Snail mail use to be tongue in cheek – now it’s real
We used to joke that postal mail was snail mail for its comparison to modern coorespondance delivery times. But now recent changes at the post office have resulted in a well published nationwide slowdown in delivery making the whole snail mail thing too real. They are now saying to expect two weeks between mail and final delivery. This will impact the receipt of invoice payments if you are still using checks. Please be sure to plan for this delay. We prefer that no one incurs a late fee because the postal service is slow. We do have other options for payment. On every invoice there is a button you can press to make a payment and this will transfer funds from your bank account as a one time thing. We also offer ACH payments as automatic withdrawal. Lastly, there’s always credit cards but those incur a 4.5% fee since we never see the card. These changes at the post office are definitely going to impact the way business is done in nearly all industries. Please plan ahead.
Improving productivity of work from home employees
“According to our research 84% of the world introduced some work from home capability, 60% introduced technology to enable that, and 60% of those either completely skipped or abbreviated the security checks as part of that implementation” Kris Lovejoy, EY Global Cybersecurity Leader and former CISO of IBM
That quote really caught my eye. It is a national perspective. Locally we’ve seen nearly 100% of our clients introduced more remote work, maybe 30% introduced new technology to support those remote workers and most didn’t want to talk about security. We understood, maybe it was going to be a temporary situation. But now, we’re seeing that some full-time work from home and many part-time work from home is settling into a permenant thing. Work was trending in that direction anyway, but the fast-foward that Covid has brought to business made it happen a lot quicker than it was happening.
Luckily we have 20 years of experience at working from home offices because that’s how we’ve always done it at Harbor. If you have staff working from home, then we need to talk about making that a secure and productive environment.
Digital transformation mastermind groups forming
I’ve been attending a monthly meeting, called a mastermind group, for a very long time. This group helps me be better at running Harbor Computer Services. They are professionals themselves in different industries but we all have similar problems. It’s a small group. First we tell each other quickly what’s new with our business in the last month, then each has an opportunity to bounce something off of the group and get input from the other executives in the room. Everyone participates and we all learn something every time. It’s been a great experience and I’m going to bring this to our clients.
These master mind groups will form to talk about brining technology into your business. Maybe it’s getting advice on new applications, most effective training, hiring online, marketing online, changing processes, improving productivity from work from home, or really anything at all. Today everything in business operates in an intersection between technology and business goals. Getting some guidance from like-minded executives will be a valuable tool for you.
These will start meeting in September or October. It depends on how many of you have to talk to individually about how master mind groups work. There will be no more than five businesses in each group and you will all be from different industries. If you know you want to join let me know right away. I would love to get a group going immediately! Send me a note: amy@harborcomputerservices.net
About Harbor Computer Services
Harbor Computer Services is an IT firm servicing Southeastern Michigan. We work exclusively under contract with our clients to provide technology direction and either become the IT department or provide assistance to the internal IT they already have. We have won many awards for our work over the years, including the worldwide Microsoft Partner of the Year in 2010. We’re the smallest firm to have ever won this most prestigious award. And in 2016 as the top Michigan IT firm for Manufacturing. In 2020 we were named to the MSP 501 at #40 for top firms in the USA. There are a few simple things that make Harbor Computer Services the best choice for your business. •We are Professionals •We are Responsible •We are Concerned About The Success of Your Business
