Author Archive: Matt

3 ways to make your office more energy efficient

Offices waste a phenomenal amount of energy. Computers, lighting, copiers and other office equipment is often left on all day. This not only damages the environment, but significantly increases monthly outgoings. There are plenty of ways to make the office space more energy efficient; however, managing a whole team of people and trying to keep them motivated about energy efficiency can be very difficult. In addition, having a cool working environment promotes productivity,  it’s advisable to learn more about Air Pro Master’s current offers.

These three techniques are easy to implement; will inspire your workforce; and save you a huge amount of cash over time.

Install Air Conditioning

Comfort is the most important element of retaining a good level of employee morale. An uncomfortable workforce will lead to unhappy employees and reduce productivity by roughly 30%. According to A Quality HVAC Services, a good HVAC system will create a more relaxing work environment, which will almost certainly reflect positively in your employees. The simple addition of air conditioning with the help of experts from services like Sirius Plumbing and Air Conditioning would help.

With regards to energy bills, there’s a common misconception that air conditioning will cost more; however, that’s simply not the case. Macair state that a decent HVAC system can reduce energy bills and carbon emissions by up to 15%. Programmable thermostats will retain a constant temperature and ensure you don’t waste excess energy over-cooling or over-heating your workspace. For help, visit similar services like Landmark Air heating and cooling Canberra and All Year Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning, they are available 24/7 for all your heating and cooling needs.

Turn off computers

In most office spaces computers are left on all day and all night; apart from on weekends. Turning off the monitor won’t cut it. At the very least turn off computers during the night. If possible, tell your staff to turn off their computers if they won’t be in use for an extended period of time – during lunch breaks and meetings, etc. Electricity is without a doubt the largest office expense in the billing department, yet most bosses won’t bat an eyelid when they see computers and monitors left on when they’re not in use.

In addition to turning off computers, tell your employees to turn of lights and other office equipment when they leave a room. If you need help inspiring your workforce, give them some kind of incentive program. For example, set a quota and use some of the saved cash to buy them treats, such as a box of morning donuts.

Install decent lighting

Installing decent lighting is vital. Wherever possible use natural sunlight. If you lack windows, ceiling lights or skylights are the best option. According to professional electricians, it’s a great idea to think about energy efficient bulbs; while they can take a little longer to get bright, they’ll be far better in the long run, especially if you need to keep them on all day. If you’re planning on decorating your office with neon signs, Neon Mama has a cost and energy consumption breakdown of neon lights.

Think about your light placement. Sometimes it’s not the power of the bulb that needs adjusting, it’s the positioning. If you use lamps, place them in a triangular formation to maximize light projection. In addition, think about repainting the office. White walls and ceilings will reflect light better than dark colour schemes and could significantly brighten up the space. You can also read this window blinds buyer’s guide, if you’re looking for a way to provide natural lighting to your office.

Creating an energy efficient office isn’t just about reducing bills and protecting the environment, it can also positively affect business. Many companies will only choose to work with people who have green initiatives, even if they are more costly. And if your office is in Canada, you can easily lower your electricity rates Edmonton by switching to Regional Energy.

Set yourself targets and try to keep everyone motivated. Consider assigning one of your employees the role of energy coordinator and  make them your “eyes in the office.” This will help to keep your team aware of wasting energy.

Image Credit: Emco Klima

Image Caption: Installing an air conditioning system can significantly reduce bills and emissions.

How Can Conducting A Video Meeting Help Your Webinar Become A Success?

The ability to talk to a large group of people allows you to spread information at a prodigious rate. This is important for businesses as well as educational facilities and even in government. The question is, how you can reach as many people as you need to? In the past, you needed to gather everyone into a large area and speak from a position high enough and loud enough so everyone in attendance could see and hear what you had to see. These days, webinars have taken over as the quickest and easiest way to speak to a large group of people all at once.

How You Can Get Started

The first thing you should consider when you’re looking to hold a webinar is the software you’re going to use whenever you’re broadcasting, according to Forbes. Such things as the Blue Jeans network video conferencing platforms allow you to broadcast your message to as many people as can access your webinar. Best of all, since this will be highly similar to simply having a conference call, you will feel ultimately comfortable in speaking to your group. You won’t be able to see everyone you’re talking to, so you won’t have to worry about getting stage fright. You can give your webinar to a small group of people in the room with you rather than worrying about how many people are looking at you. The absence of noise from the crowd makes it possible for you to concentrate on what you’re saying rather than how people are reacting to what you’re saying. It is of the utmost importance to check all of your equipment and software before your webinar begins, so you can make sure you’re not going to encounter any problems as you get started.

Make Sure You Incorporate Social Media

Social media allows everyone in your webinar to discuss what you’re saying as you say it, according to Copyblogger. As you get started using Blue Jeans network video conferencing platforms to broadcast your webinar, make sure to announce the hashtag associated with it. This way, everyone involved in the webinar can discuss during the webinar as well as afterwards. This is a perfect way you can actually engage with the people watching the webinar. They can provide questions to you through something like a Twitter hashtag. Simply have someone monitoring the hashtag with all the activity and passing along important questions as they come through. You can then read the questions and offer answers to the entire group rather than to just a few. Additionally, this keeps the discussion going long after the webinar is over. You can continue to offer guidance and support to those who needs it. Of course, because it is social media rather than a face to face conversation, it means everyone else who might have had the same question will be able to see the answer to the question and you will experience fewer interruptions.

Using Guest Speakers is Even Easier

Guest speakers always make a seminar better, but you cannot always get the speakers you want speaking at your events. This is why you might want to consider using a video meeting for your webinar instead. According to Tech Soup, this is a perfect way to get them involved without having to worry about a conflicting schedule getting in the way. They can simply come on for their section of the webinar and then leave immediately afterwards. The cost of utilizing the talent of these speaks goes way down when you remove travel expenses and other considerations. You can even have more speakers than you might normally have the ability to book. With the ability to simply turn on a smartphone, tablet or webcam, there’s really no reason why the speaker cannot fit the time in.

Get More from Visual Aids

A big problem with a live seminar is not everyone can get the full benefit from the visual aids you’re using. This is why you should be using video meeting as a webinar tool. You can display your computer and everyone on the call will see exactly what you see. According to PR Daily, you should aspire to take a page out of Steve Jobs book. This means you should pay attention to just how much you’re asking your audience to read. If your slides have a novel written on them, people will just stare at them while fighting their sleep. If you aspire to have fewer than 5 words on each frame, you will have a much better shot of getting your audience to read everything you put on the screen. Make sure everything is highly inspiring as well as integral to what you’re talking about. Also, make sure the slides will not interfere with the ability to see your face while you’re talking.

Internet Security Isn’t Just For PCs Anymore

By the end of 2014, Internet Stats Live predicts that there will be upwards of three billion internet users worldwide who will move a trillion dollars throughout the year. With that kind of money on the line, it’s no wonder Internet security is such a valuable business, both for the safety officers and the criminals. Internet security is not simply a function of the equipment used. How and where you log on can put your data at risk.

Take Your Head Out Of The Cloud

About two-thirds of adults in the United States use some form of cloud storage system to back up and share important documents. Cloud sharing is inexpensive and convenient, but can also put your data at risk. Once you put your files on the cloud, the system could be hacked and your information can be stolen or lost; no matter how secure, there is never a guarantee. The New York Times, Facebook and even the U.S. Federal Reserve have all fallen victim to cyber-attacks that were actually successful to some degree. Don’t let the big names fool you! Check your data often, maintain local backups of the really important stuff and keep an internet paper trail in case you ever need to prove ownership of information.

BYOD And BYOS

Personal computing device sales surpassed PCs in 2013. The two major operating platforms, iOS and Android, have significant security concerns but companies are implementing Bring Your Own Device policies to save on overhead. Sure, saving money is great, but BYOD methods introduce huge security risks to the organization and to the individual. The recommended key to fixing this problem is training. Security risks can be mitigated by understanding the rules of consumer protection. Research of college students entering the workforce shows that they do not understand the dangers or the steps associated with reducing risks. The best way to avoid data theft is to be in the know.

A Little Theft With Your Latte

Coffee and free WiFi are one of the joys of the modern world. Unfortunately every time you log onto the network, you’re putting yourself at risk. To a savvy hacker, every person on that network is openly sharing information. A good rule of thumb is to never make purchases from a shared network environment. Even if the site is secure, the information can be intercepted long before it gets to the destination. For example, over the past year India has started finding itself in an epidemic of cyber-attacks and thefts because of its shared Internet networks.

Too-Smart Devices

You can do almost anything with a smartphone or tablet. Most people do not understand the power and risks that come with using smart devices for business purposes. These devices can get malware just as a PC might. Make sure that your tablet and phone have protective software. Both Google and Apple have a wide range of recommendation to keep the hackers out of your phone.

Finance In Apps: A Few Suggestions For Investors

We’ve all grown accustomed to the idea of simplifying everyday tasks and duties through the use of electronic apps, and in the last few years finance has become a significant category in this regard. Many may have thought of the idea of using a smartphone to conduct financial dealings as unsafe or insecure just a few years ago. However, now it’s become a popular idea to manages finances via mobile devices through better security on our phones and incredibly high-quality, high-security apps available. The most widely known apps in the finance genre tend to be those geared toward banking (such as the newly updated Wells Fargo app) and those used for quick mobile payments and cash exchanges (such as Venmo). However, according to companies like SoFi, another category within the finance genre has also become quite impressive on the app front in recent years: investing.

You may think of investing as a concept demanding one’s full attention for extended periods of time, and indeed for those working full time in stock markets that’s essentially the case. But for those simply looking to manage their investment portfolios and make occasional purchases and sales of stock or material, a mobile app can be wonderfully convenient. If this is something that interests you, there are a few different investment apps in particular worth looking into to simplify your personal finance practices.

The first app I’d point out to any mobile user with an interest in personal finance and investing opportunity is financial-tracking app Personal Capital Finance. This type of app is nothing new, because there are literally dozens of tools out there for keeping tabs on what you spend and what you have in your accounts. However, few (if any) combine this information with investment portfolios as effectively as Personal Capital Finance. This app essentially maps out your entire financial life, combining account information and expense tracking with complete layouts of your investments and their performances. For those interested in managing finances on the go, it’s a great tool simply for keeping everything organized and in perspective. You may also want to try a great software like FinLync for you other financial management needs.

Beyond basic financial management and tracking, it’s also fun—particularly for mobile users—to find interesting and simple ways to invest. For that reason, the mobile app designed by the gold pricing, reference, and investment site BullionVault is another fun choice for investors. The purchase of gold bullion is viewed by many as something of a simple investment in that it can be done at independent websites rather than through the complex measures involved in setting up stock portfolios. That all makes it fairly simple to adapt the process to a mobile tool. The BullionVault app shows users up-to-date prices on gold and allows the full purchasing, selling, and storage options offered on the accompanying website. This gives you a manageable, quick-hitting means of controlling one particularly unique and popular type of investment. One of the best other investments that we have found are gold coins as they nearly always do very well so click here to buy gold Britannia coins as they are among the best.

Finally, for those looking to manage stock portfolios from mobile devices while cutting the scope of the process, investing app Motif is unique and, really, pretty awesome. Mentioned by Daily Finance as one of the best five mobile tools for investing, the app essentially allows you to approach investment with a themed bundle. The app offers packages like “Housing Recovery” or “Biotech Breakthroughs,” each consisting of several stocks and allows you to invest in the entire bundle with ease. The app itself is free, though I should note $250 minimum is required to get your actual investments started. Still, it’s a wonderfully easy mobile finance tool and a helpful app for beginner investors looking to experiment and learn.

Finance, and specifically investing, remains an ever-expanding and improving app category. But if you’re just looking to get started with managing your money and investment opportunities from your mobile devices, these are a few suggestions that can get you off to a good start. Just be sure to check the services the Atlantic Union Bank has to offer, which can help you protect your investment.