Catharsis Managed IT Ltd blog

It’s no secret how useful the Google Chrome browser is to a user. What is a secret, however, is that Chrome has some added capabilities that make it even more useful than first impressions would suggest. For our Tip of the Week, we’ll review some of these capabilities so you can implement them into your daily workflows.

It wasn’t so long ago when your business could get away with protecting your computer with a simple installation of antivirus software. There were only around 50,000 known computer viruses in the year 2000, but that number has since skyrocketed to an astounding 185 million unique variants of threats.

The smartphone has completely changed the way that the workplace functions, providing near-constant access to all the wonders of the Internet. People can communicate in ways previously never thought possible, and the possibilities these days are indeed limitless. There are applications out there that can make life more fulfilling and business more productive.

Unlike the office environment, the technology used in retail has been relatively stagnant. The times are changing, though. It’s been a long time coming, but the technology used in the retail environment is finally evolving to meet the growing needs of organizations. Unfortunately, this has been met with the challenges of implementing said technology in the industry.

We’ve beaten this point into the ground countless times already, but Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, presents clear benefits compared to the traditional way of using a telephone for business purposes. One of the key ways that VoIP does this is by providing features that traditional telephony simply cannot compete with. We’ll be discussing some of the best ways you can augment your VoIP solution with additional add-ons.

Sometimes threats come to light only after they’ve been around for long enough to cause concern for the public. This was the case with a new bug found in Apple’s FaceTime app that allowed users to spy on others without their consent through group FaceTime calls. Thankfully, a patch has been issued that resolves it, but perhaps the way that it was implemented is the most interesting of all.

Ever get an email with the subject line “No Subject” and not feel compelled to open it? Us too. Your email subjects are crucial to getting a user’s attention and helping them understand what the email is about. We’re here to help you develop more effective email subjects to ensure your messages are opened and responded to.

Collaboration is an important part of nearly every business. If there were no collaborative strategy, every task within the business would be delegated to a single person with a limited scope and mindset, placing a cap on both the task’s potential and the business’ potential.

The latest technology can help businesses compete with even large organizations if it’s implemented properly. The cloud is one of these tools that helps new businesses take advantage of goods and services previously inaccessible to those with limited budgets and in-house assets. In fact, the cloud is one of the few solutions your organization can implement that actually grow alongside your business.

PowerPoint is one of the better-known Microsoft Office applications, primarily for putting together slideshow presentations. However, there are other ways you can use it that might not seem immediately noticeable. This week’s tip is dedicated to how you can use PowerPoint for other purposes besides slideshow presentations.

All businesses need to be as efficient with their resources as possible. You might be surprised by the difference you can make simply by using your data more effectively. Stronger data management platforms, or DMPs, can put you in a better position to understand your organization’s needs, including its market and its customers. It’s time to look at how a DMP can make your business more effective and resource-efficient.

We’ve seen a lot of technology in our time, and during that time we’ve picked up on a lot of the vocabulary you expect experts to throw around. That being said, it’s easy to forget that not everyone uses these words--even business professionals who use the technology might forget what an acronym stands for. One of these is SSID.

Productivity is one of the key ingredients for your business’ profitability. However, if a particular service has too many requirements to make it profitable, PSA (or professional services automation) software may be the right fit for your needs. Here, we’ll review what PSA software does, and how it can be a great benefit to a business in the professional services industry.

If you need to condense data into a concise and comprehensible form, Microsoft Excel is tough to beat. This is despite the fact that your average spreadsheet isn’t exactly an eye-catcher. However, Excel provides a few native options that boost your data’s visual appeal, making it more engaging and much more meaningful. We’ll review a few today.

Sometimes it might feel like your technology never works as you want it to. You might try to open up a software application only to find an error message that keeps you from being productive. The error doesn’t go away no matter how many times you reload the application. How can you eliminate these issues that threaten to derail your productivity throughout the workday?

With Windows 10 being a major part of most business’ computing strategy, many people use it at their jobs each day. It has a lot of features not found on any other PC operating system, and more are added regularly. Today, we take a look at four features of Windows 10 that we think can really help your business.

Data security isn’t the easiest thing in the world to plan for, especially if your organization doesn’t have any dedicated security professionals on-hand. While protecting your data with traditional methods, like passwords, firewalls, and antivirus, is important, what measures are you taking to make sure a thief or hacker isn’t just walking into your office and making off with your technology?

Voice over Internet Protocol, also known as VoIP, has grown more popular with businesses in recent years, and it’s hard not to see why. The sheer amount of benefits that it provides to businesses--small organizations in particular--make your traditional telephone system look outdated and inefficient. We’ll discuss some of the greatest benefits today.

Let’s face it; the office isn’t the most engaging place at all times. Repetitive tasks can make attention to detail difficult to maintain. While this might throw a wrench into operational plans, it’s not the end of the world. A major threat like ransomware, on the other hand, could be a business-ender. When a lack of engagement meets security issues, you create a whole other monster that could strike your business when you least expect it.

By-in-large, most of today’s businesses are doing more to move away from their reliance on printed material. That’s not to say that nearly every business still requires the use of at least one printer. Most people believe that when your “ink” is low in your printer, the quality of the print job will suffer. This is true for inkjet printers, but for those that have laser printers, the “ink” isn’t really ink at all, it is a thing called toner. For this week’s technology basics article we will define what print toner is and how it differs from ink.