Magnets Are Not Your Computer’s Friend

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When we invest so much money into a new computer system, we need to ensure we do all that we can to protect our hardware from damage. Magnets are one of the biggest risks to computers. No matter how advanced your device is, you need to do all you can to protect it. Let’s look at how magnets can damage a device and whether it’s something you should be concerned about.

The Truth About Magnets and Computers

If you look at magnetic fields in a scientific manner, it’s true that magnets can damage electronics. However, the length of time the hardware is exposed to the magnet and the strength of the magnetic field will have a huge impact on the damage that’s done to your microprocessor. A small fridge magnet or a case on your tablet won’t cause major damage. In fact, most small magnets you have lying around your home will likely be safe to keep around a computer.

Large, heavy-duty magnets are the things you need to be aware of. They are much stronger than your typical fridge magnet. They can even erase and destroy data, causing permanent damage to electronics.

How Much of a Risk are Magnets to Your Computer?

For anyone who works with heavy-duty magnets on a daily basis, you are likely to experience a greater risk to your devices. Most people are going to be okay in their working environment, and will find that the magnets aren’t in operation or strong enough to cause any disruption.

You might be surprised to learn that most hard drives have magnetic disks, which are used to store and write the data on them. They are stronger than your typical fridge magnet, so there is pretty much no chance of damage to the microprocessor.

Smartphones can also be disrupted by a strong magnetic field. Many phones use magnetic materials, such as iPhone cases, but the risk is reduced when you take away the magnet. Smartphones don’t use magnet discs, however, they usually have small magnets, which can temporarily disable some functions with exposure.

The Final Word

To play it safe, we recommend that you don’t use your phone or computer around strong magnets. The magnetic field might not do permanent damage, but you’ll not want to play around with this just in case it causes long-term damage to your devices.

We hope that this helps you to protect your devices in the future. Let us know if there are any other topics you’d like us to discuss in the upcoming weeks, so that we can address some of your most pressing concerns about technology. For further assistance, contact our team today, who will be happy to share how we can stop your systems and devices from becoming corrupted in the future by exposure to magnets or other security risks.

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Changes in Business Operations Since the COVID-19 Pandemic

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As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses have switched to either complete remote or hybrid work. This has made a significant impact on the way employees choose to work. Some employees have returned in a more limited capacity, while others have decided not to return to the office. As a result of this trend, a decrease in the amount of usable office space has been reported by several businesses. 

Robin Powered conducted a survey called 2022 Office Space, where they asked several business owners and/or managers various questions related to the use of their office space in the workplace after the COVID-19 pandemic, remote and hybrid work, and the Great Resignation. The results they found were quite interesting. 

Some details from the report include:

  • 46 percent of those surveyed no longer use more than half of their available office space.
  • 11 percent of respondents use all of their available office space.
  • 48 percent of those surveyed report their use of open office space has decreased since the beginning of the pandemic.
  • 60 percent of those currently using half or less of their available office space have since downsized before the pandemic.
  • 46 percent of respondents plan to reduce their available office space in 2023.
  • 59 percent of those surveyed are planning to cut their office space by half or even more than half.

From the survey, 83 percent of those respondents indicated that these changes were made to reduce costs and save more money. About 73% of respondents plan to transition to hybrid business operations instead of laying off employees or other cost-effective practices. 

Aside from interviewing business owners and facilities managers, Robin Powered also surveyed the employees that work at those companies and received more information on how they prefer to work. 

  • 37 percent of employees surveyed are working full time at the office. 
  • 61 percent of the employees surveyed have some type of hybrid work environment.
  • 87 percent of hybrid employees report spending two or more days a week at the office.

A common question among business owners and managers is how can we help employees to the best of our abilities with remote and/or hybrid business operations increasing significantly? Business owners and facilities managers must also consider the substantial cost savings associated with remote and hybrid work. 

One of the best ways to assist you through this process while making changes to your own business operations is working with an IT service provider, like us at 4 Corner IT, to ensure your technology can support some of these changes. We can assist you and your company in acquiring and implementing the right technology to sustain remote and/or hybrid business operations. 

For any questions or to learn more about what we can do for your company, please contact us today at 954.474.2204.

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Vendor Management Can Really Waste Your Time

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As a business owner, vendor management is very important. Vendor relationships must be cultivated and maintained in some way on the off chance you need them for support. However, working with vendors can be stressful and downright frustrating at times. Let’s examine a specific situation that demonstrates these challenges and what you can do about them. 

Imagine that you need to contact a vendor about an issue you have with an application you use daily. You want it to work for your company, but you have to adjust the settings to allow it to work well with other applications on your network. These other applications are not necessarily managed by the same vendor. Next thing you know, you are calling other vendors left and right to see what your options are. Meanwhile, you have tasks piling up on your desk because you are too busy on the phone with vendors. A simple task turns into a wild goose chase for the correct solution to your problem. 

In the end, you might not even find the right answer. You might waste all of this time on the phone with vendors and be no closer to solving your problem. You’ll have to repeat the process again and again until someone is able to help you. This frustration might lead you to just give up on the solution entirely. Even if your research is telling you that it is the best tool for the job. 

When you have so many solutions on your infrastructure, including software and hardware components, vendor overload can happen. It can be difficult to keep everyone straight. Especially when you have countless points of contact for the plethora of vendors your business works with. It would be easier and much more simple to have a single point of contact for all vendors on your list, but surely something like this is too good to be true… right? 

Not necessarily—it turns out that managed service providers can offer a vendor management solution that can make working with your vendors much easier in the long term. The biggest issue is managing points of contact and dealing with them, so vendor management services allow you to bypass both of these by reaching out to one point of contact—your managed service provider—thus streamlining the process. 

A managed service provider effectively creates this single point of contact for your technology needs, vendor management included. If you need help setting up a new solution, we’ve got your back. If you need some support with that new solution, we’ve got that covered, too. We act as the mediator between you and your vendors so you can have one phone number on your contact list for all of your technology needs instead of a hundred. If you do need to get in touch with your vendors, just let us know and we can take care of that for you. 

4 Corner IT wants to help your business with managed services. To learn more, reach out to us at (954) 474-2204.