Ferrum Technology Services Blog

Many business’ supply chains have had a tough year. One positive outcome of this is that the innovation that was happening in that area has accelerated. Today, there are several technologies that are improving the way businesses can track all the goods that makes their business possible. Let’s take a brief look at four of them.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major effect on business. Despite this fact, we’re starting to get to the point where most businesses are at least being allowed to attempt to conduct business in a somewhat normal fashion, but it’s definitely a new world out there. Business owners in all lines of business are looking for that tool that can improve productivity, make their operations more efficient, and spit out the metrics they need to tweak them. 

I want you to take a moment and consider something: is your business prepared to survive any kind of data disaster? If you aren’t, you need to ensure that your systems—all your systems—can recover from whatever feasible event might impact them. This is what is known as IT resilience. Let’s dive in a little deeper.

The impact of COVID-19 to businesses has been such that we will not likely return to the way business was run before all of this happened. A major factor to this is how businesses once made use of their technology. The shifts that have occurred in the last few months will not likely go away, even after the pandemic ends.

As workplaces and offices everywhere have struggled to cope with the restrictions brought on by social distancing mandates, the adoption of automated solutions has surged ahead. Of course, this does open a few important questions to consider. For instance, what this could mean for employment post-pandemic, and how automation may be used in the future to mitigate the impacts we’re currently experiencing.

The Coronavirus outbreak is one of the most remarkable events in our lives, but it is not the first time that people have had to deal with these seemingly mystical forces. Today, we have been able to stem the tide a little bit with our access to information technology, but for past pandemic victims, some good did come out of tragedy. This month we thought we’d talk about the importance of innovation in dark times. 

Augmented reality (AR) has been talked about for what seems like ages. The technology, which overlays real time information over a displayed image, is seemingly advancing for retail use, but there have been several factors that have kept it from being as mainstream as it will be in the future. Let’s take a look at AR and how the efforts of some of the biggest tech companies in the world are aiming to push the technology to the limits. 

The 2020 Consumer Electronics Show is always a good place to see the most innovative consumer technology. CES features products of all types from companies of all sizes. This year, there was a strong contingent of companies bringing products to market in the physical security space. This isn’t all that uncommon, but the reaction to many of these devices is noteworthy.

AR, or augmented reality, has been touted as the next “big thing” for nearly a decade, while other “big things” have been introduced. Google Glass almost made AR more commonplace, but security and privacy concerns turned it into a non-starter. Today, AR has taken a new life, so let’s review some predictions for the future.

Technology is something that experiences rapid change, and while it’s usually beneficial to businesses, change can often bring with it a set of growing pains. You might be able to get more done and reach more customers, but it might stretch your resources, frustrate employees, and force new processes upon your organization. When this change comes, will you lament the good old days, or will you seize the opportunity to improve your business as a whole? When it comes to technology, the answer might make or break the future of your organization.

As time passes, your business will need to be able to grow and develop its use of technology through thoughtful investments and improvements. To do so, it helps to calculate the returns you can anticipate seeing from these investments. For this week’s tip, we’ll go over how to do so.

Business of all types depend on transportation. Whether it be a distributor for a manufacturer, a taxi service, or a shipping company, being able to properly manage a fleet of vehicles is essential to the sustained profitability of the endeavor. Turning to technology to accomplish this is easier than doing it manually. We take a look at a few technology solutions that can work to help a business that relies on transportation to be the most effective business it can be.

The capabilities of business technology are truly incredible, and they’re only becoming more impressive. This means that the solutions you have in place now will certainly need to be upgraded to other options at some point.

The smartphone has completely changed the way that the workplace functions, providing near-constant access to all the wonders of the Internet. People can communicate in ways previously never thought possible, and the possibilities these days are indeed limitless. There are applications out there that can make life more fulfilling and business more productive.

There are moments when a technology solution presents itself and is simply too valuable to pass up, but they are generally few and far between. One particular solution you can use to great effect is augmented reality, and we believe that with the right implementation and support, you can overcome challenges that the future might hold.

For many industries, technology has been extremely important to the expansion and innovation of their processes and outcomes. This is especially true in the case of the healthcare industry and the advancements made to medical IT. Particularly, this has given patients a far greater scope of control over their medical records - something that healthcare providers must remain aware of to leverage these changes to their advantage.

The healthcare industry is notorious for its reliance on technology these days. With so many compliance laws and procedures that must be followed in the correct way, many businesses have turned to technology to make their jobs easier. Medical IT in particular can create a lot of concerns regarding infrastructure design and data sharing. How can innovations in artificial intelligence change this? Let’s find out.

The healthcare industry is heavily reliant on its IT. Before 2009, there were scant traces of information technology making its way into healthcare organizations in the United States, but in 2009 there was a major shift after the 111th U.S. Congress passed the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) as a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Today, IT in the health industries is prevalent, and mostly expected.

Unless your business is a sole proprietorship, chances are you rely on employees in order to keep operations going. Your team needs to work together to make this happen as efficiently as possible, and a common goal helps motivate them toward this end. You can use collaboration technology to help your team do their jobs more effectively. This can have far-reaching benefits for both the performance of your employees and business operations in general.

Machine learning has become a big deal in a variety of industries, healthcare being a prime example. There are a variety of applications for machine learning in this incredibly important field, all of which show great potential in improving patient care. Below, we dive into just a few examples of how machine learning can improve healthcare.