Automated Business Solution has been selected as a 2020 ENX Magazine Elite Dealer!

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TOLUCA LAKE, CA – November 1, 2020 — ENX Magazine announced that Automated Business Solutions was among the nation’s top office technology dealerships chosen this year as a 2020 Elite Dealer.

ABOUT AUTOMATED BUSINESS SOLUTIONS

Automated Business Solutions was founded in 1992 by Alan Albergaria and Robert Maceroni, and is currently being led by Nicole Albergaria. Since their inception, the company has grown while maintaining the same personalized service. Today, we have a staff of over 80 employees, which includes 17 professionally trained technicians. Utilizing the skills that these technicians bring, Automated’s client base has grown to over 4,000, covering a wide array of industries and sizes. To learn more about our products, services, and support please contact Automated Business Solutions at 800.832.2729 or visit www.absne.com.

“We’re excited about receiving such a prestigious award from ENX Magazine,” said Mike Ardry, Executive Vice President of Automated Business Solutions. “Automated Business Solutions was built on the foundation of trust, fairness, and integrity in all that we do. We are a customer centric organization supported by an exceptional team of technology professionals all dedicated to exceeding customer expectations. This business philosophy has served us and our customers well.”
Each year, ENX Magazine judges Elite Dealer applicants on a number of criteria, from technical service excellence to marketing proficiency, growth initiatives, technology leadership, industry accolades and philanthropy. Those dealers chosen are profiled in the December issue of ENX Magazine.
“In a year of substantial challenges brought on by the pandemic, we have come to measure an Elite Dealer by its ability to pivot to the changing needs of its customer base,” said Susan Neimes, managing editor of ENX Magazine and ENX The Week In Imaging. “Many of the honorees share a corporate culture that embraces a family atmosphere and stresses serving both clients and employees. Products and technology will always drive business, but customers respond favorably to a vendor that can serve their every need. I think this year’s list exemplifies that spirit.”

ABOUT ENX MAGAZINE

ENX Magazine is a monthly publication dedicated to the office technology and document imaging industry since 1994. Now in its 27th year, ENX Magazine continues to deliver exclusive editorial coverage on market opportunities and issues, news and trends, company profiles, new products, and industry insights. With a monthly circulation of more than 25,000 hard copies, ENX Magazine serves as a leading integrated resource that brings together industry people, products, and business concepts and strategies for office technology industry professionals.
The magazine also publishes ENX The Week in Imaging, a weekly e-newsletter that provides news, profiles, technology and business updates, along with blogs from some of the industry’s most prominent players.

Producing Attractive Marketing Materials with Light Production Technology

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Companies reliant on printed marketing materials are encouraged to consider producing this output on a light production printer. These devices can provide superior print quality over office printing devices through their level of media support, color matching capability, and finishing features.

This blog post will discuss how using a light production printer can help organizations in each of these areas.

Display includes marketing material that may be printed with a light production printer

 Source: https://media.defense.gov/2014/Mar/06/2000870903/-1/-1/0/140303-F-JB669-052.JPGSource: https://media.defense.gov/2014/Mar/06/2000870903/-1/-1/0/140303-F-JB669-052.JPGSource: https://media.defense.gov/2014/Mar/06/2000870903/-1/-1/0/140303-F-JB669-052.JPG

Source: https://media.defense.gov/2014/Mar/06/2000870903/-1/-1/0/140303-F-JB669-052.JPG

Media support

Light production systems frequently support the use of heavier paper stocks as well as coated and uncoated stock. In some cases, media like plastic, window clings, magnets, postcards, and textured linen may also be supported.

This media flexibility enables organizations to really experiment with their marketing materials. By using a media type that is different from the norm, they can attempt to capture the attention of their audience to communicate the desired message.

A thicker piece of material may also communicate that the company is willing to go above and beyond to serve customers.

Color matching capability

Compared to office printers and copiers, light production devices provide better color matching, calibration, and control. Many companies are already familiar with color control and matching systems such as Pantone; standard raster image processing (RIP) controllers also provide better image quality compared to most office printers.

Color matching is highly important in marketing where corporate colors and branding can help customers identify and remember an offering. Consistent colors also reflects professionalism, an attribute that can go a long way in the mind of the customer.

Finishing features

Many high-end office systems provide some capabilities in this area, including stapling, saddle stitching, and hole-punching. Light production systems frequently go beyond this in offering booklet-making capability, sorting stackers, and an extended stacker for long print runs.

They also typically have finishers that can perform folding and trimming; create perfectly bound documents; and support third-party integration.

The ability of light production devices to perform these tasks adds complexity to the final product, making the act of reviewing the item a more memorable and even enjoyable experience.

Conclusion

By acquiring a light production printer, organizations can produce beautiful marketing materials in house through advanced capabilities around media support, color matching, and finishing. These machines are optimized for printing material that really stands out in the eye of the customer, helping you boost your chance for a potential sale, signup, or attendee—depending on your specific marketing goal.

Automated Business Solution has been selected as a 2019 ENX Magazine Elite Dealer!

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Automated Business Solution has been selected as a 2019 ENX Magazine Elite Dealer!

December 3, 2019 – Toluca Lake, CA—ENX Magazine announced that Automated Business Solutions was among the 137 companies chosen this year as a 2019 Elite Dealer.

In 1992, Alan Albergaria and Bob Maceroni started Automated Business Solutions with a vision to form a company built on a firm foundation of trust, fairness, and integrity that would offer comprehensive office productivity solutions to companies of all sizes.

For over twenty-five years, Automated Business Solutions has experienced remarkable growth and success, due in large measure to the company’s steadfast and unwavering commitment to the owner’s original vision.

“Automated Business Solutions has also made several strategic acquisitions, allowing us to enter new markets and provide new solutions for our growing list of loyal customers. Our acquisitions have given us additional talent that continuously and consistently enhances both the quality and depth of services we provide our customers.”

Automated Business Solutions now offers our services into the Connecticut and Massachusetts markets, due to our acquisitions of Network Imaging in Southington CT, Copiers Etc in Worcester MA, and New Bedford Office Machines in New Bedford, MA. We also significantly increased our IT support and service offerings through our Technology Department, with the acquisition of Office Equipment Center in CT, and DataNet in RI. We also now serve the printing needs of the financial services and banking industry through our acquisition of Printer Support Corporation in 2018.

Today, our team of 85 employees serve over 4,000 partner companies, in virtually every industry and every business size. Our professionally trained Business Development Professionals, IT and Brand Technicians, and Support Staff ensure our clients get the best products, the best advice and the best technical support in our industry.

With the combination of internal growth and strategic acquisitions, our Automated Business Solutions team is positioned to be the high-tech office solution that today’s businesses need to succeed. We are prepared to be your office productivity solutions “Partners in Productivity”!

“Automated Business Solutions is honored to be named an elite dealer. This is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our team members,” says President Alan Albergaria, “Our team here is very much a family and our clients are apart of that family as well. It takes all members of our team to earn this title and we are grateful to our clients for letting us help them with their needs.”

ENX Magazine selected this year’s winners based on several criteria, including marketing prowess, digital transformation, leadership, work environment, technology, customer service and charitable endeavors.

“In our eyes, an Elite Dealer makes a concerted effort to produce a winning experience for not just its clients, but its employees and vendors as well,” said Susan Neimes, managing editor of ENX Magazine and ENX The Week In Imaging. “A defined corporate culture and a willingness to embrace new technologies—and share them with their customer base—also goes a long way. There’s no one ingredient behind an Elite Dealer—it’s a confluence of many factors that lifts these performers above the rest.”

About ENX Magazine
ENX Magazine is a monthly publication dedicated to the office technology and document imaging industry since 1994. Now in its 26th year, ENX Magazine continues to deliver exclusive editorial coverage on market opportunities and issues, news and trends, company profiles, new products, and industry insights. With a monthly circulation of more than 27,000 hard copies, ENX Magazine serves as a leading integrated resource that brings together industry people, products, and business concepts and strategies for office technology industry professionals.

The magazine also publishes ENX The Week In Imaging, a weekly e-newsletter that provides news, profiles, technology and business updates, along with blogs from some of the industry’s most prominent players.

 

Is 5G Worth it?

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We know that 5G is fast, and the next-gen mobile connectivity standard should have higher download speeds than 4G. How much faster exactly, though? Try nearly three times, today’s report from the crowd sourced OpenSignal testing reveals. The top speed recorded on a 5G network in the US is 1.8Gbps (we assume this is on AT&T’s testing ground in Texas), while its 4G equivalent comes up to 0.7Gbps.

A recent news out of Korea stated that the country’s three main carriers already have a million 5G subscribers between them. Despite Verizon’s bragging that it managed to execute the first commercial 5G network connection with a phone(Moto Z3 with the respective Mod) – just a day before Korea said it will officially flip its 5G switch – the rollout in the US has been painstakingly slow.

The good news is that Verizon doesn’t charge extra for 5G connectivity, at least for now, but that doesn’t alter the fact that there is a million-strong 5G army in Korea ready for the countrywide 5G network speed tests. So what’s the verdict on Korea’s ubiquitous network. Try 1Gbps vs 0.6Gbps, and this is more of a real-world difference, given how many people are now using 5G in Korea.

When we take average speed, however, the difference is not so stark in Korea. The gap between a 5G phone and a top-shelf 4G one, let’s say between the S10+ and the S10 5G, is merely 48% in favor of 5G, whereas the one between mid range LTE handsets is significantly higher, but still far from the peak speeds differential.

Ransomware: Baltimore

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Right now the City of Baltimore public offices are being held for ransom. Key files have been encrypted and city workers can not use their work email accounts or conduct many of their routine duties. The anonymous crooks are demanding ~$76,000 in bitcoin. As we all know by now, paying the ransom can’t guarantee the city will get all of its data back.

All four independent contractors hired to study the attack determined the ransomware variety to be EternalBlue. This exploit was developed by the NSA and leaked online in October 2017.

 

As Baltimore continues to endure it’s 5th week under siege, we need to continue to keep in mind the best practices that keep us safe online.

Here are 7 tips from Norton Antivirus

  1. Do not pay the ransom. It only encourages and funds these attackers. Even if the ransom is paid, there is no guarantee that you will be able to regain access to your files.
  2. Restore any impacted files from a known good backup. Restoration of your files from a backup is the fastest way to regain access to your data.
  3. Do not provide personal information when answering an email, unsolicited phone call, text message or instant message. Phishers will try to trick employees into installing malware, or gain intelligence for attacks by claiming to be from IT. Be sure to contact your IT department if you or your coworkers receive suspicious calls.
  4. Use reputable antivirus software and a firewall. Maintaining a strong firewall and keeping your security software up to date are critical. It’s important to use antivirus software from a reputable company because of all the fake software out there.
  5. Do employ content scanning and filtering on your mail servers. Inbound e-mails should be scanned for known threats and should block any attachment types that could pose a threat.
  6. Do make sure that all systems and software are up-to-date with relevant patches. Exploit kits hosted on compromised websites are commonly used to spread malware. Regular patching of vulnerable software is necessary to help prevent infection.
  7. If traveling, alert your IT department beforehand, especially if you’re going to be using public wireless Internet. Make sure you use a trustworthy Virtual Private Network (VPN) when accessing public Wi-Fi like Norton Secure VPN.

Ditch Internet Explorer for good!

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Recently Chris Jackson, Microsoft’s worldwide lead for cybersecurity, decided to clear the air on Microsoft’s legacy Internet Explorer (IE).  Microsoft considers Internet Explorer a compatibility solution for business/enterprise customers that deal with legacy sites that aren’t updated for modern web browsers.  In fact the underlying technologies for Internet Explorer haven’t been updated since 1999.  IE should be used very selectively for internal sites that need it.

Jackson also says that Microsoft isn’t supporting new web standards for IE, so while many sites work fine, developers by and large just aren’t testing for Internet Explorer these days. They’re testing on modern browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.

Safely Remove USB Flash Drives? Not on Windows 10

Just about every tech “expert” you meet will tell you that it’s super important to safely eject a flash drive before pulling it out of your PC.

Well, Microsoft confirmed once and for all that – in Windows 10 – it’s no longer a thing you need to worry about. In October, Windows 10 introduced a feature called “quick removal” which lets users disconnect a drive anytime.  It’s now the default setting for each new drive you plug into Windows 10. Quick Removal keeps Windows from continuously trying to write information to the drive, which helps in the event you disconnect it.

Just another reason how Windows 10 is making the computing experience safer for everyone.

Market Share Update!

Windows 10 is officially the most used version of Windows (worldwide).

Password Change Policies – An Expired Approach to Security

Hate changing your password every 60, 90 or 120 days? So does Microsoft.

The company recently decided that it plans to drop expiring password policies in its security configuration baseline for Windows 10 & Windows Server.

“Periodic password expiration is an ancient and obsolete mitigation of very low value, and we [Microsoft] don’t believe its worthwhile for our baseline to enforce any specific value”, explains Aaron Margosis, a Microsoft principal consultant.

Organizations will not be able to pick their own password expiration date or choose not to have one at all.

Forcing users to pick a new password is a defense only against a valid password or password hash being stolen and used by an unauthorized person. The policy doesn’t offer much protection, but does create headaches for end-users.

Microsoft’s proposal follows US National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) overhaul of its guidance for password rules two years ago, which dropped periodic password changes and password complexity requirements.

It’s important to note that Microsoft isn’t changing its requirements for minimum password length, history or complexity, and still recommends administrators use tools which ban common passwords.

Support for Windows 7/ Server 2008 is ending January 2020

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All good things must come to an end. Is your business ready to move on?

Even if you’re not quite ready for Windows 10, if you aren’t on top of your Windows updates, your Windows 7 PC or server running Server 2008 may no longer be supported in July 2019. A full six months sooner than the announced End Of Life date. It’s important to start thinking about the future now.

What does this mean if I continue to use Windows 7 / Server 2008?

You can continue to use Windows 7, but once support ends, your device will become more vulnerable to security risks. Windows will operate but you will stop receiving security and feature updates leaving your business open to hackers and cyber criminals.

Can I upgrade my existing PC to Windows 10?

Yes, you can upgrade compatible Windows 7 PCs with a full license. To take advantage of the latest hardware capabilities, we recommend moving to a new PCwith Windows 10.

Can I upgrade my existing server to Server 2016?

We wouldn’t recommend it. Upgrading an older server to run a newer operating system is like putting a fresh coat of paint on rotting wood.

Can I get a free upgrade to Windows 10?

Microsoft 365 Business comes with a free upgrade for users with a Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 Pro license on their device. By purchasing Microsoft 365 Business your users can upgrade all of their old Windows Pro licensed devices at no additional cost.

Are there other Microsoft products that will no longer be supported?

Yes. Office 2010, Exchange Server 2010, Sharepoint Server 2010, SQL Server 2008/R2, and Windows Server 2008/R2 will also no longer receive security updates or support.

Do you have one or more of these products installed on your network? Not sure which product you’re using or if you’re up to date? Call us. One of our IT professionals would be happy to sit down and discuss the needs for your individual business.

Major League Tech

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Major League Tech

America’s pastime seems to hold out the strongest when it comes to resisting technology. Something about the game bleeds tradition. Even as it changes and adapts, baseball has remained a classic and authentic sport played by century old franchises.

Slowly, we’re going to start seeing more tech on the field. In February, Major League Baseball announced a partnership with the Atlantic League. The indie league will begin testing an automated umpire system called TrackMan. TrackMan (which is already installed in 30 Major League parks) measures speed and position of pitches to assist umpires in calling balls or strikes. It will look a lot like what we see on our televisions at home.

The MLB isn’t 100% on board with making TrackMan the final judge on pitches yet, but with umpires missing about 20% of calls right now, it may not be a bad idea to get started sooner rather than later.

Does baseball lose authenticity by bringing tech into the game? Or are we better off knowing the correct call was made at the right time? I’m sure New Orlean’s Saint’s fans wish they had some tech on their side during the NFC championship game. Does the spirit of baseball require human error?

Hanging up on Spam Calls

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Hanging up on Spam Calls!

Spam calls are a nuisance. Plain and simple. According to a recent report cited in TheWashington Post, Americans received 26.3 billion robocalls in 2018. It’s safe to say that spam calls are on the rise.

Scammers have been known to prey on those who wouldn’t describe themselves as “tech savvy” and try to gain access to their computers. From there, scammers are only one browser-saved password away from full bank account access.

Luckily there is something we can do about it. Though most cellular providers can add call protection for an additional cost per month, Truecaller can do it for free. Truecaller is an app available on iOS and Android that blocks spam calls and text messages. I just installed it myself. You can download it here.

We may never be able to block all spam calls, but I’m looking forward to fewer interruptions. How will you use your new quiet time?

Facebook, I Quit!

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New Years Resolution:

Quit Facebook!

Privacy breaches, data leaks, everything politics. It’s time to turn it off.

In October, the tech giant revealed a security flaw exposed up to 50 million accounts to being breached by hackers. For perspective, there are an estimated 307 million people on Facebook (about 16% of total accounts exposed.) This is just shortly after a voter profiling firm was able to access millions of user’s private data. Oh yeah, Facebook also allowed Microsoft’s Bing search engine to see the names of virtually all Facebook users’ friends without consent, and gave Netflix and Spotify the ability to read Facebook users’ private messages.

“People’s privacy and security is incredibly important, and we’re sorry this happened,” A representative of the company said.

*Insert facepalm emoji*

Doesn’t it feel like we’ve heard all of this before? Does it matter?

It does to me. I deleted the app from my phone. I still have an account I can check from a web browser. I’m not 100% ready for a cold-turkey exit, but it’s a start.