By Sean Blair,
CTO at MXOtech

The only way for a business to survive in a world dictated by fast-changing technology is to evolve with it. A business must learn to improve its existing technology to remain competitive. How can this be done? We can learn a thing or two from the principle of test driven development (TDD).

What is TDD?
TDD is a software development process that takes small steps instead of rolling out big changes at once.

by Joanna Sobran

One of my favorite people is Nido Qubein. For those of you who don’t know, he’s a businessman, motivational speaker, and the President of High Point University in High Point, North Carolina. Nido places extreme importance on providing his students and their families with extraordinary experiences.

Many successful small businesses have one thing in common — the ability to see the big picture, envision what their success will look like tomorrow, and invest in it today.

At MXOtech, a boutique, women-owned IT solutions firm specializing in custom healthcare development solutions, this is definitely the case.

The great efficiency that we enjoy (or bemoan for some!) in our 21st century life is that information can flow at the speed of light as bit and bytes of data. It seems that what we enter and click on here shortly thereafter ends up in a delivery package there.

Unexpected events test the strength and resilience of your enterprise. When disaster strikes, how can you ensure that business continues as usual?

In the event of security breaches or natural disasters that could disrupt your day-to-day operations, all small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) should have a reliable disaster and backup recovery plan (DRP). How can you design an effective backup strategy?

Using web applications for your business has several advantages. For example, these make both real-time collaboration and hassle-free data recovery possible. There are hundreds of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software you can integrate into your workflows, from automating data entry to enhancing team collaboration.

Implementing a cybersecurity training program may not be at the top of your to-do list right now, but it should be. Just before 2018 ended, a cyberattack paralyzed the operations of major newspapers in the country, including that of The Chicago Tribune.

Businesses utilize various technologies that are critical to their operations. From something as simple as Outlook to a SharePoint collaboration platform to a software that automates payroll, technology permeates every nook and cranny of the workflow that a simple IT glitch can jeopardize productivity and cause business downtime.

Sci-fi enterprises like Star Wars and The Terminator may be responsible for the association of the popular imagination of automation to images of sentient robots and androids taking over people's jobs. In reality, however, automation is something more subtle than the images these worlds portray.

Businesses will continue to move to the cloud in droves for years to come. And while many businesses have begun taken their first steps, some are still unsure whether or not they should invest more. It’s always good to weigh your options before deciding to integrate new technology into your business, but it is also unwise to wait too long before making a decision.