Ferrum Technology Services Blog

Most businesses rely on specific software, and a lot of it. It’s used to manage, protect, and facilitate your business. Today’s software is more flexible than ever before, and while control over your business’ IT systems is always better, the ability for a business to get the tools it needs may take you in a different direction. Let’s take a look at some considerations you should make when you are looking to get software for your business. 

 Many businesses have turned to the productivity suite as they’ve added more and more useful tools. Traditionally, the productivity suite came with a word processor, spreadsheet program, note-taking program, and presentation software. Today, we will take a look at the variables that decision makers need to confront when choosing the right productivity suite for their business.

Your business relies on its software, so if that software presents major security issues, it can be really concerning. In order to keep software from being a point of entry for hackers and scammers, you need to update and patch your software. Today, we’ll briefly discuss patch management and why it is a policy that you should be actively pursuing. 

Windows 10 has seen a slow growth in its market share since it first appeared in July 2015, still rising throughout 2020 to now. As of this October, the operating system had finally reached a 72.2 percent market share. Let’s discuss why this benchmark matters, and why you need to update any devices in your organization to bring that share up even more.

Flash Player is going to be going out of support, the 24-year-old software being retired at the end of this year. That's a pretty big deal: Flash Player, at least initially, was a solution that most users have used at one time or another. What will this loss mean for your business’ processes?

Today’s software solutions are hugely benefited by the collaborative capabilities that are now included in them, but this is not to say that there isn’t the potential for confusion as people make changes to documents. Some software lets you track these changes, which is particularly useful in particularly dense applications like Microsoft Excel.

Android has been around in one of its many forms for over a decade, and looking back, the changes that have been made over time is remarkable. Let’s go through each version to review some of the adjustments and improvements that each new version has introduced.

Spreadsheets are a supremely useful tool for businesses to use, but it is important for you to consider which option will work out best for your particular needs. Let’s consider the biggest two spreadsheet applications available today—Microsoft’s Excel and Google’s Sheets—to familiarize yourself with your options.

While there’s been no “official” date set for the release of Android 11, there have been plenty of indications so far of its features in its ongoing beta tests. We decided to look forward into the near future to see how some of these features could help us to be productive.

The G Suite is clearly a project that Google is far from finished with, as they have consistently made improvements to the suite and its included software. Recently, a few were added that could very much benefit a business’ users. Let’s go over a selection of these updates, and the benefits you could see as a result.

The agility of a business to adjust to ebbs and flows in the market is extremely important. One way businesses are making this happen is by integrating their operational software with their management software. This tactic allows data to move faster, providing businesses with some very specific benefits. Let’s take a look at how integration works.

The cloud has allowed businesses access to an astounding amount of resources. One of these resources that has proven exceptionally beneficial to businesses is Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS. Here, we’ll examine SaaS and go over how it can benefit your operations.

Getting a new computer or smartphone is always exciting for the individual. For the growing business, however, getting new computers can be a giant pain in the neck. That’s not to say that a hardware refresh isn’t an exciting time for a business, it’s just that to get the new hardware to a point where it can be usable takes some doing. Today, we’ll talk a little bit about bloatware, why manufacturers install it, and how to get rid of it quickly. 

Properly managing and maintaining a relationship with clients, customers, and contacts is a critical part of any business, especially if the business in question is actively working to grow. This is what makes a customer relationship management system, or CRM, so useful. Let’s review a few of the signs that your business needs a CRM to stay organized.

Google’s offering is much greater than that of a simple search engine. It is hard to even imagine a time when the extent of the services offered by Alphabet, Inc. were just the search functionality that introduced a new verb into the public lexicon. Now, the applications that make up what is known as the G Suite are used by businesses everywhere. Here, we’ll go over some of the included features, and how your business can benefit from them.

Patching your software is one of the most important, yet ignored, tasks in computing. Keeping all of your software up to date with the latest threat definitions can help your business’ IT stay secure. Recently, in a somewhat atypical move, Microsoft has announced that they have released an emergency out-of-band security update to fix two critical security issues. 

Information technology has a critical role in any business. The key part of an outstanding IT system, is the technology itself. Businesses greatly benefit from IT support that procures the latest and greatest technological developments. So, is your IT provider delivering the best value possible?

When you talk about line of business software, you are typically talking about the unique applications that your business uses to manage their business. In the retail space, line of business software would typically refer to your Point of Sale (POS), or Point of Purchase (POP) software. This month we will talk about how businesses implement their POS software and how it works to manage different aspects of a retail business.

Patches are one of the most important aspects of your technology. As with anything, technology is constantly changing, so shouldn’t your software? Today we will discuss three tips, sharing advice on optimizing your patch management process. 

When you own a vehicle, you get a little document called a vehicle title. This certificate establishes the legal owner of the vehicle. When you own software, you are given a software license. Like any contract, things can go south if you violate the terms.