"Work smarter, not harder" is a phrase that often gets a bad rap. After all, it often conjures up images like that of Homer Simpson using a toy bird to type for him. Putting nuclear meltdown-causing Homer Simpson to one side, most of us could find ways to work smarter.

After seeing other companies implement technology projects that have revolutionized business, leaders may realize that incorporating tech into operations has great potential to become profitable. One study that reviewed years of data from more than 400 global companies found that IT investments that enable sales are more likely to increase business profitability than those that help reduce business costs. 

You have an IT project that you would like to get started or a new technology that you want to implement. You know it will have a positive impact on the business, and you know this is the sort of technology or project that your organization needs to stay competitive in an increasingly digital world.

However, your pitch for the initiative fails, and you don't get budget approval.

Most small and medium-sized businesses operate with limited resources. Aligning information technology and business goals maximizes these resources because it helps teams work together towards common goals. This important strategic business concept is commonly known as IT-business alignment.

Take a look at four ways your Connecticut SMB will benefit from aligning technology and business goals.

Spending on technology can either be a sound investment or a costly expense for SMBs. So, what are the issues to take into account to determine whether an IT expense is an investment or a cost for your company?

Take a look at some of the questions we believe you should ask yourself before taking the plunge on a new service, tool, or solution for your Connecticut SMB. 

When disaster strikes, a business continuity plan can help save your business from financial and reputational damage as well as complete bankruptcy. And even though we prefer not to think about things going wrong, disasters do happen. 

Like countless others across the United States, small and medium businesses in Connecticut changed the way they work, practically overnight. And to accommodate for this, many businesses like yours were left reinventing their IT budgets.

Our state has recovered 69% of the 292,400 jobs lost to COVID. However, despite a record number of unfilled job openings, paradoxically, there are 91,000 fewer people working in Connecticut than in February of 2020. One way for Connecticut business owners to access a larger talent pool is to invest in adapting their business to function well with remote workers. After all, remote work is here to stay.

Below, we share 4 ways remote work has impacted IT budgets and a few insights on what these changes might mean for you in 2021.

Building an IT budget — especially with the way things have been going in the past 20 months or so — can seem like a daunting task for small businesses. Your IT department experienced a rise in demand from the rest of your staff. With more meetings occurring online and an overall increase in requests for support, your tech team may be looking to you for guidance on how to build an IT budget that safeguards your SMB’s business continuity.

On the other hand, you may be wondering how to balance those needs with a plan that doesn’t break the bank and instead gets the most return on your investment. Take a look at the following four tips for building an IT budget in 2021.

Ensuring that day-to-day operations run smoothly can be hard, especially within small firms where resources are limited. This is why new technology is important, because they offer progressive firms an opportunity to accomplish more with less.

But what exactly does “transformation” mean in terms of business impact?

That’s what this blog is about. In this blog we will explain what benefits a company can expect from a truly transformative experience with new technology.

The nature of technology is such that it impacts everything at the business - employees, work culture, various departments (sales, marketing, HR, accounting, manufacturing), and so on. Without clearly defined goals, established performance indicators and aligning the technology with existing work culture, organizations struggle to arrive at their ROI on technology.

Here are 5 challenges that organizations face when calculating ROI on technology: