The Datamax Thinking Blog

A Network Risk Assessment can dispel security concerns and propel your team to the ultimate goal for your organization and its network infrastructure – peace of mind.

For me, there’s perhaps no better mind-clearing, stress-relieving pastime then a jaunt along the trails at a nearby state park. The sun poking its way through the towering pine trees, coupled with the low-volume sounds of the early morning surrounding me, provides me peace of mind to empower a productive week ahead.

Isn’t peace of mind – in our homes and our workplace – what we all ultimately crave? Given today’s volatile cyber security climate, fear and uncertainty of everything from downtime to network intrusion can disrupt an organization’s collective contentment.

Specific print management solutions provide various levels of control and can help business owners of all-sized organizations better track usage, from features like Secure Print available directly on your MFP, up to robust enterprise, server-based solutions. 

My brother-in-law, the sales director for a newly-opened auto dealership, strives to find any way possible to keep costs low and minimize wasteful practices as the business gains momentum. We chatted about his recent challenges at a recent Sunday gathering, the buzz of March Madness games echoing from the tv in a nearby room.

Being in the industry I’m in, I naturally asked him about the set up of copiers and printers at the dealership. He struggled to recall the make and model of the machine that sits near his office.  And then he shook his head.

“But I can tell you this for sure: There’s a ton of waste,” he said. “Every day I see copies just sitting on or around the copier all the time. You wouldn’t believe it.”

A Managed Network Services program fine tunes and establishes control over all the moving components of your network.

Your business's network – much like, say, your home’s air conditioning unit - steadily hums along, quietly unnoticed, with what seems like relative ease. But day-to-day maintenance and unexpected downtime can make any IT administrator feel the heat in a hurry.

As companies of every size rely on IT to operate, it’s becoming more difficult to find and hire the IT expertise you need. Is there an alternative?

When it comes to IT, many small and medium businesses struggle to find the right balance of reliability, responsiveness, and cost – not to mention technical expertise. In most cases, IT support is usually one of four ways:

• Your niece, nephew, or first born, who is “really technical” and oversees the details for you
• A company a business friend of yours uses that you call when your computers start freezing
• A dedicated, in-house IT department that you keep on your payroll and “does it all”
• A proactively, managed provider who provides a blend of remote monitoring, preventative maintenance, and help desk support when you need it

Understanding the difference between these types of support is critical to protecting your business. Hackers are everywhere, they want your information, and they are just waiting to take advantage of your small business’s network vulnerabilities.

It's no wonder that organizations are more active than ever in pursuing solutions to streamline traditional methods of managing documents. 

Every year, I learn more about copiers, document management, workflow, and, increasingly, managed IT topics than I did they year before.

I do my best to pass on what I learn to you.

Here are the 10 most popular posts in 2017. How to get the best service. Tips for HIPAA compliance. Scanning tips. How to track printing to keep costs down.

Read on for insights into those topics – and more – to get yourself ready for 2018!

Keeping your lease with the partner who delivered your IT solution or designed the structure and layout of your office print fleet is an excellent way to ensure you get the best service possible throughout the length of your contract.

You have multiple choices when it comes to leasing your copiers and other office equipment.

You already know many of the advantages of leasing (more on that below) – predictable budgeting and the ability to rapidly roll-out advanced technology at a fraction of what it would cost to buy that same technology.

While leasing is a great way to take advantage of technology, the wrong leasing partner can turn business nirvana into a nightmare of poor service, unexpected fees, and trapped into using technology that no longer meets your needs because of inflexible lease terms.

We believe that being a trusted partner is good for us and, more importantly, good for our customers.

Employees are a big weakness in any information security plan. These 6 tips will make your security stronger.

The biggest security hole in any business isn't the network or your computer assets or the various programs you operate on.

The biggest security threat to any business is the people that work there.

Because people do stupid things. And when they do stupid things with company information (like leaving a laptop in the backseat of a car with customer information), your company is at risk of a data breach.

That's why when it comes to cybersecurity, paying attention only to the IT side of things isn't good enough (though that's essential, of course).

You need to train your users.

Here are a few tips to help you get started on training employees on information security.

You want to be HIPAA-compliant? You need to perform a risk assessment.

It shouldn't be a surprise to know that security research shows that the healthcare industry is a prime target for hackers and assorted cybercriminals.

From insurance companies to small doctors offices to research facilities to hospitals, all have a treasure-trove of personal information that criminals are itching to get their hands on.

Not involved in the healthcare industry? If you're reading this and are in manufacturing, financial services, government, or transportation; those round out the top five targets.

“Only” a small business and think you're safe?

Stop thinking the small size of your business will protect you from cybercriminals. It won't.

Too many small and medium businesses believe that they aren't a target for hackers and cybercriminals.

If that statement describes your view of security, you're wrong.

Cybercriminals target businesses of every size and in every industry. They're looking for easy pickings. After all, why try to rob Fort Knox when the houses down the street all have their doors unlocked?

Here are eight things every SMB must know about cybersecurity.

Without a data backup strategy, SMBs put their business at risk of failure.

Most SMBs couldn't survive not having access to their information for a few days.

Yet many SMBs ignore the one critical thing they need to do to maintain access to their information – a data backup strategy.

Business owners often simply don't understand how important the issue is – or think that backing up their laptop hard drive or a cloud storage service like Google Drive or Box is a backup strategy.

IT pros know how important data backup is but have enough to worry about - about securing the network perimeter and preventing ransomware and other cyberattacks, troubleshooting copiers and printers, and trying to plan out an IT strategy that balances costs, business needs, and security.