Rapid IT Support

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Having a uniform technology setup throughout your office can be beneficial for the purposes of getting IT helpdesk support. It will mean that if an issue is found, it will be equally found on all machines, but also have the same solution, making troubleshooting easy. However, do not feel compelled to keep 100% uniformity across the office, if a particular employee has specialised needs. To use an example, let’s say you have 10 employees. 9 of them just do word processing all day, but the last is your marketing person who does photo editing, video editing, and similar. In this scenario, having 9 weaker PCs and 1 stronger PC for the person doing things that need more computing power is entirely reasonable as a technology mix. Just because uniformity can provide benefits, doesn’t mean you need 10 powerful PCs and overspend, or 10 weaker PCs leaving the person who needs more power at a disadvantage!

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We have covered backups in more detail before [https://www.rapiditsupport.com.au/3-reasons-why-you-should-back-up-your-computer/], but they are absolutely essential to business continuity. Whilst it’s not common, things can go wrong, so preparing for the worst means you’re always one step ahead. A system outage that lasts an hour is infinitely better than one that lasts two hours in today’s environment. Every minute that you are out of commission could be costing your organisation cash, so having the right systems in place to get online again quickly, including backups, is essential.

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Distribution lists for emails can get very large, and frequently you will have better things to do then get distracted by emails that you really don’t need to know about. For example, if you have no control over the IT systems of an organisation, then a string of emails from the organisation’s IT helpdesk may be something you want to ignore. Outlook can intelligently understand what emails are part of a conversation, and you can from there elect to ignore any further emails in that conversation. This will automatically move further emails in the chain to the “deleted” folder, meaning you can stay focused.

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Norton 360 Deluxe’s software boasts a powerful firewall, VPN with no limitations, cross-platform security, and a hosted online backup filled to the brim with high-security features. Its interface is familiar, and easy to use, with panels linked to security, online safety, backup, and performance, and lab test results that prove persistent threats will be rooted out and destroyed in no time.

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It is important to be flexible and versatile with continuity plans. Specifically, an organisation should be looking at any scenario that has a reasonable chance of impacting them. For example, power failures, minor natural disasters (such as flooding), data breaches, data loss, a virus getting into the network, etc. Ensuring that plans cater for any scenario is absolutely critical.

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Like any organisation, IT helpdesks have a lot of clients and responsibilities to juggle at once. If needed, they will drop everything to assist you first, but only if you are clear about the importance of the request, and why it is important. An example of this is if you were an e-commerce organisation, and all your hardware ceased working simultaneously. This is of critical importance and stops all work, and hence may cause the importance of your request to be higher. Conversely, because of having a high amount of responsibilities, IT helpdesks do not wish to prioritise requests of little impact to business operation. On this basis, communicating priority clearly is of great benefit.

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In any larger organisation, internal email chains can quickly get messy. Within just a few emails, you might end up with 20 or more people receiving an email when only a handful of them need to be aware of the information contained within. Outlook has a solution here, with the “Mentions” system. Within the body of an email, simply type an “@” symbol, followed by a person’s name. This will highlight their name just for them, automatically put them in the “To” section of the email (as opposed to “CC”), and the person will also receive a specific notification, indicating that they have been mentioned in the email.

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Apple and Microsoft are two of the major computing giants which publish competing operating systems, namely the Windows and macOS lines. To utilise either of these operating systems, you will need to make the choice between buying a Mac or PC.

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Having a uniform technology setup throughout your office can be beneficial for the purposes of getting IT helpdesk support. It will mean that if an issue is found, it will be equally found on all machines, but also have the same solution, making troubleshooting easy. However, do not feel compelled to keep 100% uniformity across the office, if a particular employee has specialised needs.

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There are very few reasons in the modern era to not use this method of security. However, with there being costs associated, some may choose to forego the system in some circumstances. An example of this would be if the login being secured doesn’t have any personal information or sensitive access, and hence even if a malicious actor were to gain access, they would gain nothing and you would lose nothing. 

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Similar to ‘war games’ that you hear about militaries doing, your managed service provider should run through a ‘disaster simulation’ with you at least once. This is akin to a ‘what if’ scenario wherein the recovery procedures are tested against best practice, with any weaknesses analysed and improved upon after the simulation. This should be done on a test server (possibly hired on a temporary basis) to ensure no damage to important data. The main reason for practising your plan is that irretrievable data loss can be crippling to companies, sometimes lethally. From that, as they say, ‘if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail’.

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Whilst updating key systems and processes continuously is a nightmare for training, being on the lookout for new technologies to make life easier is always advantageous. This could be hardware (such as a new smart device) or software (like a payroll system). As the world adapts, new things are always out there waiting to be utilised. It is important therefore to always be open to the possibility of change. Have a regular meeting with your managed service provider on this topic; as the experts, they’ll keep up to date with the latest trends and options out there, some of which might just benefit you.

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Getting the most out of your email software can be crucial and pay dividends when it comes to efficiency. If you have just completed your Office 365 migration with Rapid IT, starting to use Outlook is going to be the next step. Here are 3 neat features of the software that you may not have known about.

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Avast is well known for being competent, having excellent detection and removal rates with anti-virus and anti-malware infections with upgrades available. While Avast offers their most basic services as free, the paid version of their software offers paid-for security options that‘ll cover an array of needs for small business users, such as advanced ransomware protection and real-time security updates and botnet attack blocks.

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Most businesses use Wi-Fi. Though it makes mobility within the office much easier, Wi-Fi can be the reason your business computers are vulnerable to hacker attacks. To be safe, use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). It is the best tool for secure remote connection as it creates a secure encrypted tunnel, protecting your business’ connection from cybercriminals. Besides, ensuring that software is updated regularly is fundamental.

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The key point to remember in regards to storage is that not everything you store is going to be relevant forever, and doing frequent cleanups will help to optimise performance and computer speed overall. Like your storage closet at home, going in for some spring cleaning from time to time will reap benefits.

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A backup that is in the same location as your main system can be handy in a pinch, but isn’t going to be valuable in a total disaster situation. Ensure that backups can be found in multiple places, such as on-site, off-site and the cloud. In doing this, it creates a situation where even if your first choice for recovery fails as well, there is a “Plan B”.