Meet Amie, a startup working on a brand new productivity app for both individuals and teams. The company is unveiling its app this week and users can sign up to the waitlist. Amie is a well-designed calendar app that helps you get things done and keep up with your team.

Amie was founded by Dennis Müller, who previously worked as a product manager for challenger bank N26. Creandum, as well as Tiny.VC and several business angels, backed the company early on so that it could work on its product without too much pressure.

And what I saw during a demo with Müller was a polished app that could easily attract a loyal user base. There are a lot of tiny details that make it much more convenient than the default option for many companies, which is Google Calendar.

When you open Amie, it looks like a calendar, there’s no question about it. You can see the current week with all your events, click on an event to get details and move from one week to another.

Image Credits: Amie

But Amie is quite opinionated in its feature set, and especially around todo items. You can open your todo list in a column right next to your calendar and view them this way. But you can also drag them from the sidebar and drop them in the main calendar view to assign a date and time to your todo.

“If you want to achieve something, the easiest way to do it is put it in your calendar, assign a time to it,” Müller told me. And it’s true that many people already use their calendar as a sort of todo list already. The fact that todos can live in the sidebar or in your week view gives more flexibility than adding your todos to your calendar directly.

In the left-side column, you can also see a list of avatars. If you’re using Slack intensively, it looks a bit like the icons on the left to switch from one workspace to another.

In Amie’s case, those icons represent other people in your team. Like in instant messengers, you can see if they’re currently available or busy based on their calendar. And if you hover over their avatar, you can toggle their calendar. For instance, it’s a good way to find out when it would be a good time to set up a meeting.

Each person also gets their own profile. On this separate page, you can see what someone is doing right now, get a reminder about their birthday, add a few notes and view when was the last time you were together. You can also set recurring reminders. It’s a lightweight feature that could help you stay in touch with people more regularly.

Image Credits: Amie

You also get some information from third-party services. For instance, you can see the current song playing from this person’s Spotify account. You can also open their Twitter profile from there.

“These calendar apps that are really focused on one person are cool. But if you look at other products that are successful today and if you want to generate some kind of network effects, we realized that we had to build some kind of profile,” Müller told me.

The instant benefit of adding a social component to the calendar is that you can more easily stay on top of the company’s activities. Amie has a home view with an activity feed. On this screen, you can see when someone creates an event.

It’s full of information and it could be particularly useful for companies with a transparent culture. “The home view could become the modern intranet,” Müller said.

On this home view, you can also see a list of all your events and todos. You can check things off from this view.

Finally, Amie has many of the power features that you would expect from a modern productivity tool. With just a keyboard shortcut, you can open a quick action menu, create an event, move to another view, etc.

When you want to share your availabilities with someone else, you can choose some slots in your calendar and share a link with the other person — no Calendly required. When an event is coming up with a video call, you can join the call with a keyboard shortcut.

Amie currently works with Google accounts on macOS and Windows. There’s also an iPhone app and the company is working on an Android app as well. On mobile, Amie has tried to locate all the important buttons and gestures near the bottom of the screen so that you don’t have to move your hand to reach a button in the corner.

We’re currently experiencing a calendar renaissance. Many startups are trying to find the right formula to reinvent the calendar app for the Notion era. Amie competes with Rise, Cron, Hera, Fantastical and others.

It’s arguably a big market. So it’s good to see so much innovation in the space. “For us, the calendar is the canvas,” Müller told me. “We do our job right if you sign up and you never open Google Calendar again.”

Image Credits: Amie

Flexibits, the company behind popular calendar app Fantastical, has added several new features that should help with scheduling. While Calendly seems to be the dominating player in this space, Flexibits pitches its new ‘Openings’ feature as a privacy-first scheduling feature. And, of course, it’s built into Fantastical directly, which means that you don’t need another tool, service or subscription.

After you update the Fantastical app to version 3.6, you’ll see a few new options in the settings panel — the new features are available on macOS, iOS and iPadOS. By default, Openings is disabled for all users. You have to set it up manually to start using it.

“You should be the person to opt in, you’re in control of your data,” Flexibits co-founder Michael Simmons told me.

Once you enable the feature, it is directly tied to the calendar accounts that you’ve already added to Fantastical. You can choose a calendar set as the main source of truth to figure our when you’re available and not available.

“It scans your Fantastical database and it only takes the dates and times,” Simmons said. Flexibits doesn’t grab the names of your events or the list of invitees as it doesn’t need that information to make the feature work.

After that, you can configure multiple event types. For instance, if you like to schedule sales calls on Monday and Wednesday mornings, you can create an event template for sales calls on those days between 9 AM and 11 AM.

There are a few options for event types, such as a title, a description, an event duration, a custom link and more. You can also turn on automatic approval or choose to manually approve meeting requests in Fantastical once they come in.

As you may have guessed, you then get a link that you can share in an email conversation, in a WhatsApp message or even on a website. When someone clicks on the link, they’ll see when you’re available, pick a time and request a meeting.

Image Credits: Fantastical

If you’ve set up automatic approval, the person requesting the meeting will receive a calendar invite in their calendar — they don’t have to use Fantastical and they don’t have to create an account to request a meeting.

The booking is actually done in the app, not on the web. When someone requests a meeting with you, your Fantastical app will create the meeting and invite the other person.

Chances are if you’re already using Calendly or another equivalent tool, you might keep your existing workflow. But if you’re a Fantastical user and you want to start sharing Calendly-like links, it’ll be much easier to turn on Openings in Fantastical.

Other improvements

Fantastical also offered a scheduling feature called ‘Proposals’. You could create an event in the app with multiple times and dates. Flexibits has quietly improved that feature to turn it into a Doodle alternative.

You can now send event proposals to several invitees. They can vote on a web page. From the app, you can then check what’s the best time and date, view comments and turn your proposals into a calendar event. It’s much easier to understand the feature with a screenshot:

Image Credits: Flexibits

In addition to scheduling features, there’s a new quarter view in Fantastical 3.6. You can start the quarter view on the first week of the quarter or with the current week depending on what you want to view.

A couple of years ago, Flexibits switched to a freemium model with a paid subscription to unlock all Fantastical features. The most advanced features, such as Openings and Proposals, require a subscription. It currently costs $39.99 per year, or $4.99 per month.

While Flexibits received a lot of negative comments on the App Store, the switch has been working well when it comes to product and business.

The team tripled in size from 6 to 18 people. Together, they have shipped quite a few updates and added Cardhop to the subscription.

While Michael Simmons didn’t want to share revenue numbers he said that “millions of people” have created a Flexibits account to start a free trial. Of course, only a small portion of this user base has an active subscription.

Flexibits is also thinking about ways to address different market types. For instance, the company is working on Flexibits for teams. At first, it’ll be a team account that lets you purchase licenses for a large groupe of employees. There’s also room for team functionalities in the app. But those features aren’t ready just yet.

Image Credits: Flexibits

In a world where the internet plays such a crucial role in any and all businesses, it can be hard to imagine a time when employers didn’t place as much emphasis on monitoring their workers’ online activities. Today, many managers and team leaders feel the need to keep an eye on what their employees do online in order to protect their company from liability or loss of sensitive information. But is it really a good idea to monitor your employees’ online activities? Read on to find out.

The case for monitoring

Monitoring your employees’ activities on company devices can be beneficial, as it helps:

• Protect your organization from data theft or harm since careless or disgruntled employees may leak or steal your data.
• Ensure members of your staff comply with policies such as not downloading illegal programs or visiting websites with illegal or hostile content.
• Provide evidence in case of a lawsuit should an employee participate in illegal activities using your business’s computers.

Arguments against employee monitoring

Of course, you should also be aware of the potential downsides to monitoring. These include:

• Reduced productivity, as monitoring can put a damper on employee morale and the perceived distrust may make your employees less driven to perform well.
• Privacy or discrimination issues that may stem from you being privy to personal details about your employees that you would’ve never known about had you not monitored them. For example, you may discover their political or religious views, sexual orientation, or medical problems. This subjects your business to potential privacy or discrimination issues if you or your management team acts negatively based on any of this information.

Monitoring guidelines to follow

If you decide to monitor your employees, here are a few tips you should follow.

1. Create written policies
When you monitor your employees, ask yourself, “Am I doing this for security purposes? Is it to ensure my employees aren’t wasting time on games or social media?” Monitoring policies that are too strict could create an atmosphere of distrust.

Set guidelines for acceptable use of email and social media, web browsing, instant messaging, and downloading software and apps. Also, make sure to include how monitoring will be carried out and how data will be used, secured, and destroyed.

2. Inform your employees
It’s important to inform your employees about the scope of your monitoring policies. If they find out you’re doing it secretly, you could face legal issues.

Explain to your employees why you’re monitoring them and the risks your business faces from misuse of digital assets. Reassure them you’re not doing it to spy on their personal lives, but to create a compliant and law-abiding workplace. Because their activities will now be less private, encourage your staff to use their smartphones for personal matters. Also, provide your employees with a copy of your written policy for them to read and sign.

If implemented correctly, employee monitoring makes your business more secure and productive. For more information about security and other IT support tools, get in touch with us today.

More and more businesses are choosing to monitor their employees’ online behavior, as it’s one way of keeping their data and devices secure. However, there are consequences to monitoring your employees’ activities. For instance, doing so can make them feel like their privacy is being violated, which can affect productivity and morale. Because of this, it’s important that you know the advantages and disadvantages of employee monitoring, as well as some guidelines to follow, should you decide to implement it.

The case for monitoring

Monitoring your employees’ activities on company devices can be beneficial, as it helps:

• Protect your organization from data theft or harm since careless or disgruntled employees may leak or steal your data.
• Ensure members of your staff comply with policies such as not downloading illegal programs or visiting websites with illegal or hostile content.
• Provide evidence in case of a lawsuit should an employee participate in illegal activities using your business’s computers.

Arguments against employee monitoring

Of course, you should also be aware of the potential downsides to monitoring. These include:

• Reduced productivity, as monitoring can put a damper on employee morale and the perceived distrust may make your employees less driven to perform well.
• Privacy or discrimination issues that may stem from you being privy to personal details about your employees that you would’ve never known about had you not monitored them. For example, you may discover their political or religious views, sexual orientation, or medical problems. This subjects your business to potential privacy or discrimination issues if you or your management team acts negatively based on any of this information.

Monitoring guidelines to follow

If you decide to monitor your employees, here are a few tips you should follow.

1. Create written policies
When you monitor your employees, ask yourself, “Am I doing this for security purposes? Is it to ensure my employees aren’t wasting time on games or social media?” Monitoring policies that are too strict could create an atmosphere of distrust.

Set guidelines for acceptable use of email and social media, web browsing, instant messaging, and downloading software and apps. Also, make sure to include how monitoring will be carried out and how data will be used, secured, and destroyed.

2. Inform your employees
It’s important to inform your employees about the scope of your monitoring policies. If they find out you’re doing it secretly, you could face legal issues.

Explain to your employees why you’re monitoring them and the risks your business faces from misuse of digital assets. Reassure them you’re not doing it to spy on their personal lives, but to create a compliant and law-abiding workplace. Because their activities will now be less private, encourage your staff to use their smartphones for personal matters. Also, provide your employees with a copy of your written policy for them to read and sign.

If implemented correctly, employee monitoring makes your business more secure and productive. For more information about security and other IT support tools, get in touch with us today.

When people think of monitoring employees’ online activities, they typically imagine tyrannical bosses who want to make sure their subordinates are working during their shift. However, there is much more to monitoring their activities than that — doing so can actually help increase productivity and protect the business in the process. Find out the pros and cons of monitoring your employees’ online behavior by reading this blog.

The case for monitoring

Monitoring your employees’ activities on company devices can be beneficial, as it helps:

• Protect your organization from data theft or harm since careless or disgruntled employees may leak or steal your data.
• Ensure members of your staff comply with policies such as not downloading illegal programs or visiting websites with illegal or hostile content.
• Provide evidence in case of a lawsuit should an employee participate in illegal activities using your business’s computers.

Arguments against employee monitoring

Of course, you should also be aware of the potential downsides to monitoring. These include:

• Reduced productivity, as monitoring can put a damper on employee morale and the perceived distrust may make your employees less driven to perform well.
• Privacy or discrimination issues that may stem from you being privy to personal details about your employees that you would’ve never known about had you not monitored them. For example, you may discover their political or religious views, sexual orientation, or medical problems. This subjects your business to potential privacy or discrimination issues if you or your management team acts negatively based on any of this information.

Monitoring guidelines to follow

If you decide to monitor your employees, here are a few tips you should follow.

1. Create written policies
When you monitor your employees, ask yourself, “Am I doing this for security purposes? Is it to ensure my employees aren’t wasting time on games or social media?” Monitoring policies that are too strict could create an atmosphere of distrust.

Set guidelines for acceptable use of email and social media, web browsing, instant messaging, and downloading software and apps. Also, make sure to include how monitoring will be carried out and how data will be used, secured, and destroyed.

2. Inform your employees
It’s important to inform your employees about the scope of your monitoring policies. If they find out you’re doing it secretly, you could face legal issues.

Explain to your employees why you’re monitoring them and the risks your business faces from misuse of digital assets. Reassure them you’re not doing it to spy on their personal lives, but to create a compliant and law-abiding workplace. Because their activities will now be less private, encourage your staff to use their smartphones for personal matters. Also, provide your employees with a copy of your written policy for them to read and sign.

If implemented correctly, employee monitoring makes your business more secure and productive. For more information about security and other IT support tools, get in touch with us today.

Wary of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, nations all over the world are imposing travel restrictions and considering lockdowns yet again. Fortunately, many companies can still sustain operations, thanks to remote work. More and more businesses have been enjoying work from home setups with the help of the right tools. This article is a list of our favorites.

But first, here’s why remote work is a boon for businesses

For both employers and employees, a remote working arrangement has attractive benefits. Many remote workers report increased job satisfaction ⁠— being spared the stress of a daily commute and having a better work-life balance boost their productivity and overall happiness.

At the same time, organizations can tap into a potentially larger labor pool, hiring from just about anywhere and finding highly skilled talent at lower rates. And in the face of natural calamities, outages, and the ongoing pandemic, a distributed workforce becomes a necessary business continuity measure — a means to protect employees and keep productivity up, even as traditional workplaces remain unavailable.

All of this is possible because we have the technologies to support remote work. With a plethora of software to choose from, we’ve selected the ones that will help your remote teams thrive.

Real-time communication and collaboration software

Every successful organization needs to communicate. When communication breaks down, productivity and engagement suffer. Given the lack of face-to-face contact, regular, real-time communication is arguably more critical for remote teams and their managers. The following apps make it possible, seamless, and simple.

Our picks: Slack, Mattermost, RocketChat, Microsoft Teams, and Join.me

Deemed the alternative to email, Slack is the leader of the pack since it is the easiest to integrate with countless applications. Its basic functionality enables remote workers to direct message (DM) or create “collaboration hubs” around departments, projects, or any topic. Meanwhile, Mattermost and Rocket Chat are open-source tools that recreate many of Slack’s capabilities.

Microsoft Teams and Join.me are well-known video chat and conferencing apps. However, as a full collaboration and communication suite, Teams offers more for Windows users. It allows Voice over Internet Protocol, direct and group messages, and integration with all the Office 365 apps. On the other hand, Join.me does not only provide free video conferencing services,, but it also allows participants to use a cool brainstorming feature called “whiteboarding” for real-time interaction on a shared document.

Remote desktop applications

Work computers often have business apps that our PCs don’t. Accessing your work computer while on the go or out of the office was once unheard of. Remote desktop apps have made it possible, allowing users to work remotely on a computer through another device and from any location.

Our picks: TeamViewer and Splashtop

TeamViewer has capabilities such as screen sharing, file transfer, wake-on-LAN, and clipboard transfer. Free for personal use, the app is easy to set up and is available for multiple operating systems, such as Windows, macOS, and Android. Splashtop has similar capabilities but with the added benefit of “low-latency” transfers or the transfer of a high volume of data and messages with minimal delay.

Project management essentials

When you’re managing dozens of team members located in different parts of the globe, things can start to fall apart quickly. Time differences and distance can create significant complexity if you lack the right tools. These two apps can help you overcome the challenges and streamline project organization and collaboration.

Our picks: Trello and Basecamp

Trello’s overall shining feature is its simplicity. The web-based tool’s approach to project management is built around one concept: the bulletin board. Users can create boards that represent projects, and each board can be populated with cards assigned to specific members and customized with deadlines, comments, and attachments.

Basecamp, on the other hand, is a web-based management tool for planning and collaboration on projects. There’s no installation needed, just your regular web browser to access its powerful core functions that include task management, messaging, collaboration, file sharing, scheduling, quick search, and reporting.

With the current global crisis, remote working tools have become even more crucial to sustaining productivity, accomplishing projects, and solidifying distributed teams. It’s important your organization chooses ones that are well-suited to budget, infrastructure, and goals. Our experts can help make a proper assessment and configure the perfect remote working setup. Talk to us today.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has waned, we may yet see a resurgence if we fail to suppress its current and future variants. One way we’re preventing the spread of coronavirus is by implementing remote work strategies. Remote work allows people to work through quarantines, as well as keep companies and even economies afloat. Here’s a rundown of exceptional tools many remote teams are using.

But first, here’s why remote work is a boon for businesses

For both employers and employees, a remote working arrangement has attractive benefits. Many remote workers report increased job satisfaction ⁠— being spared the stress of a daily commute and having a better work-life balance boost their productivity and overall happiness.

At the same time, organizations can tap into a potentially larger labor pool, hiring from just about anywhere and finding highly skilled talent at lower rates. And in the face of natural calamities, outages, and the ongoing pandemic, a distributed workforce becomes a necessary business continuity measure — a means to protect employees and keep productivity up, even as traditional workplaces remain unavailable.

All of this is possible because we have the technologies to support remote work. With a plethora of software to choose from, we’ve selected the ones that will help your remote teams thrive.

Real-time communication and collaboration software

Every successful organization needs to communicate. When communication breaks down, productivity and engagement suffer. Given the lack of face-to-face contact, regular, real-time communication is arguably more critical for remote teams and their managers. The following apps make it possible, seamless, and simple.

Our picks: Slack, Mattermost, RocketChat, Microsoft Teams, and Join.me

Deemed the alternative to email, Slack is the leader of the pack since it is the easiest to integrate with countless applications. Its basic functionality enables remote workers to direct message (DM) or create “collaboration hubs” around departments, projects, or any topic. Meanwhile, Mattermost and Rocket Chat are open-source tools that recreate many of Slack’s capabilities.

Microsoft Teams and Join.me are well-known video chat and conferencing apps. However, as a full collaboration and communication suite, Teams offers more for Windows users. It allows Voice over Internet Protocol, direct and group messages, and integration with all the Office 365 apps. On the other hand, Join.me does not only provide free video conferencing services,, but it also allows participants to use a cool brainstorming feature called “whiteboarding” for real-time interaction on a shared document.

Remote desktop applications

Work computers often have business apps that our PCs don’t. Accessing your work computer while on the go or out of the office was once unheard of. Remote desktop apps have made it possible, allowing users to work remotely on a computer through another device and from any location.

Our picks: TeamViewer and Splashtop

TeamViewer has capabilities such as screen sharing, file transfer, wake-on-LAN, and clipboard transfer. Free for personal use, the app is easy to set up and is available for multiple operating systems, such as Windows, macOS, and Android. Splashtop has similar capabilities but with the added benefit of “low-latency” transfers or the transfer of a high volume of data and messages with minimal delay.

Project management essentials

When you’re managing dozens of team members located in different parts of the globe, things can start to fall apart quickly. Time differences and distance can create significant complexity if you lack the right tools. These two apps can help you overcome the challenges and streamline project organization and collaboration.

Our picks: Trello and Basecamp

Trello’s overall shining feature is its simplicity. The web-based tool’s approach to project management is built around one concept: the bulletin board. Users can create boards that represent projects, and each board can be populated with cards assigned to specific members and customized with deadlines, comments, and attachments.

Basecamp, on the other hand, is a web-based management tool for planning and collaboration on projects. There’s no installation needed, just your regular web browser to access its powerful core functions that include task management, messaging, collaboration, file sharing, scheduling, quick search, and reporting.

With the current global crisis, remote working tools have become even more crucial to sustaining productivity, accomplishing projects, and solidifying distributed teams. It’s important your organization chooses ones that are well-suited to budget, infrastructure, and goals. Our experts can help make a proper assessment and configure the perfect remote working setup. Talk to us today.

The global pandemic hasn’t defeated many hard-working managers and teams. By implementing remote work arrangements, they’re meeting deadlines, collaborating on projects, and hitting business goals, all while avoiding the ever-evolving coronavirus. In this article, we’ll go through a list of the essential tools for the new normal that is remote working.

But first, here’s why remote work is a boon for businesses

For both employers and employees, a remote working arrangement has attractive benefits. Many remote workers report increased job satisfaction ⁠— being spared the stress of a daily commute and having a better work-life balance boost their productivity and overall happiness.

At the same time, organizations can tap into a potentially larger labor pool, hiring from just about anywhere and finding highly skilled talent at lower rates. And in the face of natural calamities, outages, and the ongoing pandemic, a distributed workforce becomes a necessary business continuity measure — a means to protect employees and keep productivity up, even as traditional workplaces remain unavailable.

All of this is possible because we have the technologies to support remote work. With a plethora of software to choose from, we’ve selected the ones that will help your remote teams thrive.

Real-time communication and collaboration software

Every successful organization needs to communicate. When communication breaks down, productivity and engagement suffer. Given the lack of face-to-face contact, regular, real-time communication is arguably more critical for remote teams and their managers. The following apps make it possible, seamless, and simple.

Our picks: Slack, Mattermost, RocketChat, Microsoft Teams, and Join.me

Deemed the alternative to email, Slack is the leader of the pack since it is the easiest to integrate with countless applications. Its basic functionality enables remote workers to direct message (DM) or create “collaboration hubs” around departments, projects, or any topic. Meanwhile, Mattermost and Rocket Chat are open-source tools that recreate many of Slack’s capabilities.

Microsoft Teams and Join.me are well-known video chat and conferencing apps. However, as a full collaboration and communication suite, Teams offers more for Windows users. It allows Voice over Internet Protocol, direct and group messages, and integration with all the Office 365 apps. On the other hand, Join.me does not only provide free video conferencing services,, but it also allows participants to use a cool brainstorming feature called “whiteboarding” for real-time interaction on a shared document.

Remote desktop applications

Work computers often have business apps that our PCs don’t. Accessing your work computer while on the go or out of the office was once unheard of. Remote desktop apps have made it possible, allowing users to work remotely on a computer through another device and from any location.

Our picks: TeamViewer and Splashtop

TeamViewer has capabilities such as screen sharing, file transfer, wake-on-LAN, and clipboard transfer. Free for personal use, the app is easy to set up and is available for multiple operating systems, such as Windows, macOS, and Android. Splashtop has similar capabilities but with the added benefit of “low-latency” transfers or the transfer of a high volume of data and messages with minimal delay.

Project management essentials

When you’re managing dozens of team members located in different parts of the globe, things can start to fall apart quickly. Time differences and distance can create significant complexity if you lack the right tools. These two apps can help you overcome the challenges and streamline project organization and collaboration.

Our picks: Trello and Basecamp

Trello’s overall shining feature is its simplicity. The web-based tool’s approach to project management is built around one concept: the bulletin board. Users can create boards that represent projects, and each board can be populated with cards assigned to specific members and customized with deadlines, comments, and attachments.

Basecamp, on the other hand, is a web-based management tool for planning and collaboration on projects. There’s no installation needed, just your regular web browser to access its powerful core functions that include task management, messaging, collaboration, file sharing, scheduling, quick search, and reporting.

With the current global crisis, remote working tools have become even more crucial to sustaining productivity, accomplishing projects, and solidifying distributed teams. It’s important your organization chooses ones that are well-suited to budget, infrastructure, and goals. Our experts can help make a proper assessment and configure the perfect remote working setup. Talk to us today.

Power outages can happen anytime and for a number of reasons, including accidents and natural disasters such as fires and hurricanes. While there’s little your business can do to prevent a power outage, you can mitigate its impacts on your operations by deploying an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) for your computers and networking equipment.

UPS for network equipment

Also known as a battery backup, a UPS provides backup power in case of outages. It also protects against power surges, which don’t just damage computers, but also make you lose unsaved work.

Deploying UPS units for Wi-Fi routers and modems allows you to stay connected to the internet when the power goes out unexpectedly. This strategy works particularly well if your employees use laptops, as that means you only need power for your Wi-Fi gear.

UPS-supported modems or routers help you stay online for as long as 90 minutes, which should be enough time to get your bearings before power finally runs out. With a UPS, you will still have a fast, reliable Wi-Fi connection so you can perform your tasks, save important files, and keep serving customers.

Without a UPS, your staff may have to rely on cellular data to do their work, which is not only less reliable than Wi-Fi, but also more expensive. You may even incur additional telecom costs resulting from overreliance on cellular data.

UPS systems vs. generators

Although generators are indispensable for certain businesses, they also require greater upkeep. If you invest in generators, you’ll need to employ an entire team to manage these pieces of high-maintenance equipment. This may not be something that a small- or medium-sized business can afford.

That said, generators can prove useful during extended blackouts, but UPS systems should be enough to keep your business running in the event of an emergency.

What’s more, misusing or mishandling generators can result in fatalities. On the other hand, if you misuse a UPS unit or if it breaks down, the worst that could happen is you lose a day’s work; it’s unlikely that you’ll experience anything life-threatening.

Plug in your network gear now

If your business doesn’t have locations in disaster-prone areas, you probably haven’t given much thought to installing UPS systems for your desktop computers, let alone your modems and routers. But accidents and emergencies are inevitable — and when they happen, you’ll find that having internet access is one of the most important things you need to ensure business continuity.

Think of a UPS as an investment that not just protects your systems from data loss, but also keeps your network equipment functioning in emergency situations.

To learn more about UPS systems and network equipment as well as backup and disaster recovery planning, give our team of IT experts a call today.

An uninterrupted power supply (UPS) is an essential component of a business’s IT network. It ensures that networking equipment stays operational during power outages or failures. This allows you to stay online so you don’t suffer the productivity- and profit-draining impacts of a power outage, especially one that happens without warning. Learn more about UPS systems and why they’re invaluable to businesses of all sizes.

UPS for network equipment

Also known as a battery backup, a UPS provides backup power in case of outages. It also protects against power surges, which don’t just damage computers, but also make you lose unsaved work.

Deploying UPS units for Wi-Fi routers and modems allows you to stay connected to the internet when the power goes out unexpectedly. This strategy works particularly well if your employees use laptops, as that means you only need power for your Wi-Fi gear.

UPS-supported modems or routers help you stay online for as long as 90 minutes, which should be enough time to get your bearings before power finally runs out. With a UPS, you will still have a fast, reliable Wi-Fi connection so you can perform your tasks, save important files, and keep serving customers.

Without a UPS, your staff may have to rely on cellular data to do their work, which is not only less reliable than Wi-Fi, but also more expensive. You may even incur additional telecom costs resulting from overreliance on cellular data.

UPS systems vs. generators

Although generators are indispensable for certain businesses, they also require greater upkeep. If you invest in generators, you’ll need to employ an entire team to manage these pieces of high-maintenance equipment. This may not be something that a small- or medium-sized business can afford.

That said, generators can prove useful during extended blackouts, but UPS systems should be enough to keep your business running in the event of an emergency.

What’s more, misusing or mishandling generators can result in fatalities. On the other hand, if you misuse a UPS unit or if it breaks down, the worst that could happen is you lose a day’s work; it’s unlikely that you’ll experience anything life-threatening.

Plug in your network gear now

If your business doesn’t have locations in disaster-prone areas, you probably haven’t given much thought to installing UPS systems for your desktop computers, let alone your modems and routers. But accidents and emergencies are inevitable — and when they happen, you’ll find that having internet access is one of the most important things you need to ensure business continuity.

Think of a UPS as an investment that not just protects your systems from data loss, but also keeps your network equipment functioning in emergency situations.

To learn more about UPS systems and network equipment as well as backup and disaster recovery planning, give our team of IT experts a call today.

Power outages are a major inconvenience to businesses. Even a few hours without electricity can lead to thousands of dollars in lost productivity and revenue. Fortunately, there’s something businesses like yours can do to reduce the effects of power outages, and that’s using an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) for your computers and networking equipment. Read on to learn more about the benefits of using a UPS for your network hardware.

UPS for network equipment

Also known as a battery backup, a UPS provides backup power in case of outages. It also protects against power surges, which don’t just damage computers, but also make you lose unsaved work.

Deploying UPS units for Wi-Fi routers and modems allows you to stay connected to the internet when the power goes out unexpectedly. This strategy works particularly well if your employees use laptops, as that means you only need power for your Wi-Fi gear.

UPS-supported modems or routers help you stay online for as long as 90 minutes, which should be enough time to get your bearings before power finally runs out. With a UPS, you will still have a fast, reliable Wi-Fi connection so you can perform your tasks, save important files, and keep serving customers.

Without a UPS, your staff may have to rely on cellular data to do their work, which is not only less reliable than Wi-Fi, but also more expensive. You may even incur additional telecom costs resulting from overreliance on cellular data.

UPS systems vs. generators

Although generators are indispensable for certain businesses, they also require greater upkeep. If you invest in generators, you’ll need to employ an entire team to manage these pieces of high-maintenance equipment. This may not be something that a small- or medium-sized business can afford.

That said, generators can prove useful during extended blackouts, but UPS systems should be enough to keep your business running in the event of an emergency.

What’s more, misusing or mishandling generators can result in fatalities. On the other hand, if you misuse a UPS unit or if it breaks down, the worst that could happen is you lose a day’s work; it’s unlikely that you’ll experience anything life-threatening.

Plug in your network gear now

If your business doesn’t have locations in disaster-prone areas, you probably haven’t given much thought to installing UPS systems for your desktop computers, let alone your modems and routers. But accidents and emergencies are inevitable — and when they happen, you’ll find that having internet access is one of the most important things you need to ensure business continuity.

Think of a UPS as an investment that not just protects your systems from data loss, but also keeps your network equipment functioning in emergency situations.

To learn more about UPS systems and network equipment as well as backup and disaster recovery planning, give our team of IT experts a call today.

Millions of businesses worldwide use Microsoft Outlook, preferring the free web-based email and calendar service over its many competitors. Outlook also offers tasks and contacts management capabilities, among other nifty features that will help you work smarter and boost your efficiency. Let’s take a closer look at some tips to help you make the most of Outlook.

Organize your inbox

Is your Outlook inbox getting a little too cluttered for your liking? Use the Clean Up feature to tidy up your inbox.

From your inbox, click the Home tab and choose from one of three Clean Up options:

• Clean Up Conversation – reviews an email thread or a conversation and deletes redundant messages
• Clean Up Folder – reviews conversations in a selected folder and deletes redundant messages
• Clean Up Folder & Subfolders – reviews all messages in a selected folder and any subfolders, and deletes redundant messages in all of them

Ignore conversations

Besides redundant messages, group conversations that aren’t relevant to you can clutter up your inbox. The Ignore button helps you organize your inbox and focus on relevant emails.

To activate this feature, select a message, then click Home > Ignore > Ignore Conversation. Alternatively, you can open a message in a new window and click Ignore under the Delete function. You can easily revert this action by going to the Deleted Items folder and clicking Ignore > Stop Ignoring Conversation.

Send links to files

This function is especially useful when you need to send large files to your coworkers or clients. You can send a link to the file instead of the file itself as well as set permissions to allow recipients to edit and collaborate on linked files in real time.

To do this, upload the file you wish to send to OneDrive. Then from the message box, click Attach File > Browse web locations > OneDrive.

Tag contacts

To get the attention of a specific person in a group email or meeting invite, use the @Mention function. This works particularly well for emails sent to multiple recipients or if you want to convey the urgency of your message.

In the body of your email or invite message, type the @ symbol followed by the name of the person you want to tag (e.g., @johndoe). Doing so will highlight the name in the message and automatically add it to the To line of your message.

You can also search for messages you’re tagged in by selecting Filter Email from the Home tab, and then clicking Mentioned.

Add notes to emails

With Outlook, you can add sticky notes to specific parts of an email. To add a sticky note, simply drag your cursor to highlight your chosen text in the email, and then release the mouse button to trigger a pop-up object menu. On that object menu, select Add Note. This will open a OneNote feed within Outlook, where you can add text or images to your sticky note.

Schedule a Teams meeting

Teams is Microsoft’s unified communication and collaboration platform, and it includes the Outlook add-in. This feature allows you to set up Teams meetings directly from Outlook. It also lets you view, accept, or join meetings while in either app.

To schedule a Teams meeting on Outlook, follow these steps:

1. Switch to the calendar view on Outlook. Click the New Teams Meeting tab.
2. Add individual participants or entire contact groups to the Required or Optional fields.
3. Type in the topic, start time, and end time of the meeting. There’s no need to add the dial-in phone numbers and conferencing IDs to the invite, as Outlook does this automatically for you.
4. Create a message inviting the recipients to the meeting, then click Send.

Share emails to Teams

With Outlook, you can easily share an email from your inbox directly to a specific Teams channel. To do that, follow these steps:

1. Select the email you want to share.
2. Click the Share to Teams button.
3. On the Share to Microsoft Teams pop-up menu, type the name of the person or channel you want to share to. Check the “Include attachments” tickbox if you want to include the email’s attachments.

These are just some of the things you can do to improve your Outlook experience. For more on how to get the most out of Outlook and other Microsoft products, drop us a line today.