The Greater Seattle Area IT Experts

Security Monitoring
On the home front, it helps to have a security monitoring system. Think about this as a surveillance camera system that gives you a glimpse of your home, allowing you to know immediately if there is a break-in or other type of intrusion. You can also implement this for an office environment, where it’s arguably just as useful to protect your organization’s physical and digital assets.

Network Monitoring
When an IT technician is monitoring a system, they can see if there is some sort of internal or external factor influencing the network. Network monitoring is mostly used to make sure that your network is actually functioning as it should be. Technicians can use remote monitoring software to check endpoints, networking equipment, and server functionality, while also making sure that they aren’t being subject to threats and other issues. Since businesses depend so heavily on their technology to function, it’s no wonder that they are willing to go all-in on a system like this to guarantee maximum uptime. Furthermore, detecting small problems and addressing them before they become major issues can help you avoid unnecessary costs in the long run.

Some network monitoring software can let technicians get a glimpse of how users are using their devices. This provides you with an at-a-glance assessment of the productivity of your employees, allowing you the opportunity to either improve productivity or reinforce good behaviors for problem employees. This also provides an opportunity for your business to keep employees from visiting dangerous or wasteful websites.

Application Monitoring
Some applications also provide IT administrators with ways to monitor activity logs for how the applications are actually being used. Keeping a watchful eye on how your staff are using these applications is a great way to see whether or not you need to put your foot down on a particularly bothersome issue. You can take a look at how your employees are using solutions like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) or instant messaging. For example, you can monitor an employee while they are on the phone with a client so you can provide valuable feedback on how to improve.

Ultimately, you’ll get the most out of your cloud applications by knowing how your employees use solutions, and why. This knowledge can be used to develop an understanding of the solutions, as well as showcase how you can more effectively use them. If you have software that’s simply not being used, for example, it can be removed from operations entirely so as not to waste further assets on it.

Mobile Device Monitoring
Mobile devices are useful for keeping your employees connected to important information and data, but it comes at a price. They can potentially be quite distracting, leading to lots of wasted time on your part. Employees might not give full control over their personal mobile devices to the employer, though, creating a sort-of catch-22 regarding mobile devices in the workplace. Unless you plan on issuing every single employee a mobile device for enhanced productivity, you need to have a Bring Your Own Device policy to make sure your employees know what they can and can’t do with their mobile devices regarding company data and assets.

If the employee opts in to your BYOD policy, they will know that their device is being monitored, but they will likely just want to know what you can or can’t access and change. This ultimately means that they will be making a sacrifice to be more productive with their smartphones, prompting at least a little reassurance on your part that they don’t have to worry about your business messing with their personal information or changing important data.

How can your business take advantage of monitoring? To find out, reach out to us at (206) 709-9556.

GDPR itself is a bit tricky to understand. Even though it doesn’t have the PII designation, it’s still the strongest data protection law passed to date. Any organization that does business with businesses within the nations of the European Union needs to comply with the regulations outlined in the GDPR. One of the most notable results that we’re sure you’ve noticed regarding GDPR is that many websites have updated their privacy policy, and they are required by law to tell their viewers about this. This is to protect themselves from the fines associated with non-compliance to GDPR.

The biggest issue concerning blockchain technology is found in the GDPR mandate. According to the new regulations, if a company obtains personal information that doesn’t need it, they must delete it. Blockchain nodes can’t be deleted, so it makes sense that the GDPR would be an issue for companies that use them. It’s a strange coincidence that blockchain and GDPR are both meant to improve user privacy, even though the blockchain technology used to this end isn’t compatible with GDPR regulations.

Even though GDPR was designed to adapt to changes in technological innovations, blockchain is already testing its ability to do so. For example, applications that utilize blockchain technology already pair well with the three major points of GDPR: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The blockchain uses encryption to remain confidential, but the ledger itself remains transparent.

Let’s think about a potential scenario for a customer named Jim. Jim can use a blockchain-based account to pay for his monthly checkup. This works out for him because most of the EU has universal healthcare as a principal. The details of this payment are hidden, but the record shows the overall price in the form of cryptocurrency. Because this company has collected information--encrypted or not--and it’s not needed, this would be a breach of GDPR policy. Consequently, some EU-based companies have stopped accepting Bitcoin and cryptocurrency as payment, though it’s worth mentioning that GDPR isn’t the exclusive cause of this.

Though the GDPR regulations only cover EU-member countries and organizations that do business with them, there is a considerable chance that these regulations will be amended as time goes on. What will this future look like? Will it be more like GDPR, or will it focus primarily on the blockchain? Let us know in the comments.

Accessible Solutions
No office is complete without a comprehensive communications solution, but it’s especially important for your business to have solutions designed to help remote employees stay connected to the workplace. This can include the following:

• Virtual private networks: Any time you have employees accessing sensitive information from outside your network, you want these communications to be encrypted with a VPN.
• Voice over Internet Protocol: Access to a phone system can make communication much easier, and the best way to do this is with a software-based VoIP solution that can be used on desktops, mobile devices, and laptops.
• Remote desktop software: Sometimes you have employees who are only remote half of the time. In this case, you can let them remote into their work desktops to access files located on them.
• Cloud-based applications: Any applications hosted in the cloud are great for remote workers, as they are frequently (or permanently) out of the office, away from their desktops.

Ensure Proper Documentation
Project management is incredibly important for remote workers, as they are disconnected from the everyday hustle and bustle of the office environment. They aren’t going to be available for “by-the-way” conversations that can lead to major breakthroughs in projects. They aren’t going to be there to hear the collaboration going on. Instead, they need a place where they can see all of the details at a glance. Project management software makes this possible by allowing you to allocate tasks and resources to whoever needs them.

Be Inclusive
The most important part of having remote employees is remembering that they are still a part of the team. It can be easy to forget that they are still hard at work for your organization, so be sure to reach out and check up on them once in a while. Remember, remote employees don’t get the social aspect of the workplace that other employees get, so they might find themselves wishing for some human interaction once in a while. Plus, it helps them feel like they are valued by your business--and when employees feel like they are valued, they work harder and better.

Is your business considering going mobile with remote employees? Be sure to reach out to Digital Seattle beforehand to make sure they have all the tools they need to succeed, including software solutions, mobile devices, and so much more. All you have to do is reach out to us at (206) 709-9556.