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Directive Blogs

Directive has been serving the Oneonta area since 1993, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support, and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

Everything You Need to Know About Microsoft CoPilot for Business

AI has unquestionably emerged as the standout technology of the year, and it was only a matter of time before Microsoft entered the arena with its own enterprise-ready AI platform. The introduction of Microsoft CoPilot has sparked a fair amount of confusion and left many questions unanswered, so today our aim is to shed light on what CoPilot is and explain the value you can expect to get out of the new Microsoft AI.

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Why Your IT Team Should Have Its Own Mission Statement

You’re probably familiar with the concept of a mission statement, particularly in terms of your business as a whole. Did you know, however, that you don’t need to stop there? You can—and we’d argue, should—establish more specific organizational missions for your different departments. Let’s consider how you can benefit from creating a mission for your IT team to uphold throughout its operations, and how you might go about doing so.

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Build a Home Office You Can Work In

Over the past couple of months millions of people have been working from home. Those who have, may or may not have had a dedicated space to work from in their residences. If you haven’t gotten around to creating a home office space for yourself and still work from the kitchen table, you’re in luck. Today, we take a look at what makes a modern office built for productivity.

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Features to Seek Out in a Note-Taking Application

If you’re the one in your office known for taking spectacularly detailed notes, then you’ll find no greater productivity tool than a note-taking app. There are dozens of options on the market today that can help you make the most of your note-taking experience, as well as the integrations that they can provide.

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How To Design a Workspace with Productivity in Mind

The workplace is, fittingly, a place for work to be done. While there are a lot of factors that can contribute to a person’s day-to-day productivity, having a space that is conducive to accomplishing their work tasks can be seen as essential. Let’s go over how you can design a workspace that does just that:

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A Hard Look at a Four-Day Workweek

When you think about the workweek, there’s a good chance that some iteration of the 40-hour week, broken into 9-to-5 shifts on the weekdays is what comes to mind. It’s just the way things are done. However, this may not be a good thing. Let’s consider the origins of our modern work schedule, and how changing it could provide us all with some serious benefits.

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Tip of the Week: Improve Productivity By Napping at Work, Seriously

b2ap3_thumbnail_nap_at_work_400.jpgAll business owners understand that in order to stay competitive, their team must work as hard as they possibly can. Unfortunately, however, that’s not how human physiology works. Everyone needs a break now and again, and the office is no different. Remember elementary school, when you would curl up with a blanket and get some sleep during naptime? It turns out this might be a viable option in the office, too.

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Tip of the Week: Handy Tricks to Formatting Excel Spreadsheets

Microsoft Excel is, for many, the de facto spreadsheet-creation software. However, fewer know about its useful formatting capabilities and shortcuts. To help you make your own Excel sheets more comprehensible, we’re sharing some tips to help you format your documents.

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Working at the Office Has Its Benefits, Too

It’s incredible how working from home has become the new normal. Just a short time ago most business owners wouldn’t have batted an eye at shutting down the dreams of remote work, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they were forced to adjust the way they looked at the situation. Employees in several industries have been working from home ever since. Now that most places have begun to re-open, we thought we would remind you that there are actually some benefits to coming to the office. 

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Understanding IT Acronyms You Hear in the Office

Technology can be complicated, and it doesn’t help when all you hear is an alphabet soup of acronyms used to describe it. As professionals, this kind of jargon has become a second language to us and it is easy to forget that not everyone will recognize these acronyms. For your reference, we’ve assembled some common ones you’ll probably hear us use.

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Tip of the Week: Looking After Your Health at Work

The office can be a stressful place to work, and sitting still for so long can be difficult to handle in terms of both physical and mental wellbeing. Some people can experience health problems or feelings of depression, dissatisfaction, and generally negative emotions. Here are a few pointers to help your staff avoid the feeling of being unsatisfied by their static jobs.

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Improving Your Collaboration Can Improve Performance

With the exception of a sole proprietorship, a business of any size relies on its team in order to function properly. As a result, this team needs to be able to work together towards a common goal in order to succeed. To accomplish this, collaboration technologies are becoming more and more common in office environments, and generally benefit the performance of the business in its operations.

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Tip of the Week: Don’t Let These 4 Office Distractions Get the Best of You

b2ap3_thumbnail_offices_have_many_distractions_400.jpgIt’s time to be realistic and admit that the office can be an extraordinarily distracting place. Constant meetings and discussions, phones ringing, and emails hitting the inbox can all seem overwhelming. With so much going on, how can you get the most work done while still remaining in contact with your co-workers?

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What’s New With Microsoft Office 2016?

b2ap3_thumbnail_office_2016_400.jpgJust months after releasing their newest operating system, Windows 10, Microsoft is now updating the world’s most popular productivity software. Office 2016 makes several improvements over the Office 2013 versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and the other applications that businesses from all over the world rely on to stay productive. The software, which focuses on making productivity and cooperation possible, has gotten a substantial upgrade in collaborative features.

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Lock Your Doors and 2 Other No-Brainer Tips to Protect Your Data

b2ap3_thumbnail_desk_lock_security_400.jpgYou know the saying “you can never be too careful”? It’s always said by the person who understands the value of proceeding with caution, and understands that all it takes is a moment to lose everything. In some cases, it could be your workplace dignity, but in others, you need to cover your tracks to prevent hackers and other miscreants from performing the unspeakable: messing with your computer while you’re away from it momentarily.

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Your Biggest Vulnerability May Come From Forgetting to Logout

b2ap3_thumbnail_your_workspace_400.jpgEven if you have the best network security tools in place, you can still fall victim to a major data breach, just by doing something as seemingly-harmless as not manually logging out of your online accounts.

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Tip of the Week: 3 Ways to Recover from Your Vacation

b2ap3_thumbnail_post_vacation_day_dream_400.jpgEverybody loves a vacation from work, but nobody enjoys the stress of catching up when returning from said vacation. It doesn’t have to be this way. By taking a few precautions, you can avoid ever again having to say, “I need a vacation from my vacation.”

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Premium Cables: Wait, There’s a Difference?

b2ap3_thumbnail_are_premium_cables_important_400.jpgWhen you’re in an electronics store searching for the perfect cable for your new piece of hardware, you’re going to find yourself wondering what the difference is between the cheap cables, and premium cables. How can you determine whether or not you need premium cables?

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Email May Be On Its Deathbed

b2ap3_thumbnail_email_not_popular_400.jpgEmail is such a staple of the modern office that it might seem like even the mention of a world without it is ludicrous. Others, however, feel like their inbox is keeping them from pushing toward bigger and better things. Email might hold a special spot in our hearts, but realistically, does it stand a chance in the future?

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How Much is it the Employer’s Responsibility to Ensure Employee Productivity?

b2ap3_thumbnail_employer_responsibility_400.jpgEvery business owner knows what’s expected of them when it comes time to onboard a new hire. When the training videos are all watched and the new employee is lined up to kick butt and take names, is that when your job as overseer ends, or is there more that you can do to get more productivity out of your staff?

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Will Microsoft’s New Office App Sway Dethrone PowerPoint?

b2ap3_thumbnail_microsoft_sway_400.jpgMicrosoft’s latest Office application, MS Sway, is looking to make some big changes to the way professionals display presentations. Designed as a cross-platform content aggregation tool, Sway is capable of creating and sharing dynamic web-based presentations that are just bold enough to catch the eye. How is Microsoft Sway looking to change the way businesses present information?

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Tip of the Week: How to Avoid Office Burnout

b2ap3_thumbnail_office_burnout_400.jpgWhen a hard-working business owner such as yourself gets going, you keep working until you’ve got nothing left to give. This is commonly known as “office burnout,” and isn’t healthy for anyone, or anything; especially your business and office relationships.

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Procrastination Nation: How Doing a Little Now Can Lead to a Lot Later

b2ap3_thumbnail_procrastination_is_not_always_bad_400.jpgHow are you coming on those New Year’s resolutions? If you’re already putting off doing them due to a case of getting bit by the procrastination bug, then you might be feeling down on yourself and thinking about giving up. But, did you know that doing something a little later might actually be a better way to get something done?

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