Can Technology Help Boost Employee Retention in the Great Resignation?

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Can Technology Help Boost Employee Retention in the Great Resignation?

In March of 2022 alone, 4.5 million workers left their jobs. Pandemic cases and restrictions may have eased, but the changes to the workforce’s expectations seem to be much longer-lived.

The causes of Great Resignation are, no doubt, complex. And there are likely no easy fixes to the problems of recruitment and employee retention in today’s chaotic labor market. That said, there are steps that business leaders can take to make their organizations more attractive—and their positions more fulfilling—to current and prospective employees. And technology may be an important part of the answer.

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The Advanced Cyber Security Tools Your Business Needs

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It’s time for business leaders to start planning to implement another, more advanced, layer of tools to protect their assets from cyberattack. Why?

  • It is estimated that 43% of cyberattacks are targeted at small and mid-sized businesses.

  • At the same time, only 14% of SMBs are prepared to defend themselves.

It’s an unfortunate fact that SMBs are often easy targets for cyber criminals. Many assume they can fly under the radar of hackers and ransomware. And, until recently, advanced security tools and methodologies were out of reach for those in the SMB space.

Thankfully, the tide is turning. With the right approach SMBs can now protect themselves effectively from a wide array of attacks. And one crucial layer of protection is advanced cyber security tools meant to detect intrusions and threats before they cause damage.

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It's Time to Talk About Cyber Insurance

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It's Time to Talk About Cyber Insurance

As a managed IT services provider (MSP), Affinity is not in the business of selling insurance. And, at the same time, we find ourselves increasingly recommending that small and mid-sized businesses in every industry consider cyber insurance as part of a comprehensive cyber security strategy. Why? Because, unfortunately, cybercrime is a booming business, and small and mid-sized businesses are increasingly a target.

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Navigating Microsoft’s NCE’s Impact to Your Business

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Navigating Microsoft’s NCE’s Impact to Your Business

This year, Microsoft is making significant changes to the pricing and licensing structure of widely-used business software and cloud services, including its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 lines of products. They’ve dubbed it the “New Commerce Experience,” or NCE for short.

As with all things Microsoft licensing, the new model isn’t exactly simple. As a result, business leaders will need to think carefully in order to maximize the efficiency of their spend with Microsoft. (Importantly, nonprofits and government organizations are currently exempt from these changes.)

Below are the most important considerations to think through.

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How to Build a Winning Workstation Strategy

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How to Build a Winning Workstation Strategy

Like other areas of business operations, providing a stable fleet of computer workstations for an increasingly disrupted workforce is . . . complicated. Developing and maintaining a workstation strategy can seem like a matter of walking numerous intersecting tightropes. It’s a balance between computing power and need. Build quality and cost. Short-term cost-cutting and strategic investment. Predictability and immediacy.

Affinity’s vCIOs work with clients regularly to find the right balance between these competing priorities. And while no two clients come out with the exact same strategy, a number of themes remain constant.

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Lend a hand on GivingTuesday - November 30, 2021

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Lend a hand on GivingTuesday - November 30, 2021

An important component of Affinity Technology Partner’s vision is “to benefit our community and the greater world through philanthropic partnerships,” so we’d like to make sure our network knows about an important day for the nonprofit community. GivingTuesday is a global generosity movement unleashing the power of radical generosity. It was created in 2012 as a simple idea: a day that encourages people to do good. Since then, it has grown into a year-round global movement that inspires hundreds of millions of people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity.

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Finally!  Security With (a little more) Convenience

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Finally!  Security With (a little more) Convenience

For years, IT departments and the users of technology have been at odds over administrative rights on their computers. Users want to be able to get their work done with as little interruption as possible—and that means occasionally being able to download or update applications. IT departments, on the other hand, have been aware that the ability to download applications is a serious vulnerability. Cyber criminals are constantly inventing new ways to trick unsuspecting users into downloading malicious software, which can have catastrophic impacts on a business.

In the minds of IT professionals, best practice has been to remove administrative privileges from users, to add a layer of supervision to what users could download. But, inevitably, this has always led to friction, as users need to contact and wait for a support technician to put in an administrative password to approve a download.

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