Plain-English guides
Every guide answers a question owners ask us on the phone. Written in plain language, with the jargon left out.
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SOC 2 Type 1 vs Type 2 for a 20-person company
SOC 2 Type 1 vs Type 2 explained for a small Canadian software firm: what each report proves, how the observation period works, and what buyers ask for.
CyberSecure Canada certification: a plain guide
CyberSecure Canada for small businesses: the CAN/DGSI 104 standard, who runs it since 2023, how certification works and how it compares with ISO 27001.
What IT support costs in Canada, and what changes the price
Our published monthly prices, divided out per person so you can compare them with anyone else's quote, the arithmetic shown on screen, and the seven things that move the number up or down.
Your IT person just quit. Here is the first week.
A day-by-day checklist an owner can work through alone after the person who looked after the computers leaves: getting the accounts back, protecting email and the domain, proving the backup works, and what to hand over afterwards.
The invoice scam that hits small Canadian firms
How business email compromise actually works, step by step, why it beats careful people, the ten things to check in your own office today, and exactly what to do in the first hour if a payment has already gone.
What to ask an IT company before you sign
Twelve questions to put to any IT provider in Canada, why each one matters, what a weak answer sounds like, and the answer we give to every one of them, including the awkward one about being a new company.
Copilot and AI tools for small business in Canada
Microsoft 365 Copilot, ChatGPT and Claude in a small Canadian business: what each costs per person, what SharePoint and your records need first, the PIPEDA side, and what to skip this year.
Is it worth paying to automate a job someone does by hand?
Five office jobs where automation pays for itself, five where it does not, and a simple way to work out the answer for your own business before you spend anything.
Choosing a CRM for a law firm or a consulting practice
How Canadian professional firms pick contact software the partners will actually use: what makes a firm different from a sales team, what the privacy rules require, what three common platforms cost, and why most of these projects fail.
Five locations, five different setups: how to bring them together
A practical way for Canadian multi-location businesses to make every site work the same, in four layers, one location at a time, without a rip-and-replace project that stalls halfway.
What to check before your computers cost you a day
A plain-language walk through the eight things worth checking in any Canadian business: the network, the machines, the logins, the backups, the cloud accounts, email, privacy duties and your vendor contracts.
Picking a training platform for a Canadian college or course provider
How Canadian training companies, private colleges and professional associations choose a learning platform: the Canadian rules that narrow the list, five platforms compared with real costs, and why the content budget matters more than the licence.
Should you pay monthly for IT help, or call someone when it breaks?
A plain comparison for Canadian business owners: what a monthly IT agreement costs over a year, what paying per call costs over the same year, and how to tell which one fits your business.
Hiring someone for IT, or handing it to a company: how to choose
What a Canadian business owner needs to know before handing IT to an outside company: what it costs either way, what to hand over, what to keep, how to check a provider, and how to move without breaking the week.
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