2022 has been a big year for IT with the way we work firmly changing after the last few years.
The IT Alliance, which Decision1 is a part of, are a group of IT companies across New Zealand. In conjunction with the other members, we have put together our thoughts on the biggest trends that we have all seen across many varied clients, throughout New Zealand, in 2022. The IT Alliance members deal with real New Zealand companies who may be facing similar IT issues as yourself. The businesses are generally small to medium sized businesses, often time poor, resource limited and with some cash flow restrictions. These are not multi-million dollar US companies. Here we share the key trends that we are seeing with I.T in New Zealand companies as we round up 2022. #1. Teams The culmination of the past few years has seen a huge shift towards remote and hybrid ways of working. Teams has become much more popular across clients who wish to collaborate on projects from remote locations. In a case study about Northland Kindergarten Association, they share how Teams has helped them through the past few years, and how it can also help your business. We are seeing companies begin to explore the many options within Teams, and begin to utilise these within their businesses. Sharepoint and power apps are being picked up more for helping companies streamline internal processes and communication. #2. Security No longer are Cyber threats something that happen to big overseas companies. New Zealand companies both large and small have been hit by Cyber attacks and have paid the price in time, money and reputation. The realization that we are not “so far away that this could never happen to us”’ has vanished, and been replaced for a healthy respect for Security. Nothing can take 100% of the threats away, but having an IT provider making sure that your whole system is as secure as possible, should make any Kiwi business owner sleep more soundly. 2FA and MFA: 2FA or Two Factor Authentication or MFA Multifactor Authentication are now being widely used. Password Management System: Password management systems are being taken on by most clients. Monitoring and Maintenance: Companies now realise the value in having this taken care of on a 24/7 basis by an MSP (managed service provider). #3. Supply Chain Issues: 2022 has still seen some post-Covid delays with computer shortages. Whilst that supply chain is now largely back to a good time frame, it has made companies aware of the value of creating a plan for the future. You can read about how to create a plan for computer hardware here. #4. The move to a Managed Service Provider: As I.T becomes even more integral in your companies success, companies are realising the benefits of having a Managed Service provider as opposed to “someone you ring when something stops working.” A Managed Service provider is like your outsourced I.T department, who runs all of the checks and balances remotely, and someone that you build an ongoing business relationship with, so that your IT supports your business key objectives. If you would like help or advice with any of the above key trends that we are seeing, please do not hesitate to reach out. No question is too silly, and we make it as easy and simple for you because this is what we do! Contact us here.
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Teams and Channels may seem fairly easy to set up, however taking some time to assess your needs before embarking on set up, is time well invested.
Here we break down what Teams and Channels are, along with a basic how to for setting teams up. Teams! Let’s talk Teams. Think of teams as a group of people who come together to collaborate. In the olden days, this may have been in meeting rooms, with shared brown manilla folders passed between one another. Nowadays you can collaborate easily with Teams either for a one-off project, or maybe as an ongoing internal department that work together e.g. the accounts team, marketing team, sales team or admin team. The teams can be created to be both private or public, addressing a broad range of communication requirements, both inside your organisation and with parties outside your organisation. Whatever the ‘team’ is, Microsoft teams is like a centralised place where you can chat, share files, store information, and easily find information pertaining to your ‘team’. No more going over to Jim’s office to ‘find the file’. Because it is all here. In one place. Advantages of Teams:
Channels: What about Channels? Think of Teams as a way to ring fence people together, there are no hard and fast rules. Teams is like Netflix, and Channels as the genres within Netflix – anyone for a good Drama? Sci-Fi? Thriller? That’s the one. Channels are the segments within Teams. Your teams Channels are dedicated sections within a Team to keep conversations organized by specific topics, projects, discipline. Channels are places where conversations happen and where a lot of collaborative work gets done. Different types of Channels:
Private channels: Each private channel has its own settings that the channel owner can manage, including the ability to add and remove members, add tabs, and @mentioning for the entire channel. Shared channels: These create collaboration spaces where you can invite people who are not in the team. Only the users who are owners or members of the shared channel can access the channel The setup for a shared channel requires some knowledge and thought about how you go about it. They are really powerful if used correctly, you can have one channel that lives in many teams, cool right? THE HOW TO PART….. Creating a team is easy, like really easy. So easy that they can become messy fast. Before we create a team it pays to spend a bit of time thinking about the structure of the teams in relation to the business. For example a team for each sector, the partners, customers, suppliers, projects, business, job types, locations, level (SLT, management, everyone), department. As well as this we also want to look at the work stream, the companies growth and who will be accessing teams. To make teams scalable you need to do some business analysis, which is where we can help. Understanding the full picture of technology and where this intersects with your business and how you can efficiently deliver teams to ‘make it work’ is the ultimate plan. Technology projects are there to provide improvement, not just change for change sake. Create a team Creating a team is simple. All you need to do is go to the left side of Teams, click Teams, at the bottom of the teams list, click Join or create a team, and then click Create a new team. Once you’ve created the team, invite people to join it. Boom easy! Create a channel in a teamThe next thing you will want to do is to find the team that you created, click More options … > Add channel. You can also click Manage team and add a channel in the Channels tab. In Summary: Teams and Channels are simple in theory but can be really hard to understand and to implement in a way that works for your business. Talking about how it works won’t show the benefit or the full picture. Having a demo of teams can take you through how it all works and explain it in simple terms. For further assistance, please reach out to us here. If you own a business, it is important to have a cyber security policy:
This is not only a guide and reference to be used internally with your employees, but also as a reference point to deal with any external data from customers. Your Cyber Security policy should be thought of as a moving, changing entity that will need to be updated regularly to keep up with technological advancements, and any changes within your business. What does your Cyber Security policy need to cover? Firstly no two cyber security policies will be the same. Your Cyber Security policy will be unique to your business, depending on your particular type of business, and what kind of data you deal with. The first thing you need to do is to identify the particular risks for your business. If you are an accountant for example, your focus is on how you deal with customers’ personal information, bank details, IRD number etc. Once you have worked to clarify your specific risks, you can then prepare for what to do if something goes wrong. Your IT Alliance member has knowledge of a wide variety of industries, and will be able to assist you to clarify what you need to be mindful of. Having a clear plan in place, means that everyone in your organisation knows what to do, who is responsible for what, and what processes you have in place to mitigate the risks. You will also need to create two cyber security policies. One, an internal one for employees, and the second one is a public one for customers. What needs to be included in the Policy? The below information has been taken from the Cert nz website Cert NZ suggests that you break your internal policy down into different areas. This should cover how you handle data safely and securely — both your business’s data and your customers’. Think about: Data
Systems It’s important to identify what systems you have, and which ones are critical to your work. Consider:
Security and protection Security and protection covers how your staff and customers access your systems and data. It means thinking about:
People and users You need to think about what you consider to be acceptable use of your business’s systems. How do you expect your staff and your customers to interact with them? Make sure you set expectations so they know:
Physical devices and systems When you think about protecting your business’s devices and systems, make sure you cover both:
Problems and incidents You’ll need to define what you and your team will do when things go wrong. This means creating an incident response plan to map out what you’ll do during, and after, a security incident. It can be a stressful time for both you and your staff, so it’s good to be prepared in advance. What next? Our team are used to helping companies like yourself with creating a Cyber Security policy for your business. Contact us here to discuss this further. Internationally well know companies such as Apple, Meta, Twitter, and Samsung have all disclosed cybersecurity attacks this year.
In the most recent quarter, CERT NZ responded to 2,001 incident reports about individuals and businesses from all over New Zealand. In New Zealand Phishing and credential harvesting remains the most reported incident category (from CertNZ) Australian telecoms company Optus – which has 9.7 million subscribers, suffered a “massive” data breach this year. According to reports, names, dates of birth, phone numbers, and email addresses may have been exposed, while a group of customers may have also had their physical addresses and documents like driving licenses and passport numbers accessed. IBM found the cost of a breach hit a record high this year, at nearly $4.4 million. So how does a data breach happen? Data breaches happen mainly when hackers can exploit user behaviour or technology vulnerabilities. A data breach involves any unauthorized access to confidential, sensitive, or protected information, and it can happen to anyone. The threat surface continues to grow exponentially. We are increasingly reliant on digital tools such as smartphones and laptops. With the Internet of Things (IoT), we’re adding even more endpoints that unauthorized users can access. Popular methods for executing malicious data breaches include:
Data breaches cause business downtime and can cost your reputation and bottom line. Once you’ve had a data breach and it has been made public, your customers may lose faith in your ability to protect their private information. Universal Support can support you with this. Please contact us here. Network monitoring continues to be crucial for businesses in order to be productive and avoid serious threats from network failures and server downtime.
What is monitoring? Monitoring is the practice of routinely monitoring all the components within an organization’s network to track, measure, and troubleshoot performance issues, failures, or deficiencies. The advantage of automated monitoring software is that it speeds up the very time-consuming areas of network monitoring. These tools help uncover what might be overlooked with manual network monitoring. Why monitor your network?
Some of the most common performance issues include:
How should I monitor? When establishing your monitoring practices, you need to consider which reports you use as measurements. These are some common ones:
Failure to monitor your network will cost you lost time and profits. Your IT Alliance member will establish a comprehensive monitoring program to meet the many challenges that your system faces. At a minimum, your monitoring program should employ the following steps:
In Summary: There are many involved reports that can be automatically generated by the monitoring software. The good thing about having all of this done automatically by your IT Alliance member is that anything outside of the parameters of normal will (mostly) be flagged immediately, and automatically fixed. Failure to monitor in this modern way of working with remote users now becoming an everyday occurrence could cost your company in downtime as well as many other issues. Contact us here to discuss your individual needs |
AuthorVictoria Murgatroyd-McNoe has been working in the IT sector helping businesses achieve their technology goals for over 20 years. Archives
November 2022
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