Computerware Blog

When it comes to working remotely from home, the reviews are mixed. On one hand, you have employees that enjoy the freedom of working in their pajamas. On the other hand, some employers don't like having their team spread out because it takes away from company culture. Taking advantage of a webcam is a great solution that may satisfy both parties.

By taking advantage of a video conferencing solution like Skype, remote workers, their employers, and other co-workers can have some semblance of face time. Seeing a person's facial expressions and body language communicates a lot more than just audio and instant messaging. By adding a visual element to team communication, you can see how someone really feels about a project, and it will be easier to avoid the miscommunication of reading false emotions and opinions into e-mails.

Adding a webcam to the remote working experience is not a radical suggestion, although, to make webcams work best for remote workers, it may be in your best interest to use webcams in the radical way of always having them on. Keeping your Skype app open throughout the entire workday will take up extra computer resources, but it may be the missing link to making telecommuting work.

One way that an always-on webcam can help is to give employers a better sense that their employees are standing by. In order for the remote workplace to be successful, the employer has to have a high level of trust that their employees are doing what they are supposed to be doing. Earlier this year, the reputation of telecommuting took a hit as Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer discovered that several of her employees were abusing the privilege of working remotely by not being honest about their use of company time. If Mayer would have had the ability to check on every member of her remote team by glancing at Skype, then perhaps her team would be more motivated to be honest.

A webcam monitoring a remote session would also encourage employees to clean up and dress appropriately before logging on to their computer. Dressing up to do office work from home has been proven to be motivating, increase productivity, and it's a best practice, just in case the remote employee receives a message from work that requires an urgent trip to the office. Employees may be bummed out about losing the ability to work in their pajamas, but keep in mind that it's easy to angle the webcam so that only the waste up is viewable.

Working remotely will be unable to completely capture every communication intricacy that makes face-to-face interaction in the office valuable, but taking full advantage of Skype may be the next best thing. For assistance with setting up your network so that your employees can enjoy working from home, along with saving the expense of commuting and travel time, call Computerware at (703) 821-8200.

With our Desktop Virtualization solution, you can have employees remotely access your company's network from anywhere, and we can streamline videoconferencing for the entire office with our affordable VoIP solution. Call Computerware and talk to us about your company's specific communication needs so that we can build you the best telecommuting package for your remote team!

Take a minute to look at the computer you're using to read this. Are you using a flat screen? How large is your hard drive? What do you use to transfer your data from one place to another? Most likely your screen is indeed flat, your hard drive is no less than 300-500 gigabytes and you carry a portable hard drive on your key ring. Technology, it seems, gets better with every passing day.

Working on a team means that projects are passed from person to person. If one person makes an error, passes it on, and the error is not caught, then the whole project is in jeopardy. When working in Excel with a team, here are three steps to take to help you find mistakes and keep the project moving forward error-free.

Not sure what to look for when purchasing a server? Having trouble with your current server or in the market for a new one? Purchasing a server can be a daunting task, but if not done with careful consideration, it can significantly impact your business' ability to operate smoothly. Here are some things you may want to consider while shopping for one.

How much do you spend on the workstations your employees use? Most business owners admit that it's, "more than I would like," and that's because they would embrace a scenario where they could get away without paying anything. Who wouldn't, right? We don't have a solid method of obtaining free workstations, but we do have a method of significantly reducing the cost of such a task. The solution is desktop virtualization.

How do you take over the planet? First, you control it's flow of information (Google Search). You then develop and analyze a map (Google Earth), then you send in reconnaissance for a closer look (Street View Car), then you set up encrypted communications (Google Loon), you can then strike when least expected.

Have you ever got those e-mails that state that there is a problem with your bank account and that they need to verify your personal information? Or while researching material on the web, click on a site where it wants you to download something? You may know that these things pose threats to your security, but not everyone in your office does, which could mean trouble if they don't.

How much time do you think you spend on your smartphone each day? Your answer will be different depending on your generation, but a recent survey by Experian Marketing Services determined that on an average, adult Americans spend one hour of their day using a smartphone. If you're part of the younger generation then that number probably seems quite low.

It is the end of the day and you have been stressed from the days workload. You're ready to just go home and spend some time with your family. As you're leaving, you remember you left your USB drive connected to your computer. Do you just disconnect it and stuff it in your bag or do you spend the time to safely remove it?

Your wedding day is arguably the most important day of your life, which is why your wedding anniversary is such a big deal. A partner that forgets to celebrate their anniversary is due in for a world of pain, as seen in classic sitcoms. How can technology help? Alaska Jewelry has helped by upgrading the token of marriage: The wedding ring.

The year is 2013 and we, as humans, continually strive to make things smaller, faster, and more efficient. Gone are the days of the rotary phone and the computer processing unit that needed a 12-by-12 room to use. Now we can call our friends halfway around the world using nothing but our voice via recognition software. So why are you still using a fax machine?

What if you walked away from your PC and someone else jumped on with bad intentions? How much digging around would they have to do before they discovered your most sensitive files? If your personal files are encrypted, then a thief will be stopped in their tracks and your identity will be safe.

It's 3 o'clock in the morning and you just shotgunned your last Red Bull to finish up debugging some code for the new software your company plans to launch next week. You decide to take a break and log into your Facebook account and find that John, who recently passed away, just shared a blog titled, "From Beyond the Grave" with you. Spooky right?

Growing up, we didn't dream of servicing computers. Long ago, when RAM was the animal used to represent the letter "R," and not random access memory, our aspirations tended to be draped with capes. While none of us today are superhero crime fighters, we can be an IT hero to your business!

So your boss gives you the task of creating a presentation based on your company's expense vs. profit over the last seven yearsl. He wants to know what was spent, what it was spent on, and what was done to minimize those expenses. You finally find the old files on your server. The problem is, it's from an outdated version of Office and you can't open it!

Nature has a special talent for ruining plans. Sometimes nature can be annoying, like when it rains out a picnic. Other times, it can be devastating, like having your office inundated by a flood. Whatever nature throws at you, it's important to have a backup plan. This is true for both your picnic and your company's data.

So your workstation is crawling along at a snail's pace and you've decided to call your local computer fixer-upper to take care of it. After hours (or days) of twiddling your thumbs, you get your computer back, only to find out that the problem was actually a result of your inability to manage the files. The computer didn't break; it was just infected with malware due to user carelessness.

Snacking is a big part of the office culture. Snacks taste great, provide a nice distraction, and always seem to be within reach. Snacking becomes bad when you take in extra calories without doing any extra physical activity to burn them off. To help you out, we will analyze six common office snacks.

As stressful as it is to run a business, it does come with certain advantages. How cool is it to have a team of professionals working on your goals? Most people outside of the business world don't have this luxury. Technology designed for business is the same way; it comes with certain advantages that make business fun!

"With a great management position, comes great responsibility." --Spiderman's Manager. If management were easy, then nobody would be a manager because everybody would know what to do. Management is challenging, primarily because of all the stress and responsibility involved. Managing your technology doesn't have to be stressful; we can do it for you with our vendor management service.