Many New Jersey businesses and residents aren’t strangers to cyber breaches. In 2017, over four million in the Garden State were affected by the Equifax data breach. By 2018, the numbers had been reduced significantly to around 358,000 residents. But this doesn’t mean a decline in data theft; it just emphasizes the massive scale of the Equifax breach.

It’s now 2020 — is your business still using legacy hardware and software? In technology parlance, “legacy” refers to anything that’s outdated or obsolete. If so, you’re in trouble.

In New Jersey, competition is stiff for small- and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Small businesses make up 99.6% of all enterprises in the state.

If you’re an owner of a small business who’s looking at expanding operations, you may want to consider buying an existing business. This “entrepreneurship through acquisition” is a viable option to jumpstart the growth of your business, instead of relying on slower organic growth.

Ask any business owner or CEO what their company’s most important resources are, and most likely you’ll hear answers such as, “Our people,” or “Our office culture.” But there’s one resource that all companies have in spades but often remains untapped.

Collecting data has always been part of the daily business process. Not too long ago, businesses didn’t do much with the information gathered. But with the rise of technology, collecting and making use of this data have considerably become more efficient.

Did you know that nearly half of all the data breaches businesses suffer occur at the hands of their vendors? With small businesses having dozens of vendors and large enterprises having hundreds, it’s even more important now for companies to manage the risks across the supply chain.

It’s a simple question, but one that businesses need to answer. Who do we put first — the customer or the employee? For this chicken-and-egg debate, there’s actually a clear answer. But it may not be what you expect.

The argument for the customer

When it comes to customer satisfaction, there’s no dearth of quotes: The customer is always right.

Even just a decade ago, artificial intelligence (AI) was merely science fiction. Today, it’s a rapidly growing force in the technology sector, and it’s changing business operations beyond measure. Many leading tech companies, as well as countless innovative startups, are now integrating AI into their software to streamline operations and help users make sense of the enormous amount of data being captured from digital workflows.

For small- to mid-sized businesses (SMBs), employee productivity is crucial to success. This is especially relevant in New Jersey, where small businesses comprise almost half of the workforce. The less manpower available, the more important it is that employees pull their own weight and wear several hats at the same time.

Technology may be getting simpler from an end-user perspective but, behind the scenes, it has never been more complicated. Today, businesses have to contend with an increasingly diverse tech landscape that comprises traditional in-house computing resources, cloud-hosted solutions, and mobile devices.