Tech Talk – February 2020
A Note from the President
Typically around this time of year, there are discussions regarding plans for business continuity, due to a pending snow storm. Fortunately (knock on wood), we’ve been lucky and haven’t been hit with any snow (yet), but ensuring you have a proper business continuity plan shouldn’t be something to neglect.
Whether it be a snow storm, power outage, or currently more concerning the threat of Coronavirus, having a company business continuity plan is vital to any business, and certainly includes technology.
At some point next month, LMS will be testing our business continuity plan, having all of our team work remotely. With our serverless office (LMS is 100% in the cloud), VoIP, Office 365, and other security and technology measures in place, our team can work 100% remotely, and not miss a beat.
I urge you to review your business continuity plan, and speak with us on how your IT plays an important role in that plan. We are here to talk and help.
Our CEO wrote a blog this month titled Remote Support And How it’s Killing Us, which you can read below. Make sure you click on the link within the text to read the entire piece.
Best,
Scott Shatzkamer
President
Remote Support And How It’s Killing Us.
by Larry Shulman, CEO
Just finishing up some banking transactions – a mortgage for a property, something I have done at least a dozen times in my life. Trying to understand how the bank that is behind it could spend so much time and work so hard to make it the most miserable part of my life for the past 3 months.
The people involved all seemed nice, almost capable, and so sincere. Their answers always ended the momentary hysteria on my part, and perfectly supported the absolute limited or incorrect movement by their superiors. How could this be?
Next case: Internet and its failure in Vermont – another case of public utilities mixed in with a dozen well known products all touting adherence to standards that should play nicely together. With the reliability of leaving a dozen kids in a room with some new toys, how long before the fighting and crying begin?
I am trying to come to a single theory of “Larry” to explain away what we are all going through. It does establish our future business model for LMS so if anyone is looking for a future “get rich” plan, read on.
How legacy print technology may be holding your organization back
Used with permission from Tektonika (HP)
Many offices today still rely on legacy print technology. These devices may seem innocuous, but they actually pose serious problems to businesses that aspire to be productive, efficient, and secure—which is all of them, presumably.
Legacy print technology can hold your company back in more ways than one, which is why upgrading to new, innovative printing technology is an investment worth making.
How an aging print fleet could be hurting you
While the latest computers and mobile devices are continually changing the way we work, there’s no denying that for many applications, hard copies of text and images are simply the most reliable, intuitive way to share and visualize information. But just like any other IT equipment, a printer fleet requires attention to remain helpful and relevant and can become a burden if not kept up to date.
Basic math in Excel
Are you new to Excel, and not sure where to start with formulas and operations? Many spreadsheets use basic math: adding and subtracting numbers or multiplying and dividing. Understanding these math formulas will help you graduate to more complex equations to manipulate your Excel data.
How does basic math work in Excel?
Excel uses formulas or functions to manipulate data. A function takes an input, which is the content of cells plus some operating symbols that say what to do with the data. You can input a single cell into a function or a range of multiple cells.