Phantom Technology Solutions Blog

Technology is a major player in today’s business environment, and in most cases, companies have someone in their executive suite whose sole purpose is overseeing their technology systems. This individual—the Chief Information Officer, or CIO—is incredibly important to the everyday operations of businesses.

If a business seeks to make important decisions, there is always going to be a little bit of hesitation. After all, the wrong choice could mean financial or operational ramifications. Therefore, the most logical way to approach these decisions is to maximize the value you get out of your investments. Today, we want to focus on how technology can be a driving factor for maximizing your business’ value from major decisions.

No matter how dedicated some of your employees might be, you will always have the others who are simply in it for the paycheck rather than a desire to be personally connected to the business. If there is too much of a disconnect between the way you see the business and the way your employees see the business, morale and productivity could take a drop.

These days, it feels like there are risks around just about every corner that could affect your business. This can make it hard to navigate the challenges of running your company in an efficient way. Let’s examine some of the risks your average small business might encounter, as well as what you can do about them.

Remote work might have been crucial in the face of the pandemic, but now that companies are bringing employees back to the workplace, many are pushing back. While we can of course assist with your implementation of remote work technologies, there might be more reason to consider allowing for remote work. This doesn’t come from just us; it also comes from industry experts.

Have you heard the term “quiet quitting''?” It’s been going around lately, and it can be a problem if it isn’t addressed. Let’s examine what quiet quitting is, what it means for your business, and what you can do to solve it.

Ever since the pandemic, there has been an increased focus on mental health and well-being in the workplace. This has led many business owners to consider how they can improve their employees’ relationships with not just each other, but all of the other important people in their lives. As it turns out, remote work can be a major facilitator in this effort.

Most people will spend about one-third of their lives at work. Naturally, this large amount of time spent away from home can lead to a lot of stress. Emotions can overwhelm your employees and lead them to experience negative side effects that could impact their physical and mental health. Let’s examine some ways you can minimize the workday stressors that your employees may suffer from.

If you’ve spent any amount of time around us, you’ve probably had the importance of data backup and disaster recovery preparation preached to you—probably more than once. However, as closely associated as the two are, they are not the same. Let’s explore the critical differences between these two processes so you can be fully prepared to attend to both.

Collaboration is key in the business world, but it’s not always as easy or as simple as it might seem at first glance. Naturally, when you try to get people to work together, you add even more moving parts to the puzzle, and if you aren’t careful, you can accidentally influence your bottom line, and not in a good way. Here are three helpful tips you can implement for better collaboration strategies.

It’s no shock that business executives are already busy enough, but you need to add “knowing more about your IT infrastructure” to that list if you haven’t already done so. It’s critical that you are on the same page as your IT staff, and this relationship will fuel productive relations with both your technology and the staff utilizing it.

We live in a time where technology management is confusing, and it’s mostly because every business has different strengths, needs, and budgets to work around. What works for one small business won’t work for another, and what works for a large enterprise certainly won’t do the trick for a small business. How do you cut through all the noise and get the technology assistance your business needs? The answer: managed IT services.

Customer relationship management software, or CRM tools, are not just for use by large corporations with a large workforce. They can be used by small businesses, too, and there are several benefits for an SMB to use one. Here are some of the many benefits you can expect to receive from using a CRM for your organization.

As we enter the third quarter of the year, now is as good a time as ever to reevaluate how you are spending your IT budget. According to Gartner, your IT spending might actually be increasing, assuming it’s in line with what your organization wants and needs. Are you being intentional with your IT spending? Where are you investing it? Are you spending it on avenues for continued growth? Gartner’s study might yield some interesting ideas which you can call upon to inform your own spending practices.

Just about everyone has a smartphone these days, but it takes a little know-how and self-awareness to use it in a productive way. Instead of your smartphone turning into a time-wasting device, you can use it to get more work done and reduce your stress levels in the workplace. Here are three helpful tips you can implement to use your smartphone in a better, more productive way.

Technology management is a challenge for small businesses, especially those that have limited resources at their disposal. There are a lot of decision makers that are under the impression that they cannot afford to take proper care of their technology, so they put it off until their technology starts to fail. So, we ask you this question: if not now, when is the appropriate time to take care of your technology?

Worker burnout is more prevalent than ever, and it can lead employees to experience negative effects such as stress, exhaustion, depression, and frustration. Do you see any of these symptoms in your IT workers? Let’s take a closer look at how burnout is impacting the IT industry and your IT talent, as well as some ways you can address it.

Data backup is something that all businesses need in some capacity. The reasoning for this is simple: you can never predict the future, so your business’ life is never guaranteed… unless, of course, you plan for the worst. Today we want to share with you some best practices as they relate to data backup and disaster recovery, practices which we hope will give you the confidence that you can recover from even the worst-case scenarios.

If you are like most businesses, you don’t consider a new IT project until you need to upgrade your current systems. It can be something like adding some new hardware to your network, migrating to the cloud, or adding new applications to your operations. No matter the project, though, there is one thing that is certain: you need professionals on your team to make sure it goes smoothly. This is where co-managed IT comes into play.

How often do your employees find themselves stuck in repetitive task loops that not only kill their productivity, but also their motivation? Depending on the task at hand, it might be more often than you, and especially more often than they, would prefer. Workflow automation solutions provide a remedy to this challenge by taking some of the frustration and repetitiveness out of the equation and relying on technology to ensure things get done without a hitch.