The Office Manager’s Toolkit: 4 IT Issues Your Business Shouldn't Have to Deal With

The Office Manager's Toolkit: 4 IT Issues Your Business Shouldn't Have to Deal With It's supposed to make our lives easier, but sometimes technology can be extremely frustrating. We take a look at four IT issues that are all too common in the workplace and how you can solve them. Spam The bane of inboxes and IT support departments the world over, spam at best is an irritant that needs to be deleted and at worst could contain malware or phishing scams that unsuspecting employees might fall foul of: ....... Spam accounts for Spam costs companies 14.5 billion 45% £13.5 billion spam messages sent out each day globally. in lost productivity plus technical expenses. of all e-mails. The cost to businesses 58 billion will swell to spam messages each day are predicted over the next four years. £130 billion annually. Top 3 Most Prevalent Forms of Spam No. 1 - Advertising-related 36% No. 2 - Adult-related 31.7% No. 3 - Financially-related 26.5% While scam and fraud spam only makes up 2.5% of all spam email received, phishing (an attempt i steal the receiver's identity digitally) makes up a worrying 73% of this figure. Printers 40% Printing can be pricey - an unmanaged print fleet can cost an organisation between one and three per cent of its annual revenue, according to print IT service provider, M2. of calls to a company's IT support are printer-related. Printing too slow? Switch to draft-printing mode in print properties; it'll speed up printing and most importantly, significantly save on ink costs as well. Cartridges too expensive? Avoid official cartridges/toner. Instead, buy a refurbed/refilled cartridge/toner from a reputable third-party supplier. Printer not working? Seriously, check that it's plugged in. Check there is paper in the tray. Check the printer is connected to the computer. See Channel 4's The IT Crowd for more details. 624.1 million broadband lines globally Slow Broadband 90% of slow broadband issues are caused by issues at the customer end. Solve potential issues by: Investing in a leased line It's pricy (up to £200 a month plus hefty install charge) but it's the best option for companies with 40 or more employees. Moving your router If you are using wi-fi, how close is your router to your phone line? The closer the better. Checking what software is using your net connection Some programs can take up valuable bandwidth even when you're not directly using them. Contacting your ISP And asking them to investigate why your broadband is slow – there may be an issue at their end or maintenance may be interfering with your connection. Using virus software To see if your computer has malware operating in the background. Moving providers Or at the very least, demanding a discount from your current ISP if the problem is at their end. Boot Times Average global boot time Consider. 3.12 minutes Clearing out startup programmes (try Autoruns) to check which programmes are booting up at startup – and cull the ones you don't need. Amount of time a person wastes a month on booting their PC 1.6 hours Scanning for viruses and malware That could be launching at startup. Disabling non-essential hardware Via Device Manager – do you really need Bluetooth Radio booting up when you switch on your PC? Upgrading your computer 64 days Loading up the latest operating system on an archaic PC is going to take time because of the strain on the system... of a person's lifetime are wasted on booting For the best solution, install solid-state drives. Unlike The amount of time UK civil servants waste a year waiting for their computers to boot up? hard drives, these feature no moving parts so boot up extremely quickly. Be warned though that they are pricy and storage capacity is limited when compared to 3 days. HDDS. rfamm To learn more about how to get the best IT support, download our free Office Manager's Toolkit: Is IT Interrupting Your Business? eGuide: Office manager's toolkit: is IT interrupting your business? DOWNLOAD NOW! Sources: http://www.securelist.com/en/analysis/204792293/Spam_in_April_2013#6 http://www.spamlaws.com/spam-stats.html http://blog.imninc.com/email-marketing/email-marketing-all-that-sizzles-not-spam-infographic-friday/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/guides/stopping-spam-emails http://www.pcworld.com/article/1 85111/10_biggest_printer_problems_and_how_to_fix_them html?page=3 http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/mar/30/inkjet-or-laser-printing-cost-effective http://www.techbubbles.co.uk/blog/how-much-does-your-print-infrastructure-cost/ http://support.zen.co.uk/kb/Knowledgebase Article.aspx?articleid=10819 http://www.money.co.uk/article/1004457-how-to-speed-up-a-slow-broadband-connection.htm http://point-topic.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Sample-Report-Global-Broadband-Statistics-Q2-2012.pdf http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2334663/Civil-servants-waste-THREE-days-year-waiting-computers-turn-Coalition-saves-10billion- Whitehall-shake-up.html http://www.soluto.com/boot-time http://www.pcworld.com/article/2036996/leave-early-on-friday-time-saving-pc-tips-and-tricks.html http://blog.laptopmag.com/ways-to-make-your-pc-boot-faster rfarm THE BETTER WAY www.itfarm.co.uk .*********