Don’t Update Your iPhone Yet!

by Felicien | Sep 20, 2017 | Education

ADVISORY: Apple Mail Is Incompatible With Microsoft Office 365
Our Microsoft Office 365 experts want to keep you informed about the latest developments in Office 365 and the Apple iOS and any other technologies you use every day.

As necessary as software updates are for keeping programs effective and users safe, they can occasionally cause issues. In the process of fixing a number of other problems and adding new features, software developers can often cause a new issue that won’t be known until the update releases – especially when it involves how another provider’s software works with the software in question.
Case in point: iOS 11, which was released on September 19th, has exhibited compatibility issues when using the native Mail app. If you have recently updated your iPhone or iPad, you won’t be able to send or reply from Outlook.com, Office 365, or Exchange 2016 in the native iOS Mail app.
Luckily, our Microsoft Office 365 experts in {city} are here to help. We want you to know there is an available solution while Microsoft and Apple work to resolve the issue. Simply download the free Outlook for iOS client from the App Store, which fully supports a range of email services, including those affected by the iOS update.
The fact is that as technology continues to evolve and improve, compatibility issues like this will continue to occur – that’s why it’s so important to have the {company} team of Microsoft Office 365 experts in {city} on your side.
Microsoft Office 365 connects each and every Microsoft application with the cloud, which makes accomplishing your tasks more convenient and user-friendly. As the leading name in cloud business productivity software, Microsoft Office 365 has an extensive range of services and features designed to help you and your employees do more each day.
However, that’s not all – as one of the world’s biggest technology companies, Microsoft knows their products have to continually change in order to keep up with the ever-changing demands of users. Always innovating, Microsoft Office 365 has a range of new features being introduced this year to offer even further productivity and efficiency to those that use it for their business:

Outlook MFA: Securely access content anywhere with Multi-factor Authentication for when you’re away from the corporate network.
New DLP Policies: Significantly reduce the risk of leaking sensitive data with built-in Data Loss Prevention across Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook.
Deferred Updates: Never miss a security update because Office 365 provides automatic monthly security updates and feature releases.
Single Sign-On: Say ‘Hello’ just once.  Windows 10 Hello and Office 365 log you into your PC and Office – all in one simple step.
And much more!

Don’t forget – as is the case with Microsoft Office 365, these many features are in addition to the already considerable number of solutions offered by Microsoft Office 365 experts in {city}.
Not getting everything you think you should from Microsoft Office 365? Allow {company} to help.
The {company} team of Microsoft Office 365 experts in {city} are well-versed in everything that Microsoft Office 365 has to offer, from the core functions of workhorses like PowerPoint and Excel to the hidden features and handy tricks that will allow you to use old standards in new and exciting ways. Upgrading to Microsoft Office 365 and actually using this new version to its full potential requires a solid grasp of exactly what it has to offer, which features and applications will have the most benefit for your unique business, and how to leverage the cloud aspect of this productivity suite to improve the way your staff gets work done.
Partnering with Microsoft Office 365 experts in {city} takes the guesswork out of it and offers your business a valuable resource to help your team use this game-changing Office suite to your maximum advantage. After all, what’s the point of investing in high-end technology if you’re not going to use it the way it was intended?
The key to finding real success with Microsoft Office 365 experts in {city} is having the needed resources and support in place to keep things running smoothly. That means having an experienced {city} IT provider like {company} taking care of needed patches and updates, monitoring and maintaining the security of your entire IT environment, and helping you manage the devices that have access to business-critical data and applications.
Our Microsoft Office 365 experts in {city} can provide you with many benefits in your Microsoft experience, including:

Sensible Costs: Due to the very nature of Microsoft Office 365 and cloud computing, there is almost no up-front capital required to pay for any physical hardware or the space to store it. Furthermore, pay-as-you-go pricing offers both predictability and flexibility in your budgeting process.
Convenience: Microsoft Office 365 helps you keep content, meetings, and contacts synced across all your devices for use on the go when you’re away from the office.
And much more!

Microsoft Office 365 is flexible, versatile, and surprisingly simple – not to mention the extensive storage it offers users! It’s just a matter of having the right IT provider to help you leverage this incredible productivity tool, making sure you’re not missing out on what our Microsoft Office 365 experts in {city} have to offer.
Interested? Call the {company} Microsoft Office 365 experts in {city} right away at {phone} or email {email} to learn more.

Don’t Pay the Price of a Data Breach

by Felicien | Sep 20, 2017 | Education

Cybersecurity is a key topic for our healthcare tech professionals, especially as the cost of data breaches continues to rise. As I tell all of my clients, only a layered approach to security will provide a framework for complete protection.  

Did you know that millions of records of data are impacted by data breaches every year? — And few industries are impacted as much as healthcare.
The sheer volume of personally identifiable healthcare information makes healthcare organizations like yours a prime target for cybercriminals—Especially since the going price for these details is $50 per record!
HHS has identified more than 200 data breaches so far in 2017, with each representing the PHI of a minimum of 500 individuals. Every breach requires notification of the individuals affected. The costs of remediation are taxing the resources of overworked healthcare professionals throughout the country.
Is Your Data Vulnerable?
As you know, your caregivers need access to patient data to do their jobs.  However, even the most rigorously-trained may forget and leave their computer unmanned for a few moments, potentially exposing PHI to dishonest individuals.
Your nurses, doctors, and administrators need quick access to the most detailed and personal information in order to provide the highest possible quality of care—And if this access is provided on an unsecured workstation or on personal devices such as mobile phones or tablets, the information can easily be laid bare for all to see.  The result?  You’ll pay the price.
Digital Records and Devices Are Essential But Pose a Risk to Your Organization.
EMRs and EHRs provide portability to an individual’s healthcare that your doctors and providers can track information over time.  They’ve proven to be much more efficient than using the traditional paper records of the past.
A person’s EHR contains a great many details that can easily be passed between different medical practices, hospitals or other healthcare providers—And, as helpful as this is, information can be lost or exposed if connections lack the proper security.
Lost laptops and mobile phones are also a critical concern as someone could quickly grab a device that’s been left out for only a moment. If you allow your staff to BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) you face an additional hurdle as individual phones or tablets accessing your intranet or medical records may be easier to hack than computer devices in your facility.
A Data Breach It Can Have a Far-Reaching Impact on Your Patients.
If you experience a data breach and immediately notify those affected, they can usually protect their personal accounts. However, if the notification isn’t received or acted upon, they may find themselves spending weeks, months and even years trying to untangle the web of fraudulent credit accounts and charges.
Identity theft causes an average of $2,500 in out-of-pocket costs to each person whose data has been misappropriated—a staggering sum that most American families would find difficult to recover from. This is especially distressing as fewer than one-third of the individuals a healthcare organization attempts to notify, receives the intended notification.
A Data Breach = Lost Business and Legal Fees
Studies show that more than 90 percent of individuals whose data is exposed due to a data breach move to a different healthcare provider—while others file lawsuits, change insurance providers and take actions against the organization that was the target of the cyberattack.
Unfortunately, consumers don’t typically report the data breach to the organization where the breach occurred—which can make it even more problematic for smaller healthcare providers to determine the cause of the breach, or even discover that an attack has happened.
Healthcare providers are trusted with a great deal of information. This can cause a strong negative reaction from those they serve when they find that the details of their personal health and life have been obtained by cybercriminals. The best way to maintain positive relations with your patients is by implementing stringent security protocols to ensure data integrity and preservation.
So, What’s the Lesson Learned?
Attacks will continue to grow in sophistication as your information systems grow in complexity, resulting in a perfect nexus of data that are ripe for attack. To avoid paying the price of a data breach, you must implement a sound basis for your IT operations that only a layered approach to security can provide. Contact us and we’ll be happy to explain what this is.
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Ongoing Malware Epidemic Infects CCleaner App

by Felicien | Sep 19, 2017 | Education

As malware continues to adapt and overcome conventional IT security, it’s more important than ever to have powerful cybersecurity support.

Malware remains among the top cyber threats that businesses face today. As malware becomes more prevalent and evolves, it’s more important than ever for businesses of all sizes to be aware of what threats are out there, and which specific threats they need to be the most concerned about. However, trying to do this on your own, without cybersecurity support in {city}, can be difficult given how effective cybercriminals are.
Case in point – Cisco Talos has recently discovered that the download servers used by Avast Piriform have been penetrated in order to distribute dangerous malware through the popular maintenance app, CCleaner. The app in question is designed to remove cookies and offer further security features and has been downloaded more than 2 billion times. It is estimated that more than 2.27 million users have been affected by the attack so far, but according to Avast Piriform, any harm to users has been prevented.
“Piriform believes that these users are safe now as its investigation indicates it was able to disarm the threat before it was able to do any harm,” said a spokesperson from Avast Piriform.
Whether the incident harms any users in the end or not, the precedent set by this attack is clear: there is a malware epidemic going on in the world today – but just how bad is it? Or in other words, just how necessary is the right cybersecurity support in {city}?
For an accurate diagnosis, turn to the researchers at Malwarebytes, who spent six months collecting detailed statistics on a wide range of malware threats. Their findings covered more than 200 countries, with data from over 100 million Windows and Android devices and nearly 1 billion malware detections.
The focus of the study was on six major threat categories – ransomware, ad fraud malware, android malware, botnets, banking Trojans, and adware. The results make a convincing case for investing in cybersecurity support in {city}.
Unsurprisingly, ransomware topped the threat list as the favorite method of attack against businesses, with just under 400 different variants cataloged in the fourth quarter of 2016 alone. Between June and November of that year, the rate of ransomware incidents went up a staggering 267%. Worldwide, 12.3% of all businesses targeted by cyber threats were hit with ransomware.
Across the pond, Asia and Europe saw a spike in botnet activity. The rate of Kelihos botnet attacks went up by 960% in October 2016 alone. The IRCBot went up 667% in August 2016, and the Qbot went up 261% in November 2016. Germany seems to be the most affected by this trend, with overall botnet activity in the country going up 550% between 2015 and 2016. Europe as a whole is the most malware-riddled continent, averaging 20% more infections than North America, and 49% of all ransomware infections globally happened in Europe.
So what do these statistics mean for your business? For starters, they paint a very clear picture of just how dangerous ransomware is. It’s all but inevitable that your business will be targeted by some form of malware if it hasn’t been already.
This doesn’t mean your business has to become a victim. There are many security precautions you can put in place to reduce or even eliminate the chances of malware finding its way inside your systems successfully, and steps you can take to minimize the damage done if you do become infected.
Next-gen firewalls, antivirus and antimalware software are getting better and better at keeping up with the latest malware variants and can create a layered security that can stop an infection dead in its tracks. This kind of robust cybersecurity defense is even easier to equip at your business when you have comprehensive cybersecurity support in {city}.
A solid Business Continuity plan that involves thorough data backups stored in a secure, offsite location can act as your last line of defense against threats like ransomware, giving you the option to wipe your systems clean of the infection, and restore vital data and applications in less time than it would take to rebuild your systems from scratch.
The good news is that you don’t have to handle any of this on your own – {company} is proud to provide tried and tested cybersecurity support in {city} that will ensure your business is more than prepared to deal with the ongoing threat of malware, no matter what shape it takes.
Without the necessary protections and precautions in place, a business hit by a malware infection will likely never fully recover. Lost productivity, lost profits, and the damage to your business’ reputation are huge hurdles to overcome. Preparing today in anticipation of tomorrow’s disaster might be the only thing that makes it possible to keep your doors open – but only if you keep up with the ever-evolving threat of malware.
Want to learn more about the steps you can take to protect your business against threats like the many common types of malware? Contact us {company} at {email} or {phone} right away to connect with the best cybersecurity support in {city}.

Do You Love Your IT Staff?

by Felicien | Sep 19, 2017 | Education

“Share the Love”— With Your IT Staff
Your IT department is crucial part of your business, but, sometimes tech experts don’t get the appreciation they deserve.   How would your business survive if your technology suddenly stopped working? If this doesn’t concern you it should.

It takes a lot of skill and dedication to keep your servers, networks, and other technology working as it should. IT workers are the backbone of today’s business, and they should be recognized for providing other departments the tools they need.
You know you’re going to have technology problems at some point. It’s time to own this, and the fact that your high-tech repair skills are limited.  You turn off your computer, wait 30 seconds, turn it back on, and make sure all the cords are plugged in.  That’s all you can probably do.
These are the facts: Computers will break, technology will fail, and you won’t have a clue what to do. Calling your IT expert is the only option. Whether you need help to find lost files, or figure out how to connect your printer wirelessly, your IT person will be there to help.
Celebrate National IT Professionals Day on September 19th.
Did you know that the third Tuesday of September is National IT Professionals Day? Why not take some time to show your IT staff how important they are to the continuing success of your business?
When was the last time you did this? Has it been a while? You’re not alone. Today’s IT professionals are often under appreciated by their coworkers and business owners. This continues to be so, even as their roles expand and the complexity of their responsibilities increase.
Four Reasons to Love Your IT Department  

Your data is your business. Think about it. Without the ability to store, collect, and access information, where would your business be? The truth is you’d likely be out of business. Data, whether it’s the latest sales figures, or customer information, is crucial to keeping your business running smoothly. Your IT staff keeps data flowing where it needs to go by maintaining your network and protecting it from cybercriminals who want to steal your data.
They keep your communications connected. Your IT department does a lot more than just connecting wires, it connects employees with coworkers and customers. With peak-performing email, cloud PBX, online meeting platforms, your website, Internet and Intranet, your IT department keeps everyone connected so tasks can be handled quickly and efficiently. Whether you need help setting up a conference call, or you want a complete overhaul of your online ordering system, your IT department is always there to help.
They provide technology based solutions.Do you need to do something better, faster or cheaper, but you’re having a difficult time finding a solution on your own? There’s a good chance that a technological advancement is already available, but you don’t know it. It’s not your fault. New technology becomes available every day. It would be a full-time job to stay up to date. Luckily, your company already has people whose job it is to keep up with new tech developments: Your IT staff.
They provide IT strategies to help your company grow. You may not realize it, but your IT team is continually thinking about what lies ahead for your company. More than almost any other department, your IT staff must accurately prepare for the future needs of your business and envision where it’s going. You can harness this forward-thinking expertise by consulting with your IT department regularly to discuss new opportunities.

After thinking about everything your IT department does for you, don’t you think you should show them a little love? September 19 will be here soon— It’s the perfect time to acknowledge their importance. Take them out for lunch, bake them a cake, or. at the very least, say “thank you.” You know they deserve it.
If your IT staff needs help at any time, contact {company} in {city} at {phone} or {email}.  We can fill in as needed, or be your complete outsourced IT Department. 

Want to Lower Your Labor Costs?

by Felicien | Sep 19, 2017 | Education

Are you looking for new ways to cut your business expenses? Have you thought about how using AI to lower your labor costs? Maybe you should.  

In today’s economy, business owners need to find new ways to cut their expenses. Labor costs account for a growing percentage of the ongoing monthly expenses for many companies. Therefore, it makes sense for businesses to save money by eliminating unnecessary positions. Luckily, there are many computer applications that can streamline everyday tasks and automate the grunt work that used to require multiple workers.
Here are five applications that may lower labor costs for your small business.
Reduce Hiring Costs with Recruitment Software.
Recruiting software simplifies the entire hiring process including posting job listings on the most popular recruiting sites, managing multiple resumes, automating the selection process, scheduling interviews, and much more.
Studies show that a third of all job openings in the U.S. remain open for at least three months, and cost over $160 billion in productivity losses every year.  Besides the expense of lost productivity, the process of finding and hiring the right person for a job is expensive. Businesses spend an average of between 30 and 400 percent of the position’s annual salary during the hiring process.
But when businesses use a dedicated recruitment software package, like Zoho Recruit, they can significantly reduce hiring costs by handling everything in-house, without the need to hire outside recruiters.
Cull Your Support Staff with a Chatbot
80% of businesses say they provide superior support service to their customers.  However, only 8 percent of customers agree. Customers value quick and competent service. Yet in 2011, 86 % of U.S. consumers stopped doing business with at least one company due to dissatisfaction with its support team.
Small businesses can reduce the size of their support staff, and please their customers by taking advantage of chatbots to answer the most common questions. A chatbot is a computer program that can interact through text and voice. The use of chatbots in the U.S. is growing, and they’re widely used in Asia.
Chatbots can handle many customer service needs via social media, email, telephone, and websites. A company can reap the benefits of using chatbots even if it no one in the business is a technical wizard. Companies like ChattyPeople offer platforms for businesses to build their own chatbots without programming knowledge.
Let Tech Take Care of Your Social Media
Social media is huge when it comes to marketing. Hubspot revealed that 92 percent of marketers say social media marketing is an important part of their promotional campaigns. To stay competitive, small businesses must have a strong presence on social media like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. The problem is that content creation, its distribution, and engaging the public takes time. In fact, most companies spend a minimum of 6 hours a week dealing with their social media accounts. This forces companies to either hire more employees or pull current staff off other projects to ensure social media accounts stay up-to-date.
When companies use AI to manage the day-to-day activities of their social media accounts, they can continue to enjoy the benefits of promotion without breaking the budget. Small businesses that use Twitter should check out Meshfire which bills itself as the only AI for Twitter. Meshfire provides customers with an automated analysis of their accounts and suggests new users and meaningful content to share. Meshfire delves deep into the Twitter-sphere to uncover the next trending topics to keep a business one step ahead of the competition.
Big Data Offers Big Savings on Repair Bills.
Every time a machine breaks down, it winds up costing a company money. It’s not only the cost to repair the machinery, but the income lost from decreased productivity. To prevent unexpected breakages, most companies run preventative servicing programs. This can prevent machines from requiring unexpected repairs.  Plus, using big data to analyze and predict when a piece of machinery requires service can save businesses money.
Companies like Augury offer businesses cost-cutting predictive maintenance tools. These tools can cut maintenance costs up to 30 percent, eliminate almost half of unexpected breakdowns, and helps to get machines back online in 1/4th the time. Businesses using it save an average of 8 to 12 percent of their operating budget.
Let AI Handle the Paperwork.
Businesses have tons of data stuck inside their servers, and getting it out of the network and onto a page used to require an employee. It doesn’t anymore. Instead of wasting time analyzing data and then writing a report, employees can now let modern technology do it for them.
Software like Quill from Narrative Science can help a business unlock the full potential of their data. Quill does this by not only conducting the analysis of enormous amounts of information, but by using its built-in Natural Language Generation program to create highly readable, focused, and natural-sounding language (or what Quill calls Intelligent Narratives).
Companies from a wide variety of industries will benefit from using this technology to automate time-consuming and tedious tasks.
Although we’re a long way from technology taking over and running a business, it’s clear that this is where we may end up one day. We recommend that our clients look for ways to control labor costs with AI solutions.
Would you like more information or assistance with AI solutions?  Contact the IT Experts at {company} at {phone} or {email}.  We’ll be happy to pay a visit to your business in {city}.