's a service I'll use at work regularly. The demonstration was hosted by Innovative's CIO Tyler Snyder, who did a great job explaining how many features ACO offers and how these features can change the way an office uses its phones. In this blog, I'll go over some of those features that will be crucial to our clients, my colleagues and me.

When it comes to cybersecurity, it's easy to feel like solution vendors are constantly exploiting your worst fears to sell you the latest and greatest solution you need to keep your business safe.

Be prepared for some sticker shock the next time you go to replace hardware in your business. Computer component costs have gone up 20% to 40% since 2020. Business-grade PC prices have doubled since 2019, thanks to the perfect storm of inflation paired with increased demand and decreased supply.

Do you like surprises? The answer probably depends on the context. You welcome surprises like lottery winnings and visits from an old friend. But surprises like, “Hey, we need an extra $5,000 to finish this project that’s already started” are very unwelcome. That’s where a contingency comes in.

Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365 — which is best? Many people are passionately on team Microsoft or team Google when it comes to productivity suites. You may not even remember why you chose one or the other. It could have simply been what you knew was available way back when you started your business or first adopted the technology. Someone, at some point, came along and suggested switching from Google to Microsoft or from Microsoft to Google. When the question comes up, most organizations struggle to identify which solution is truly best for their business vs. which one was just the flavor of the month when they made the choice.

Do you have piles of notes lying around your computer? Are you constantly writing things down in different notebooks, then scrambling to find where you put the notes from that last project update or team meeting? Microsoft OneNote is your answer. It has all the productivity and organization you need conveniently tied to all your other Microsoft applications and functions.

It's here. This week, Microsoft is launching the latest version of Windows, Windows 11. This is certainly no secret, especially if you've been watching Sunday night football and the flood of Microsoft ads during the game.

The overwhelming responsibilities of IT are stressful. As if daily new security threats weren't enough, you're also keeping up with general troubleshooting and network administration demands. You're facing more pressure to perform amid staffing shortages and a global pandemic that crammed five years of technology advancement into a few months. It just never feels like there are enough hands to respond to day-to-day end-user support needs while ensuring the network runs as securely and efficiently as possible.

You have a capable IT team, but projects seem to drag on forever. Plus, you never have time to optimize your technology or plan for improvements because day-to-day support consumes all your attention. You outsource some specialized functions, but a third party can't completely take tasks off your plate when they require assistance from your team to gain network information and access.