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Could Filing Cabinets Be Costing You Money?

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Go Green and Save Green

Our society is making a push to “Go Green” these days with an effort to reduce paper usage and making a push to utilize digital documentation. The fact is, this practice not only benefits the environment, but can also put a considerable amount of green back into your bank account. There is also the consideration that cluttered papers and documentation can cause time loss and data loss when they’re not properly stored and tracked. The easy solution to this problem is the simple implementation of a digital documentation system for your office. And the best part is, it won’t take long for you to start seeing the benefits!

Cut Down on Clutter and Save Office Space

Simply getting your staff into the habit of scanning documents and setting up an organized and simple storage system for your digital documents will considerably cut down on the clutter of paper documents on everyone’s desks and eliminate the need for filing cabinets that take up valuable office space.

Skip the Search

Save yourself and your employees from having to sort through folders and filing cabinets searching for the right document. By setting up a digital document system, everyone is a few quick clicks away from having exactly what they’re looking for.

Lost and Found

Organizing your documents into digital folders will prevent important contracts and invoices from being misplaced. Having these documents digitally saved eliminates the threat of having them get jumbled up with other papers and possibly being placed in the trash or a random drawer.

Disaster Recovery Plan

Having your digital copies of your documents protects you against the threat of disasters such as fire and water. Saving these documents on off-site servers and cloud systems allows you to be protected in the event of a physical loss due to an in office disaster.

Select HP Laptop Models Recalled Over Battery Issue

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Did you purchase an HP laptop between December of 2015 and December of 2017?  If so, then you may have problems.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has been made aware of eight instances where HP battery packs overheated, charred, or melted, creating a worrisome fire hazard that has gotten the attention of user groups scattered all over the internet.

It also got the attention of HP itself, and the company recently announced “a worldwide voluntary safety recall and replacement program” for laptops shipped during the timeframe mentioned above.

If you own one of the following models, you may be impacted:

HP ProBook 640 G2

HP ProBook 645 G2

HP ProBook 650 G2

HP ProBook 655 G2

HP ProBook 640 G3

HP ProBook 645 G3

HP ProBook 650 G3

HP ProBook 655 G3

HP ZBook 17 G3

HP ZBook Studio G3

HP ZBook 17 G4

HP x360 310 G2

HP Pavillion x360

HP ENVY m6

Or the HP 11 Notebook PC

You can visit HP’s website and download a tool you can use to test your laptop to see if it has one of the defective battery packs.  A BIOS update is also available that will safely and completely discharge the battery. Although of course, until you get a replacement, you’ll only be able to power your laptop via the AC power supply.

According to the company, “Many of these batteries are internal to the system, which means they are not customer replaceable.  HP is providing battery replacement services by an authorized technician at no cost.”

While it’s a nice gesture, it would be even better if the company hadn’t shipped the defective batteries in the first place and caused a major inconvenience to its customers.  This most recent recall comes on the heels of another one less than a year ago, in which the company recalled more than 100,000 similarly defective laptops at the end of January, 2017.

Vertical Video Support On YouTube For iOS Finally Here

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The owners of Android devices have been able to properly view vertical videos for more than two years, but for Apple users, it was a different story.

Instead of getting the traditional full-screen experience when viewing vertical videos, Apple users were saddled with annoying vertical bars that would appear on either side of the video itself.  It’s a small thing, but undeniably annoying. Now, at long last, the problem has been solved and now Apple users can enjoy the same vertical, full-screen experience as the rest of us.

YouTube announced the upgrade in a tweet that read as follows:

“Bye-bye, black bars.  Now the YouTube player on iOS will automatically adapt to the shape of the video you’re viewing!”

It matters because smartphones were designed to be held in that position, so it’s the natural way to interact with the device, no matter what you’re doing with it, including watching videos.

There’s one caveat, however:  A surprising number of vertical videos won’t go full screen because they’ve actually been encoded with black bars on the sides, which technically makes them landscape vids that are only mimicking the appearance of a vertical video.

Now that YouTube has made this change, over time, you’ll probably see fewer and fewer videos shot like this and uploaded. In the short to medium term, don’t be the least bit surprised if you run into videos shot like this on a regular basis.

Why it took the company so long to update the Apple version of their app with this functionality, no one knows, but it’s not hard to hazard a few guesses.  In any event, it’s not something that’s likely to have a major impact on your life, but it is a welcome change and we were happy to see it.

Nvidia Dropping Driver Support For Older Operating Systems

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AMD long ago dropped support of 32-bit operating systems, and now, Nvidia is following suit. The long-anticipated move by the company will mean the end of driver support for the 32-bit builds of Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Linux and FreeBSD.

Nvidia is taking a balanced, responsible approach here. The company has pledged to continue offering 32-bit driver security updates until January 2019, but will immediately discontinue making performance updates to the drivers of older OS’s.

In some respects, it’s long overdue. Today’s application environment is incredibly resource intensive, with a growing number of applications requiring more computing horsepower than 32-bit systems can deliver, since a 32-bit OS can only support up to 4GB of RAM.

The picture gets even bleaker if you’re a gamer. Even modest games tend to require more than 4GB of RAM these days, and most top-tier titles no longer offer support for 32-bit systems. That, combined with the fact that 32-bit systems are somewhat less secure overall, it’s probably time they were put to pasture.

Given this landscape, it’s probably time to pronounce the 32-bit operating system dead. If you’ve got some legacy applications still running on an old machine, now is the time to get serious about your migration plan.

Most of the older OS’s are no longer receiving security updates, which leaves you increasingly vulnerable to a wide range of hacks. That, coupled with the increasingly sparse driver support makes it inevitable that you’ll have to migrate at some point, and it’s always better to do it on your terms than someone else’s.

If you haven’t yet worked out what to do about your old legacy systems, it’s long past time to do so. The clock has been ticking for a while now, and the ticking just got a little bit louder.

Microsoft May Remove Windows Paint From Operating System

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“Paint” is one step closer to being a thing of the past.

In May of this year, Microsoft caught a surprising amount of flak when they announced that the venerable app, which had been included with the OS in every release since 1985, would be going away and replaced by a newer, sleeker version called Paint 3D.

The company had not expected any backlash on the matter and was sent scrambling when tens of thousands of people complained loudly in forums all over the internet.

The company quickly revised its position, explaining that while Paint would no longer come pre-installed on future releases of Windows, it would still be available on Microsoft’s app store. This move seemed to mollify Paint’s surprising number of fans and followers, but now, Microsoft is in the news again over the surprisingly cherished app.

In a recently released Windows 10 Insider Preview, the following message was discovered when accessing Paint: “This version of Paint will soon be replaced with Paint 3D. Classic Paint will then become available in the store.”

Note that this message was not displayed upon opening Paint itself, but rather upon clicking the “Product Alert” button at the top right corner of the app screen.

While the news is certainly no surprise, given the above, the sparse wording of the message does raise the question of whether the transition will be occurring during the next Windows 10 release. So far, the company has not offered any sort of clarification or confirmation.

In any case, we’re now one step closer to saying goodbye to Paint. While it was never a very good image editing program, it has proven to have a surprisingly deep base of support. Support or no, however, the day is soon coming when it will be a thing of the past, unless users go to the store and manually download and install it.

Tech Tips: Is Your Data Backup Protected Against Storm Season?

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Tech Tips: Is Your Data Backup Protected Against Storm Season?

The Best Defense is a Good Offense

It’s that special time of year when the threat of fire, flood, severe storms, water damage and even theft are very real. This is why ensuring your company’s critical data is backed up and protected in the case of power loss or system damage. To help you protect your valuable business assets, here are a few simple tips:

  • Off Site Storage

    Backing up your data at an offsite location with dedicated and secure servers and cloud solutions is a must. While regularly backing up your data is crucial, many business owners only backup their files on in-house servers and hard drives. If those servers are damaged or those hard drives are stolen, you’ll quickly find yourself helpless. The easiest solution for this is having a system in place at another location.

  • Safe from the Surge

    Quality surge protectors are a simple but often overlooked solution to protecting your computers and data during storm season. Remember quality cannot be skipped here. Try opting for a high-quality surge protector combined with a power supply batter backup.

  • Head for High Ground

    Flooding is a real threat when it comes to severe storm season. This is why it’s very important to make sure your critical equipment such as servers are lifted off the floor. Server racks are inexpensive and can be easily installed to help minimize flood damage. This is also a situation in which cloud backup solutions can save the day.

  • Have a Plan

    Make sure you have a plan in place in case disaster does strike. You need to protect your business continuity and this means having a plan in place so employees and systems can continue to work and keep the business running no matter the situation. Make sure your staff knows where to go, who to call and how to access critical files, data and software.

Chrome OS To Get App Multitasking Soon

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Chromebooks have brought Android apps to a much wider market, making them accessible to virtually everyone, but the Chrome OS has always lagged behind other platforms developmentally.

One of its most serious limitations where running apps was concerned centered on its inability to multitask. Basically, if the app you’re using is not “in focus” or in the window you’re currently viewing, all activity in the app ceases.

There are a few exceptions such as the Spotify app, but most apps that rely on real time data and most games will freeze when a user clicks out of the window. If you’re coming to Chromebook from almost any other platform, it can be annoying and hard to get used to.

Fortunately, you won’t have to deal with this for much longer. Google recently announced the release of Chrome OS 64, which will, among other things, allow apps to continue running in the background, even when you’re not using them in the active window.

Right now, the update is available on the company’s Beta channel, so it’s a fair bet that it will be rolled out to the general user base in the very near future. However, the company has not given a firm timeframe for that.

If you have a Chromebook, this is good news indeed as it corrects what many industry insiders have long seen as a glaring weakness of the platform.

While Chromebooks don’t get much use at the Enterprise level, they are a cost-effective computing option for students and low-income people, and it’s good to see Google spending time and resources improving them.

While the latest version offers a number of enhancements, the two biggest are the multitasking support mentioned above, and the “split view” feature which will further enhance the multitasking capabilities of the platform.

What is the Cost of IT Support for Small Business?

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What is the Cost of IT Support for Small BusinessOne of the greatest challenges among small business owners today is making the decision about IT support and maintenance of the information system; whether to hire an in-house IT tech or to outsource IT support for their business. With the relatively recent availability of Managed Services for small business, the list of choices – and decisions – has grown once again.

The Greenville IT support experts at Carolina IT Group are constantly searching for ways to make the decision making process simpler and easier for you, the small business owner. To help you with that, today we will take a look at the IT support choices currently available, as well as some of the costs involved. (Although we have tried to give you some idea of the costs involved, please remember that these are merely estimates based on averages, and that the actual cost of IT support services can vary greatly, based on the needs of each business.)

Self-managed IT Support:

According to PayScale.com, the national median income for an in-house IT tech is currently running at a bit over $40,000 per year, with the upper end of that range reaching nearly $60,000 annually. For more experienced technicians, the median pay rate is above $46,000 annually, with the upper range much closer to $65,000 yearly. These pay ranges include salary, bonuses, and profit sharing for in-house employees, but do not include benefits, such as health insurance.

If we choose a salary of $45,000 for the purpose of this comparison, we must then add benefits, sick pay, vacation time, and your annual payroll tax. These will total approximately $13,000 a year. Purchasing an IT Management System application could easily set you back by $1000, plus training in the new application, which would likely cost about $2500 per user. The total for one-time expenses will range from $3500 to $10,000, depending on the number of user desktops involved. Total cost of salary and benefits for your new IT specialist would be about $58,000 per year, though it could be more.

Outsourcing your IT Support:

For many small business owners, outsourcing their IT support needs may seem extravagant due to the hourly rate that such companies charge. However, this type of support can be extremely cost-effective because of the expertise being purchased, the experience the techs who visit are able to offer, and the backup provided by the team that supports them. Further, as a small business owner, you should easily be able to budget for the monthly expense, based on the system evaluation and recommendations of the company you employ as your IT support team.

A responsible IT support company will always begin with an objective assessment of your information system, along with recommendations for the work they will perform to meet your needs. In other words, they will not “pad” the bill, but will only perform the tasks you request of them. This can greatly reduce the cost of IT support for your small business, rather than hiring an in-house tech and paying an annual salary, as discussed above.

Beyond this, a reputable IT support company will guarantee the expertise of the tech they send you. The tech will also possess a great deal more experience than an employee, as they deal with a variety of systems every day. In most cases, there will be little they have not seen, which will allow them to handle your specific needs more efficiently. Further, they will most likely assign a particular technician to your account, someone who will visit you regularly, allowing them to become intimately familiar with your information system and the needs of your business, and with whom you will build a relationship of trust over time.

Best of all, your service will always be hands-on, with a live human being in place to answer your questions.

The cost of this type of support can vary greatly, depending upon the age and number of servers and desktops being used in your organization. However, you will usually be able to save money by purchasing blocks of time in advance and only using the hours purchased on as as-needed basis. For the average small business, you should probably budget for something between $1000 and $2500 per month, a vast savings over hiring an in-house IT tech.

Managed Services IT Support:

With remote monitoring of your small business information system now available 24/7, 365, this option has become one of the more cost-effective and appealing choices among small business owners in today’s marketplace. For a flat rate monthly fee, business owners and IT managers can now purchase pro-active monitoring and maintenance of servers, desktops, and remote machines being used by their company. In addition to this, a business may also subscribe to this type of service in a graduated, piecemeal fashion; perhaps beginning with managed antivirus protection, then gradually adding email monitoring for spam and continuity, email archiving, desktop monitoring, mobile device monitoring, online data backup services, and more.

By using such a service, your small business will find it very easy to budget for them. Because of the flat rate subscription fee you will pay each month, there will be no budget-busting surprises. As each of the managed services you’re using begins to save you money, by reducing system downtime and increasing productivity, you’ll be able to add another layer of protection, without having to invest in expensive an all-in-one package.

The most important benefit of a managed services program is that it is fully automated and never rests. The system is working on your behalf 24/7, 365, monitoring and maintaining your information system even while you sleep. You will also receive notification of impending problems, allowing you to intervene before your system goes down.

Once again, the cost of a managed services package for your small business will have a number of determining factors. Beginning with the age of your equipment and software, as well as the number of machines and users, to the selection of the various management and maintenance services to which you subscribe, these will determine the monthly cost of your choices. A la carte services may begin for as little as $2-$15 per month per machine, and range upward from there. For the average small business, your monthly cost may range from $500 to $2000 per month for ‘round-the-clock protection of your information system, data, and workstations. You should consult with an IT support provider for more information on a managed services package features and costs.

IT Support Service Packages

For most of our Greenville small business clients, a combination of outsourcing their IT support to us, along with one of our proactive managed services packages has been the ultimate solution to their IT needs. This type of cost-effective combination of support services has provided them expert IT support when needed on-site, as well as the 24 hour protection of their information system that they need for their peace of mind. “It’s good to sleep again at night!” they tell us.

If this information has been helpful, and you would like to know more about how Managed Services and IT support service packages from Carolina IT Group could benefit you and your business, the IT experts at Carolina IT Group are here to help you with all of your Greenville IT support needs. Please do not hesitate to contact us with your IT service request for help with your operating system, apps, servers, VoIP system or any other IT issues you may have.

Contact Info

740 Greenville Blvd. SE., Ste. 400-374
Greenville, NC 27858

Phone: (252) 565-1235