Network Solutions Unlimited Blog

It’s often the case that the demand for new software outstrips the stock of available coders, a trend that has led to many businesses looking to adopt what are called “no code” tools to help them build the software they need. Let’s take a look at these no code tools and how they can help businesses stay ahead of the game.

Mobile devices are becoming more important in business use, which means that their security needs to be a serious consideration. While for most of its history, the telephone’s function was limited to sending sound, the new functions that these new mobile devices have give them more utility, but also make them more of a target for threats, including viruses.

Evernote is a neat note-taking app that many users have found works for them, as it can be used to keep notes organized in a better way than a traditional notebook. With new features that can offer you plenty of functionality, Evernote might just be the note-taking solution you’ve been looking for all these years. This week’s tip is dedicated to one of the best new features of Evernote: templates.

Let’s say that you have an employee who wants to do some good for your business and save your IT some cash on a piece of business software. They find a “free” version of it on the Internet, thinking they have found you a bargain deal. Little do you know that there is an agency out there that’s specifically looking for businesses like yours that don’t keep track of their software licensing, just to make a quick buck off of copyright infringement.

You may have heard the term augmented reality, but you may be surprised to learn just how much A.R. you already use in your life. For the majority of people who use a smartphone, A.R. applications (like a camera app) are already used en masse. Today, we’ll take a look at augmented reality and how it is going to be used in the future.

When an organization implements new software solutions, they are usually trying to either replace deprecated applications or find a solution to a particular problem. These solutions are often implemented without regards to the older software, and they’ll just collect dust on the network until someone decides to remove them. These unnecessary apps could be wasting precious time and resources for your business. In fact, up to 38 percent of enterprise applications aren’t being used on business networks.

In more specific terms, 30 percent of applications went unused, while only eight percent were used infrequently--less than once a month. A recent study by 1E claims that between the United States and United Kingdom, $34 billion is lost every year on unused or rarely used software solutions. Furthermore, the typical large enterprise could lose up to $7.4 million every year on unnecessary software solutions. While it must be mentioned that small companies won’t waste nearly this much, it’s still important to realize wasted resources when you see them. Software licenses aren’t cheap, and if they’re set to automatically renew, you could be wasting plenty of assets on software that you don’t even use.

Granted, it’s easier said than done to discover which applications your business uses, and those which it doesn’t. Unless you have an internal IT department that manages your organization’s technical assets, you could accidentally be renewing software solutions for apps which you barely use at all. Thus, it’s your responsibility to put a stop to it, and soon.

Through a comprehensive network audit, you can find ways to improve your infrastructure, be it identifying bottlenecks or discovering resources allocated toward apps that you don’t use or need. If your network is chock-full of unused and unnecessary applications, you can use a network audit to discover where they are and to jumpstart your network cleanup procedure.

Network Solutions Unlimited can perform a network audit that takes a comprehensive look at your IT infrastructure and identifies weaknesses that can be shored up. For example, it can identify bottlenecks or unnecessary resource allocation that can help you streamline operations. Furthermore, we can introduce you to new and improved solutions that can completely replace or consolidate your current assets into a more budget-friendly option.

It’s also necessary to mention that you should only be paying for software licensing on solutions that you actually use, and to keep tabs on when licenses expire. It’s usually better to pay as you need them, as something could come up and completely replace it somewhere down the line. If you outsource remote monitoring and maintenance through Network Solutions Unlimited, we can keep an eye on your network in real time and automatically issue updates to your software solutions as they are released. Furthermore, we can act as a single point of contact for your software vendors, so you only have to go through us to renew your software licenses. This takes away the pain of contacting multiple software vendors, which can be a time-consuming and downright annoying process.

To learn more about network audits, remote monitoring and maintenance, or vendor management, reach out to us at (217) 428-6449.