Work from anywhere
Technology started allowing us to work from anywhere remotely in the early 2000s. Laptops, VPN and increased Internet bandwidth set this trend in motion, allowing people to connect to corporate networks from home to access email, servers or other systems. Employees depended on this way of working to perform their daily duties.
What it didn’t address at the time was the human element. People’s desire to work on their own terms, anytime, anywhere and on any device. In the early 2000’s technology didn’t readily support this paradigm of “remote work”. Most workers didn’t even know what they were missing in terms of flexibility or convenience.
Work from anywhere, any device and any time
More and more large companies are realizing the benefits about working from home. Why stress your employees out with the expense and commute in to the office. Business Insider explores some of out largest companies working from home.
We’ve put together a brand new guide to show you the most important things to consider with a permanent flexible working arrangement for your people.
The future is now… YOUR desktop, anytime, anywhere, any device! IT does not need to be complicated. Business owners need to concentrate on what they do best, running their business.
Top technical desires
Working 0nline or offline: Back in the late 90’s, for those old enough to remember, Lotus Notes pioneered this concept. Notes had the ability to replicate databases locally between servers and users’ local desktops. Today many technologies do this seamlessly to access emails, files or other corporate systems.
Instant gratification: Today users want access to information immediately and from any device. A mere 15 years ago expectations were very different. Employees had to be logged into a PC at the office to gain access to data. Expectations have taken a monumental shift thanks to new technology. Now smartphones, tablets, broadband, WiFi, and 4/5G all make information accessible at our fingertips.
Advanced communication: Recent advances in infrastructure and hardware have enabled new ways to communicate and collaborate. The use of these new platforms differs based on age, culture and social boundaries. There are so many choices available that employees can communicate via more channels than ever before. Document sharing, enterprise social media, gamification, instant messaging, phone, text, email, video, video or voice chat, screen sharing.
The new normal
Work anywhere you have an internet connection and often where you do not. There are many closed based back up solutions. We would recommend OneDrive.
With the ability to synchronise your OneDrive and your machine, you can now save your documents to a local folder. They will synchronise to the cloud in the background! Start a document at work and save it. The file will fly off gently to the cloud without human intervention. You can then pick up where you left off in a coffee shop or at home, working locally or in your browser. It does not matter which browser either, it works in Edge, IE11, Safari, Chrome or Firefox.
Work anytime
Well you can work anywhere, on any device so it follows that you can also work at any time. Now you may see this as a blessing or a curse. A blessing because you are not tied to your office and the opening times of the building. Which means you can get that report finished no matter where you are or what time it is. However, that is also a curse because you could work all night if you wanted to or even if you do not. Great for night owls!
As we adopt a more mobile workforce and many professions now run their business from a home, the office or even a coffee shop. We would recommend using Office 365 and take advantage of our Office 365 Security Package. It is easy to use and collaboration with clients and colleagues is now much easier.
Review your IT infrastructure. Enable your team to work from anywhere
Moving to Office 365 has huge benefits for productivity and collaboration. Because Office 365 has many security features built in it can be achieved safely. The extensive compliance manager gives controlled access to your data. You can remain in control and as an added benefit you quickly achieve full GDPR compliance. Have you moved to Office 365 yet and has it transformed your working life? Is your IT system set up and ready for your workforce to work from anywhere, any device and any time?
Contact the LIS Help Desk to speak to one of our experienced IT technicians. We carry out an IT audit to enable us to what recommend the best hardware and software solutions. Find out how we can make your workplace mor efficient and productive.
LIS – SECURING YOUR DIGITAL WORLD
#FreeGuide #NewWorkingPatterns #PreparedForTheNewNormal
Mobile users feel ripped off
Overpayments ‘rip-off’ on phone contracts could cost you more than £400 a year, Which? says The regulator has asked providers to reduce monthly costs after customers have paid off the price of their phones. Mobile users feel ripped off, as high-end handsets tend to only be sold with expensive tariffs. They come packaged up with a generous inclusive allowance. This means shoppers often buy tariffs that significantly exceed their needs.
Which reveal mobile users feel ripped off
A third of mobile phone customers are still being charged the full price of their contract – even after paying off the cost of their handset, Which? has warned. The BBC reported the news story and listed some of the worst offenders.
A third of mobile phone customers are still being charged the full price of their contract – even after paying off the cost of their handset, Which? has warned.
The consumer rights group is calling for networks to end the “overpayments rip-off”, which costs an estimated £182m a year. It estimates some Britons could be out of pocket to the tune of more than £400 annually.
Your phone company could have overcharged you by £400. Customers are still overpaying when contracts end.
Which? found that 36% of people whose contract ended in the past two months are still paying off the price of their smartphone.
This is despite providers promising Ofcom that, from February 2020, customers would get a reduced tariff after their contracts end – reflecting the fact that the device had been fully paid for.
Three was the worst offender, Which? claims, with 43% of customers whose contracts ended in the past six months seeing no drop in the price of their monthly bill.
This meant that someone with a “bundle” contract on a Samsung S20 5G – which came out at £37 a month – would be overpaying their bill by as much as £444 a year after it ended.
About 40% of EE customers saw no price drop at the end of their contract – with 31% of Vodafone customers seeing no change either.
Are you due for an upgrade?
Here at LIS, we offer everything your business needs to keep talking. Specialising in business telephone systems, lines & calls, broadband, business mobiles and IT services, we’ve got you covered. From our first conversations, our in-house team of experts will ask the right questions so that we can recommend a solution that will both perform and deliver a return.
Contact the LIS Help Desk to make sure you not overpaying. Are your handsets out of date? Are you fed up with slow Internet speeds? We offer every telecoms service to get you connected. We supply sim only connections with no hardware so there is complete clarity over how much you pay. You don’t need to change your phone unless it suits you. We may not be the cheapest but we don’t rip you off!
LIS – SECURING YOUR DIGITAL WORLD
#Telecoms #Broadband #Business #ITSupport
Happy Birthday Windows 95
On 24 August 2020 Windows 95 celebrated its 25th Birthday. We often think about the evolution of the PC in terms of hardware. Spare a moment for the software. Many of the things we take for granted today – such as the Start menu or not having to reboot your PC every single time you wanted to play a game – started with Windows 95. Happy Birthday Windows 95!
Windows 95 was not the best operating system Microsoft ever released. Many people would apply that designation to Windows XP. However, it was certainly one of the most important iterations. In addition to introducing the Start menu, Windows 95 also made things easier by supporting long file names. Up to 250 characters, versus 11 characters previously. It also implemented plug and play functionality before fetching custom-tuned drivers from the manufacturer.
It was also the first Microsoft OS to really encourage gaming directly from within the operating system as opposed to going through DOS. There was a whole lot of resistance to it at the time, partly because it often made games run worse as the OS still stole some of your precious memory and CPU cycles, but also because it was a buggy mess at the start.
Windows 95 is twenty today. It’s hard to imagine it now, but the launch was greeted with the sort of hype that only Apple generates today. (Image credit: Microsoft)
Look where we are now
One of the greatest things about PC gaming is the sheer amount of hardware options to choose from. This is why plug and play was, and still is, such an important feature. It allows your PC to detect a peripheral or gadget and offer at least some basic functionality.
Other innovations included the task bar and recycle bin, both introduced with Windows 95, and later the addition of DirectX to the mix. According to Microsoft, Windows 95 sold 7 million copies during its first five weeks. That was quite a bit for the era it debuted in.
The launch event was a spectacle, which undoubtedly helped move some copies. Former late-night television host Jay Leno introduced Bill Gates at the Windows 95 launch event. Microsoft also paid The Rolling Stones $3 million to use its “Start Me Up” as the soundtrack for the festivities and subsequent ad campaign. And of course Steve Ballmer was bouncing up and down on stage and throwing fist pumps.
If you’re feeling nostalgic, you can kick the tires on Windows 95, right inside Windows 10, using an app uploaded to GitHub by Slack developer Felix Rieseberg. It’s a little less than a 300MB download.
Are you up to date?
Funnily enough LIS are also 25 years old this year. So, happy birthday Windows 95 and LIS. We have been around and seen it all. From the launch of Windows 95 through to Windows 10. We even helped clients resolve issues with Windows 8 and ME (we won’t talk about these versions 🙂 ).
Are your systems running slow? Do you have out dated hardware? What office package are you using? If your software is out of date, then you have security risks? Contact the LIS Help Desk to discuss your options.
LIS – SECURING YOUR DIGITAL WORLD
#win95 #HappyBirthday #ITSupport #Upgrades
Councils get connected
Local authorities invest in networking and contact centre technology through IT outsourcing contracts. Helping local councils get connected.
Councils get connected and help the wider community
Cheshire East Council is working with technology service provider Capita to build a wide area network (WAN) to connect more than 500 public services sites. An article published yesterday by Computer Weekly explains all.
The £8m, five-year contract will see council, school, fire service and police operations in the county connected by the network. This is part of the government’s £5bn Network Services 2 framework.
Councils to connect hundreds of its sites through wide area network.
Why set up a WAN?
A wide area network (WAN) is a data network, usually used for connecting computers, that spans a wide geographical area. WANs are used to connect offices, towns, counties and help councils get connected. WANs are often used by larger organizations to facilitate the exchange of data. A wide variety of industries have embraced WANs with facilities at multiple locations. Increasingly, however, even small businesses are utilizing WANs as a way of increasing their communications.
The benefit of WANs
Although WANs serve a purpose similar to that of local area networks (LANs), WANs are structured and operated quite differently. The user of a WAN usually does not own the communications lines that connect the remote computer systems. Instead, the user subscribes to a service through a telecommunications provider. Unlike LANs, WANs typically do not link individual computers, but rather are used to link LANs. WANs also transmit data at slower speeds than LANs. WANs are also structurally similar to metropolitan area networks (MANs), however provide communications links for distances greater than 50km.
Advantages of WANs
Do you have a wide area network (WANs) at your company? If you have multi sites or operate globally, you probably do. That is because WANs are powerful business tools. They make it possible for large organizations to communicate internally faster and more efficiently. They also make it possible for consumers to enjoy company benefits they could not enjoy in the past.
- Boosts your privacy: Setting up a WAN allows you to share sensitive data with all your sites without having to send the information over the Internet.
- Increases bandwidth: Corporate WANS often use leased lines instead of broadband connections to form the backbone of their networks.
- Eliminates Need for ISDN: WANs can cut costs by eliminating the need to rent expensive ISDN circuits for phone calls. Instead, you can have your WAN carry them.
- Guaranteed uptime: Many WAN providers offer business-class support. That means you get a specific amount of uptime monthly, quarterly, or yearly as part of your service level agreement.
- Cuts costs and increase profits: In addition to eliminating the need for ISDN, WANs can help you cut costs and increase profits in a wide variety of other ways.
Disadvantages of WANs
While WANS provide numerous advantages, they have their share of disadvantages. As with any technology, you need to be aware of these downsides to make an informed decision about WANS. The three most critical downsides are high setup costs, security concerns, and maintenance issues.
- High setup costs: WANs are complicated, complex and expensive to set up.
- Security Concerns: WANs open the way for certain types of internal security breaches. such as unauthorized use, information theft, and malicious damage to files.
- Maintenance Issues: Maintaining a WAN is a challenge, no doubt about it. Guaranteeing that your data centre will be up and operating 24/7 is the biggest maintenance challenge of all.
The best solutions for your business
We are unable to predict when businesses will return to normal due to the pandemic. We all must try and operate in the new normal way of business. With staff working from home and some of the team working at the office, which solution is best for you? Make sure your business stays connected, secure and efficient.
Contact the LIS Help Desk to make sure your security is appropriate. Do you have good Firewalls in place, or do they resemble swiss cheese? Use encrypted connections when using online banking. Are your Virtual Private Network (VPN) secure? Our friendly and experienced team will asses your options for connectivity and be able to help you with your telecommunications.
LIS – SECURING YOUR DIGITAL WORLD
#Networking #Telecoms #Business #ITSupport
Bored of virtual meetings?
Do you use Zoom or Teams for meetings? Are you bored of virtual meetings and how can you add the wow factor to your next one? USA Today have written a blog with some fantastic tips.
Don’t get bored at your next virtual meeting
First, make sure you actually need to hold a virtual meeting. Attendees should interact, ensure their voices and opinions are actually being solicited. This means: cut the monologues. If you’re making an announcement or sharing information that only requires your audience to listen, consider simply sending out an email.
Once a virtual meeting has been deemed necessary, try implementing these realistic tips to banish boredom, keep things interactive, and encourage participation.
Another virtual meeting? Make your next meeting more interesting with filters, polls and live animals. The important point to remember is make it interesting.
Set expectations
Before the meeting even starts, allow attendees to get into the right mindset by setting expectations for their participation. This will make sure participants will not be bored of virtual meetings.
Present a problem in the agenda and ask everyone prepare and present ideas for solutions. Request that all attendees be on video mode and in a quiet (or at least a private) space during the meeting. Set ground rules for conduct, such as “thou shalt put away phones and not work on other tasks”.
Dedicate time to checking in
Remote work can get lonely and isolating, so take some time before the meeting proper to let everyone share what they’ve been up to. Ask them about the highlights of their week or what challenges they’re currently facing. Better yet, get everyone to show appreciation to their fellow colleagues. Bored of virtual meetings will be a thing of the past with this type of communication.
Social bonding keeps team members engaged and encourages creativity, teamwork, and collaboration, so be sure to cultivate it even when on virtual platforms.
Let people take ownership
Assign people with tasks like time keeping, facilitating, and note taking. If you’re running an ice breaker or conducting a warm up (see below), you can assign one of the attendees to be in charge.
Also, ensuring that every attendee has a role – whether it’s decision maker, adviser, recommender or executor. This helps you keep meetings small, which is great because the more people at a meeting, the less engaged each person will be.
Start with an ice breaker
Jumpstart communication and break through awkwardness with ice breakers! Conducting a fun ice breaker will help activate the right brain. Set the stage for creativity and participation and get your attendees comfortable with speaking and interacting with each other. These are the perfect conditions for an effective virtual meeting.
Jazz up your material
Did you know that visuals increase engagement by as much as 94%? They also help increase audience attention and memory, boost feelings of inclusiveness, and encourage interaction. Try using visuals throughout your meeting to give context, illustrate a point, or provide levity.
Virtual IT Business Support
We understand the challenges we are currently facing in the business world. As well all know, there is nothing better than a face to face meeting. However, businesses need to be able to support their staff, clients and suppliers needs. Contact the LIS Help Desk to discuss your requirements.
Here at LIS we understand the challenges business are currently facing in this changing world. We all know there is nothing better than a face to face meeting, and all our clients get regular in-person contact from us, at least in normal times. However, most of our work (95%) is done remotely, often without our clients even knowing there was problem, let alone that we are fixing it! It’s second nature to our team because we have worked like that since we started nearly 25 years ago! So, if you have a bored technician who is making you sit through boring chat rather than just getting on with fixing your problem, call us. Our new clients tell us it is a refreshing change to enjoy calling tech support… it seems we fix people as well as systems. Who knew?
LIS – SECURING YOUR DIGITAL WORLD
#technews #zoom #teams #MakeVideoCallsExciting