Tag: computer buying

  • 7 Tech New Year’s Resolutions to Accomplish in 2024

    7 Tech New Year’s Resolutions to Accomplish in 2024

    Happy New Year! It may not feel like 2024 yet to you (it certainly doesn’t to us) but the new year is upon us and with that comes a renewed opportunity to address some of the tech items that have been pushed under the rug to deal with “later”.

    Whether you’re committed to trying to up your game this year or clean up areas of your business where the tech has fallen behind, we have 7 New Year’s resolutions that will push your business forward and maximize your efficiency and growth in 2024.

    1. New Year, New Tech? Starting off, the start of the year is a great time to do some housekeeping and figure out what devices may be holding you and your staff back. Vendors like Dell, Lenovo and more often have start of the year sales and dragging that aging PC or laptop through another year versus starting clean with a new device (with vastly superior hardware) just doesn’t make sense.
    2. There’s an app for EVERYTHING. Next, it’s a good idea to see what processes you’re still trudging through manually and evaluate whether some of those manual tasks could instead be modernized with an app. Whether it be pen and paper calendar or planner (Microsoft Outlook has both built in!) or tools for managing budgets, inventory, scheduling and more – going digital with your processes in 2024 is the smart choice.
    3. Connect with your customers. When it comes to engaging with your clients, reaching them where they are is a powerful tool. For a lot of business owners stepping out from the shadows and putting more of themselves online is a scary thought, but many customers want to identify with your brand or with you directly not just with your product. Who better to promote your brand than you? Improving your online presence for your business and yourself is a powerful sales tool you should take advantage of in 2024.
    4. Are you cyber aware or cyber scared? If cybersecurity has been a topic you’ve been avoiding or interacting with as little as possible, it’s really past time to change that. The threats to your business aren’t going away and a little proactive maintenance in this area can have a HUGE impact. One thing you can do today (as in right now) to bolster your protection? Turn on multi-factor authentication on all the accounts where it’s available. This simple action will give you over 50% improvement in protecting your accounts from being compromised vs not having it.
    5. In the same vein, data loss is not inevitable. We get it, we’re all inundated with news of this breach or that data leak where everyone’s information was dumped into the internet ether – we just would argue that this scenario is NOT an inevitability. In fact, in 2024 we would also guess many insurance companies would agree as rules for being covered continue to grow stricter. If you don’t have a plan for your backups and data in 2024 you need to make one, STAT.
    6. Tech improvements can have a positive effect on your ROI. Whether it be ditching traditional telecom in favor of VoIP (our customers have paid as little as a 10th of what they were spending for phones with our solution), utilizing digital training to increase your employees confidence and performing, or deploying communication tools in your business that allow for more efficient back and forth – there are a lot of areas where tech won’t just make your business run better it will also make your business more profitable.
    7. You can’t do it alone, take this piece of advice. If nothing else the best resolution you can make regarding your tech in 2024 is acknowledging that it might be too much for one person, whether that’s you or a non-technical staff member that’s trying to help out – to keep up with maintenance alone is often times not a one-person job let alone making improvements. The best bang for your buck in 2024 will be bringing in additional assistance.

    If your business is located in the Central Valley that’s where Valley Techlogic can assist. We provide support for ALL the topics we’ve listed above and more, and when you sign up with us you will have access to our whole team – often times for much less than it would be to hire a single dedicated IT staff person.

    If you’re curious what we can do for your business we’re also offering $100 cash to business owners that simply hear what we have to offer, no strings attached. Click on the image below to get started.

    Looking for more to read? We suggest these other articles from our site.

    This article was powered by Valley Techlogic, an IT service provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.

  • Black Friday Isn’t just for consumer purchases, business owners can take advantage as well with these tech deals

    Black Friday Isn’t just for consumer purchases, business owners can take advantage as well with these tech deals

    The holidays are rapidly approaching and with Thanksgiving and Black Friday this week we thought it would be a good idea to offer some tips when it comes to Black Friday shopping for your business.

    If you aren’t aware, “Black Friday” is the day following Thanksgiving when retailers offer deep discounts to entice buyers who are holiday shopping. These discounts also occur on technology purchases with laptops being a popular item.

    We’re Dell and Lenovo partners here at Valley Techlogic, and both have their holiday deals live now but things are selling out fast. Dell has laptops and desktops available as well as some peripherals. Lenovo even has a handy page for their Black Friday allowing buyers to sort by what they’re looking for easily.

    Another retailer you can look to for some Black Friday specials for your business is Best Buy. Following the trend this year they’ve also released some of their Black Friday specials earlier this year and would be a great place to look for a laptop or computer monitor.

    It also goes without saying that Amazon is a great place to look for those holiday tech deals, particularly when it comes to peripherals. If you have a business account with them you may even see better pricing then on your regular consumer account, it’s always worth checking.

    If you’re looking to buy in bulk, particularly if you’re also taking advantage of Section 179 this year, then we’ve got you covered. As we mentioned we have partnerships with both Dell and Lenovo and not only can we take advantage of their Black Friday pricing on your behalf, we can also work with our sales representatives to possibly secure a discount on top of that for larger purchases.

    The deals don’t stop at hardware, many software vendors will also offer deals for Black Friday especially in the creative space. Adobe Creative Cloud is 40% off this month and allows you access to Photoshop, Premier Pro and more.

    If you’re been looking for a new webhost Hostinger also has their hosting 80% off (hosting starting at $2.50 per month).

    We’ve also seen deals on VPNs and anti-virus software, though we recommend coordinating with your tech team on whether or not those are worth taking advantage of for your business.

    This year, we’ve decided to join in on the action and offer our own Black Friday Special, for five businesses that sign up we’ll be waving our setup fees and any payments until January 1st, 2023.

    Click to grab the full size version.

    If your current IT support has left something to be desired, why not start 2023 off on a better foot? Here are four ways we support our clients that differ from our competitors:itWe also make switching easy with our white glove hand off service, we will work directly with your current IT to make for a seamless transition. We can even provide a template for the letter you can send to discontinue your current service. What are you waiting for? Sign up today as this deal ends November 30th!

    Looking for more to read? We suggest these other articles from our site.

    This article was powered by Valley Techlogic, an IT service provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.

  • The global chip shortage timeline of events, and when it could end

    The global chip shortage timeline of events, and when it could end

    The global chip shortage is still raging on and it’s effecting more business sectors than you might expect. As a technology provider we’re certainly feeling the pinch when it comes to ordering hardware for our clients. The delays have challenged us to get creative with our clients and we’re coming up with interim solutions until hardware makes it in.

    Some vendors are certainly meeting the needs for computer hardware better than others, so that buffet of choice you may be used to is a thing of the past – at least for the moment. We’re thankful for our channel connections as they give us an edge when ordering that the ordinary consumer may not have.

    We’re not the only ones feeling the pinch though, car manufacturers, appliances, even children’s toys. Consumers are being told they should consider purchasing their children’s wish list items earlier this year, if you wait those electric wish list items may be long gone before December. We’ve even seen it suggested that you may want to consider “dumb” toys such as those made of wood that are unaffected by the chip shortage. Lincoln logs anyone?

    Here is a simple timeline of events for the chip shortages, which started long before the pandemic in 2018.

    Global Chip Shortage Timeline
    Click to Download the Full Size Version

    As you can see the chip shortages definitely didn’t start with the pandemic, but it did exacerbate the existing problems greatly. Shortages in components, shortages in labor, shipping delays are all contributing to worldwide pains that have even led to products exceeding their MSRP.

    The graphic card market sums up the problem succinctly, with scalpers taking advantage of the low stock to sell cards for hundreds of dollars outside of their MSRP.

    No one can say for sure when the chip shortages will end, but major players such as Intel and chip-making behemoth TSMC are all looking to bring manufacturing state side to help. This would at least cut down on shipping times and if future global trade issues were to occur the US electronic manufacturers would be much better prepared for it.

    These are not permanent fixes though as component shortages are an ever-growing issue that needs to be addressed. We don’t know what a long-term solution will look like but more investments into infrastructure could easy the burden in the short term.

    For more information on the time line of events for the global chip shortage we suggesting reading this article which goes into more details about the timeline of events since 2018 and other global factors that have occurred.

    If you’re having difficult sourcing hardware for your business, Valley Techlogic can help. We have channel connections that allow us priority buying for our clients and should you be interested in partnering with us we can extend those benefits to your business. Reach out today to learn more.

    Looking for more to read? We suggest these other articles from our site.

    This article was powered by Valley TechLogic, an IT service provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.