Preferred Blog

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.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a seriously hot topic. While integrating AI promises significant advancements and efficiencies, the narrative around AI-fueled layoffs—the displacement of human workers by AI—is increasingly met with a surprising twist: regret.

At Preferred, a leading provider of proactive business technology support services, we've observed this trend with interest. It appears that many organizations that hastily replaced human capital with AI are now confronting unforeseen challenges. Managers that famously thought that replacing their paid employees with AI aren’t always happy with the results. Let’s take a look at the particulars of this phenomenon.

Today, few topics are generating as much buzz right now as Artificial Intelligence. It's a concept that can feel both futuristic and, at times, a little intimidating. What if I told you that AI is already working behind the scenes in many businesses, acting as the most efficient, data-driven coworker you've ever had?

In business, it’s tempting to think, if it's not broken, don't fix it. This is especially true for technology. Your computers turn on, emails go out, and things seem to work… so why bother with constant maintenance?

What if I told you this safe approach is actually draining your profits? It’s a hidden expense, and understanding it can completely change how you see your IT.

Modern technology practically revolves around USB, but what do you really know about what goes on inside the cables and connectors? Let’s explore some of these minute details and see if we can achieve a new appreciation for this technology.

As you prepare to travel, remember that your digital security strategy needs to be as agile as you are. While advice like using strong, unique passwords and employing a VPN on unsecured Wi-Fi are helpful, professional data on the move has grown more complex. Today, we offer key security strategies that go beyond the usual to help you travel with greater digital confidence.

Every business owner understands the concept that time is money, but are you one of the few who know exactly how and where it is chipping away at your bottom line? One thing that is often cited is productivity, or often, the lack thereof. We believe that understanding these numbers is the first step to mastering them.

We’ve all felt that mini-panic that happens when our personal technology glitches. Not a great feeling. That’s just if your microwave is on the fritz, or your smartphone fell in the toilet. We all depend on multiple devices each day, but for a business owner who is responsible for so much, technology failure really isn’t an option. This month, we thought we’d go into how technology outages can impact a business to give you a better perspective of just how much is at stake.

Businesses are constantly seeking ways to build agility. Like many things, it’s not as easy as just saying it.  If your current technology feels more like a roadblock than a launchpad, it might be time to explore some different strategies. Let's talk about MACH architecture, the powerful framework designed to build a flexible, scalable, and future-ready digital workplace.

The cloud is an essential piece of technology for any modern business, but how much do you actually know about the cloud in 2025? Any business can leverage the cloud, from small businesses to large enterprises. Let’s discuss what the cloud is, what it does, and how it can help your business reimagine its operations.

This summer, do you plan on getting away from the office for a bit? If so, we have some technology tips for you to help you stay safe and secure while on the go. Here are three ways you can prepare for travel with the right technology.

Is the steady hum of your office printer the soundtrack to shrinking profits? For many businesses, the hidden costs associated with printing—paper, ink, toner, maintenance, and even the time employees spend managing physical documents—add up to a significant expense.

At Preferred, we specialize in proactive business technology support, and we often see companies bleeding money through unnecessary printing. There is a powerful solution: a Document Management System (DMS).

Remember the days of watching a loading bar slowly crawl across the screen? Or maybe that distinct screech of a dial-up modem connecting? While technology has rocketed forward since then, some businesses still cling to an outdated approach when it comes to managing their IT: the break-fix method.

This means waiting for something to go wrong—a server crash, a software glitch, a security breach—before calling for help. It might seem cost-effective initially, but this reactive stance is becoming increasingly risky and wasteful.

In any professional services firm—whether advising on law, managing finances, designing structures, or developing business strategies—the core value lies in specialized knowledge and trusted expertise. Delivering this value effectively for these types of organizations relies heavily on a powerful technology.

You might remember the good old days of software, and by “good old days,” we mean “good old days of tedium, installing software on computers one by one.” 

Software as a Service, or SaaS for short, has put an end to those days and has made way for better options for SMBs. Today, we want to look into these subscription-based tools and showcase their benefits.

If given the opportunity, would you rather manage a room full of big, bulky servers to maintain an in-house data network, or would you prefer to decentralize your infrastructure to make it more accessible, redundant, and secure? A data center can help you do just that, and it’s not nearly as difficult or as complicated as you might think to utilize one.

Think about running a small or medium-sized business. It's like trying to juggle a million things at once. You're super focused on keeping your customers happy, making sure your team is doing well, and, of course, making money. Among all of that, there is something that often gets overlooked: the technology that makes all of your efforts possible.

Your Point of Sale (POS) system does more than ring up sales, it’s the control center that keeps your entire operation running. From processing payments to managing inventory and generating reports, it plays a vital role in your daily business flow. Like any technology, a POS system can get old, glitchy, or just fall behind. If you’ve been questioning whether yours is still doing the job, here are five clear signs that it’s time to move on and upgrade to something better.

An expiration date helps to make sure you aren’t buying fast-turning foods at the grocery store, and now, the technology industry is making strides to establish a similar standard. A new industry report recommends new legislation pushing for End-of-Life (EoL) disclosure, which would, in theory, allow businesses and consumers alike to make more informed purchasing decisions. What does this mean for your business?

One of the biggest things that businesses need to consider today, from an IT front, is how artificial intelligence fits in. One way many companies are integrating AI into their businesses is through chatbot technology. Today, we will tell you everything you need to know to get started with chatbot technology.

Running a small business comes with many challenges: managing customers, handling inquiries, scheduling appointments, and marketing your services, just to name a few. While these tasks are mandatory for the creation of a successful business, they can also be extraordinarily time-consuming. That’s where chatbots come in.