Directive Blogs

Pop culture has given us a vivid, if often terrifying, impression of artificial intelligence. When we hear AI, many still picture calculated malice: a HAL 9000, a Skynet, or an Ultron.

The real potential of AI is far more productive, it's less about calculating world domination and more about becoming your organization's most helpful collaborator. Think of it as a JARVIS for your executive team or an R2-D2 for your operational staff: a powerful tool that assists your team in generating ideas, solving complex problems, and completing high-volume tasks. Critically, maximizing this potential doesn't require new hardware; it requires sharpening the very soft skills we already value in our top performers: curiosity, empathy, and resilience.

It’s easy to skimp here and there when you run a business. After all, it isn’t cheap, and you have to make difficult decisions every day for where you’re prioritizing your spending. One area where you can’t scrimp on a substandard investment is your technology; especially an old computer that has broken down over and over again. If you’re not careful, that broken computer could be holding you back and costing you profit.

If you want your devices to keep running smoothly, including utility and security, you need to ensure they are updated. Updates sometimes cause problems beyond what they solve, however. What looks like a routine patch or update could impact your important applications, and if you’re not careful, you could potentially cause a downtime scenario simply by being proactive with your updates.

How often do you find yourself thinking about how new technology will impact your business’ bottom line? Chances are, you have considered implementing a new piece of technology or two, but you might get stuck on whether or not it will actually be worth the investment. This is where you consider the return on investment that technology will provide, or ROI. Here’s how you can make sure your technology is providing results and what you can do if it doesn’t get the results you’re looking for.

Synergy. Paradigm shift. Disruption. There are so many buzzwords saturating modern business jargon nowadays, including and especially “digital transformation.”

Unfortunately, “digital transformation” sounds big and, worse, expensive… especially for our small and medium-sized business neighbors. We wanted to step in and assure you that this is not the case and that any business can benefit from it, provided it is approached correctly and mindfully.

Do you have that one friend who's still clinging to their cracked, ancient smartphone? You know the one: it's painfully slow, the battery dies in two hours, and it can't run half the apps you use. Now, imagine if an entire company operated like that, with every piece of its technology. It sounds like a comedy of errors, but for many businesses, it’s a silent disaster waiting to happen.

The end of Windows 10 support is closer than you think. On October 14, 2025, Microsoft will officially stop providing free security updates, non-security updates, and assisted support for Windows 10. For businesses, this isn't just a minor inconvenience—it's a critical security and operational risk that demands immediate attention.

It feels good to use tools you’re familiar with, but there comes a time when old tools start to hold you back. You might start to see unexpected costs that only surface over time. Let’s take a look at how you can know when it’s time to update your business’ tech and some of the hidden costs associated with not updating it.

One of the greatest threats to modern businesses is a cyberattack and the consequent data breach. These types of threats often target outdated systems that haven’t been patched or upgraded with fixes to vulnerabilities. Today, we want to go over some of the most likely outdated hardware and software issues you might encounter on your own infrastructure so you can address them and keep your business safe.

There’s a lot of comfort to be found in familiarity. It’s why so many of us cling to the way we’ve always done things. It’s the root of the old adage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” In many contexts, this can be very good advice. One place it isn’t: your business’ technology.

Neglecting to improve the technology your business relies on can itself incur significant inherent costs that aren’t immediately apparent. Let’s explore them to truly appreciate the benefits of keeping your business’ tech up to date.

Tuesday, October 14, 2025. That’s the day that Windows 10 will no longer be supported by Microsoft, which means you need to ensure your business has updated its devices to Windows 11 before then. This is a critical process, as failing to do so will expose your business to severe cyberthreats and regulatory shortcomings.

In addition to these issues, Microsoft has announced that support for Microsoft 365 will also end for Windows 10. For many businesses, likely including yours, this should only serve as more motivation to prioritize this migration to the more recent OS.

Support for the Microsoft Windows 10 operating system is coming to an end, so let's talk about something crucial for your business technology: upgrading as soon as possible. Microsoft has officially set the date: October 14, 2025. After this day, mainstream support for Windows 10 concludes. While that might seem like a comfortable distance away, in terms of IT planning and business operations, it's practically tomorrow. Waiting is not a strategy; planning is.

Skype, once a popular and beloved video chat platform, has reached the end of its rope (in a manner of speaking). Microsoft is discontinuing the 20-year-old communication application, instead focusing its efforts on Microsoft Teams. The last update to Skype will be on May 5, but that doesn’t change the impact Skype had on the development of modern communication tools.

The modern business is more technologically driven than ever before, but there are some out there who haven’t embraced the benefits of technology and have alternatively chosen to stick with their more analog, tried and true methods. In today’s blog, we’ll discuss why technology is important and how to get started if your business is stuck in the 20th century.

Windows 10 is rapidly reaching the end of its secure lifetime, with support scheduled to end on October 14, 2025. While this doesn’t mean that the OS will no longer be available to use, it does mean that it will no longer be able to be safely and securely used—a critically important distinction.

That is, however, unless you pay for the Windows 10 Extended Security Updates… but is this a feasible or maintainable strategy for businesses?

Happy Valentine’s Day! Today is a day to celebrate love, romance, and every butterfly that has ever fluttered in a stomach. However, the greatest loves can bring the greatest sorrow… particularly when the time comes to say goodbye.

Take Windows 10, for instance. PC users have loved the OS for a decade, but in a few short months, it will no longer be a good relationship for anyone—particularly business users—to maintain.

Your business needs software, along with the various integrations it allows for to keep your operations going. A little planning goes a long way, especially if you want to get the best return on your investment. Today, we want to look at how you can find the right mix of software for your business without breaking the bank or experiencing the dreaded “tech sprawl.”

As you should be aware by this point, the Windows 10 operating system is reaching its end of support on October 15 of this year—meaning that it will no longer receive updates of any kind afterward, including critical security updates. What you may not know, however, is that Microsoft is following suit and pulling Office support around the same time.

With the end-of-support date for Windows 10 looming later this year–October 14, 2025–you need to take action now so you don’t find yourself in a difficult situation. We have some tips for you as you make this transition, so we encourage you to use them to upgrade as quickly as possible ahead of the end-of-support date.

With new tariffs on imports looming and Microsoft ending support for Windows 10 in the near future, now is the time to reconsider your organization’s hardware needs. 

While it might feel convenient to wait until the last possible moment, there are compelling reasons to act sooner—both for cost savings and to avoid future system vulnerabilities. We break down why these changes matter and how you can protect your business by upgrading now.