In an increasingly interconnected world, it's becoming harder and harder for business owners and managers to decide between choices. That's why many have started to implement Business Intelligence (BI) solutions, in the hopes that it will help them make better, more informed decisions. An increasingly popular component of BI is social data. The question is though, what is it and can small businesses benefit from it?

Here's an overview of social data and three ways small business owners and managers can use it to make decisions.

What is social data? Social data is any data or information collected from the various social media sites available. The easiest way to define social data is to differentiate it from social media. Social media is content that a user has created, copied or linked with the idea of sharing it with other people using a platform i.e., Facebook. Social data is the information that is linked to this content, such as shares, likes, location, time posted, etc.

It is social data that powers analytics and social media monitoring, (how popular your content, profile, etc. is), and if utilized efficiently could go a long way in helping you make better business decisions and a more focused marketing strategy.

Because there is so much data relating to and generated by social media activities, it can be nearly impossible to track and analyze it all. But, it is quickly becoming an important part of Business Intelligence, and will continue to become even more so as the number of social media sites and users continues to expand. That's why many BI solutions are starting to integrate social data gathering and analysis tools. While you may be able to track and analyze this data, do you know what you can do with it?

Three uses of social data

• Competitor research - Many companies currently focus on data related directly to their content. Why not expand it and look at your competitors, such what they are posting and how their followers are reacting? If done properly, this can give you valuable industry insight and generate ideas as to what you could also be doing to better leverage your brand and position.
• Judge health of marketing campaigns and overall interest - The main use of social data should be to help you track how well your current marketing campaigns and content is doing. Being able to analyze this data will reveal what works and what doesn't, allowing you to tweak and fine tune your efforts. The best platforms can provide near instant results which allow you to update or change on-the-fly.
• Gauge current public opinion - Social media is like a stream. There's always content flowing by you, much of it potentially useful. If you can track what people are saying, sharing and commenting on, you can spot trends faster, enabling you to come up with even more relevant content for followers to share, thus expanding presence.

There are numerous uses for social data in organizations and many bigger companies have started to track and implement learnings in different departments such as marketing, human resources and even finance. This is a great way for you to better know and provide what your customers and followers want.

If you would like to learn more about social data and how your company can use it effectively, call us today for a chat.

Microsoft Office is one of the most popular and important suites of software used by businesses. The key idea is that the different programs that make up the suite allow for greater productivity. One of them, Word, has some great productivity features that allow users to create professional text documents. One downside is that it can be unwieldy is formatting, especially when you need to break text.

There are numerous types of text breaks you can use in Word:

• Page break - Will insert a break where the cursor is and move the next line of text to the following page. This break is good for formatting reports and other longer documents, especially if you have headings with multiple subheadings; a page break between each main heading will make a report easier to read.
• Column break - If you have a document with more than one column, inserting a column break will move the cursor or text to the next column on the right. If you don't have columns, this will function as a page break.
• Section break - There are four different types of section breaks that can be used when you want to divide a document into different sections. For example, if you have a report where 3 pages need to be in a column, you can insert a section break around these pages and format them separately from the rest of the document.
• Line break - These breaks will move text to the next line. This can be useful if your document has an extra line between paragraphs, or when you are writing a list and need to add another paragraph without a new list point. You can insert a line break by hitting Shift+Return.

How to break your documents If you need to insert a break in your document, we first recommend that you turn on Show/Hide. This can be done by:

1. Clicking on Tools from the menu bar at the top of the window.
2. Selecting Options followed by the View tab in the window that pops up.
3. Ticking All under the Formatting Marks section.
4. Clicking Ok.

This will show all formatting marks on the document, making it easier for you to see what breaks and changes to formatting you have made. You can then insert breaks by:

1. Clicking where you would like to insert the break in the document (The break will be inserted where the blinking cursor is located, so be sure it's in the right spot.)
2. Clicking Insert from the menu bar at the top of the screen followed by Break.
3. Ticking the type of break you want to insert.
4. Clicking Ok.

Breaks are a great way to create documents that not only look more professional but are easier to read. If you are looking to learn more about using Word to its full potential, please contact us today.

When it comes to productivity, there are so many apps and programs out there that it can be confusing as to which are best for your business. One of the more useful productivity platforms is Office 365, Microsoft's cloud based version of Office. With numerous features that make it highly useful for businesses of all sizes, there is one that is often underused - Office Web Apps. So Microsoft has recently announced a few updates that could make it more appealing to users.

Here's an overview of Office Web Apps and the two upcoming updates for the platform.

What exactly is Office Web Apps? Office Web Apps (OWA) is a browser based version of Microsoft Office. OWA includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote which users can access through almost any web browser. These apps are available free of charge to everyone with a Microsoft SkyDrive and most Office 365 users.

The beauty of OWA is that it allows users to open, edit, collaborate on, and store the most popular Office documents from a variety of devices. What this means is that as long as a user has a Microsoft Account and is connected to the Internet, they can access Office software without actually having it installed on their computer or device.

If you've used OWA, you know that it's great for opening Office documents, basic editing and creating basic documents. The major downside is, these web based apps are missing a number of more advanced features e.g., Find and Replace in Word. Microsoft has stated that they are committed to introducing more features, and have recently announced two that could make OWA an even more viable solution for businesses.

Real-time collaboration In the current version of OWA collaboration is possible. However a user will need to refresh the browser window to see changes made by another editor. This is hardly ideal, especially if you have more than two people working on the same document.

Microsoft aims to change this by introducing real-time editing. This means that if you and three other colleagues are working on the same document, you will see the changes as they are made; so there's no need to refresh.

This feature is currently being rolled out to PowerPoint users, and should be applied to the other OWA apps sometime in the near future (there has been no specific date set by Microsoft, but it should be by the end of the year).

Editing from Android tablets While OWA may not be the best choice for desktop users, especially since the vast majority already have Office installed on their computers, it's great for mobile users. At this time, only Windows 8 tablet and iPad users have been able to access OWA from their devices. The recently announced update will soon bring this functionality to Android tablets as well.

Microsoft has not set a date as to when Android tablets will be able to access OWA, but it should be before the end of 2013, possibly the end of the summer. They also noted that they are working to speed up the service for tablets, which will foster even more efficient collaboration.

If you are interested in learning more about OWA, Office 365 or any of Microsoft's other programs please contact us today to see how we can help.

Hackers and other cyber criminals are an ever present danger on the Internet. This is a fact that we simply can't escape, and what's more, you can be pretty sure that we will see an increase in the number of attacks against sites as the internet continues to expand and be used by more and more people. One of the latest major sites to be hacked is LivingSocial, so if you have an account with this website, you may want to keep reading.

LivingSocial is a daily deals website that focuses on bringing bargains and original deals to users based on their geographical location. In late April, news broke that the website had suffered a massive cyber attack with 50 million accounts being compromised.

From the reports we have seen, the attack targeted accounts world-wide with only account holders in Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea and the Philippines being unaffected. An email sent out by Tim O'Shaughnessy, LivingSocial's CEO shortly after the incident said, "We recently experienced a cyber-attack on our computer systems that resulted in unauthorized access to some customer data from our servers. We are actively working with law enforcement to investigate this issue."

The company assured users that their credit card data had not been compromised, as they are kept in another database. Account passwords were also encrypted, which means they are harder to crack but not impossible.

What should you do? If you have a LivingSocial account, we recommend that you go and change your password immediately. This can be done by:

1. Going to LivingSocial's forgot your password page.
2. Entering the email address you used to sign up for the account with.
3. Pressing Reset Password.
4. Checking your email for an email from LivingSocial and following the instructions in the email.

It is advisable to pick a new password, one that is as different as possible from your old password and, as always, the longer, the better.

Is there anything I can to do protect my company? If you are a business owner who has websites that encourage customers to sign up for updates, accounts, etc. you may be wondering how you can keep your user's information secure from cyber attack. In truth, you can't keep your important information 100% secure, if a hacker is committed enough, they will be able to get the information they need or wreak the havoc they want to. But what you can do is to make it as hard as possible for cybercriminals to get your information. This could be as simple as using multiple databases to store different bits of information, or as complex as using the latest encryption methods and systems.

Each business is unique, and the best way to ensure your valuable data is secure is to work with an IT partner who takes the time to get to know your security needs and develop a solution that is as near to 100% secure as possible.

If you are worried about the security of your systems, contact us today. We may have the perfect solution that will meet your needs and budget.

Pause for a minute and ask yourself if your business is prepared for a disaster. Chances are you have some plan for a large scale disaster like hurricanes, earthquakes and fire, but what about other disasters like hackers or human error? The truth is, many businesses with a disaster recovery plan often forget to ensure they cover all potential disasters.

Here are five tips to help ensure that your business is fully ready for the next disaster.

1. Backup everything While it can be tempting to only backup the most important data and programs, it can be a chore to identify what is deemed to be important. Who knows, a file that is non-essential today may become essential in the future. If it is lost due to a disaster, this could prove to be a problem.

It would be a good idea to look for a backup solution that covers all data and programs. But, having a full backup solution isn't enough, you also need to ensure that recovery is easy and can be implemented quickly.

2. Look into tiered recovery Establishing a tiered recovery method means identifying the value and importance of existing systems and utilizing a recovery method that meets needs. It would be a good idea to identify mission critical systems and adopt a recovery method that can have these systems up and running as quickly as possible. From there you can tier different systems and match a recovery method. For example, archived files are likely not needed right away, so they can be recovered at a later date, using a slower recovery method.

3. Keep copies of all keys and licenses With the amount of software and programs businesses use on a daily basis growing, it would be a good idea to keep copies of the activation keys (the string of digits and letters you enter to activate the full version of software) and purchased licenses.

While many of these are now distributed electronically through email, there are still software developers that distribute keys by mail or with the physical install CDs. If you lose the codes in a fire, you will be out of luck and have to purchase the software again. This is an extra charge you likely don't want.

4. Pick the right recovery locations The best recovery plans offer numerous backup solutions which are hosted in different locations. A good provider knows this and will utilize data storage centers as far apart as possible. If you choose to backup your own data, it would not be a good idea to keep the backups in the office.

Similarly, if you are preparing for a big disaster, you likely have physical locations that you can move to if your main business location is damaged or destroyed. Optimal plans will have more than one location identified, and have them as far apart as possible. This will minimize the chances of losing full operations and increase your business's ability to bounce back quicker.

5. Match your recovery plan to your business There are so many different backup and recovery options that it can be tough to pick one. The best course of action is to look at your systems and how they work. If you operate strictly offline, a cloud based backup solution likely isn't your best bet. Or, if you operate fully in the cloud, a physical tape or hard disk backup may not be optimal.

If you are looking to beef up, or establish a disaster recovery plan, try working with an IT partner like us, who can help you find the optimal solution that can meet your needs and budget.

When it comes to creating a document, most business owners and managers will turn to Microsoft Word. While Word is one of the most versatile programs around, it’s not perfect. One common issue many struggle with is how to format documents, especially lists. Creating an ordered list can be a nightmare, especially when Word doesn’t restart numbering for a new list. It doesn’t have to be so frustrating though.

Below is an overview of how you can set up ordered lists to either continue numbered lists from where you last left off, or start at #1 with new lists.

Set up numbering for all future lists

1. Open a new Word document.
2. Go to the Home tab (Press Home at the top of the window)
3. Press the downward-facing arrow beside the numbered list button in the Paragraph group. (it’s located on the right of the bullet point button)
4. Select Set Numbered Value… from the drop-down menu.
5. Click the numbering option you want from the pop-up window.
6. Press Ok.

When setting numbered values, you have three options to choose from:

• Start new list – If you select this option, new lists will automatically start at one.
• Continue from previous list - Selecting this option will continue numbering from previous lists in the same document. For example: If you have a paragraph and then a numbered list with three points, and type another paragraph then enter a new list, the list will start from four.
• Set value to: – Lets you set what number lists will start at.

Change the number value of individual lists
If you have a document with numbered lists already in it, and want to change the number values of one list, you can do so by right-clicking on the first number of a list and selecting either Restart at 1 or Continue numbering.

Note that if you have a document with a continuous list that is separated by paragraphs and choose to reset one list to start at one, all subsequent lists will be changed to reflect the new ordering.

Meaningful Use Stage 2 begins on January 1, 2014, and while many health-care providers have implemented electronic medical records (EMRs) in preparation, stumbling blocks exist. Here are three of them.

Getting patients to use portals. More than 50% of patients seen during the reporting period must receive timely online access to their health information, which means within four business days. Additionally, more than 5% of patients seen in that period must actually, "view, download, or transmit to a third party their health information."

Exchanging data. Health-care providers must provide a summary-of-care record for more than 50% of transitions of care and referrals, and for 10% of those transitions, the summary must be transmitted electronically. Moreover, at least one exchange must occur with a recipient who uses a different EMR. And, the data must be able to be generated in a specified format.

Creating medication and lab orders. More than 60% of medication orders and 30% of lab test orders must be done electronically, and test orders will involve new workflows in many practices.

While these three potential stumbling blocks may seem large, there is some good news: Stage 2 shouldn’t be burdensome for health-care providers who attested in Stage 1, as you’re essentially just demonstrating a higher level of use. If you are preparing for Stage 2, and are worried about potential challenges, contact us today to see how we can help make the tranistion smooth and worry free.

It seems that there is a security threat or leak in the news almost every week. The majority of these leaks tend to revolve around account information and passwords being stolen and released on the Internet for anyone to view. In truth, most of the passwords released are secure, but not 100% secure. Anyone with a powerful enough computer and the right tools can crack almost any security measure. The only thing you can really do is come up with strong passwords.

If you want to minimize the chances of your password being hacked, here are five things you should NOT do.

1. Don’t pick short passwords

While short passwords are easier to remember, they are also easier and quicker to hack. The most common way to hack passwords is by using brute force: Developing a list of every possible password, then trying this list with a username.

Using a mid-range computer like the one many have on their desk, with a normal Internet connection, you can develop a list of all potential passwords astonishingly quickly. For example it would take 11.9 seconds to generate a list of all possible passwords using five lowercase characters (a,b,c,d,etc.) only. It will take about 2.15 hours to develop a list of all possible passwords using five of any computer character. Once a hacker has the list, they just have to try every potential password with your user name.

On the other hand, a list of all 8 character passwords with at least one special character (!,@,%,etc.) and one capital letter would take this computer 2.14 centuries to develop. In other words, the longer the password, the harder it will be to hack. That being said, longer passwords aren’t impossible to hack, they just take more time. So, most hackers will usually go after the shorter passwords first.

2. Don’t use the same password

The way most hackers work is that they assume users have the same password for different accounts. If they can get one password, it’s as simple as looking through that account’s information for any related accounts and trying the original password with the other accounts. If one of these happens to be your email where you have kept bank information, you will likely see your bank account drained.

It’s therefore important to use a different password for every online account. They key here is to try and use a password that’s as different as possible. Don’t just add a number or character onto the end of a word. If you have trouble remembering all of your passwords, try using a password manager like LastPass.

3. Don’t use words from the dictionary or all numbers

This article published last year on ZDnet highlights the 25 most popular passwords. Notice that more than 15 contain words from the dictionary, and most of the rest are strings of common numbers. To have a secure password, most security experts agree that you should not use words from the dictionary or number combinations that are beside each other (e.g., 1234).

4. Don’t use standard number substitutions

Some users have passwords where they replace letters with a number that looks similar, for example: h31lo (hello). Most new password hacking tools actually have combinations like this built in and will try a normal word, followed by replacing letters with similar numbers. It’s best to avoid this.

5. Don’t use available information as a password

What we mean by this is using information that can be easily found on the Internet. For example, doing a quick search for your name will likely return your email address and social media profiles. If you have pictures of your kids, spouse, pets, family, their dates of birth, etc. on your Facebook profile and have put their names in captions, it’s possible for a hacker to see this (assuming the pictures are shared with the public).

You can bet that they will try these names as your password. You would be surprised with the amount of personal information on the web. We suggest searching for yourself using your email address(s), social media profile names, etc. and seeing what information can be found. If your passwords are close to what you find, it would be a good idea to change them immediately.

There are numerous things you can do to minimize the chance that your passwords are stolen and accounts hacked.

 

Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR for short, is the idea of integrating social and environmental ideas into your company, daily operations and interactions with all stakeholders. One of the more common CSR practices adopted by companies of all sizes is the idea of ‘going green’, or helping the environment. This is a great idea, not only does it make the Earth a better place, it makes your company look more caring; human even. The thing is, it can be hard to actually go green, but there are some apps that can help.

Here are four great apps that can help you and your employees make your company a little more green.

1. GoodGuide

GoodGuide is an app that can help you find out more about products. Utilizing a barcode scanner, it can provide you with information like where the product comes from, whether it’s safe and if it’s green.

With over 170,000 ranked products in the app’s database, it’s a great way to start learning about sustainable and environmentally friendly products. The only downside of this app is that it currently focuses on the US only, and there is no word as to when, or if, service will expand. You can download it to your Apple and Android device for free.

2. PaperKarma

While we are currently living in a digital age, we still get a lot of paper-based junk mail. This is incredibly wasteful, as most people just throw it away. PaperKarma is an app that aims to reduce or eliminate waste paper.

How it works is you take a picture of unwanted mail, the developers will then contact the distributor and ask that they stop sending mail to you. This app could go a long way in helping reduce the amount of paper your office uses, which will mean lower costs for you and less trees felled. It’s really a win-win. You can download it to your iPhone or Android device for free.

3. iRecycle

An important part of any green initiative is recycling. The problem is, it can be hard to find out what, how and where to recycle. iRecycle is an app that aims to set this straight. It provides information on how to recycle almost everything and the nearest recycle points to you.

The app also provides you with recycling centric updates, news and tips to help encourage you to do more. It’s available for Apple (iPhone and iPad) and Android devices for free.

4. greenMeter

If your company has a fleet of vehicles, you are probably always on the lookout for ways to make them more efficient. Whether it be switching tires used, driving at slower speeds to conserve gas or carpooling, finding a way to cut costs is important. greenMeter is an app that could help. What it does is use your iPhone’s accelerometer and manually entered data to assess your vehicle’s power and gas usage.

While driving, this app provides real-time feedback on how efficient your driving is and how much gas you are using. This will help you conserve fuel (as you can see when you are burning more than usual) which will reduce operating costs and negative environmental impact. It’s available for the iPhone and costs USD$5.99.

These are just four apps that can help your company go green. What other CSR initiatives do you take in your company? Let us know! And if you would like more tips on how technology can help you reduce your environmental impact, let us know, we can help.

It’s safe to say that every business has goals, some are more clearly defined than others, but there is always something managers and owners strive for. During operations, you need a way to figure out how and if you are reaching your goals, this is usually done through the use of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The question many ask though, is what exactly are KPIs?

Below is an overview of KPIs for business.

Define: KPI
The Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a tool used to measure performance of a business or employees. Many businesses use this tool to look at either the overall performance and success of all or specific operations. To many, the terms performance and success are synonyms.

How do KPIs work?
Most modern versions of this tool come in the form of software applications that track specific data and criteria set by managers or owners. The software allows them to compare these criteria, commonly referred to as Score Cards, with the established goals and gauge overall performance or success.

This data, usually collected from spreadsheets, databases or even manual data entry, is displayed to the user in an easy to read format called a dashboard. The dashboard is typically a graph or similar visual display.

A common dashboard is the traffic light. Let’s say for example that a company is measuring the success of their latest marketing campaign. A green light indicates that the expected number of conversions is being met or exceeded, yellow means actual conversions are slightly below normal and red means actual are well below expected.

Benefits of KPIs
The biggest benefit of these tools is that they allow users to easily gauge the performance of a business. Beyond that you can set many KPIs with triggers that will alert you when the measurements are poor. This will allow the company to figure out ways to fix issues before they can cause bigger problems.

Effective KPIs
For many businesses, effective KPIs are tailored to the needs of the business. For the majority of businesses, KPIs need to be: Measurable, achievable, specific and result-oriented. The best way for a business to figure out the which will be the most effective is for the manager or owner to look at the aspects that are most important to a business.

This can be hard to figure out, especially for business owners who often think that everything related to their business is important. A business intelligence expert or IT partner can help define what really matters most and help to implement the tools needed.

If you are looking for a better way to measure the success or performance of your business, please contact us today.