IT Support Bristol
A selection of original IT support articles from our backroom
teams that might interest you. They are drawn from experience and
help illustrate some issues surrounding IT support.
Just how dependent on Internet connections are businesses
nowadays?
If the Internet is increasingly important for delivering your
main business functions to customers, and enabling your employees
to carry out their work, what price the reliability of your network
connection?
Do business leaders embrace or fear the rise of the
smartphone?
For the last 15 years it's been all about PCs and a fairly
stable selection of browsers. Now, you can let go of certainties
like that. If the Internet plays a role in delivering your
solutions to customers, how important is it that you adapt to fast
growing user devices such as smartphones?
Apple's
tablet leader has no real competition - yet
None of the wannabe iPads is up to much against Apple's doyen of
the tablet marketplace. We look at why.
Webmail developments that changed e-mail for good
Webmail interfaces used to be the poor cousin to desktop e-mail
clients. But providers have innovated at a pace: whilst they
haven't completely changed everybody's perceptions of webmail,
they've made a few developments that are starting to influence
developers of desktop e-mail software...
SolidWorks rides the wave in cloud computing
The cloud is certainly on the rise, and further evidence of this
comes from major CAD software developer SolidWorks. Although cloud
computing is not the central selling point for CAD applications, it
does hark back to the boom in affordable computing power that
helped the early SolidWorks to grow in 1995...
Dilemmas for business considering cloud-based IT
The pace of growth in cloud-based software and storage has
business leaders caught between two bases: eagerness to adopt what
the new technology has to offer, balanced by concerns about
managing complexity, security and how exactly their needs will be
met.
How workers in Europe go about getting an IT
upgrade
Recent research from online backup provider Mozy shows that,
when employees want an upgrade to their computer, laptop or company
phone, they go about it in quite different ways…
The three silliest predictions about computers and the
Internet
Bizarrely, some of the figureheads of the computer and
electronics industry don't seem to be particularly savvy when it
comes to trends. For your enjoyment, here are three of their
legendarily innacurate predictions so that you can marvel at their
silliness…
Why e-mail is still the most important business IT
tool
Despite the inbox being is prone to irritations such as spam,
why is it still so ubiquitous as a business tool? What else can
e-mail do apart from messaging that makes it so indispensible in
the 21st-century workplace?
What matters more in cloud computing: flexibility or
cost?
Driven by the rise in mobile workers, the ability to access
files from an internet connection regardless of location is a
winning aspect of moving to the cloud - and is now more important,
it seems, than cost…
Cloud
computing: get your terminology right
Since "the cloud" is the dominant development in business IT,
everyone seems to be talking about it, contributing to a flurry of
confusion of what 'cloud computing' means: some mean Software as a
Service (SaaS), others document storage, while others debate what
is and isn't 'cloud'. Time for a bit of clarity...
E-mail's
demise has been grossly exaggerated…
E-mail has supposedly been in dire peril from many new forms of
online messaging, and faces an internal enemy in the form of inbox
spam. But despite all these developments, the medium still refuses
to give up and die. Why is it still the business communication tool
of choice?
Is it time for a rival connector to replace USB?
Is it time to start looking at a new connector to rival USB 3.0?
Intel and Apple certainly seem to think so: the two heavyweights
have thrown their weight behind a new superfast connector called
Thunderbolt.
Bing catches up with Google, but still only
slightly
Is there any way for the No. 2 player in web search to ever
catch up with Google? Microsoft has been betting for a number of
years that there will be a way. But its progress in gaining ground
seems to have slowed to a glacial pace.
Smartphones
are now more popular than PCs
The most popular computer is now a phone. For the first time,
more smartphones have been shipped in a business quarter than PCs,
thanks to an astonishing 87 per cent growth rate compared to the 54
million smartphones shipped in the last 3 months of 2009.
How well are you managing the "I" in IT?
How you align your business and technical functions is becoming
ever more significant for business success. Does your technical
director's focus fall on the information under management, as well
as supporting the IT infrastructure itself?
The Microsoft-Google feud bursts back to life over
"plagiarism"
Google is crying foul as it claims it has spotted evidence that
Microsoft's Bing engine is literally scraping its results using the
IE8 toolbar. Now the search and browser rivals are both accusing
each other of similar misdeeds - not that they've needed much of an
excuse for heated arguments over the years…
Business
IT predictions for 2011
What's in store for the New Year? Computing industry analysts IDC
have been hard at work interviewing business owners, suppliers and
IT middle managers in order to find out. Here are their headlines,
and how we think it'll affect our Bristol IT support
clients…
Choosing
a laptop for business use
When it comes to choosing laptops for business, you've got
different questions from a private buyer. How do you go about
choosing one? As one of the major Bristol IT support companies,
we'll share a few simple guidelines on making your laptops a
lasting purchase.
Tablet
computers to surge in 2011
If one trend is sure to change the face of business computing in
2011, it's a surge in the number of businesses choosing tablet
computers for their workforce. The explosive growth in the market
will see almost 1 in 7 large firms providing some tablet computers
for their employees.
How likely are tablets to replace laptops in 2011's IT
market?
Surprisingly it is businesses as well as consumers that are
driving the demand for tablet devices such as the iPad. Can tablets
be a direct replacement for laptops in your business?
When are you most likely to get an IT Support
call?
Let's face it: it's bound to be out of hours, isn't it? Not so
much because of any scientific likelihood, but simply because of
Sod's Law. That's why so many businesses are including an element
of outsourced network support into their IT provision.
What
devices will IT support need to cover in the
future?
Now it's time to wonder aloud: can we form a realistic picture of
what a post-PC world might actually look like?
Are your laptops
vulnerable to theft?
Last year, over 1 million laptops were stolen in the USA,
according to the FBI -and presumably a large number of these stolen
computers were company laptops.
Three ways companies like yours get held to ransom
At Manchester United, the threat of Wayne Rooney's
departure held the whole club to ransom over cash. Have you
realised the same scenario could happen to you?
Why one multi-million pound business decided to outsource IT
support
Starting with the realisation that an IT manager
would not be cost-effective, here's why one company decided to
outsource their complex IT support requirements
How IT support firms work with SaaS experts to put your business in
the cloud
Software as a service helps businesses keep IT
overheads low, and so do we…
Is there
some truth in this IT support stereotype?
Support technicians are infamous for a certain
opening question, but there's good reason for asking it…
The cost of not
using IT support: an example
How a small and IT-savvy company nearly blew
it…
Is it possible to avoid jargon in IT support communications?
Plain English is desirable in most business
communications, but is it possible with something as technical as
IT?
How
IT services in Bristol help deliver greener buildings
There's a link between improving the energy
efficiency of new buildings and using the right outsourced IT
services…
The advantages of having a single company for Bristol IT
services
You could employ different contractors for IT
helpdesk, network support, CRM and leasing, but where's the
efficiency in that?
How Bristol companies benefit by using Microsoft Certified partners
for IT Support
It's not just a reassuring badge or a vague
boast… here's the lowdown on the different levels of
Microsoft Partner status on the Bristol IT support scene
Criteria for
choosing IT support in Bristol
Need a quick checklist that will help you select an
IT support company?
How
outsourced IT support can help your business grow
It's often thought of as a negative cost-saving
tactic, but outsourcing can be built into your growing business to
make it more agile…
Fixed price vs. "break-fix" IT
support Bristol
There's a difference between proactive and reactive
IT support…
