Category Archives: Cyber / Tech

By Christine Graf

In the early days of the pandemic when non-essential businesses were forced to close, companies relied on information technology professionals to help keep their businesses running. 

According to Mike Tompkins, IT director at myTechs in Clifton Park, his company’s staff responded quickly in order to meet the need of customers. In addition to providing support and help desk services, myTech offers IT consulting, security, project management, virtualization, and disaster recovery.

“One of the biggest initial things that came up was how to support people to work from home because you do have people’s personal internet that they are using and maybe even their home computers in some instances,” he said. “We worked to make sure that employees are working safely when they aren’t in the office.”

Some customers had to purchase equipment and upgrade infrastructure, while others already had the necessary systems in place. Supply chain issues made obtaining IT equipment difficult. Tompkins said prices have increased 5-10 percent. 

“For the last few years, work from home has sort of been on the horizon,” he said. “A lot of our customers were working on this before COVID even hit because they wanted some kind of solution for employees who work out of state or are traveling constantly. We were already ramping up for this without knowing what was coming.”

During the shutdown, myTechs operated drop stations where customers picked up equipment. Everything was sanitized and only one person was allowed into the room at a time. 

“We did things like sending laptops home and making sure they had a nice workspace setup with two monitors in some cases,” said Tompkins. “We set it up for most our customers so that they felt like they really were working in their office and not just sitting at their dining room table doing work.”

When it came to ensuring data security, myTech employed the use of Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections. A VPN provides an extra layer of privacy and anonymity. 

By Jill NAgy The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the dynamics of how offices run and how business meetings are held as companies work to meet health and safety standards. “Everyone’s jumping on the Zoom,” said Rose Miller, head of Pinnacle Human Resources, an Albany company with an office in Saratoga Springs. Miller is quick...

By Michael Cruz
When working on annual planning, we often look at the company’s strengths and its weaknesses. Most often, I see “our people” as a strength. I often see “bench depth” as a weakness.
My advice always is to build on your strengths. Then, do what is reasonable to mitigate your weaknesses. There is one simple thing you can do to reduce that bench depth pain. Invest in the people you already have. We already know that it costs less to keep our customers than it does to acquire new ones.
The same is true about the people that work for you. Hiring is difficult, it is expensive, and it is not a 100 percent solution. Many years ago, I worked for a very fast-growing software company. When I joined it, the company’s sales were $18 million. When I left, seven years later, sales topped $450 million.
One of the most stunning attributes of that industry was that we were all fairly young and inexperienced. We were a young company and we were a young management team. We worked to figure out our weaknesses and we brought in experts to address them. And that personal growth kept me loyal to the company even when I was offered more money to leave.
I outlasted every person that joined the company when I did. Many others quit. When asked why I stayed, I said the growth afforded me opportunities. Remember, it is cheaper to keep customers.
It is also cheaper to keep customers than it is to replace them. The same is true of employees. They are harder to find than customers. They are hard to train. The whole process is expensive. You want to keep your better employees. And your better people want to stay. They want to grow with you.

Mountain Media, a website development firm, has expanded to provide fully redundant data centers with near-instantaneous connections and automatic switchover services.
According to the company, the expansion assures clients’ ecommerce and other mission-critical applications remain accessible in power failures or other disasters.
The firm, which recently moved its offices to 1252 Saratoga Road, Ballston Spa, from Saratoga Springs, took in a capital partner to assist in developing the data center. Working with Kincaid Network Solutions, Mountain Media now offers what it calls “one of the best-connected and most-scalable web hosting environments on the Eastern Seaboard.”
“We have a long history of working collaboratively with Kincaid Network Solutions and its founder, Bob Priest,” said Mountain Media President and CEO James Curley. “We’re pleased to work with Kincaid as we move our hosting capabilities to the next level for mid-tier ecommerce and business application websites.”

By Christine Graf
Adirondack Trust Co. has launched a free smartphone app that provides consumers with the opportunity to receive discounts and other perks at participating local businesses.
The app, called Beyond Savings, uses customized software developed by a third party provider.
According to Adirondack Trust Executive Vice President Charles Wait, it was Robert Ward who first came to him with the idea for the app. Ward is vice president-marketing manager at the bank.
“I knew we needed a rewards program, and Rob came to me with the idea,” said Wait. “It was very easy to say ‘yes’ to. It uses technology to provide local shopping rewards. If I go to one of the vendors on our list—Forno Bistro for example—and I have the app on my phone, I can get a discount. So that benefits not only the user but also the merchants who are our customers. It’s a nice partnership.”

By Vicki A. Marking
Here’s a quick test. What do these seemingly random alphanumerical groupings have in common?
1. 123456
2. password
3. 123456789
4. 12345678
5. 12345
6. 111111
7. 1234567
8. sunshine
9. qwerty
10. iloveyou