What Kind of Metrics Do You Collect?

What kind of data do you analyze when making strategic business decisions?

If you’re like most small business owners, the answer is many times “nothing” or “not much”. With so much information flowing in and out, it can be difficult to spot all the opportunities and insights waiting to be discovered. You don’t need to hire a data scientist. There’s tools from Microsoft to help you embrace big data so you can make smart, data-driven business decisions. Check it out:

Analyzing data with Excel in Microsoft 365

Who doesn’t use Excel these days? Excel is an incredibly powerful tool for analyzing data. New features are being added every day. Take Excel’s Power Query feature for example. It’s quick and easy to connect multiple data sources, automatically updating with new data at the click of a button. It can help clean the data for you too.

Business intelligence with Power BI

Power BI makes it easy to get powerful insights into your data. It’s got a range of useful reports that can be fully customized to fit your business. Power BI also works well with other Microsoft’s apps like Teams and Excel. By connecting all your data sources, Power BI gives you high-quality insights across the entirety of your company.

If you’d like to discuss how partnering with us can help you make the most of the data that flows through your company, click to Call or Email us today to schedule a meeting today.

What is Slowing Down My Computers?

Does the speed of your computers slow down the speed of your business?

Before dismissing that thought, remember that slow computers tend to creep up on you. They slow down through a gradual reduction in speed instead of suddenly. That makes it difficult to notice the problem. So, why do computers get slower over time?

There’s usually three common reasons for computers slowing down:

RAM: The memory requirements for computers increase over time. It wasn’t terribly long ago that 4GB of memory was considered more than enough for most people and it was weird to think we’d ever need more. Those days are long gone, and even if you don’t run much more than your operating system and a web browser, you’d find that 4GB just isn’t enough and creates a painfully slow experience.

Crap: Having too many programs that run in the background can also slow down computers. If your IT support team hasn't been proactive in this department, it might be time to look for a different partner.

Hard Disk Storage: If the storage space on your hard drives is getting close to capacity, you will soon run into problems. Windows relies on temporary hard drive space to keep running. You'll also find that switching from mechanical drives to modern solid state drives (storage with no moving parts) will make your computers start and run much faster.

If you have slow computers and you’re not happy with the level of service from your current IT support provider, click to Call or Email us today to schedule a meeting to discuss your company’s IT needs.

Some Hardware is Still Hard to Get

COVID-19 created all manner of chaos last year including major disruptions to supply chains of critical hardware, affecting all electronic devices such as workstations, server, and laptops. As supplies went down, prices went up. Such is the way of things anymore.

Have you planned ahead for what hardware you’ll need this year?

With no end in sight, now’s the time to order what you need for the year. You don’t want to pay through the nose for mediocrity or get stuck with cheap, unreliable hardware that’s not what you really needed.

One of the functions of having Cyclone 365 as your outsourced IT department is procurement. Let us do all the hard work and planning. Focus on the core aspects of your business instead.

Click to Call or Email us today to schedule a meeting to discuss your company’s IT needs.

What's Your Plan?

As 2021 nears the end, what plans do you have for your business next year?

If you have ambitions for growth, you must have an IT strategy in place that will help you make the best of new technology to support your business goals.

Why create an IT strategy?

An IT strategy shouldn’t be a purely technical document. The best IT strategies can be shared widely across the business. Using input from all departments, a good IT strategy will improve how everything works and ensures that sufficient IT resources are planned for your whole business. A good strategy will guide how you invest in future technology as well as make sure the technology you currently use contributes to hitting your business goals. Not to mention it’ll also help reduce the risk of your team running into common (and easily avoidable to us) IT issues that can slow them down and cause frustration.

Can we help you create your IT strategy?

Click to Call or Email us today to schedule a meeting to discuss your company’s IT strategy.

Rethinking Modern Productivity

We all have our own ways of working.

Some people work with Post-it notes all over their desks while others prefer to keep everything digital. There’s no right or wrong way of doing things when it comes to productivity and we all have our preferences. If you’re looking for some alternative ways to be more productive, here’s a few apps that might help:

Toggl lets you easily track your day so you can see how much time you’re spending on different tasks. Whether you want to see which clients are consuming all your time, or how long you spend on video calls every day, Toggl makes it super quick and easy to keep an eye on where your time is going. Understanding where your time goes is the first step to making your time work for you.

Trello is a great tool for organizing your life. It lets you set up boards, lists, and cards that you can use pretty much however you want. It’s a very flexible tool. Trello’s great for work too, especially for teamwork and project management.

If you’re constantly bombarded with links to articles and websites that you don’t have the time to read immediately, Pocket is a great app that lets you quickly save and categorize any links that you want to come back to later. It’s available as a browser extension as well as a mobile app for iOS and Android.

If you need more ideas for productivity, please feel free to reach out to your account manager at Cyclone 365. If you’re not currently partnered with us, then click to Call or Email us today to schedule a meeting to discuss your company’s IT needs.