by Felicien | Feb 12, 2019 | Education
Cybersecurity threats have shown no signs of slowing down, and small and mid-sized organizations are expected to be more heavily targeted going forward. Although splashy headlines about Fortune 500 companies suffering breaches may lead some business leaders to think that hackers are after big corporations, cybercriminals are just as likely to steal data or infect your system with ransomware.
It’s important to keep in mind that these nefarious people are nothing short of petty crooks, and they look for systems that can be breached at every level. That’s why it’s in every business’s best interest to have a high-caliber cybersecurity specialist in place.
If you own or operate a local small or mid-sized outfit, you may be mulling over the cost-to-benefit ratio of outsourcing your cybersecurity defenses. Consider these key reasons why outsourcing to a locally-based cybersecurity specialist makes sense.
Hiring A Talented, Full-Time Expert Proves Difficult
There is a school of thought in business that having your own team in place would be more beneficial than outsourcing. The arguments for that position include having control over work-hours, in-house supervision, and the ability to review performance. The clincher is often that decision-makers know the person managing the tasks.
This old school thinking is often tried-and-true when hiring for profit-driving positions. It’s difficult to imagine outsourcing a sales team or other critical positions, but cybersecurity is not necessarily an old school job. It remains highly unlikely that a small or mid-sized organization has a supervisor in place to train cybersecurity specialists like they would a salesperson or other full-time posts.
A cybersecurity expert has years of education and training under their belt. They also are tasked with keeping up-to-date on the latest hacker methodologies and tools. It’s just impractical to have an in-house professional stay abreast of the fast-changing threats and keep your systems secure. Even if your company invested heavily in a full-time cybersecurity specialist, in all likelihood, they would be wooed away by other opportunities resulting in turnover.
The difficulties associated with filling a cybersecurity position and keeping that person does not make good business sense. It’s far better to outsource the cyber defense work to a local company staffed by experts. Why pay for a full-time person with benefits when you can contract with a local expert?
Benefit From Real-Time Industry Intel
Along with keeping a stable expert to protect your systems, local cybersecurity outfits are tasked with keeping tabs on real-time cyber attack methods. Outsourcing your technology and data protection to a cybersecurity specialist allows small and mid-sized organizations to have a critical risk assessment performed by a consultant that has hands-on experience.
Cybersecurity experts offer business leaders an opportunity to protect and defend critical data and communications in ways that might not occur to even the best in-house IT staff member. Enhanced knowledge and training can help identify cracks in your cyber defenses, inconsistencies in the password or login protocols, and advise you about forward-thinking employee policies.
It is not uncommon for hackers to target employee email and devices as a way to infiltrate a company’s data and personnel files. Given the fact that the methods hackers use change quickly, it’s imperative to an organization’s survival that a vigilant line of cybersecurity defense remains in place. Working with a local company that specializes in cybersecurity brings expertise to the table many outfits might not be able to afford otherwise.
BYOD Is Becoming Commonplace
The line between employees using company devices and personal ones has increasingly been blurred. Millennials tend to be of a mind that their device is just as, if not more suitable for professional tasks. In many cases, that probably holds true.
This new era of “Bring Your Own Device” poses a more significant challenge to organizations that merely have team members on fixed in-house desktops. These days, valuable staff members prefer to use their own mobile device, laptop and work from home options. This emerging tech reality inherently increases potential entry points for cybercriminals. In the BYOD business world, cybersecurity requires employees to be more educated about protocols and have a working knowledge of how and why they are being implemented and routinely changed.
Hackers are not necessarily working night and day to skip off with a big criminal payday. They are more prone to identify outfits with poor or low-level defenses. While cybercrime profit can be gained by breaching a major corporation with a strong defense, it may be a lot easier and more lucrative to knock off small and mid-sized organizations that are ripe for the picking. Outsourcing to a specialist can prevent you from becoming the low hanging fruit.
Data Breaches And Lawsuits
Captains of industry often think of cybersecurity as a way to protect their trade secrets, critical data and avoid costly work stoppages. While all of those ideas have merit, there’s another level of cybersecurity that CEOs and other decision-makers do ordinarily understand. You could face civil litigation if a hacker breaches your system.
That idea seems incredibly counterintuitive. Why would you — the victim — be sued? The simple reality is that businesses use technology for company-to-company communications and file transfers on a regular basis. When one system suffers a breach, access to others in the network may become available to the cybercriminal.
Just as your organization is responsible for bringing a safe product to market or shoveling snow off your doorstep, you could be held liable for not adequately securing critical data and access. Along with your business reputation taking a significant hit, previous clients and associates may be looking to recoup their losses from you. Civil litigation can prove costly unless you have taken industry standard measures to protect your system.
Hire A Local Expert Cybersecurity Specialist
Cyber attacks are an ongoing reality of living and working in the technology era. Organizations of all sizes and sectors are routinely tested by hackers to see if their cybersecurity defenses can withstand an assault. Cybercriminals are not going away any time soon and unless you want to risk shuttering, it’s time to contract with a cybersecurity specialist to protect your vital business interests.
by Felicien | Feb 11, 2019 | Education
Advanced Data Governance (or ADG) is a tool from Microsoft. Available to be used within Office 365, this tool assists businesses in meeting compliance requirements and managing risk. Most of all, it helps organize the massive amounts of data that companies are now dealing with.
Each quarter, the data owned by a given business grows by exponential rates. Over time, organizations are met with the challenge of organizing this unstructured data. Moreover, they are challenged to be able to find pertinent data, retain sensitive and important data, and safely destroy or archive obsolete or otherwise useless data. These are the pain points that Advanced Data Governance aims to handle.
According to Microsoft, the goal of ADG is to help companies:
Assess their current compliance status
Protect their current and future data
Respond to requests
Other goals include:
Reducing costs across the board
Maintaining business continuity
What is the Advanced Data Governance dashboard?
The dashboard of ADG is where most of the magic happens. Here, companies can clearly see a visualization of their data, along with helpful widgets, which explain key features about data status. This is useful as it can help companies decide what data or cross-sections of data to keep and which to discard.
How does ADG help companies meet compliance?
A particularly useful element of ADG is that cloud intelligence assists in recommending policies. All companies have their own rules and regulations to comply with. For EU businesses, for example, GDPR rules need to be observed. According to whatever rules and regulations a business must comply with, Advanced Data Governance is able to quickly filter through everything in order to detect the appropriate data. In doing so, any policies set up by the company can be applied to the pertinent data in one easy action.
Applying a given policy may mean retaining all data that meets that policy’s criteria, or it may mean automatic removal of a given set of data. When detecting data via a policy, any type of criteria can be used. Most of the time, keywords are used to search and sift through data; however, some companies may choose to use financial, healthcare, or PII related information to conduct searches.
An added feature of ADG is its ability to apply policies to all Microsoft Office 365 services, including Exchange, OneDrive, and SharePoint. This streamlines all enforcement of policies.
What are ADG labels and event tags?
Labels can be created and applied easily in ADG. Each label denotes specific data retention actions. For example, you may create a label that retains all employee record data for a select period of time. You can choose to apply these label policies to all Microsoft services or only to select services.
Event tags allow companies to start certain policies on specific dates as it’s not uncommon for policies to only need compliance during certain periods of time (during specific employment periods, mergers, events, and more).
How Can Advanced Data Governance Help Your Company?
Allow Microsoft’s Advanced Data Governance to help your company regulate and meet compliance, manage risk, improve data organization and understanding, operate more efficiently, and increase revenue. It’s an excellent tool for businesses who are noticing an upsurge in data volume and structural issues.
by Felicien | Feb 11, 2019 | Education
Hiring an IT consultant is a proven method of boosting small to midsize businesses beyond their current capabilities. Rather than hiring full-time employees or tying up internal resources, businesses can allow an IT consultant to do some of the heavy lifting. That’s not to suggest that hiring an IT consultant does not have some pitfalls. Here are some of the most common errors that local businesses can avoid when hiring an IT consultant.
Rushing the Process
Hiring an IT consultant should be something that a business carefully plans for, rather than trying to pick one in an “emergency” situation. Take your time and conduct a proper candidate search. Vet IT consultants the same way that you would when hiring for an important management position.
Not Hiring an IT Consultant
A surprising number of businesses start the process of researching IT consultant firms and then decide they can do it all in-house. Contracting with an IT consultant is about business growth. Shuffling the routine tasks that an IT firm can handle off to internal employees can drain morale and waste the talents of staff who are better-suited to other aspects of the business.
Failing to Assess Business Needs
“Why are we hiring an IT consulting company?” needs to be a question that local businesses ask before signing a contract. Any IT consultant that a business is considering should be able to help assess any IT difficulties it has and provide an honest assessment of its plan to fix any issues or improve them. This will help a business to avoid paying for unnecessary services. Another great question to ask is, “What is your exit strategy in the event that we outgrow the need for your services?”
Not Protecting Intellectual Property
When a business does hire an IT consultant firm, it essentially hands it “the keys to the kingdom.” An IT consultant will have logins and passwords to virtually every aspect of the business. This is why the protection of the company’s intellectual property should be of paramount importance in the hiring process. If a substandard and unethical IT firm ends up in a dispute with the business, its entire network could be held hostage. Establish clear and firm rules regarding the handling of intellectual property, just as you would with any other outside contractor.
Not Having a Detailed Contract
A detailed contract that both the business and the IT consultant agree upon is vitally important. The contract can cover costs, number of hours of weekly or monthly service provided, goals and milestones to meet, deadlines, expectations if goals or deadlines are not met, annual price increases, and who pays for unforeseen outside services when they arise. Getting all of the expectations laid out ahead of time can lead to a successful business relationship with an IT consulting firm.
Not Choosing the Right IT Consultant
The world of IT consultant firms is expansive and yet there is a lot of specialization within the field. It’s not a field where “one size fits all”local businesses. Make sure that the IT firm you sign a contract with has the specific skills required to meet the specific needs of your business. If you’re hiring an IT consultant on a temporary basis, the problem they’re trying to fix will be resolved that much faster if they have the right skills for the job.
Not Interviewing Multiple Consultants
Talk with multiple IT consultants before selecting one. Treat the process just as you would when hiring for an important full-time position. A business should take the time to interview multiple candidates before making a selection. Is the IT consultant you’re hiring the right one to meet your business needs? This is an important business relationship and it should be approached as such.
Forgetting about IT Training
The regular full-time employees of a local business are the ones who will be using the resources and solutions provided by an IT consultant. Do they know how to use the solutions that are being provided? Before hiring a consultant, ensure that they agree to provide regular training for your staff on how to use any new or improved systems.
These are some of the most common errors that local businesses can make when it’s time to expand by hiring an IT consultant. A business can benefit tremendously when it hires the right IT consulting firm and has clear goals and expectations going into the relationship.
by Felicien | Feb 8, 2019 | Education
If you own or manage a company and are considering outsourcing your IT services, you’re on your way to markedly reduced expenditures and greatly improved cybersecurity and technology.
Still wondering about the benefits of outsourcing IT? Not sure how to go about hiring a managed IT service provider?
We’ve got you covered. Let’s start with what IT services are and why you need them.
What are IT services?
When it comes to virtually any type of business in the world, technology is a critical part of operations.
First, you must be online with a top-quality website and a consistent social media presence. Next, you need technology for your employees and daily operations: computers, printers, copiers, adequate data storage and backup, unique software programs, and more. Finally, everything must be protected with excellent cybersecurity.
All of these things encompass your business’s IT services or information technology services.
Why should you outsource IT?
Most businessmen and women start their businesses with the mind that they can do anything they set their mind to.
While this is an excellent mentality to have and provides the necessary motivation to start a booming business, it’s also important to know when to ask for help. Nowhere is this more pertinent than with information technology, or IT.
Unless you are specifically in the business of providing information technology yourself, this means you’ll have to have a strong team of IT specialists on your side.
In-house IT departments are generally only a viable option for expansive businesses who will have enough work for the IT staff to do on a daily basis. Therefore, the better solution for most companies is to hire a managed service provider or MSP.
These companies provide all different levels of IT support to their customers (businesses and organizations like yours). Their main goals are to make your life easier and to help your business grow and thrive.
What are the benefits of outsourcing IT?
1. You’ll have access to the best talent pool and technology.
Professional IT companies handle technology all day. All specialists working at MSPs are trained in their specific area of tech, and they stay updated on the latest in cybersecurity, technological hardware and software advances, updates to data cabling practices, and more. Moreover, whenever you need updated software or hardware, MSPs know the most effective and affordable options.
2. You can choose your level of service.
Most MSPs offer different tiers of service. You choose your level of service and pay a flat, monthly, quarterly, or yearly fee for them to provide whatever services are in that tier. Sometimes, businesses simply hire MSPs to be “on-call” when they need them. MSPs cater to you.
Because of this, you can basically pay for exactly what your business needs. If you own a large business and constantly need IT service assistance, choose a more hands-on level of service. If you only occasionally need help with an IT problem and generally just need someone to help you hook up new computers, networks, or equipment from time to time, choose a lower tier of service. You can also change levels of service, based on your changing needs.
3. You’ll reduce costs across the board.
MSPs only work when you need them, so you’re paying for what you need and not for downtime.
It can be expensive to hire, train, and consistently employ an in-house IT team. Moreover, in small and mid-sized businesses, these staff members generally have a lot of downtime. Hiring an MSP makes more fiscal sense in the long run, and you’ll undoubtedly get better service.
4. You won’t have to micro-manage an IT team.
MSPs take care of you; that’s their job. Unfortunately, in many cases involving an in-house IT department, it’s the manager or director who is taking care of the tech team and micro-managing their day-to-day tasks. This leaves little time to actually run the business.
The whole point of hiring an MSP is to lessen your workload and anxiety. You should be able to hand over the “tech reigns” to an MSP and let them keep your business in a continuous flow of utility, without hitch or interruption. This is what they’re trained to do without your involvement.
5. You’ll improve your compliance.
Meeting compliance is a major pain point in many industries. Government rules and other regulations are complicated and always changing. An MSP can take on this burden for you and set you up with the software you’ll need for perfect compliance and greatly improved risk management.
6. You can stop worrying about security risks.
A large part of an MSP’s role is to be aware of current cybersecurity threats. With many businesses and organizations, personal and private data is being stored. In the event of a security breach, this data could be stolen, destroyed, held for ransom, or otherwise tampered with.
If it is employee data, a breach like this could mean loss of faith in the company and even lawsuits. The same goes for loss of client and customer data — or patient data in the case of health care providers. In these situations, whole businesses can collapse.
Fortunately, cybersecurity is best handled by professional MSPs. These experts know the current strategies hackers are using to obtain login information and sensitive data. They will construct a thick barrier between you and any potential threats. Moreover, they’ll be monitoring your security 24/7, so if something does happen, they can nip it in the bud as soon as possible.
Should you simply manage IT yourself?
We don’t recommend that. Again, entrepreneurs and leaders in business are unique creatures in that they genuinely feel that they can accomplish anything they set their minds to. We’ve already covered why this is absolutely excellent for getting great business ideas, bringing them to fruition, and creating businesses that thrive and grow. But at certain times, it is critical that you release the mentality that you should handle it all.
As an owner or manager, you simply don’t have time, and your talents and abilities should be put to better use than managing IT. While we will assert time and again that information technology is absolutely essential to your business, it is crucial that you find the best-managed service provider to assist you in handling your IT. Do what you’re best at and leave the IT to MSPs.
How do you find an IT services company?
There are high-end, professional managed service providers all over the nation, so simply search for MSPs in your area. Many urban areas will have a long list of MSPs, but they’ll cover a big swath of rural towns in their service area. Once you find a few MSPs that you like the look of, set up appointments with each one to find an MSP that meets your unique needs.
by Felicien | Feb 8, 2019 | Education
PowerPoint is a slideshow presentation program that is part of the Microsoft 365 office suite of tools. Now, PowerPoint makes it easy to create professional, engaging presentations right on an iPad Pro. PowerPoint for iPad is finally powerful enough so users can confidently leave their personal computer at the office and take their iPad Pro on the road to create, edit and present their PowerPoint slides.
One of the newest and most creative features of Microsoft Powerpoint on the iPad (This feature is available to Microsoft Office 365 subscribers on Windows and iOS) is the Ink Feature. This convenient and easy to use tool allows users to actually write, draw, scribble and sketch right on the screen with a finger, digital pen, or mouse. Shape recognition is part of the PowerPoint for iPad program and makes it easy to convert what is handwritten in free-form ink to Microsoft Office shapes, graphics and professional fonts. For example, if you need to create an Infographic presentation slide that combines text, graphics, and shapes, simply design it free-form on the iPad screen and then after a few clicks, it will automatically transform into a visually stunning slide. Here’s how:
1. From the toolbar, select Draw.
2. Select a pen. There are a variety of sizes and colors including the standard black, red, blue, or green, or for something more custom, select the available color wheel.
3. Create a sketch with a finger, digital pencil or mouse.
When ready to convert sketches, there is a Lasso Select tool so users can highlight everything on the slide or portions of the slide they want professionally converted. Here’s how:
1. Go to the Draw tab on the top toolbar and select Ink to Shape.
2. Drag a digital pen or finger around what content you’d like to be converted. A faded and dashed area will appear while dragging.
3. As each conversion option is clicked, a preview of how it will look appears. Tap on the one preferred. When completed, users can edit the text and other images as needed.
4. Select the Ink to Shape again to stop converting shapes.
Erasing images is as easy as drawing them. Here’s how:
1. Select the Draw tab from the toolbar.
2. Select the Eraser tool.
3. Using the digital pencil, draw over the top of any drawn image or mark. Note: Tapping a single line will erase an entire line.
View this informational video showing some of the features of Microsoft PowerPoint for iPad.
