Category: Technology

Two thirds of remote workers use a faulty device so they don’t get into trouble

Posted on by Rob Burdett

A new report has discovered that 67% of remote workers are using faulty tech when they work remotely and often that’s because they’ve accidentally damaged the tech themselves… they don’t want to admit it to their boss in case they get into trouble.

A company that sells refurbished technology surveyed 2,500 UK employees.

It found that laptops were most likely to be broken, followed by keyboards, monitors and PCs.

Most of the time the damage was done by spilled food and drink. Other causes of damage included other people in the house – such as a partner or housemates – and of course, pets.

We’ve all watched in horror as a cat brushes itself against a full glass of water next to a laptop…

While more than half of people try to fix the damage, and 81% of people continue to use their faulty device with limited features, a third of workers switch to their personal devices instead.

As well as this causing a loss of productivity, it could also be a huge data security risk for your business.

Because it’s possible their personal laptop doesn’t have as much security protection as their work laptop does, such as:

 

  • Security software
  • Data encryption
  • Enhanced password protection such as multi-factor authentication

 

Their personal devices also aren’t being monitored by your IT support partner.

When an attacker gains access to an unmanaged device, if it’s connected to your network, it’s possible they can get access to the wider network, and all of your business’s data.

This can result in your data being stolen and sold. Or worse, your data being encrypted so it’s useless to you – and you must pay for its return. This is called a ransomware attack and it’s the greatest cyber security threat to your business right now.

It’s not just access to your data that’s the problem. After a ransomware attack, there is a huge time and financial cost involved in making sure your network is clean, protected and secured.

Our advice is to make sure that everyone in your business understands the risks involved with using personal devices for work purposes, whether they work remotely or not.

 

You might want to make a golden rule that all work must only be done on business devices.

 

You could also create a culture where it’s OK if a device gets damaged, so long as it’s reported quickly.

 

If you need any help choosing the right technology or cyber security approach for your team, or creating new policies to help your staff choose to do the right thing, give us a call.

 

 

Published with permission from Your Tech Updates.

How To Quickly Shift To A Work-From-Home Business Model To Maximize Productivity In Today’s Coronavirus Environment

Posted on by Jamie Harrison

As a business owner today, you are now facing unprecedented challenges to help deal with the coronavirus pandemic. You are asked to self-isolate and practice social distancing to “flatten the curve.” You are asked to allow your employees to work from home to reduce possible exposure and slow the spread of COVID-19.

These are all reasonable requests. However, as a business owner you also need to maximize productivity, bring in revenue and try to grow your business in these demanding times. How can you accomplish these goals when your office is now a ghost town and productivity has fallen off a cliff?

The answer lies in setting up your office to function remotely. If you’ve never implemented a work-from-home policy before, it may seem like a whole different world. Managing an entirely remote workforce goes far beyond giving your employees a laptop and reminding them to check in every once in a while. After all, there are many factors most business owners haven’t ever had to consider, such as:

  • What technologies do I need?
  • How can my employees work from home without compromising the security of our network?
  • How can I make this new work environment as easy, comfortable and productive as possible?

We understand these are unique times. We know that “business as usual” is going to be quite different for an undetermined amount of time. But together we can help you adjust to today’s new normal by giving you the tools, technologies and insights to create a secure and productive work-from-home business environment. Here are three important considerations to getting you set up and running a successful work-from-home business:

1. Avoid employees using home computers or devices. Their mindset may be, “Well, I’m working from home so I may as well use my home computer.” This is a dangerous mistake. Our team works hard to ensure your company computers and network are secure and protected from malware, viruses and cyber-attacks. Their home computers and devices could be littered with tons of downloaded music, videos, images and more. Because it’s more exposed, it can invite malware into your network. Rather, provide a company-approved and secured computer/laptop for employees to use at home.

2. Secure their WiFi access point. Without a secure WiFi access point, you’re essentially leaving a back door open to hackers. That’s because WiFi signals are often broadcast far beyond your employees’ homes and out into streets. Yes, drive-by hacking is popular among cybercriminals today. A few tips for securing your employees’ WiFi access points:

  • Use stronger encryption and a more complex password
  • Hide your network name
  • Use a firewall

These security measures are not difficult to set up. But if you have any questions or need assistance, we will be happy to help get your employees set up remotely.

3. Use a two-factor authentication VPN. VPN stands for virtual private network. It’s essentially a private, encrypted tunnel that goes direct to your IT network in your office. Ideally, you’ll want your VPN to support two-factor authentication. This means it’s doubly secure because your employees will need to call in to access the network. If you don’t have a VPN for your employees to use, you can consider other services, such as Globalnet Connect, which we are currently offering FREE for two months.

As business owners ourselves, we too are having to pivot and work differently than we ever have before. However, because we have the technology and infrastructure in place, we are able to continue as normal, with little disruption to our usual service.

Our team wants to help your business survive and thrive during today’s unique environment. If you and your IT team need extra hands right now…or solutions to help your employees work SECURELY from home…we have software tools, expert staff and resources we’d like to offer you to keep your business as productive as possible.

FREE LIVE WEBINAR – Manage Your Remote Team

Most people managers are experiencing considerable challenges in managing their staff as team members work from home.  The traditional way of managing people doesn’t work, especially in the current environment.

This short webinar will help you to manage the day to day workloads and relationships on a day to day basis.

The reality is that COVID-19 has changed the way we work, potentially for good. This is an excellent opportunity to increase your skill base and ability to manage remote workers.

This 60-minute webinar provides:

5 Essential leadership behaviours

9 Key practices for home working efficiency 

8 Things you must do to maintain engagement

Up to date thinking on remote management

High quality support materials including tools to use in the workplace

Unbeatable offers

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New research could propel faster batteries charging

Posted on by Jamie Harrison

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have identified that a group of materials called niobium tungsten oxides could offer faster battery charging that could substantially accelerate the adoption of electric cars. The material could also significantly reduce charge times for batteries in electrical devices like smartphones and laptops, allowing full charge replenishment in minutes.

Current batteies’ limitations

How fast a battery can be charged depends, in part, upon the rate at which the positively charged lithium ion particles can move towards a negatively charged electrode where they are then stored as energy. The difficulty in making batteries charge more quickly is the speed at which these lithium ions migrate, usually through ceramic materials.

By changing from ceramics to niobium tungsten oxides could allow lithium ions to pass through at an exceedingly high rate, drastically reducing batteries’ charging time.

Using niobium tungsten oxides in batteries

“Niobium tungsten oxides are fundamentally different,” said Kent Griffith, first author on the study published in the journal Nature.

First discovered in 1965, niobium tungsten oxides have a rigid, open structure and larger particle sizes than many other materials commonly used in batteries. The movement of the lithium ions through is measured using a technology similar to that found in an MRI scanner. The research discovered that lithium ions moved through the material hundreds of times faster than they do through typical ceramic electrode materials.

On top of this, the material is plentiful, cheap and easy to produce. “These oxides are easy to make and don’t require additional chemicals or solvents,” said Griffith.

Clare Grey, professor of materials chemistry at the University of Cambridge and senior author on the paper, said the next step will be to optimise the use of this material in a full battery, which can be cycled for the time and length needed for electric vehicles. “For example, electric buses where you may want to charge the bus very fast at the bus stop,” she added.

Dan Brett, professor of electrochemical engineering at University College London, who was not involved in the work  said, “The discovery is very exciting in terms of what it does for battery performance. The really clever thing about the work is the insight into the mechanism and ability to measure how fast the lithium ions travel through the material.”

Brett continued, “This technique will also allow these materials to be further optimised, so we can look forward to future improvements in power, energy and lifetime.”

Globalnet is a managed servicer provider for a wide range of businesses throughout London, Essex, Kent and Herts. Call us today to find out how we can improve your IT infrastructure and increase productivity.

Globalnet aims to be an integral part of your success, providing the best business advice, superior IT support and technology to help you reach your goals. 

 

‘SiliconX’ Next-Generation Battery Material Discovered

Posted on by Rob Burdett

Norwegian scientists at IFE claim to have discovered a new wonder-material for future battery production that they have dubbed ‘SiliconX’.

Years Of Research

The new material, discovered by scientists at Norway’s Department of Energy Technology (IFE) reportedly offers a way to stabilise silicon anodes for Li-ion batteries. This is an aim that years of targeted research and experimental trials with nano-particles has been intended to achieve.

The Challenge

The challenge has been that silicon anodes can far-exceed the lithium ion storage capacity of carbon anodes, and the change in size as they absorb the ions causes a physical swelling and shrinking that can destroy the structure of a Si-Li-ion battery.

The Solution – SiliconX

The solution that the Norwegian scientists claim to have found is to use nano-particles in a finely divided mixture of silicon and another material that the scientists have called ‘the matrix’. It is this matrix that helps the silicon to withstand the big volume changes, and thereby solve the bulging / shrinking problem that would normally wreck the battery.

Much Greater Charge Capacity

The end result has been, as well as the stability, that the new SiliconX battery is reported to have three to five times the charge capacity of the negative electrode compared to common graphite technology.

Freedom From Daily Phone Charging

In short, if your smartphone battery was made from SiliconX that behaves the way that the Norwegian scientists claim, you would not need to charge that smartphone every day.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Problems with phone batteries have damaged the performance of many phones, and tarnished the reputation of their manufacturers e.g. Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 batteries catching fire.

The obvious benefits of a SiliconX battery for business users are the convenience of not having to keep charging your phone, and the elimination of the worry that a lack of sufficient battery charge will leave you incommunicado when you’re not near a charging socket / in the middle of nowhere, and / or in the middle of / needing to make calls that are vital to the business.

The fact that the battery materials are more stable may also eliminate some of the safety worries about batteries that have been in the back of many users’ minds since the Galaxy Note 7 fire incidents.

Globalnet is a managed servicer provider for a wide range of businesses throughout London, Essex, Kent and Herts. Call us today to find out how we can improve your IT infrastructure and increase productivity.

Globalnet aims to be an integral part of your success, providing the best business advice, superior IT support and technology to help you reach your goals. 

Facebook Favours Free Speech Over Fake News Removal

Posted on by Rob Burdett

In a recent Facebook media presentation in Manhattan, and despite the threat of social media regulation e.g. from Ofcom, Facebook said that removing fabricated posts, or fake news, would be “contrary to the basic principles of free speech”.

Fake News

The term ‘fake news’ has become synonymous with the 2016 US general election and accusations that Facebook was a platform for fake political news to be spread e.g. by Russia. Also, fake news is a term that has become synonymous with President Trump, who frequently uses the term, often (some would say) to act as a catch-all term to discredit/counter critical stories in the media.

In essence, fake news refers to deliberate misinformation or hoaxes, manipulated to resemble credible journalism and attract maximum attention, and it is spread mainly by social media. Facebook has tried to be seen to flag up and clean up obvious fake news ever since its reputation was tarnished by the election news scandals.

What About InfoWars?

The point was made to Facebook at the media presentation by a CNN reporter that the fact that InfoWars, a site having been known to have published false information and conspiracy theories, has been allowed to remain on the platform may be evidence that Facebook is not tackling fake news as well as it could.

A Matter of Perspective

To counter this and other similar accusations, Facebook has stated that it sees pages on both the left and the right side of politics distributing what they consider to be opinion or analysis but what others, from a different perspective, may call fake news.

Facebook also tweeted that banning those kinds of pages e.g. InfoWars, would be contrary to the basic principles of free speech.

A Matter of Trust

Ofcom research has suggested that people have relatively little trust in what they read in social media content anyway. The research showed that only 39% consider social media to be a trustworthy news source, compared to 63% for newspapers and 70% for TV.

Age Plays A Part

Other research from Stanford’s Graduate School of Education, involving more than 7,800 responses from middle school, high school and college students in 12 US states focused on their ability to assess information sources. The results showed a shocking lack of ability to evaluate information at even as basic a level as distinguishing advertisements from articles. When you consider that many young people get their news from social media, this shows that they may be more vulnerable and receptive to fake stories, and their wide networks of friends could mean that fake stories could be quickly and widely spread among other potentially vulnerable recipients.

Although Facebook is known to have an older demographic now, many young people still use it, Facebook has tried to launch a kind of Facebook for children to attract more young users, and Facebook owns Instagram, partly as a means to try and mop up young users who leave Facebook. It could be argued, therefore, that Facebook, and other social media platforms have a responsibility to regulate some content in order to protect users.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Fake news stories are not exclusive to social media platforms as the number of retractions and apologies in newspapers over the years are a testament. The real concern has arisen about social media, and Facebook particularly, because of what appears (allegedly) to have been the ability of actors from a foreign power being able to use fake news on Facebook to actually influence the election of a President. Which party and President is in power in the US can, in turn, have a dramatic effect on businesses and markets around the world, and the opportunities that other foreign powers think they have.

Facebook is also busy fighting another crisis in trust that has arisen from news of its sharing of users’ personal data with Cambridge Analytica, and the company is focusing much of its PR effort not on talking specifically about fake news, but about how Facebook has changed, why we should trust it again, and how much it cares about our privacy.

Meanwhile in the UK, Ofcom chief executive Sharon White, has clearly stated that she believes that media platforms need to be “more accountable” in their policing of content. While this may be understandable, many rights and privacy campaigners would not like the idea that free speech could be influenced and curbed by governments, perhaps to suit their own agenda. The arguments continue. 

Globalnet is a managed servicer provider for a wide range of businesses throughout London, Essex, Kent and Herts. Call us today to find out how we can improve your IT infrastructure and increase productivity.

Globalnet aims to be an integral part of your success, providing the best business advice, superior IT support and technology to help you reach your goals. 

First Blockchain Cryptocurrency Smartphone

Posted on by Rob Burdett

Taiwanese electronics company Huawei Technologies Ltd. (HTC), and Swiss-based Sirin Labs are both introducing blockchain smartphones.

HTC

HTC’s Exodus blockchain smartphone, which it is believed will be priced at around $1,000, and is reported to have “tens of thousands” of reservations globally. The smartphone, from the world’s third largest phone manufacturer, will be released this year, will come with a built-in (offline) wallet for storing cryptocurrencies, and will act as a computer node in a blockchain network.

What Is Blockchain?

Blockchain is an incorruptible peer-to-peer network (a kind of ledger) that allows multiple parties to transfer value in a secure and transparent way. Blockchain’s Co-Founder Nic Carey describes Blockchain as being like “a big spreadsheet in the cloud that anyone can use, but no one can erase or modify”. Blockchain is the technology at the heart of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, is open-source, and free.

Why A Blockchain Phone?

Giving a phone a blockchain element means that it has access to blockchain applications such as a crypto wallet, secure exchange access, encrypted communications and a P2P resource sharing ecosystems for payment and apps. It can also be used for cryptocurrency mining.

The built-in wallet for the HTC phone for example, will enable it to store bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital tokens.

Sirin Labs – The Finney Phone

The other blockchain smartphone, which is likely to be launched after HTC’s, is the ‘Finney’, named after the late bitcoin pioneer Hal Finney.

This smartphone, which also has a $1,000 price tag, has been described as an “ultra-secure blockchain smartphone”, and has been specifically designed to get around what Sirin Labs believe to be 2 main obstacles to mass market acceptance – security and user experience.

Sirin Labs even launched an initial coin offering / ICO (crowd funding from early backers of tokens for a new cryptocurrency) to fund the Finney. This resulted in over $157 million being raised.

The Big Advantage – The OS

Sirin claims that its big advantage with the Finney is not so much the phone, but more the Operating System (OS) that it claims, thanks to partnerships it is making, will soon be included in phones by other top OEM phone developers.

Security

In terms of how secure the phones are, the main question will be how both companies will keep sensitive cryptocurrency data secure. For example, unless a phone is in flight mode, there’s always a connection of some kind, and that offers a lot more attack surfaces than something like a USB stick that’s only occasionally connected.

Niche Product For Rich Enthusiasts?

Some critics have said that a blockchain smartphone is too much of a niche product that may just appeal to enthusiasts and speculators rather than a mass market, and that most people may struggle to understand what blockchain is and how / why they should use cryptocurrencies.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For HTC, many see this as being a way for the company to find a way back into the smartphone market, where it’s been struggling in recent times, but this time with a differentiated product that is a market first, ahead of competitors.

For Sirin Labs, it could also be a way to get into a new section of the market ahead of the competition, but many are sceptical as to whether the Finney will get the mass market acceptance that Sirin Labs hopes.

Most business people in the UK, for example, may be unlikely to see why they would need a blockchain phone with a crypto-currency wallet as part of their daily working life. If they’re going to spend £1,000+, they may be more likely to opt for new models of more familiar phones with more standard features e.g. iPhone or Samsung Galaxy.

Globalnet works with businesses throughout London, Essex, Kent and Herts to ensure their data and networks are secure from all threats. Call us on 0203 005 9650 today to find out how we can provide the right protection for you.

Globalnet aims to be an integral part of your success, providing the best business advice, superior IT support and technology to help you reach your goals. 

Windows 10: Fuelling PC Sales Recovery?

Posted on by Rob Burdett

Reports by IDC and Gartner that shows PC sales registering their first quarterly rise in six years have led to some speculation that Windows 10 may be fuelling a Business PC sales recovery.

Over 62 Million Q2 Shipments

According to Q2 figures compared to 2017, market analyst firms IDC and Gartner have both noted 62 million+ PC shipments.

Gartner’s figure of 62.1 million PC shipments represents a 1.4 % rise on last year, while IDC’s figure of 62.3 million PCs shipped represents a 2.7% rise on last year.

Either way, it looks like a small recovery in one segment of a market that many believed had been sent into decline by mobile device use.

Businesses Buying Windows 10 PCs

Most analysts agree that although the consumer side of the PC market has been negatively affected by people turning to their smartphones for even more daily tasks, this latest rise in PC sales is being fuelled by businesses.

Tech and business commentators appear to agree that the rise in PC sales is mainly due to businesses accepting that they need to make the switch to Windows 10, and buying the next office PC with Windows 10 already on it.

Big Brands Increase PC Sales

Not surprisingly, the manufacturers that are selling the most units are the big names i.e. Lenovo and HP, both with around 22% of the market, followed by Dell, Apple, then Acer in fifth place.

Supply Chain Problems Solved

Market analysts also believe that the solving of some of the supply chain problems that held back PC sales this time last year is contributing to the recent rise in sales.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

While individuals in businesses have their own smartphones, and while some smartphones may be used for business and personal use e.g. in SME’s, many UK businesses still have PCs / desktops in the office that are used purely for business. Since support has stopped for many older versions of Windows, many people have experience of using Windows10, and Microsoft is essentially forcing PC users down the Windows 10 and SaaS route, it is not surprising that many businesses have simply ordered fully equipped Windows 10 PCs as part of the office upgrade.

Although these sales figures do show a small recovery of sorts, the prevailing direction of travel for computing tasks for the future is still in the mobile direction.

Globalnet works with businesses throughout London, Essex, Kent and Herts to ensure their data and networks are secure from all threats. Call us on 0203 005 9650 today to find out how we can provide the right protection for you.

Globalnet aims to be an integral part of your success, providing the best business advice, superior IT support and technology to help you reach your goals. 

Google Chrome New ‘Site Isolation’ Security Feature Activated

Posted on by Rob Burdett

The new ‘Site Isolation’ security feature for the Google Chrome browser has been switched on, and could protect users from log-in credentials theft.

Decade-Long History

The newly switched-on feature actually has a decade-long history in the making. It has been reported that Google invested those engineer-years, mostly in the last 6 years, and a lot of money in producing a DiD (defence-in-depth) feature, and what is a now essential defence against a prolific class of attack.

What Does the Google Chrome Site Isolation Do?

It has recently been discovered that all modern chips / processors have security vulnerabilities in them that can contribute to the success of ‘data leakage’ attacks. These vulnerabilities, dubbed Spectre and Meltdown (Meltdown only on Intel chips), can be used by hackers to steal passwords or other confidential data from computers and mobile devices through popular web browsers like Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari for Macs or iOS.

With Site Isolation enabled, each renderer process contains documents from a maximum of one site which means that all navigations to cross-site documents cause a switch in processes, and all cross-site iframes are put into a different process than their parent frame. This ‘isolation’ of the processes provides effective detection against data leakage attacks like Spectre, which means that the vast majority of Chrome users are now theoretically safer from this one kind of attack. It has also been reported that work is underway to protect against attacks from compromised renderers.

It Does Sap Some Memory

One of the trade-offs that Google has had to make to in order to make this feature effective is greater resource consumption. With Site Isolation on, there is a 10-13% total memory overhead in real workloads due to the larger number of processes. Google is reported to be working on trying to reduce the memory burden.

Even 10-13% is good compared to the 20% memory overhead that was being used when Chrome 63 debuted with Site Isolation.

Not Android Yet – But Soon

Site Isolation is scheduled to be included in Chrome 68 for Android but reports indicate that Google is still working on resource consumption issues before that can be rolled out.

SSL Security Added

Google Chrome has also added security warnings for sites that do not have SSL Certificates, which switch websites from HHTP to HTTPS protocol. The warning alerts users to the fact that any information they enter into the set, such as usernames, passwords or email addresses may not be secure. Furthermore Google is gradually moving to penalise sites in its search engine without HTTPS with lower page rankings.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

The switching on of this feature is, of course, good news for businesses, as it is an additional, free way to strengthen cyber resilience against a popular kind of attack that could have serious consequences. This is of particular importance when businesses are trying to do everything possible to achieve and maintain compliance with GDPR.

Up until now, all businesses have heard is that all modern processors have security flaws in them, and that software patching is the only real answer. Back in May, another 8 flaws, in addition to Spectre and Meltdown, were discovered in processors, dubbed Spectre Next Generation (Spectre NB). At least the switching-on of this Chrome feature is one tangible step in the journey to patch these vulnerabilities before cyber-criminals manage to exploit them all. Hopefully, more, similar features will be introduced across other browsers in the near future.

Globalnet works with businesses throughout London, Essex, Kent and Herts to ensure their data and networks are secure from all threats. Call us on 0203 005 9650 today to find out how we can provide the right protection for you.

Globalnet aims to be an integral part of your success, providing the best business advice, superior IT support and technology to help you reach your goals. 

Tech Tip – Arrange Multiple File Explorer Windows Easily

Posted on by Rob Burdett

If you have multiple File Explorer windows on your screen, the clutter and confusion can get in the way of the task at hand. Here’s the fast and easy way to re-arrange them:

– Right-click the taskbar
– Choose Show windows stacked or Show windows side by side
– That’s it!

Globalnet is a managed servicer provider for a wide range of businesses throughout London, Essex, Kent and Herts. Call us today to find out how we can improve your IT infrastructure and increase productivity.

Globalnet aims to be an integral part of your success, providing the best business advice, superior IT support and technology to help you reach your goals. 

Microsoft Launches Free Version of Collaborative Chat App ‘Teams’

Posted on by Rob Burdett

Microsoft has announced the launch of a free version of its collaborative chat app ‘Teams’ which doesn’t require an Office 365 subscription.

What Is Microsoft Teams?

Introduced back in November 2016, ‘Teams’ (as the name suggests) is a platform designed to help collaborative working, and combines features such as workplace chat, meetings, notes, and attachments. Described by Microsoft as a “complete chat and online meetings solution”, it normally integrates with the company’s Office 365 subscription office productivity suite, and Teams is widely considered to be Microsoft’s answer to ‘Slack’.

Slack is a popular, multi-channel collaborative working hub that offers chat channels with companies and businesses you regularly work with, direct voice or video calls and screen-sharing, integrated drag-and-drop file sharing, and an App Directory with over 1,500 apps that can be integrated into Slack.

Teams is now believed to be used by around 200,000 organizations.

Free Version

The free version of Teams, which does not require an Office 365 account, offers the same basic features as regular Teams to anyone who wants to try it out. The hope is, of course, that this will increase user numbers, and tempt users away from Slack. Microsoft is also extending 365 cloud suite with the free version of Teams to try and bridge Microsoft 365 with Office 365.

Space and Features

The free version of Teams offers 10GB of team storage plus an additional 2GB for each user, with up to 300 people supported. Also, users have unlimited messages and search, there is guest access, as well as audio and video calls and screen sharing.

Within the Teams app, users can collaborate with colleagues on Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.

What’s Missing?

Even though the free version offers quite a lot of storage space, the full version would offer users a massive 1TB. Also, unlike the full version, the free version doesn’t come with Yammer, Planner, SharePoint and OneDrive, plus the free version lacks some of the security features of the full version. This could make it less attractive to enterprises that are also looking to maximise compliance.

Warning To Help With Team Etiquette

One interesting aspect of Microsoft’s approach to the collaborative working platform is to build-on features that warn a user when they are doing something that goes against good practice and etiquette within teams. One key example of this is, with MyAnalytics, which works as an intelligent collaboration assistant in Outlook, is where users are warned / alerted if they are sending emails to co-workers outside their normal working hours.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

One good way to increase user numbers quickly, gain some ground in a battle with competitors, and to entice people to try and perhaps switch to a new service is to offer a good, usable, value-adding version of that service for free. That’s exactly what Microsoft is doing with its version of Teams.

Although larger enterprises may already be a long way down the road with their chosen collaborative working platform, and might be a bit put off by the idea of using a free version of a platform that is not quite on a par with the full version in terms of security features, a free version of Teams may be very attractive to SMEs looking to move into collaborative working with a low risk, trusted, scalable solution.

Globalnet is a managed servicer provider for a wide range of businesses throughout London, Essex, Kent and Herts. Call us today to find out how we can improve your IT infrastructure and increase productivity.

Globalnet aims to be an integral part of your success, providing the best business advice, superior IT support and technology to help you reach your goals.