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Leadership Thoughts: Noteworthy Blog Posts – Jan ’26

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Leadership Thoughts

As small business owners and leaders, you carry the responsibility for the direction and success of your business.  And while Cumulus Global provides Managed Cloud Services and Cloud Forward IT service and support that help you thrive and grow, we understand your responsibilities are broader than just IT.  Here is a curated list of blog posts from trusted experts and thought leaders that we hope will inform and inspire.

Vision

AI Strategy

  • A 5-Step Strategy for Responsible AI
    • AI is changing how our businesses operate and compete. As we rely more on AI, having strong governance is essential to ensure our AI tools are used securely, ethically, and responsibly. Our use of AI should align with your company’s values and regulatory standards.
    • Allen Falcon, Cumulus Global Blog

Business and IT Strategy

  • How Financial Benchmarking Can Save Your Business
    • Many businesses with $2M-$50M in annual sales overlook a critical indicator of business health – financial benchmarking. Much like a pilot’s artificial horizon, benchmarking signals when a correction is needed, and sometimes making that adjustment is a matter of survival.
    • James Wheeler, kept.pro
  • Start the New Year with an Effective IT Budget

    • If you do not have an IT budget, there is no such thing as an “in-budget” IT purchase. Every unplanned expense adds costs and introduces uncertainty, putting profit at risk. With a budget in place, you get clarity on current spending and can plan ahead instead of scrambling. Step into the new year with more control by following this simple process that gives you a complete view of your IT.
    • Allen Falcon, Cumulus Global Blog

Leadership

Legal

Marketing

Productivity

  • Boost Your Biz with Smarter PDFs now!
    • The PDF format is preferred because it displays consistently on any device, and it’s reliable for storing important information. But not all PDF software is the same. Use the wrong one and you can have a problem with some of the functionality you’ve come to expect.
    • Mike Grossman, Mike Grossman Consulting, LLC

Cybersecurity

Help us keep the ideas flowing. As a thought leader, if you have any blog posts that you want to share, please let us know.

Leadership Thoughts: Noteworthy Blog Posts – May ’25

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As small business owners and leaders, you carry the responsibility for the direction and success of your business.  And while Cumulus Global provides managed cloud services and Cloud Forward IT service and support that help you thrive and grow, we understand your responsibilities are broader than just IT.  Here is a curated list of blog posts from trusted experts and thought leaders that we hope will inform and inspire.

Vision

Business and IT Strategy 

  • Save or Spend? IT Decisions for Turbulent Times
    • Radical changes in government policies, along with unpredictable tariffs and trade policies, create a level of economic uncertainty that impacts our business decisions. Across all aspects of our businesses, including IT services, is it time to save or spend?
    • Allen Falcon, Cumulus Global Blog

Leadership

  • Engaging Generation Z in the Workplace
    • Generation Z (Gen Z) accounts for a growing percentage of the global workforce. However, many individuals in this demographic feel disengaged or disempowered in the workplace. This article explains how engaging Gen Z is important for organizations, outlines challenges employers face in these efforts and provides tips on engaging this demographic in the workplace.
    • Chrystine Heier, Sullivan Benefits

Legal

  • Sue the Bastard! … I Think
    • When it comes to reviews, businesses have a strong incentive push for 5 stars. For instance, an increase of one star on a Yelp review can lead to a 5-9% increase in business revenue, according to a Harvard Business School study. But what if the review is not a true reflection of the company? 
    • Daniel Batterman, Esq. at Lipresti Law

Human Resources

Marketing

  • Marketing Through Challenging Times
    • In today’s rapidly changing world, marketing strategies that resonate on a deeper, more authentic level are crucial. As a business owner or marketer, adjusting your narrative to align with current events, while maintaining authenticity, can significantly impact both your audience engagement and your own mental well-being.
    • Kristi Mitchell, Marketing Uncomplicated

Social Media

  • Should I Be Using Threads for My Business?
    • Given the immense popularity and potential of this microblog-style social media app, you might be wondering if Threads is worth exploring for promoting your organization. So today, I wanted to take a minute to outline some key highlights about the platform and offer my thoughts on how you can evaluate its suitability for your needs.
    • Nicole Porter, Monomoy Social Media

Productivity

  • Gen AI Prompt Engineering
    • You don’t need to be a data scientist or a machine learning engineer – everyone can write effective gen AI prompts. This 60+ Google whitepaper goes beyond “prompting 101” and dives deep into advanced prompt engineering with Gemini AI and for large language models (LMMs) in general.
    • Cumulus Global Library, May 2025
  • Slash Email Time by 50%: Must-Have AI Tools
    • Those constant incoming messages can weigh us down and make it tough to stay productive. When your inbox is overflowing, it’s hard to know where to start or what to prioritize. Plus, the urge to respond right away can pull our focus away from those bigger, long-term projects that really matter. But this can all change! With the right email management tools powered by AI, your inbox is transformed from a daily hassle to a simple task you can easily handle.
    • Mike Grossman, Mike Grossman Consulting, LLC

Wellness

  • Boosting Your Mental Health Daily
    • Mental Health Awareness Month is observed every May to help break the stigma and support people living with mental health conditions. Mental health is always there; your state continually changes depending on resources and challenges. Focusing on maintaining or  improving your mental health is important, so here are five ways to boost your mental health on a daily basis.
    • Chrystine Heier, Sullivan Benefits

Cybersecurity

  • Why Not Prevent AI Data Breaches?
    • To state the obvious, AI data breaches and leaks will damage your business. Even sharing sensitive or protected information internally will cause problems. Less obvious is the fact that you have already shared information that should not be shared. You should expect that private, sensitive, and protected information in Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 is already accessible to your AI tools. Now is the time to prevent AI data breaches.
    • Cumulus Global Blog, May 2025

Help us keep the ideas flowing. As a thought leader, if you have any blog posts that you want to share, please let us know.

Leadership Thoughts: Noteworthy Blog Posts – Jan ’25

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As small business owners and leaders, you carry the responsibility for the direction and success of your business.  And while Cumulus Global provides managed cloud services that help you thrive and grow, we understand your responsibilities are broader than just IT.  Here is a curated list of blog posts from trusted experts and thought leaders that we hope will inform and inspire.

Human Factors

Legal and Compliance

  • 2025 Employment Law Outlook
    • Explores critical employment law trends and topics to deliver important insights and forecast trends and challenges employers will likely encounter in 2025. It offers employers a forward-looking perspective to enhance their preparedness and ensure sustained success in an increasingly complex regulatory environment.
    • Chrystine Heier, Sullivan Benefits

Management

Marketing

Productivity

  • Gen AI Prompts: A Primer
    • Like most IT solutions, the value of AI depends on when, why, and how you decide to use it. Better Gen AI prompts give you better results. This eBook provides a model, structure, and approach to building effective Gen AI prompts that save time and effort. 
    • Cumulus Global eBook, May 2024

Strategy and Leadership

  • Building a Foundation for AI Success: A Leader’s Guide
    • For AI success, you need a solid foundation. In this paper, Microsoft shares insights — from customers, partners, analysts, AI leaders inside and outside of the company, and from Microsoft’s own experience — about the five categories that, collectively, form a foundation for building sustainable value and AI success.
    • Microsoft Whitepaper

Wellness

  • 7 Tips for a Successful Workplace Wellness Program
    • In today’s fast-paced world of hybrid work, finding a balance between work and wellness is more important than ever. Prioritizing wellness at work is not only essential for individual health and happiness but fosters a positive and productive work environment with less absenteeism and lower healthcare costs. This post invites you to introduce Lifestyle Medicine’s seven innovative Pillars of Wellness to your work community today.
    • Michelle Grasso, Synergy Wellness Center

Technology and Security

Help us keep the ideas flowing. If you have any blog posts that are leadership thoughts you want to share, please let us know.h

Leadership Thoughts: Noteworthy Blog Posts – Aug ’24

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As small business owners and leaders, you carry the responsibility for the direction and success of your business.  And while Cumulus Global provides managed cloud services that help you thrive and grow, we understand your responsibilities are broader than just IT. As a way to share some leadership thoughts, here is a curated list of blog posts from trusted experts that we hope will inform and inspire.

Human Factors

Legal and Compliance

Management

Marketing

  • AI Tools to Improve Lead Generation
    • Does your lead generation information flow through your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system? Does your CRM provide insights, automation, and improved lead management? I’ll share how you can use AI to dynamically personalize content on your website or in your emails based on the visitor’s behavior and preferences.
    • Mike Grossman, Mike Grossman Consulting, LLC
  • Should I Be Using Threads for My Business?
    • Given the immense popularity and potential of this microblog-style social media app, you might be wondering if Threads is worth exploring for promoting your organization. I wanted to take a minute to outline some key highlights about the platform and offer my thoughts on how you can evaluate its suitability for your needs.
    • Nicole Porter, Monomoy Social Media

Productivity

Strategy and Leadership

Wellness

Technology and Security

  • Cyber Security Requirements for Cyber Insurance
    • Meeting basic cyber security requirements helps insure your cyber insurance coverage is appropriate and affordable. In this eBook, we outline the cyber security components you should have in place before getting your cyber insurance policy.
    • Cumulus Global eBook, August 2022
  • Improve Your Email Deliverability and Security in Five Steps
    • Email services are stepping up protections. Here are 5 best practices that help ensure your emails get delivered and that you are protected from identity and business email compromise cyber attacks.
    • Cumulus Global eBook, April 2024

Help us keep the ideas flowing. If you have any blog posts that are leadership thoughts you want to share, please let us know.

Leadership Thoughts: Noteworthy Blog Posts – Jun ’24

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As small business owners and leaders, you carry the responsibility for the direction and success of your business.  And while Cumulus Global provide managed cloud services that help you thrive and grow, we understand your responsibilities are broader than just IT. As a way to share some leadership thoughts, here is a curated list of blog posts from trusted experts that we hope will inform and inspire.

Human Factors

Legal and Compliance

Management

Marketing

Productivity

Strategy and Leadership

Wellness

  • 7 Tips for a Successful Workplace Wellness Program
    • In today’s fast-paced world of hybrid work, finding a balance between work and wellness is more important than ever. Prioritizing wellness at work is not only essential for individual health and happiness but fosters a positive and productive work environment with less absenteeism and lower healthcare costs.
    • Michell Grasso, Synergy Wellness Center

Our IT Ideas That Still Hold True

A few of our past IT leadership thoughts that remain true and relevant today.

  • Cyber Security Will Change Companies
    • IT change management is a structured process for evaluating proposed IT system or service changes. This procedure is carried out prior to implementing the requested change on an organization’s network, reducing or eliminating network outages.
    • Cumulus Global Blog, June 2022
  • What is a MCSP?
    • The need to monitor and maintain equipment and infrastructure drops off while your need to monitor and manage services, apps, and data increases.
    • Cumulus Global Blog, November 2017

Help us keep the ideas flowing. If you have any blog posts that are leadership thoughts you want to share, please let us know.

Leadership Thoughts: Noteworthy Blog Posts – Jan ’24

/in ,

As small business owners and leaders, you carry the responsibility for the direction and success of your business.  And while Cumulus Global provide managed cloud services that help you thrive and grow, we understand your responsibilities are broader than just IT. As a way to share some leadership thoughts, here is a curated list of blog posts from trusted experts that we hope will inform and inspire.

Marketing

Sales

Human Resources

Strategy and Leadership

IT Ideas That Still Hold True

A few of our past blog posts that remain true and relevant today.

Help us keep the ideas flowing. If you have any blog posts that are leadership thoughts you want to share, please let us know.

Resources for Small Business Owners and Solopreneurs

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Tech Leadership: Focus on Business Success

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Cloud StrategyThe tag line of a recent ZDNet article says it all:

Tech leaders have to support how their business generates revenues and profits if they are to be taken seriously.

As reported in the article, KMPG reports that 76% of CEOs want their technology projects to “make” rather than “save” money.  And while this data is from a survey of large and mid-market enterprises, we understand the small and midsize business owners and decisions makers want the same results. Cloud gives you the ability to reduce resources needed to manage and maintain IT infrastructure, which can free up resources for IT solutions closer to the revenue stream.

Your mindset as a business leader should remain on Business Outcomes; your IT service provider should have the same focus.

Whether you are the IT decision maker, you have a CIO or IT Director, or you rely on an IT service provider for strategic guidance and tactical solutions, here are some ways to rethink and redirect your IT direction and value.

  • Identify the biggest challenges in your organization: Start by understanding what your business wants to achieve and the most critical roadblocks. These are most often business, not technology, issues. Technology, however, provides the tools needed to overcome challenges and enable opportunities.  Let desired business results guide your technology strategy and drive specific projects.
  • Focus on how to develop new business models: Think beyond how a new technology can cut costs.  Explore and evaluate how emerging technologies, such as AI and Machine Learning, can enable your business to rethink “how” you work and how you manage revenue streams.
  • Use information to create a more efficiency: Take advantage of new business intelligence tools that empower you to convert your data into useful, actionable information.
  • Remember that “Digital Transformation” is a process, not a solution. Rethinking your business processes to better leverage cloud and new technologies continuous effort. Remember that new apps, tools, and templates need to adapt as you learn more and as your business needs and priorities change.
  • Pick the right partner: We are past the “one and done” era of IT solutions. Your environment needs to evolve with you business, your employees, and your partners.  Pick a partner that can stay with you for the long-haul.

Cumulus Global focuses on “Cloud Forward” IT solutions that support your desired business outcomes.  Contact us for a complimentary Cloud Advisor session to discuss your business goals, challenges, and priorities.

 

2nd of 5: Leadership and Google Apps in Your District

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At the NJ Google Apps for Education Summit this month, we had the opportunity to briefly present and discuss the role and impact of Google Apps in K-12 Education with administrators and leaders from several districts.  This post is the 2nd of 5 on Leadership and Google Apps in Your District.

Create an Equitable and Sustainable Ecosystem

Every district and school we work with for Google Apps, Chrome, and/or Play deployments has a population that spans some measure of socio-economic conditions. These socio-economic factors will play a part in funding technology.

As schools move to 1:1 programs, socio-economic differences across the student population can also weigh heavily on students and their families.  Depending on how a district structures its 1:1 program, the district can create an equitable resource for all students or can further exasperate the digital divides.  Poorly crafted 1:1 programs may also lack the financial stability to remain sustainable following the initial equipment purchase or first refresh cycle.

Schools can avoid these hazards with sound, long-term planning guided by a mandate for equitable opportunity and sustainability.

Here are few considerations.

  • 1:1 Programs with BYOD can create a systemic bias based on family wealth, unless the district is willing and able to ensure all students have access to a default device that is comparable in form, function, performance, and reliability to those brought from home.
  • 1:1 Programs in which families purchase specific devices are often a financial hardship for lower and middle-income families, particularly those with multiple children in the system.
  • Districts should consider policies covering if and when students may use applications and resources not provided by the district for school work.
  • Initial 1:1 program plans should look forward through at least 2 equipment refresh cycles, to ensure that funding is stable and equipment life cycles (reliability and usability) are consistent across classes and grades.
  • 1:1 program funding should be a recurring operating expense rather than a discretionary budget item.  Delaying purchases and refresh cycles reduces the effectiveness of the program across the student population and can result in higher overall costs.  Fair market value (FMV) leases help even out annual costs and maintain refresh cycles
  • 1:1 Programs with equipment and applications purchased by the district ensure all students have equal access to resources, but place the greatest potential financial burden on the district.
  • Districts should consider policies related to “Technology Fees” or “1:1 Program Fees” as a means of mitigating 1:1 program costs.  Districts should consider if and when to subsidize or waive fees based on financial need.
  • Professional development for faculty and staff should be an ongoing process that develops skills and sets expectations for technology integration into the learning process.
  • Districts should consider the ability to leverage technology in the classroom as a skill set on par with subject matter expertise and other teaching skills.

With a well-considered, long-term plan and a commitment to equity and sustainability, districts can design and execute 1:1 programs that provide all students with an equivalent learning environment. Schools will always need to deal with socio-economic differences across their populations, and it is impossible to ensure all things are equal.  Solid leadership as districts adopt technologies and methods, however, can ensure equitable access and opportunities to learn.

 

 

into available grants and other sources of funding,  these factors can also weigh heavily on the

library

IT Budget Workbook Template

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Template | Source: Cumulus Global — Without an IT Budget, every IT spending decision is out of budget. This IT Budget Template provides a Google Sheets workbook that supports the methods and best-practices we share.  You can make a copy or download the workbook as a MS Excel Workbook.  Feel free to customize and use this tool.

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Smart IT Budgeting Pays Off

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eBook | Source: Cumulus Global — Most small businesses do not create an IT budget. Instead, we renew services when they come due and make new spending decisions as the needs or opportunities arise. Without an IT Budget, every spending decision is out of budget and an exception to our spending and fiscal expectations. This eBook shares a simple 5 step process for planning your IT spending.

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Make IT Decisions Like a Pro – 7 Best Practices

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eBook | Source: Cumulus Global — IT decision-making often feels overwhelming. With countless new products, services, and a seemingly endless stream of information, it’s easy to hesitate, overanalyze, and doubt your decisions. You want (and need) IT services to drive growth, improve efficiency, and position your organization for long-term success.

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