Central Illinois' IT Experts

A Hands-Off Solution
Certain processes can be completed automatically without any time investment--particularly those that are simple, or ones that are extraordinarily time-consuming. One example of this is a website’s dialogue box asking for assistance with finding information. What this accomplishes is having an automated system run by a computer that helps users find something on a website without needing to discuss the issue directly with a real human being.

Another example of this is Clippy, the Microsoft Office Assistant that can help users with various aspects of their Office applications. Clippy would help users when they attempt to format the document in specific ways. Of course, it also did this when its assistance wasn’t necessary, so depending on your attitude toward the little paper clip, it might be more annoying than anything else.

Thankfully, automation generally isn’t as insistent or obtrusive as Clippy. Your standard automation processes will happen behind the scenes, and they can potentially eliminate many tasks that would eat up a considerable amount of time and hold you back from making the most of your time in the workplace. Here are three ways that automation can help businesses just like yours:

• Smaller tasks generally don’t need the user’s attention. This gives employees the ability to focus on bigger and more important responsibilities.
• Scheduling or delegating tasks can also take up a lot of time, but automation can make this process easier.
• Automation is handled by computers rather than humans, and as such, it is less prone to user error as a whole.

Concerns Regarding Automation
Automation in particular faces stiff challenges moving forward--particularly in regard to concerns that employees have about its use. There are various technical and human aspects of automation that could strike a nerve with many organizations out there.

• Automation might make the job easier, but it still requires human oversight in order to function properly. Therefore, it’s critical to determine if the end result is worth the investment in automation technology. If it’s not, then perhaps it’s time to look at outsourcing as a viable alternative.
• If you use multiple automated solutions, they have to play nice for them to provide any real benefit for your business. Decatur Computers Inc. can help you make this happen.
• Your employees might feel like automation is taking their jobs, but this isn’t necessarily the case. It’s designed to help your employees more effectively do their jobs. Make sure you adequately explain this to them to minimize pushback.

To learn more about how automation can help your business, reach out to us at 217-475-0226.

Ugh. Reacting. That’s literally the opposite of what your goal should be - being proactive.

Waiting to react is basically accepting downtime as a part of doing business. You need to be proactive - not accepting downtime and rejecting it as the waste of time and money that it is. In order to pull this off, it is crucial that you change your perspective. Why wait for something to go wrong when you can prevent a bad outcome by acting now?

However, with all your other responsibilities, you certainly can’t just add this to your itinerary, and hiring some internal staff to cover this probably isn’t considered in your budget. No, your best bet is to look outside of your staff, and outsource these responsibilities to another provider, like Decatur Computers Inc.. We leverage a solution commonly known as remote monitoring and management (RMM). Working remotely, we’re able to catch issues early and fix them, giving your business a few additional benefits to enjoy.

The Benefits:

1. You’ll understand your business’ IT needs better. We’ve all had those nagging questions about our IT before. Why is it that our storage always seems to fill up with more than we put in? We just updated this, why is it running so slow? Eventually\\ we’ve just accepted things the way they are… until things get worse.
   RMM turns that into a non-issue. We’ll have a front-row seat, ready to spot anything that needs to be resolved and take care of it. You might never know about even half the threats that are stopped once we step in.
2. You’ll not only increase your internal productivity, you’ll decrease your downtime. The more prepared your systems are to handle your demands, the better they will be able to do so. It’s as simple as that. So instead of stumbling across repeated problems and known issues over and over, you and your team can get down to business.
   The same goes for downtime. With Decatur Computers Inc. on your side, causes of downtime can be predicted and planned for, if not mitigated. This allows you to find some way of otherwise being productive, rather than sitting there and staring blankly at a screen.
3. You’ll know about your maintenance needs. Your internal network is kind of the “engine” of your business, as it helps drive your processes forward. Just like an actual engine, it’s going to need a tune-up every now and then to keep things going.
   The nice thing about understanding your maintenance needs is that you can see to them, acting before something forces you to act. My team can even see to it that this kind of maintenance happens after hours, so there will be a minimal disruption (if any) to your daily productivity.
4. Your efficiency will increase. This is the real problem with downtime - when an employee encounters a problem, it’s going to bring their efficiency to zero. Even if they’ve become accustomed to this problem and have devised a way to work around it, this is still eating into your operational time unnecessarily.
   Remote monitoring and management can help reduce distractions like these by identifying and resolving the root issue. Instead of wasting the time your employees have to do their work, technical difficulties can be mitigated behind the scenes.
5. Your security will be improved. NotPetya and WannaCry were both ransomware attacks that demonstrated how underprepared many companies were, because they hadn’t installed some security updates - even with the time between these two widespread attacks. Many paid dearly for it.
   Yes, updating systems can be a pain. However, working with us means that you wouldn’t have to run these updates, because we would do it for you, which lets you focus on your operations.

In short, remote monitoring and management just means that my team and I have your back.

If you’d like to talk to me or one of my team members about the prospect of leveraging our remote monitoring and management services, we’re more than ready to have that conversation with you. Give us a call at 217-475-0226 to get started.

What is the Navigation Bar?
The navigation bar can take many forms, but it’s generally a bar at either the top of a website or application. For example, it might display links to a home page, an about page, or various services that a business or organization offers. Depending on the style of the website, it could also be in a sidebar or other location, but it’s generally in a place where the user can easily identify what it is.

What Does it Contain?
The navigation bar is essentially made up of menu items that contain links to various web pages on a website. Depending on the website, it might contain different things. For example, a web browser will have a navigation bar that includes the address bar. Operating systems also have navigation bars in the file browser. Even Windows’ Start menu can be considered a navigation bar, as through it you can get to just about anything you need on your computer.

Why is it so Helpful?
Simply put, the navigation bar is helpful because it takes all of the important links and information that one needs from a website or application and displays it in a way that is easy to consume. Whether it’s in the list of links or a search bar, the navigation bar acts as a waypoint for anyone using a website, helping them find exactly what they need, when they need it.

In the end, the navigation bar is meant to help website or application users navigate the interface in the most efficient way possible. Though its appearances and styles will change depending on the branding and web design skill of the developer, its inherent purpose remains the same.

For more tech terms, tips and tricks, subscribe to Decatur Computers Inc.’s blog.