Ferrum Technology Services Blog

With many compliance and regulation laws existing in today’s business world, it’s no small wonder that ethical dilemmas surrounding business technology are more common than you might expect. Let’s go over five of the more controversial uses of technology so you can avoid facing them during the course of your operations.

Downtime in a business context can be considered a "business predator" because it can have detrimental effects on a company's operations, profitability, and overall success. Downtime refers to the period during which a business' critical systems, processes, or equipment are not functioning as intended. Here are some reasons why downtime is often seen as a threat to businesses.

Financial Impact

Downtime can result in significant financial losses. When key revenue-generating systems or production processes are unavailable, businesses may lose sales, incur extra expenses, or face penalties for failing to meet contractual obligations. Downtime can also prevent a business from pursuing new opportunities or responding to market changes. In a rapidly evolving market, missing out on opportunities can have long-term consequences, and can be the difference between business growth and stagnation.

Operational Impact

Downtime leads to decreased productivity as employees cannot perform their tasks efficiently. This results in wasted time, missed deadlines, and a drop in overall output. In cases where downtime is due to data loss or system failures, it can result in the loss of critical information, which can be difficult or impossible to recover. This can have severe consequences for businesses, especially when it comes to sensitive or irreplaceable data. Frequent downtime can demoralize employees who must deal with the frustration and stress of interrupted work. Low morale can lead to higher turnover rates and decreased employee engagement.

Customer Impact

Prolonged or frequent downtime can do significant damage to a company's reputation. Customers and partners may perceive the business as unreliable, which can be challenging to overcome. Also, these unfortunate companies may find it challenging to compete effectively in markets with companies that show better reliability.

If you struggle with downtime, you can do better. If you don’t, you need to ensure that continues. The IT professionals at Ferrum Technology Services can help. We can introduce you to technologies and strategies that are designed specifically to reduce downtime and improve operational efficiency. Get a professional perspective by calling (847) 697-3282 today.

Smartphones are incredible productivity tools that anyone can take advantage of for personal computing or business purposes. Thanks to the large amount of mobile applications available, there are countless ways that people can reimagine various aspects of their lives for the better. To help you out, we’ve put together four of our favorite smartphone tips that you might find useful.

Microsoft and Google offer work profile systems that can help you keep your personal life and professional life on the same mobile device, albeit separate. These are often found with enterprise settings that allow for greater security and control over how employees use their devices for work duties. Let’s look at how the work profiles function for Microsoft and Google.

You and your employees are likely exhausted from dealing with technology day in and day out. Even if it is what allows businesses to flourish, you still might want some time away from it from time to time. When it feels like too much, know that a digital detox can be a valid way of temporarily moving away from technology—even in the workplace.

Do you prefer to get your work done on a desktop? If so, you’re not alone; laptops are great for mobility, but they do have certain limitations placed on them that you might find difficult to work with. Thankfully, you can make most modern laptops work and feel like a desktop with a couple of modifications and components.

Your business should always strive to prevent interruptions and issues related to operations. With the right technology and appropriate management of it, you will find that you experience far fewer of them. Let’s examine some strategies you can use that will help you build better processes and how technology can aid in this.

Operating a business today takes extra effort, effort that largely revolves around the use of the right technology. Nowadays, more of this technology than ever is directed toward boosting productivity, largely through improving mobility. Let’s discuss how this works.

The COVID-19 pandemic was the unfortunate situation that caused a lot of businesses to implement wide-scale remote work. Many organizations continue to use the strategy to their advantage. This month, we discuss a couple of ways your business can support your remote team. 

Communication is a major part of any relationship. In business, there is no way to have a positive working relationship without great communication. A lot of time and effort goes into getting your employees the tools they need to potentially be successful, but without the right mindset and practices, nothing will go the way you anticipate. Let’s look at four variables that are needed by you and your employees if you want to have crystal clear communications.

Productivity improves as time management improves. It seems like a simple notion, but if you aren’t deliberate about managing your time, there isn’t much positive movement that is going to be had in the productivity meter. This month, we thought we would help you by giving you a few strategies that will work to improve your employees’ productivity. 

Technology helps us do more than we’ve ever done before. Unfortunately, the more that we do, the more that is expected of us. That means the search for more productivity is endless, and therefore considerations on how to be most efficient in the way that you go about doing this is extremely important. Unfortunately, there is a limit on how productive people can be and there are definitely some situations that exacerbate this limit. This month, we thought we’d take a look at some of them:

AI is a major topic lately, whether it’s on the topic of new and upcoming chatbots that are capable of generating text or making art that can compete with even the most skilled of artists. AI is commonly targeted as a culprit in stealing jobs, as well, and with these applications becoming more sophisticated over time, it’s no wonder people aren’t sure how to react to these developments.

Remote work doesn’t come without its fair share of issues, but with a little creativity and ingenuity, you can help your remote employees overcome them. Let’s examine structured problem solving, a particularly helpful approach to issue resolution that can help your team be more productive throughout the workday.

If asked, most business owners would likely rank “improving productivity” as one of their overall business goals—and for obvious reasons. Often less obvious, however, is how to go about accomplishing this particular goal. Here, we’ve put together five different but equally effective ways to do so.

There is a lot made of the importance of productivity when it comes to running a business. Of course, without a consistent output, revenue growth is impossible. As a result, many workers expect the same kind of effort that they give. When they don’t see that effort, tensions can get high and they can get stressed out pretty easily. Today, we will go through a couple of tips that will help you maintain composure when your job delivers more stress than you’d like. 

The best thing you can do for your employees is provide a good work experience, but what do we mean when we say this? In essence, you spend a lot of time trying to find the best fit for your organization, so you want to invest a solid amount of effort into making sure they stick around. This goes beyond compensation; you should consider the following for your business’ work experience.

Anyone who has spent a considerable amount of time in a professional occupation knows that meetings come with the territory. After all, running a business requires a lot of coordination, communication, and teamwork, and meetings are opportunities for employees to gather and discuss important business-related ideas. However, the amount of time wasted and misused on unnecessary meetings is a topic of concern.

Business owners try to avoid downtime like the plague, but it’s often a challenge to do so. The impact of downtime can be devastating for even the most stable business, and this is even more so the case when you bring profits and bottom lines into view. We’ll take a look at how you can calculate the cost of a downtime event.

No matter how dedicated some of your employees might be, you will always have the others who are simply in it for the paycheck rather than a desire to be personally connected to the business. If there is too much of a disconnect between the way you see the business and the way your employees see the business, morale and productivity could take a drop.